Winter Cycling

There's an old joke in England about how the Scandinavians and the Canadians laugh at the British because a little bit of snow here brings the country to a halt. The British laugh at ourselves about trains not being able to run because of the wrong kind of snow on the tracks. I have to smile because each winter, when snow brings chaos to our transport systems, the stock excuse is that we're not used to it, and we say this every year. In Beverley recently I've heard conversations between people who cycle about either being determined to keep riding despite all the bad weather we've had recently, ice, rain, cold, rain and more rain; and other people who say they've (temporarily) stopped riding because of having skidded off their bikes on the ice.

Unfortunately, our local council, rightly or wrongly, receives criticism every year about roads and footpaths not being gritted. In Holland and Denmark (whose climates are similar to most of the British Isles), people put on an overcoat or anorak and keep on cycling. Some fit studded tyres to the wheels of the same bike they ride the rest of the year, but councils there regularly clear snow on, and grit, urban cycle paths, lanes, and streets so that people can get to work, shopping etc, the same as they do in summer. No one there seems to bat an eyelid. No drama. No jokes. They Just ride.

Cycle Culture

On other cycling sites there has been some discussion lately about whether or not developing high quality Dutch-style infrastructure would be enough, on it's own, to get people on bikes to use these facilities. Or would they remain unused (like many example of “bad” infrastructure nationally) because Britain doesn't have the type of bike culture that exists in Holland today or 30-40 years ago when they began to develop their infrastructure. Some contributors even felt Dutch-style infrastructure would mean cyclists would lose their right to cycle everywhere, and be “second class citizens” compared to motorists. Mmmm. I think many, if not the overwhelming majority of people who ride cycles in the UK (or would like to) probably feel that way now with current road infrastructure. Whereas if you were to ask Dutch if people if they felt “second class” because of their facilities, or couldn't go everywhere they want to go on a bike, I think their reply might be just the opposite. Particularly in the centre of Amsterdam and other towns and cities where only pedestrians and people on bikes can go. 

The UK did have a thriving cycle culture right up to the second world war and the years immediately following it. For example, my local city, Hull, was known as "cycle city" prior to the war, and still has a relatively healthy utility cycling culture today (11% of journeys in urban areas, compared with the UK average of 2%) with some reasonably high-quality infrastructure (as well as some bad). Cambridge and York are other examples today. With more and more motor traffic and the loss of what high-quality infrastructure that existed in the UK (yes, there was some), cycling rates declined, as people's wealth increased, aspired to owning a motor car, and their perception of feeling safe riding in motor traffic reduced.

This debate seems to crystallise into different models of cycling i.e. utilitarian, everyday transportation cycling, and that more influenced by sport. There will always be those cyclists who want to preserve their “right to ride” on the road no matter what infrastructure is developed in the future. If people want to ride on busy roads as per the vehicular cycling model, that should be our right and their choice. But I also think that many more will vote with their wheels for high quality Dutch-style infrastructure (“the real deal”) when they realise how safe they can feel and convenient it can be. This has already started with petrol prices rising, and will continue as the naysayers realise that all the arguments why Dutch-style cycling won’t work in the UK are shown to be false.

Rather than making cyclists “second class citizens”, if anything, Dutch-style infrastructure has done more for equality and made cycling more inclusive for people of all ages and both genders, rather than the males up to the age of 50 whom are the main advocates and practitioners of vehicular-cycling.

Extra £20 Million for Cycling Infrastructure

English Transport Minister Norman Baker recently announced an extra £20 million for spending on cycling infrastructure to get people riding bikes. County councils have submitted bids to fund projects to improve infrastructure. This may seem like a considerable sum of money, but it pales into insignificance  in comparison with the total amount spent on roads each year. (Co-incidentally, British roads are paid for by our income and council taxes, not Vehicle Tax. Road tax was actually abolished by Winston Churchill in 1937.) One of the aims of this spending is to improve safety of cyclists on the road. I think this is ironic considering the Government has recently launched a consultation on increasing speed limits of lorries, which will do nothing for the safety of cyclists sharing the same roads, or that of pedestrians attempting to cross or walking alongside them.

