What is CUK now?

[Bmblbzzz]

If he was still a professional racer I doubt he'd have time for it! Plus there might be contractual clauses making 'political' pronouncements difficult.

[mjr]

At the time when grassroots cycle campaigns sprouted, I was an ordinary CTC member in Nottingham and saw exactly this "never mind the quality just count the miles" approach from the young Pedals Nottingham campaign. [...]To their credit, the leaders of Pedals Nottingham eventually learned that bad paths could be worse than no paths.

And for each historic mistake where CCN did wrong while CTC did right, there's probably at least one the other way round.

I cite approval of the Bedford roundabout as an example of what you can expect more of now it's called CUK, now the organisation no longer feels it has any special relationship with cycle touring, and is thus set to become ever more dependent upon public funds. And we know that he who pays the piper, calls the tune.

So the theoretical tourist-led organisation that we campaigners should bow to doesn't even exist? And I don't see CUK as campaigner-led either, for similar reasons.

A lot of campaigners have now toured or day-tripped in the more cycle-friendly countries of Europe, too. I've ridden in France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain in the last few years.

Good for you. So you are a tourist too, whether you like the title or not! And when you've added a few German-speaking lands to that touring tally, you may have a better idea of the interim measures by which a country with a similar population density and historical level of cycling to Britain, may progress towards the Dutch model.

I've been to Germany, Switzerland and Austria several times, but I've not simply not cycled there recently. Also, I think we'd be better looking at the recent changes to French and Spanish towns for how to cycling-enable ours, but this is detail and any of those approaches would be better than what most of us currently have.

I was a transport cyclist first and a tourist after and I campaign because I'm a transport cyclist more than because I'm a tourist.

Campaigners should lead campaigns. Tourists are welcome to be campaigners too, if they really can maintain perspective and not only think about tourists.

And it's just as frankly insulting to suggest that they can't.

That's why I didn't!

For example I've seen cycle campaigners far too readily agree that a tarmac surface would be unnatural and "urbanise the countryside" - even when it runs through a town! Result: a filthy and skid-prone gravel path that hides broken glass, wears out chains and is washed away whenever the river floods!

Yeah, we can all come up with these examples, no group is immune to containing boneheads and it's not particularly helpful to overgeneralise them.

As for money: someone has to be getting a lot more out of cycling than a cheap commute before they'll shell out more than 40 quid a year to support an organisation. [...]

And yet, thousands do, although most of the campaign organisations have a fairer membership+donation structure rather than CTC's longstanding approach of telling low-wage workers basically that they can't have a full membership and must be impotent "associates".

To say that tourists or utility cyclists do or do not make good campaigners is surely a vast generalisation. You wouldn't think that racers would make good campaigners, and several might be cited as unwitting bad influences (pronouncements on helmets etc) but then Chris Boardman seems to make a very good campaign frontman.

Yes, it would be a gross overgeneralisation. I do wish Chris Boardman would visibly try to stop British Cycling forcing helmets on and banning e-bikes and 'bents from charity fun rides, though.

[PaulB]

To say that tourists or utility cyclists do or do not make good campaigners is surely a vast generalisation. You wouldn't think that racers would make good campaigners, and several might be cited as unwitting bad influences (pronouncements on helmets etc) but then Chris Boardman seems to make a very good campaign frontman.

Yes, it would be a gross overgeneralisation. I do wish Chris Boardman would visibly try to stop British Cycling forcing helmets on and banning e-bikes and 'bents from charity fun rides, though.

I keep hearing how the organisation formerly known as Cyclists' Touring Club is campaigning for cycling but have not seen any evidence of this in the media. The last few 'cycling bashing' TV debates have had a British Cycling rep to defend us. Chris Boardman has constantly advocated that cycling is "normal" and should be done in everyday clothes as part of life. He has frequently been seen on TV riding his bike without a helmet to make his point. CUK appears conspicuous by its absence.