Slight disappointment

I read today of another serious collision involving a cyclist and a lorry, and today I draw a little reflection upon recent issues involving cycling.

For one thing I was really hoping the above video would get more views, even a couple more "thumbs up" from people that appreciate what I'm trying to do. I've had for many years now a feeling that the conventional media of TV, radio and print were trying to pull the wool over people's eyes, perhaps to satisfy those that advertise big cars or stupidly expensive petrol.

I know its not a polished effort, its not Panorama - I made it off my own back, in my spare time. I'm certainly no narrator.

I do kind of feel at times that many cyclists in the UK love their sport and their commute: but a large faction seem to be scared to ask for something more, or to endorse the reality of what has been happening on the UK's roads and with our Justice system. It is almost as if this timidness is down to the constant shouting in the media about cyclists and the "bad things" that we're projected to do.

One of the things I'm saddened and concerned to see is how few have signed the Get Britain Cycling ePetition. At this moment in time, as I write this, only 67,000 people have signed it. I know for a fact there are MORE cyclists in the UK than this - that is about the membership of the CTC alone.

If you want cycling to expand to something glorious that could save the lives of millions of people you HAVE to sign it! Our Nation is sedentary, we don't do enough exercise, this could play a massive part in reducing heart disease, strokes and diabetes - not to mention obesity.

Our towns and cities are grossly over-polluted - increasing bike use will help tackle many of the problems people suffer with emphysema, asthma, and potentially hay fever. I suffer from asthma myself, thankfully not chronically but enough to know that when I ride or walk past a heavily used road that I wheeze and sometimes struggle for breath. One extra bike is one less car polluting. That is also one extra person who is strengthening their lungs and heart with exercise which reduces the risk of an asthma attack.

What if you don't cycle?

Everyone knows someone who travels by bike. Sometimes its a friend or a workmate, often its a family member - a Brother or Sister. Sign it for them! And surely you want the option of cycling to exist in the future? We know that fuel will increase in price, we know that its a pain in the arse to drive a couple of miles to then find a parking space - riding around to a friends, or to the corner shop makes sense.

So you've signed, what next?

Tweet it, facebook it, email colleagues and friends and ask that they sign it. If you have to explain why its important to you then don't be shy about it. This is an opportunity to push forward change and we need to grasp it!

Is car travel TOO easy?

Today Peter Henley talked to councilors about parking charges on BBC Politics South. It reminded me of something I saw when riding home from work some years back. I had intended to stop off 5 miles in on the trip and pop into the Sainsburys that sat about 1 mile from my home.

It was no bother, the day was cold but sunny and despite a little rain earlier in the day it had dried out.

To get to the shop I chose to ride up Chessel Avenue - its steep but with good gears its still relatively easy. Or I could have chosen to get off and walk it for a couple of minutes. Or I could have gone across one of the flatter routes....

I'd just past half way and noticed a lady getting into a small but bright yellow hatchback of some sort. I remembered it because she was a larger lady, and the car was really that bright. It was clearly a loved car. Within 30 feet of the traffic lights she over took me and eventually we both went through the green. I followed behind her, keeping up all the way even though traffic was light and fluid and we both ended up in Sainsburys.

I have no idea what she was buying, but did think at the time that had it been light she could have walked that and saved herself some money.

Another time I finished my shift early and as I rode towards one of the local school zones saw a lady in a fuss trying to drag a toddler into a car. No, not in that way! The toddler wanted to watch cartoons or something and referred to her as Mummy. They pulled off the driveway some distance ahead of me and almost immediately stopped right outside the school some 100 feet down the same road.

I just looked at her. Why can't she walk that distance? If she has to drive off elsewhere after is it not easier to maintain her existing parking space and move from there?

Another time I walked to the Bursledon Tesco. I saw a lady parking up, get out and complain to staff inside the doorway about "how bad the parking is today!" before buying a packet of cigarettes and going straight back to the car. I cant imagine Tesco was cheaper than he corner shop?


Katja Leyendecker often uses humour to refer to "car addiction" and sadly I think she's right. If you postulate that there might be easier ways then you're sometimes shouted down, even accused of damaging the economy.

@richardwellings @theabd No. Without motorists our society and economy would collapse overnight. Without cyclists we wouldn't notice. #RT
— Driver Love (@Driver_Hatred) May 27, 2013

I suppose the last point is this - if people want help finding easier ways there is always help out there. The cycling clubs (CTC and British Cycling) offer examples of real-world people who have managed to get by without a car - for a variety of different types of trip from commuting to shopping. The clubs and their many members are also willing to share information and tips.

