Two wheels good

For about the last twenty years I've been gently campaigning to get better facilities for cycling in my home town. Unlike many other parts of Europe only a very small proportion of journeys in the UK are made by bike (of the order of 1%) and, in common with the USA and Australia, cycling is primarily regarded as a recreational activity. Of course there are a few places, like Oxford, Cambridge, York and, increasingly, inner London, where the rates are much higher than this but, in the nature of averages, this just means that things are even worse elsewhere.

Now whilst I've obviously got a lot of opinions about why this should be the case, and get caught up in the odd flurry of research to see if these opinions have any basis in reality,  the key factors can be broadly characterised as personal, social and geographic; though with considerable overlap between the three.

The geographic bit, analysed in detail in lots of American and other studies on auto dependency, relates to the physical structure of our towns and cities. To put it simply, unless housing, places of work and amenities are close enough together there's little chance of getting people out of their cars and onto bicycles. The key metric appears to be an activity density of 35 people (either living or working) per hectare. Less than this and the amount of time spent travelling by car, and the amount of energy use by cars, starts to exponentially increase. 

The social bit, which appears to be the key determining factor in the UK, is how you think other people will think of you if they see you riding a bicycle. Studies of social attitudes in the UK suggest that most people think they'll be seen as poor, unfeasibly athletic or just plain eccentric.

The personal bit links to the simple fact that a good proportion of the adult population is generally unfit and the prospect of getting on a bicycle and making a commitment to pedal it for half an hour is just too much to contemplate. Once upon a time I used to take students out for bike rides on a Wednesday afternoon. We wouldn't go far, about 15 - 20km, but there would inevitably be a few hills. Early in the season there were always one or two students who were surprised to find themselves breathing more heavily going up a hill and had to be reassured that this was a natural response to increased oxygen demand. In short, even as 16 - 19 year olds they were already alienated for their own bodies.

Later today i'll probably set off to the supermarket on my bike, with panniers to carry the load, and if I turn to look out of the window I can see the white roof of the supermarket less than 1km away. However, rather than just go straight there its likely that I'll extend the journey to about 10km and take in the top of Oliver's Mount. 

Oliver's Mount from Scarborough town centre

(from a web site devoted to pictures of transmission towers)

So whilst going to the shops is definitely a utility trip, and therefore slightly unusual in the UK, for most of the time I'll be disguised as someone doing it for recreation.  So not poor, just eccentric.

Looking back through trees on the way to the summit