The Pink Pound, Drink Driving Legislation, Racism & Cycling

[Silver Fox]

Surely we can all agree that we would like to have better treatment, whether it be from planners, motorists, road users, employers etc. This is not about building more cycle paths or other things, but about more respect and appreciation for the vulnerabliity we face and respect for diversity

I understand where you're coming from. Yes, given time pressure groups can change public opinion but the cycling community face a massive uphill struggle to achieve this.

Why, our cause just isn't trendy and right-on enough for the influencial opinion formers to be bothered with.

 

[Norm]

you see I'm not so sure about this bit, yep they understand but that's rather different to being willing to change. One of my personal bugbears, which I know many share, is school run traffic. I have attended meetings where the focus has been how dangerous the roads outside/around a school are. Plenty of parents will make the right noises but you'll still see them, in the car, clogging up the school area the following day. The very same people that will complain that it's not safe for their child to walk/cycle to school, can also be seen handling the dropoff/pickup with fag and mobile in hand....I kid you not, this is first hand experience on my part, confrontation didn't go down too well either

Yup, I think my post could have been worded better as it could have been taken that I was proposing a panacea.

I've met the same selfish attitudes and double standards, we can't change all of the antagonists and the same response won't work for everyone. Tackle them one at a time with whatever you feel appropriate.

Personally, I wave at every motorist that I have held up, everyone who waits behind me approaching a bend, everyone who waits behind me because there's a queue of traffic on the other carriageway, everyone who waits behind when I'm approaching a right turn, they all get a wave of thanks. I don't expect my little wave to change everyone, I doubt many of them even notice it but it costs me nothing and I'd like to think that it helps.

I know I'd rather be cycling 200m in front of a chap who waves too much to the nice guys than cycling 200m in front of the chap who mouths off and gestures at all of the asses.

 

[MacB]

Yup, I think my post could have been worded better as it could have been taken that I was proposing a panacea.

I've met the same selfish attitudes and double standards, we can't change all of the antagonists and the same response won't work for everyone. Tackle them one at a time with whatever you feel appropriate.

Personally, I wave at every motorist that I have held up, everyone who waits behind me approaching a bend, everyone who waits behind me because there's a queue of traffic on the other carriageway, everyone who waits behind when I'm approaching a right turn, they all get a wave of thanks. I don't expect my little wave to change everyone, I doubt many of them even notice it but it costs me nothing and I'd like to think that it helps.

I know I'd rather be cycling 200m in front of a chap who waves too much to the nice guys than cycling 200m in front of the chap who mouths off and gestures at all of the asses.

I think that's a fair assessment, since adopting the smile and wave attitude I've certainly had far less incident and been generally happier when cycling. Far from perfect, the red mist can still put in an appearance, but I'm getting there. I also think I do my teensy little bit around normalising cycling, I do all my local stuff in regular clothes and footwear.

As Dell put it, the whole process could be viewed as a sort of osmosis and ever increasing numbers will accelerate that. I'm not remotely anti the concept of a co-ordinated campaign but I don't think we'd do ourselves any favours by making comparisons between outgroups. Like I say, a mythbuster tv ad series would be good, dispell the misinformation that abounds. Beyond that I'm for a focus on the positives, letting people see cycling as useful as well as fun.

Maybe I took the OP the wrong way, it just felt that the only thing missing was a comparison between the plight of cyclists and the holocaust.

 

[Banjo]

IMHO if the money allocated to building cyclepaths painting little cycle lanes in gutters etc etc was ALL put towards a public education programme teaching drivers how to pass safely , open their eyes at junctions etc it would be much more beneficial to cyclists as a whole.

A lot of drivers I chat to seem totally unaware of how their driving impacts on cyclists safety.

 

[ttcycle]

My experiences within cycling campaigns is it has to start on the ground and grassroots...now was employed to do this with a large cycling organisation that I shan't name, I left but that's another story to remain untold.

Start small, build it up and keep the momentum going. On the phone posting so not going to go into shed loads of detail but the answer from my point of view is getting more people cycling, normalising it, getting people out on rides and accompanying them and instilling the idea of 'I can do that too'. Dont wait for the organisations as the biggest change will come from those that cycle in the streets. The power to shift the agenda however slowly is in out collective hands. Forget the lobbying that us a small subsection. I forget who posted saying cycling wasn't cool- I disagree it's appearing in car ads, it's green and trendy so there is room to twist this and work with this to our advantage.

Attitude change is important but the focus needs to be on where, tactically getting people seeing cycling as a valid form of transport is a good start. The changing motorist attitudes is something that needs to be thought about but may not be the easiest way to build a campaign as gaining support in this area is essential for leverage and the attitude change needs to be done creatively and by lateral means...softly, softly but then you kick em where it hurts when it's needed...I'm tired and posting from a phone so this may be lacking in sense.

Details and viewpoints are essential to get right as well as the overall strategic idea-negative and positive scenarios are helpful in getting the plan together.

Foodie-stats etc of the issues are easily saught and a few questions you pose ate easily answered...just too tired to do it right now and looking on a phone screen is not a good idea!

Spen I understand the spirit of your post but there are still massive leaps and steps to be made in sexuality, drink driving and racism. However my point is to keep chipping away at the old block as these issues and any type of campaigning often take time and can feel/are often thankless!