The internet has become an enabling experience for this, and together I can see many people taking advantage of the money saving and the health benefit of walking and cycling.

Green energy?

Letter to my local paper, the Daily Echo:

Green energy.

It is actually moving on apace. However we do need to invest in the products before it improves to the next step - otherwise how will companies do the research and development?

Oil and gas have hit their peak in R&D, yet they get the most of this Governments energy subsidies. Around £4 billion is given, plus many tax breaks to these companies. Yet they are highly profitable - if we complain about bus company subsidy then we must surely scrutinise how fossil-based energy has been overlooked.

Add into this that the oil firms are now suspected of price fixing. Will motorists get their money back? Probably not. 

Then I read that Southampton City Council is to get funding from the government to limit fuel-poverty. Would it not be more practical for them to spend said money on putting solar panels on every council property and tenancy instead? Also expand the geothermal energy around the city. The money saved in electricity would surely exceed the money spent on motor fuel.

In my mind these are questions that need to be explored.

And this is clearly why my employer doesn't need to send me on a "motivational class"

"What..? What is that..?" She stuttered. A real look of concern came over her face as my work colleagues fell about laughing.

I work for a large catering company. They shall remain nameless for an obvious reason - its slightly unfair to single them out, and I wish to keep my wage for the time being. In fact I've worked in catering since 1995, it used to be Hospital catering but now its selling sweeties and microwave meals to Grandma.

Recently the company announced that they wished to send us on a special class. They thought morale was low and they needed to do something about it. So on Thursday morning I had 3 hours of a very loud and giggly woman projecting pop-psychology at myself and my colleagues. The walls were filled with A4 sheets printed with quotes. Goethe, The Dalai Lama, Dr Martin Luther King. Printed images of famous painting that were not all they seemed. Even a magic eye picture (I can never see those).

It all seemed a bit daft. I'd already been told by a couple of other members of staff that certain things were to be said and some "tests" were to be carried out. They asked us to draw a shape, then told us that the shape we'd chosen reflected one or other characteristic. Eg we were direct, or we were introverted.

Then it was time to draw the pig. I had said to my friend that my pig, if they asked me, would be in coitus. But once you're in the class things turn out differently. We had 60 seconds to draw the animal and the lady walked the line towards me. She stopped at the first person and said "oh you've drawn yours facing the left, that means you're optimistic!" The next person: "You've drawn yours facing to the right, that means you're a little bit of a pessimist.."

That in itself amused me. The person she said that to is one of the most optimistic people I've met. He has to be: he keeps trying to shag anything that moves. Then she arrived down the line at me.

"What..? What is that..?"

"That is an M16 fully automatic assault rifle. And I've given him helicopter shades because they rock."

"..ok..?"

"He's Arnold Schwarzopig!" My workmate chimed in. She looked bemused and said we'd leave that there. I did try to ask who determines these definitions of optimism but she skirted over it and carried on.

Later she asked us: "So who drew a nice big tail on your piggie?" Myself and about 4 other people put our hands up. "That means you have a great love life!"

"Lady you aint seen my love life!" I said. The class erupted in laughter.

So the next exercise was for us to learn empathy. "One person had to talk and halfway through the other has to completely ignore you so that you know what it feels like..."

Again I said "Lady, you're speaking about my love life again!" Laughter.

At the end we were told what I like to call the psychological fable. A story of two lads, one slightly geeky, the other the cool kid. Geeky is walking home from school carrying a box and some lads pick on him knocking the box to the ground. Cool kid comes to the rescue and they become friends. Later in life Geeky gets married and at the reception decides to give his own speech to Cool kid who is now representing best-man.

The story she tells us is that Geeky had cleared out his locker and was going to kill himself, he was sick of the bullies. Cool kid essentially saved his life. This is what I refer to as an emotional lever. Its a shoe-horn into your mind to make you adopt a certain mindset.

The only problem is that I am told this is a made up story. I had heard it a few years back and found it on a myth-busting style of website. It goes back to some marketing people I think, but a quick search this week revealed nothing. I could not validate that it was true.

