So the answer to my question on how to make cycling more attractive to occasional/irregular cyclists and so increase the pitifully small cycling modal share in the UK is to...cycle and others will follow?
Is there nothing to be done with the road layout and cycle infrastructure at all? Nothing? Not even one teeny weeny bit? Just teach the cyclist to cope with the environment as it is and tell the concerned parents their fears are illogical and unfounded. Seems a rather resigned and sad approach to be honest.
Really. Which do you think had more effect on the number of cyclists in London. 7/7 bombers or cycling superhighways? I started cycle commuting in London in the 90's and the cycling levels there now were unimaginable then. Safety in numbers... gotta love those terrorists and the bomb dodgers they spawned.
My personal number one priority, after "just get on your bikes and ride people", is getting traffic speeds and volumes reduced. After that it is in providing people with access to training/coaching and mentoring so they can ride on the roads as they are, as I will be an old man before dutch cycling comes to my town, or yours. Then comes getting decent enforcement of the existing traffic laws prioritised according to risk. With the exception of seeing a few ASL's put in and the odd toucan I've almost no interest in ill-advisedly superimposing a pile of shite "cycling infrastructure" on top of the perfectly good infrastructure we already have, called "the roads". It wont fit the streets, no one can tell me how it will be paid for and no one will ever vote for it. Nor am i interested in anything that boils down to stealing even more space from the poor benighted pedestrian so cyclists can move more freely.
and I spend rather too many hours of my limited free time working in collaboration with others, in local and county cycle campaigns, to achieve these aims.
but please do carry on posting yo0ur clips. I'm sure it makes you feel better. Especially about us traitors to the cause.