I would like to see priority given to developing high quality, Dutch-style infrastructure in our local towns, as well as connecting them. Such infrastructure encourages many more people to cycle because they then feel cycling is safe and convenient. thus achieving major benefits for them (health and financial savings), for our towns (reducing congestion, reducing pollution, and benefiting the local economy), and for local communities (making them better spaces to live, work, and visit). In Holland and Denmark, cycling rates are much higher than in the UK currently, while fatality / serious injury rates are much lower. These countries have long enjoyed all the benefits that have been highlighted in the recently published NICE report on increasing walking and cycling, and several reports previously, but which the UK has not been able to achieve with our current infrastructure and cycling models. Cycling in Holland and Denmark is predominantly utilitarian i.e. practical, everyday transport, with many thousands of people cycling daily, in their everyday clothes to work, for shopping, to leisure activities, for socialising, and for pleasure.

Currently in the East Riding, like the rest of the UK, cycle lanes and off-road cycle paths (both in and out of town) are often under utilized by cyclists because this infrastructure does not enable cyclists (and crucially, would be cyclists) to feel safe cycling on busy streets. This is because where on-road cycle lanes exist, they are often ignored or blocked by motor vehicles, or are inconvenient because paths and lanes doe not go where the cyclist wishes to go, or simply appear and then disappear, sometimes forcing the cyclist out into busy traffic. Some other cycle paths, are inconvenient because, rather than adopting Dutch-style roundabouts and junctions, they force cyclists to start and stop several times within a distance of a 100 metres, i.e. at side roads and driveways, and divert away form the main route at roundabouts. As well as raising safety concerns, these add unnecessary time to cycling journeys, leading to many racing -style cyclists to choose to ride on the main carriageway, and many would-be utilitarian cyclists to take the more convenient (and safer) option of the car. An example of this is the current shared infrastructure that runs alongside the A1174 Beverley to Hull road, and I feel some of the bid monies should be used to address this issue.

The Dutch model, based on (among other things) the segregation of motor vehicles and cycles (where it needs to), improved cycle parking, and the design of roundabouts and junctions that gives equal importance to cyclists on paths and lanes as motor vehicles on the main carriageway. The infrastructure is also designed so that cars parking on the side of the road do not block cycle lanes. It encourages many more people to cycle because it is the one model of transport infrastructure that has been demonstrated consistently to facilitate high numbers of cyclists cycling safely, including those would-be cyclists currently put off be having to ride among heavy motor traffic.

It has been suggested that Dutch-style, high quality infrastructure would not work in the UK as it’s expensive, impractical in towns with narrow congested streets, in hilly areas, and with the British climate. In reality, it has been demonstrated to be cost-effective, to work well in towns with narrow streets, in hilly areas, and in the Dutch and Denmark climates, which are very similar to ours. As noted above there has shown to be several major benefits to implementing Dutch-style road infrastructure, not just for cycling, but for local communities and economies.

How Many More?

Woke this morning to the news that a 64 year old man had been killed riding a cycle on the A18 in North Lincolnshire, after a collision with an articulated lorry. Another life lost on Britain’s roads, someone else riding a bicycle on a main road The chances of these accident's happening are much reduced in Holland because alongside roads connecting major towns and cities, there is a segregated cycle way that thousands of people use everyday, safely. The number of journeys made on a bicycle is much higher in Holland than the UK yet safety rates are much higher, even though hardly anyone wears a helmet.

Some cyclists believe that we need segregation, instead we should have a combination of better cycle training, driver education, and helmets, fluorescent lycra, and the ability ride like motor vehicle i.e. be able to "command" the lane by being able to accelerate to 20 mph and "drive" their cycle in the way a car would among heavy, fast traffic. Well, that's their choice (and cyclists as vehicles should always have that choice), although how older people and young children, or anyone else, should be expected to ride like this, or anyone should be expected to feel safe riding like this, is beyond me.

Many people of any age, don't want to ride like a racing cyclist, or a cycle messenger, and just want to ride safely to work, the shops, meet friends, go the cinema etc, without having to run the gauntlet with heavy traffic.

