Lesley Riddoch - New truths need peddling about pedalling
In THE wake of Jason MacIntyre's death in Fort William, fair weather
cyclists across Scotland may be tempted to throw in the towel.
Cycling here is already a triumph of hope over experience with an over-
supply of hills, headwinds and rain. The first tottering experience
back on a bike can be a shock for adults with childhood cycling
memories of long sunny days, endless downhill freewheels, trousers
stuffed into socks or skirts tucked into pants. No worries, no
responsibilities, no special protective gear, no deadlines for
arrival, and – above all – no traffic.
Adult city cycling today appears very different. From the vantage
point of a bone-dry car seat, passing cyclists appear to be soaked,
slow, and now – liable to serious injury or death. It's time to get
cycling reality into perspective.
On a wet day, everything's slightly unpleasant. Walking's a damp
experience. Waiting at the bus stop's a cold experience. At least
cyclists expecting daily exposure to weather are more likely to have
waterproof gear. As the Norwegians say, there is no bad weather, only
inappropriate clothing.
With average city driving speeds of 25mph, cycling isn't slow. Indeed,
chronic congestion means the relative speed of two and four-wheeled
vehicles has changed dramatically and that has created un-acknowledged
tension. The Kings of the Road drive cars chosen for status, speed,
power and maybe sex appeal, while cyclists choose bikes for lightness,
toughness, and (in the case of collapsible bikes) ease of
deconstruction. Drivers are paying small mortgages to buy cars and
watching fuel prices rise with each passing month.
Cyclists pay a couple of hundred quid and let their feet do the rest.
And if time is money, queuing drivers are also losing out to weaving
cyclists and in the unwritten pecking order of the roads, that feels
all wrong.
Drivers pay road tax, and expect priority. In fact, many roads were
originally designed for bicycles and horses, and the majority of
cyclists are also tax-paying motorists who've left their cars at home,
giving more road space to drivers who cannot or will not do the same.
Arguably, with their tiny ecological footprint, driver/cyclists should
be asking for tax refunds since the same flat rate is paid whether a
car is used once a year or once an hour. But that would be petty – and
fanning the flames of a strangely anti-cycling public mood.
No-one gives up an addiction easily and drivers do subliminally
realise our addiction to gas-guzzling cars is leading our overweight
selves and our spluttering planet absolutely nowhere. But drivers in
denial can be hard to handle. And prone to shooting the messenger, or
at least making his or her progress through city streets a little more
… interesting.
On the one hand, Jason MacIntyre's death was very unusual. That's why
it made front-page news everywhere. On the other hand, cyclists are
more vulnerable to "acceptable" standards of driving than motorists
realise. And there's the rub. In requesting that drivers look twice,
always indicate, glance in the rear mirror before opening car doors
and endure slow starts at junctions to let cyclists wobble off first –
the tail is wagging the dog.
In Scotland, there is no policy guiding this transition. In Groningen,
the Netherlands' sixth largest city, there is. Sixteen years ago,
traffic congestion led city planners to dig up city-centre motorways.
Last year, they built a car-free city centre. Now Groningen, with a
population just smaller than Aberdeen, has the highest level of
bicycle usage in the West. A commendable 57 per cent of its
inhabitants travel by bicycle – compared with just 4 per cent in the
UK.
The economic repercussions are astonishing. Since a six-lane motorway
was replaced by greenery, pedestrianisation, cycleways and bus lanes,
the city has staged a remarkable recovery. Rents are among the highest
in the Netherlands, the outflow of population has been reversed and
businesses, once in revolt against car restraint, are clamouring for
more of it.
As Gerrit van Werven, a senior city planner, put it: "This is not an
environmental programme, it is an economic programme. We are boosting
jobs and business. It has been proved that planning for the bicycle is
cheaper than planning for the car."
A vital threshold has been crossed. Through sheer weight of numbers,
the bicycle makes the rules – slowing down traffic and shaping driver
behaviour. All across the city, roads are being narrowed or closed to
traffic, cycleways are being constructed and new houses built to which
the only direct access is by cycle. Out-of-town shopping centres are
banned. The aim is to force cars to take longer detours but to provide
a "fine mesh" network for cycles, giving them easy access to the city
centre.
Like the Netherlands nationally, Groningen is backing bicycles because
of fears about car growth. Its ten-year bicycle programme is costing
£20 million, but every commuter car it keeps off the road saves at
least £170 a year in hidden costs such as noise, pollution, parking
and health. New city centre buildings must provide cycle garages.
Under the city hall, a nuclear shelter has been turned into a bike
park.
"We don't want a good system for bicycles, we want a perfect system",
says Mr van Werven. "We want a system for bicycles that is like the
German autobahns for cars. We don't ride bicycles because we are poor
– people here are richer than in Britain. We ride them because it is
fun, it is faster, it is convenient."
And even with Scotland's cycle-unfriendly urban motorways, and
dangerously fast A-roads, that's true here too. The best memorial to
Jason MacIntyre is for all hesitant cyclists to get on their bikes,
reclaim the streets and create safety in numbers – and create a head
of steam for radical cycling change.
The full article contains 984 words and appears in The Scotsman
newspaper.Last Updated: 27 January 2008 10:54 PM
Aside, I heard a woman from Jason's cycling club on the radio last
week. She couldn't believe that he was on the cyclepath because (a)
they're working on it at the moment and there are big mounds of rubble
blocking part of it and (b) she never uses it because it's a fast
stretch of road where she can easily get over 20mph and, as a champion
cyclist, he would be going a lot faster then her.
In summary, the driver's defence is not credible.
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Lesley-Riddoch--New-truths.3715855.jp