I like things to be straight forward. I don't like bluster, marketing, or bullshit. I'm polite but honest to customers - they seem to appreciate that, so do most of the management. And its a great leveler when you return from such a class and walk back to your department to find none of the machines you've reported for 2 months have been fixed (not necessarily the companies fault, but bureaucracy does not help), and about 25 plates fall down from a shelf in front of customers and smash on the ground.

Much to the customers' amusement.

I don't need motivational classes, I need things to be fixed.

It's not always the Driver - a short film about blame

This took me a while to make.

I wanted to make an accessible film for others, for non-cyclists and cyclists alike, where the information was easy to understand and based in fact. Too often the media portrays cycling as something it isn't, so taking the facts recorded by the Police, the Department for Transport and the Transport Research Laboratory and putting them in one point of call is so very logical.

I'm surprised it hasn't been done more extensively. I am also tempted to do one for motorcyclists - so much of what they experience is the same - the lane changes other's make without a proper scan, the drivers who gun it without even stopping to look at junctions and roundabouts. For motorcyclists its 6 times worse on average than cyclists ever have to experience!

Its the elephant in the room.

The status quo has been to ignore these incidents - the sad fact is that we cannot afford to: it costs some £15 billion a year to mop up the mess of road casualty. It severely affects the lives of ordinary people who are bullied and scared from the bicycle. This is why I agree with CTC's new Road Justice campaign.

And when anyone ever suggests there is a problem they are shouted down. Insults have been thrown and campaigners have been mocked.

Times are changing. The internet and the free passage of information means stronger links will be made and people will be exposed to more relevant information. Studies once the preserve of academics can now fall into the hands of simple bloggers like myself. Everyone has access to this now. We as cyclists are pivotal in this sea-change.

Cyclists have been demonised in the past, now we can actively reach out and help others join us. We have to all, together, offer the hand of friendship and help non-cyclists know that our way can help people lose weight, help people save money, even save time and motor fuel. Its not that hard to cycle up a couple of hills, and its not that hard to cycle a few miles (I do a minimum of 12 a day, sometimes up to 20). Cycling can help communities with parking issues (eg look at any street with a series of families having a BBQ this weekend and how many extra parked cars arrive) and with traffic noise.

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Letter to the Daily Echo.

In reply to J Josey, North Baddesley - as far as I can see (and I've just searched on the council's website for this) Castle Lane is NOT a cycle path.

Perhaps the letter writer has made an assumption based on the poor provision they saw at Botley Road?

I do sometimes wear lycra, and yes there are massive problems with using off-road facilities. In fact in the cycling clubs and on-line they're referred to as "farcilities!"

Issues I find are pedestrians who stray into the segregated cycle section (today is an example where I had to stop 3 times, ringing a bell does nothing).

3 times this year alone I've had my tyres slashed to flat due to some sad soul who keeps smashing bottles on the off-road bits. I also suffered damage to the headset of one of my bikes due to the very poor surfacing on the Millbrook route. I'm out of pocket by well over £100 because of that!

Then there is signage - there no consistency - no continuation. Its off-on-off-on-off road again in places.

Perhaps instead of complaining J Josey and others could actively ask for better - procedures that we know work, and sign the Get Britain Cycling petition:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49196

As it currently stands cyclists are damned if they do or damned if they don't with regards cycle provision - and it should be remembered that they still have a legal right to use the road - there may be sound reason why they've been forced to.

Plans for a new educational style of video in the pipeline

A while back I did some extensive time lapse of traffic. Some of it was during the snow that fell this winter, but some of it was normal, urban traffic in normal road conditions. I always intended on using the footage for something but couldn't get the ideas to sit right. I liked what I did with Southampton Cyclists, and my Economics video, and I didn't want to make a compilation of near misses or "randoms" (some of the motorbike randoms are hysterical!).

It has to be serious, it has to be informative, and if I'm not in the right frame of mind then it wont get done as it should. I also have plans to record some acoustic guitar for soundtrack. I'm tempted by a voiceover, but as I so often say - my voice lacks the silky range of tones of Stephen Fry and co.

I was spurred by a comment someone made on a non-cycling related forum about bike riders. I thought to myself - why not make an infomercial, something simple, short and to the point that can clarify matters as we know them statistically. The first time someone ever said something similar to me it made me think - what WERE the facts? So I sat on the internet and searched through a load of government data - something that is quite easy these days.

The only issue I have now with this video is to get the information I want compiled in one place, go through my video and photography archives and try and assemble it. I just need to shift this lethargy.