A letter in my local people this week mentioned cycle paths near him that he sees hardly anyone using. Unfortunately, there are many examples of cycling infrastructure in the UK that are badly designed, and in some cases even dangerous. Seem seem designed to unnecessarily delay cyclist and make using paths inconvenient for cyclists, so two things happen. Firstly, those cyclists who apparently feel comfortable riding fast on roads amongst traffics do just that, and many people (a majority) who would use them are put off and take the car instead adding to congestion. I suspect even more people who would at least like to try cycling don't even bother because they see heavy, fast traffic and decide it's too dangerous.

Give people a choice (i.e. segregated, high quality cycling, safe infrastructure, that doesn't seem designed to delay or inconvenience them) they will vote with their feet, or rather wheels. Just as they did in Holland and Denmark.

 

Let's Go Dutch in Beverley

Pashley Roadster Outside Beverley Minster

Why "Go Dutch" in Beverley (and the East Riding of Yorkshire)?

4th December 2012

 

I live in Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. A pretty market town with a population of around 30 thousand and lots of pressure to build large extensions to the town.

The centre of the town is often heavily congested with traffic. At quieter times, Beverley can be a very pleasant place to cycle in and around. However, here, like many places in the UK, many people are put off cycling because they simply don't feel safe riding among motor vehicles, and are also put off by the thought of wearing helmets and fluorescent lycra. We don't all look good in it, and anyway many people prefer to cycle in their everyday clothes, on practical, comfortable bicycles. In Beverley, you don't need 27 gears (my 3speed Sturmey Archer is plenty, thank you very much.)

My wife and I ride English Roadster bicycles (mainly a Raleigh and a Pashley), which is essentially the same design that many people call a Dutch bike. The original “Dutch bikes” were actually English Roadsters exported to Holland in the Nineteenth Century. Thirty years ago, Holland had a road infrastructure similar to ours, with cyclists forced to ride on the main carriageway among heavy traffic, and had a high accident rate as a result. Today, after campaigns by the Dutch people, they have one of the highest rates of cycling in the world, much higher than in the UK, and yet a much higher safety record as well. This despite virtually no Dutch cyclists ride wearing helmets. British people own more bicycles than cars, yet you wouldn’t know this looking at our streets. The sad fact is that many more people would like to cycle, but are put off because don't because they don't feel safe.

This blog will record my cycling in and around Beverley and the East Riding, and also campaign for better cycle facilities in Beverley and the East Riding. I ride in everyday clothes, my preferred choice of cycling head wear is a flat cap. I want to see the kind of cycling infrastructure that is the norm in Holland, where many thousands of people ride everywhere, everyday. For commuting to work, going shopping, seeing friends, and going to the football match, pub, cafe, cinema, everywhere.

Below is a letter I recently had published in the local paper.

 

 

How Many More Bradley Wiggins?

How many more Bradley Wiggins? How many more kids? How many more “Sorry, I didn't see you!”s? How many more times do cycle helmets and fluorescent lycra have to not protect cyclists? How many more hit and runs? How many more broken ribs? How many more Olympic cyclists and head coaches? How many more teachers, builders, council staff? How many more kids?

How many more before people realise that it doesn't have to be like this? How many more before cyclists and county councils realise that there is another way of doing things? How many more before the highways agency realises there is another system and infrastructure? A system that is demonstrated to work safely every day of the year. A system that allows a million cycling journeys to be made safely each day, every day? Safely. A way that allows the nation with the highest cycling rate in the world, to be the safest cycling place in the world, for cyclists and pedestrians. A system that segregates bicycles and motor vehicles whenever and wherever it needs to. A system that segregates car bumpers and lorry wheels from cyclists' limbs and heads.

How many more before they realise that Holland in the 1970s had a similar road structure and accident rate that Britain has today? How many more before they realise that the Dutch people knew how many was enough? How many more before they realise that the Dutch government and councils listened, and acted. How many more before they realise that the Dutch government and councils developed good quality cycle lanes and cycle paths, with junctions and roundabouts that work, that give priority to cyclists, that cyclists use. And want to use. Everyday. Safely. A system where cycling isn’t just a sport, it’s every day transport for millions of people for work, shopping and leisure.

Please see :-

http://www.dutchcycling.nl/

http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/

http://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/

Please don't say “Sorry, I didn't see you!”

 

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