Cycle training article in Grauniad

[Cab]

To be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/dec/18/cycling-lessons-confident-rider

Seems to me that the oft stated 'fact' that cyclists don't have to be trained or pass a test can be countered in many ways. The best (in my view) is that those who keep stating such a thing don't want us all to be trained. They don't want to see assertive, confident cyclists claiming the road. Or, in other words, most of the people who say it have't got a clue what it actually means.

On a typical day, if most cyclists were assertive, motorised traffic in Cambridge would just stop (or, rather, move at cycling speed). Parts of London are getting that way too. Thats probably a good thing, but it ain't what 'they' wan't...

 

[marinyork]

I'm glad someone got some use out of it.

I think a lot of people shout the idea of training and a test as a kind of punishment. They have some strange vision of people shelling out £20 an hour to be taught for say 10 or 20 hours how to ride on the roads at great cost to themselves and take personal joy in a string of bureaucratic measures that they know will keep many off the roads. They'd probably be horrified that quite a few places subsidise it or offer it for free!

 

[StuartG]

I passed my proficiency test around 50 years ago having been brought up in a cycling town. I commuted into central London for many years in the 70/80s so I thought I knew it all.

Then in the last decade I found myself getting into more and more 'difficult' situations. Was it just age or the changes in road patterns? So I took a freebie lesson from my local authority (Lewisham). Transforming, I was that careful cyclists and the trainer spent two hours converting me into an assertive cyclist. A dead ringer of the Grauniad article - except for sex - I'm still looking for free lessons on that!

I still feel uncomfortable at getting in the way of motorists but it has almost eliminated the 'difficults'. The issue I guess is how we educate them that Assertive cycling is pro-life and not anti-motorist?

 

[marinyork]

I still feel uncomfortable at getting in the way of motorists but it has almost eliminated the 'difficults'. The issue I guess is how we educate them that Assertive cycling is pro-life and not anti-motorist?

One of the places where I have to take ultra primary still annoys the hell out of motorists but they've installed mild speed bumps down the bottom of the road that seems to have got rid of the ultra aggressive driving and taken the edge off some of the anger. It's started being a slightly calmer experienced road for both driving and cycling.

 

[Cab]

Its a trade off. Being assertive means you're safer from the vast bulk of careless/thoughtless risky manoevres that motorists do all the time. But you do suffer more aggression. The latter is far less frequent than the former, so assertiveness is the way forward.

But its the same aggressive numpties who make all the noise about 'training' for cyclists. What they mean is that we're trained to keep out of their way, exactly the opposite of what they desire.

 

[Origamist]

I think a lot of people shout the idea of training and a test as a kind of punishment.

But its the same aggressive numpties who make all the noise about 'training' for cyclists. What they mean is that we're trained to keep out of their way, exactly the opposite of what they desire.

Quite. The drivers who shout loudest for cyclists to receive training would be aghast at parts of the Bikeability syllabus. I think a lot of people think cycle training is predicated on outdated HC guidance about keeping left, with a bit on signalling thrown in, and then remedial classes in obeying red traffic lights and not cycling on the pavement.

All that said, what is worrying is that best practice for cyclists is not always agreed on by the police and the courts...

 

[Lurker]

Quite.... All that said, what is worrying is that best practice for cyclists is not always agreed on by the police and the courts...

... or, apparently, by many local authorities (to judge from the design and installation of cycle facilities)

 

[MartinC]

One of the good things about formalised or mandatory cycle training being put in place is that it then could easily be made a mandatory precursor to getting a driving licence. Some avid proponents of cycle training seem to lose some of their enthusiasm when you point this out.

 

[StuartG]

One of the good things about formalised or mandatory cycle training being put in place is that it then could easily be made a mandatory precursor to getting a driving licence.

Yes, yes ... yes