Anyone else reminded of gandhi?
+ or -
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
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Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:35:00 +0000
Subject: Re: Melbourne developments
Nick, thank you for te response, as Chris Juden of the CTC has pointed out:
'It's since we won all the arguments.
Previously cycling was a quaint irrelevance to the sedentary majority. But now that it's proven to be so beneficial in so many different ways, the notion that THEY might be expected to do it themselves cannot simply be ignored!'
So they attack it, the fact that lots of car users pay no VED, or reduced VED is irrelevant as far as they are concerned.
We know many cyclists do pay the council tax, so do pay for roads. I suspect that the well reported feeling you speak about is as a resultof the increase in numbers of cyclists - ergo increase in incidents.
Perhaps red light junmping by cyclists will become so commonplace, that like speeding it will be largely ignored and broadly considered acceptable.
Gary
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:26:19 +0100
From:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: Melbourne developments
To:
[log in to unmask]Thanks Gary - very interesting point. there is no doubt in my mind that the fixie/messenger culture in London has contributed to the fashionable image of cycling in London and helped to increase numbers as a result. This has also spilt over to other cycling 'tribes' eg regular features in the press showing cool women in well-designed female-specific bike gear on singlespeed bikes .
BUT...dare i say it... I suspect those same messengers/fakengers have also contributed to the overriding and well-reported feeling among car drivers that cyclists 'are all the same they ride through red lights they're a menace on the road they dont pay road tax' etc etc
there...another old can o worms
nick
On 26 Jul 2010, at 20:14, gary cummins wrote:
Nick said:
There was one other major factor behind the increase in cycling in London along with congestion charge and the massive increase in good quality cycle infrastructure: the 7/7 bombings. There are few proper data on this but evidence of a spike in cycling afterwards, and loads of stories of bike shops being swamped as people avoided public transport. Not something to replicate elsewhere...
People do cite the bombings as an effect, and yes a lot of bikes were sold on the day of the bombings, but they were frequently the cheapest and worst bikes in the shops. Many of these were so bad or wrongly sized they are as likely to have ended up in sheds never to be used again. I suspect the July bombings were not the paradigm shifting factor they are often claimed to be.
And we have had regular bombings in London shutting down public transport for the past 30 years, the late 1990's saw a dreadful bus explosion in Aldwych for example.
Regarding infrastructure, Hackney has the highest modal share of cyclists in London but no traditional bicycle infrastructure in the form of segregation, just lots of permeability and modal filtering, no other borough comes near their 8% modal share.
Rarely cited as an effect in London, and very difficult to quantify is the sheer fashionableness of cycling in London now, it is simply the thing to do. The growth of cycling 'tribes' is one example of this fashion with the London fixed gear and single speed group being one of these groups.
Gary Cummins
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