irc wrote: ↑10 Feb 2025, 1:10pm
Cycling has a hard sell considering weather, security, perceived danger. I know the risk can be drastically minimised by various methods. Most regular cyclists I know have crash stories to tell though. Even without the car option most people seem to prefer bus/subway, walk, taxi.
Perceived danger. So take away the risky-seeming environment and people are enabled to do it. Similarly security. Yes, Glasgow has bad weather... but so does Amsterdam.
There is nothing magic about Dutch turf or Dutch people. It's about planning for people rather than cars leading to a relatively benign environment. The turnaround of Paris from very car-centric to increasingly people-centric shows this can be done.
irc wrote: ↑17 Jan 2025, 10:26am.I have no interest in whether or not more people cycle.
I have an interest in the number of people cycling!
The more the merrier, cyclist need a stronger voice to fight for decent cycling infrastructure to improve cyclist safety and make cyling a more convenient and attractive transport option for all.
Not sure facilities are the issue. In my town people travel a mile and a half from the furthest areas to the town centre. Easy cycling. There are good off road paths. A seperated cycle lane on a main road. Plenty low traffic side streets.
People choose to use mostly cars. Thereafter walking and bus/train. Cycling? Not so much.
Similar in my town. 3 miles from one end to the other, mostly flat, busyish main road but plenty of quiet side roads with through routes for cycling. People complain that the main car park is always full, spend time cruising around looking for a space, whilst the nearby covered cycle racks stand empty.
Ron wrote: ↑8 Feb 2025, 11:18am
I have an interest in the number of people cycling!
The more the merrier, cyclist need a stronger voice to fight for decent cycling infrastructure to improve cyclist safety and make cyling a more convenient and attractive transport option for all.
Not sure facilities are the issue. In my town people travel a mile and a half from the furthest areas to the town centre. Easy cycling. There are good off road paths. A seperated cycle lane on a main road. Plenty low traffic side streets.
People choose to use mostly cars. Thereafter walking and bus/train. Cycling? Not so much.
Similar in my town. 3 miles from one end to the other, mostly flat, busyish main road but plenty of quiet side roads with through routes for cycling. People complain that the main car park is always full, spend time cruising around looking for a space, whilst the nearby covered cycle racks stand empty.
Much of this is habit.
Our culture is incredibly car-centric to the point where people select cars as a default mode irrespective of the job at hand because they're used to doing that. Thinking is not involved.
In such a situation if you ask someone why they don't ride it's entirely typical to reach for rationalisations of their existing behaviour rather than thinking about if alternatives are possible and whether they may be advantageous.
"The school run" by car is a terrific example of this, something that pretty much everybody involved in dislikes, that there is vastly less need for than is actually done, and where alternatives are typically available to those who bother looking for them. 45% of trips to primary school are by car...
My Mrs is too scared by the traffic to cycle to work. I have offered to buy her an eBike. Hope to get her cycling to the local gym now the days are getting longer.
I would be interested to learn what women members of this forum like ElaineB and awavey think of CUK's recent article linked below, which launches its new campaign 'My ride. Our right':
well it echoes I think alot of the touch points Id highlighted earlier as what I felt were the barriers stopping more women from cycling, safety or the perception of safety being a keystone, and certainly as things Ive experienced for all the time Ive been riding and what my friends perceptions about cycling are some of which they get from me some of which they learn themselves. its a really hard push to get someone cycling who has concerns about safety perceptions when nearly every week you are chatting with them about the latest near death experience some motorist gave to you on the road.
and the personal stories definitely struck a chord with me like Erica says "you have to be quite bolshey on the roads, and take ownership of your space on the road", which is something I found took along while to get the confidence to do. Or Tina highlighting the thing about thinking more about which routes to take in the winter months at night, because badly/unlit paths and underpasses raise red flag safety issues that maybe some men dont always see.
whilst Im not at all sure the gender gap has grown because barriers to cycling for men have reduced as such, I think the barriers are still there, I just think the perception is different between genders especially on the safety part. As I often debate close passes with male colleagues at work as we ride similar routes, and their threshold for a close pass is very different to mine, theyd be totally comfortable with stuff that would be well above my tolerance levels.
and one of the things I kind of learnt from those debates was I am just naturally a more defensive rider, because past experiences had been bad Id adopted very defensive riding tactics. So as an example when I signal to turn right, I shoulder check, signal, then shoulder check again to make sure the drivers are still all behaving. That moment of hesitation though is actually when alot of drivers decide whether to still overtake you, and they nearly always (still) do so I get close passed and flustered about it and wonder why people were driving like idiots.
Whereas my male colleagues always ride the same turn in a more attacking style, it would be shoulder check signal move across in one movement, no pause or hesitation, anyone thinking of overtaking doesnt get given the choice anymore, they might also have ramped up the watts to accelerate into it so they get a jump of speed, consequently they dont get the same experience on the road, but the barrier is still there in that drivers MGIF at all times its just our experiences of it a vastly different.
all that said and done, whilst its great to call this issue out, bring more attention to it, maybe prompt some people to ponder what can be done about it, whats really going to be the outcome of it ultimately ? ideally more segregated cycle routes, that are well lit, and that may well happen in some parts of London,but what happens for the rest of us ?
its been two years (three if you count the feasibility funding) now since Suffolk county council were awarded a significant chunk of money to invest in cycling infra, only in a few locations, so its not exactly going to transform cycling across the county, but two years so far and they might publish a report by the end of the month about it, because its Easter right, into what they plan to do next. Two years, millions of pounds of funding and all we have to show for it so far will be a report, which will inevitably recommend some watered down proposals that arent worth the paper the report is written on.
And thats before the local council reorganisation kicks in which will kick the can further down the road and who knows what some mega new super council authority will have its eyes on, but I suspect providing segregated cycling infrastructure wont be top of the list.
