On the contrary, as someone who works on the cycle repair trade, in my experience cycle use is definitely increasing in the UK. I am always being asked to resurrect a machine which has languished for a long while in a shed or garage. Suddenly the owner wants to start using it again for health or financial reasons.
The picture re cycle sales and ownership is complicated by the phenomenon of multiple cycle ownership by some particularly enthusiastic cyclists !
Most days I secure an advertisement trade bike to a fence near my workshop, this means for about 30 years I have witnessed the constantly increasing number of commuters.
Best wishes
Kevin
Indeed, and cycle sales have been high in the UK, but cycle use does not appear to be increasing.On 26 July 2014 17:41, Oddy, Nicholas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
The Austroads report is typically disingenuous in using a statistic based on machine sales, I have always considered this a very questionable way of assessing uptake, let alone use. Its prominence is surely indicative of a level of desperation in the face of few other positive statistics being available? For a start, a bicycle is not a car, it requires less space and a lot less investment, a whole stud of bicycles can be kept in a domestic garage, along with a car, without there ever being any realistic prospect of the bicycles having more than occasional use. I suspect it might be statistically more valuable to plot new bicycle sales against another form of leisure/aspiration based consumer durable. Two that come to mind are bread and yogurt makers, in terms of sales-to-use correlation. There are further issues, of course, in terms of the nature of the use, which makes the sales-to-use correlation of yogurt and bread makers more reliable. If they are used, then there will be a commensurate decrease in consumption of commercially made bread and/or yogurt. Unfortunately, many bicycle sales are likely not to result in decreases in motor vehicle use, as many bicycles are sold for leisure activities over and above the owner's use of private motor cars...worse some will be sold that will increase the use of cars to shift the bicycle from the owner's home to wherever the leisure cycling activity is going to take place.
Nicholas Oddy
-----Original Message-----
From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list on behalf of Dave Holladay
Sent: Sat 26/07/2014 16:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Austroads report-forwarding
*Austroads report*
*
Or register and download using the link that Simon B provided?
Very interesting that the number of bikes sold has increased, with more
bikes sold than cars, but mining the figures might reveal that there is
a serious n+1 factor at work here. around 50% of households own a bike,
but more of them are owning n+1, and that +1 is a high value machine
which is rarely used perhaps?
**A further few studies?*
Is there anything in that survey that might plot the demographics - I
was pondering this only the other day on a similar cycling-related
issue. The near 100% correllation of people posting threats to kill
cyclists with their car, all young-ish women (blond - but not really
relevant I suspect) and in probationary jobs, for a well paid career, in
'professions' where diplomacy and measured language are attributes to
refine as you progress to promotion... If we understand this there is a
clear piece of targetted road safety promotion to nail that group.
I've just had a very dismissive response from the Confederation of
Passenger Transport about developing guidelines and related policy for
their members (ie bus & coach operators) on cycle carriage, although it
is happening in some places, both formally and informally. For the
Oxford Tube it looks to be around 3% of peak hour commuters. Kings
Ferry's Bristol services also report a popularity of taking folding
bikes on the coaches. The Lake District has 599 every 20 minutes,
avoiding the A591. Perhaps a review can gain a picture of any financial
benefits?
The closure of London Bridge Station and diversion of thousands of
commuters to Cannon Street, Blackfriars and Waterloo may be a similar
intervention to the closures at St Pancras and Waterloo in the past that
drove significant increases in cycle use. will this deliver a similar
effect? How will the before/during/after be measurable? It starts in
mid August.
Dave Holladay
07 710 535 404
On 25/07/14 16:54, Katja Leyendecker wrote:
> Same here, please!
>
> Kat
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 25 Jul 2014, at 09:45, Gianni Rondinella
> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:>> *Gianni Rondinella
>
>> I have trouble getting the download, can you send it to me directly?
>> Thanks,
>> Gianni
>>
>> *Investigador pre-doctoral // Ph.D. candidate/**
>> TRANSyT - *Centro de Investigación del Transporte*/
>> Transport Research Centre/*
>> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid*
>> ETSI Caminos, Canales y Puertos>> www.transyt.upm.es <http://www.transyt.upm.es/>
>> c/ Prof. Aranguren s/n - 28040 Madrid
>> t: +34 91 336 6657>> <http://www.transyt.upm.es/>
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> Austroads report
>> <http://groups.google.com/group/freestyle-cyclists/t/cf9a65a5c5481042>
>>
>> *Chris Gxxx *Jul 24 11:32AM +0800
>>
>> Austroads has just released National Cycling Strategy:
>> Implementation Report 2013
>> (https://www.onlinepublications.austroads.com.au/items/AP-C93-14
>> but you have to register or log in) which evaluates the success
>> of Australia's strategy to increase cycling. It's just over 5mb
>> so I won't burden this email with an attachment but I can email
>> it to anyone who wants it but has trouble getting a download.
>>
>> The document pretty well confirms participation points I've made
>> at http://www.cycle-helmets.com/cycling-1985-2013.html, primarily
>> that Australian cycling participation (percentage who cycled in
>> the past week) fell from 17.8% in 2011 to 16.6% in 2013. I've
>> calculated that 1.2% reduction to represent just over 300,000
>> fewer cyclists, which is why the media continues to be full of
>> stories about how cycling is booming in Australia.
>>
>> The National Cycling Strategy aims to promote and increase
>> cycling in Australia from 2011 to 2016 but a 1.2% reduction in
>> the first half of the strategy suggests it's so far been an
>> abject failure. The latest Austroads document maintains the theme
>> of all official publications by not mentioning helmets, by far
>> and away the main barrier to increased participation in this
>> country. Actually, the word "helmet" is used once in the
>> Austroads document but just in a bullet point referring to the
>> recommendation by Queensland's parliamentary committee for a
>> relaxation of helmet laws - that tiny sniff of hope that was
>> snuffed out by Queensland's Transport Minister.
>>
>> Apart from that, the Austroads report has 52 pages with some
>> interesting data re all sorts of cycling issues in different states.
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Chris xxx__
>>
>>