Struggling temperatures

I'm having increasing trouble listening to weather forecasts on the radio and my mind always seems to slip past the bit where it explains what its likely to be like around here. Give me a simple chart with isobars and frontal systems and let me work it out for myself. But, even when I am listening, I find some of the things that get said so distracting that the rest of the forecast is obscured by an internally generated haze of irritation. I can almost forgive the occasional non meteorologically trained presenter from announcing that tomorrow will be twice as hot as today when they mean its likely to go from 4C to 8C (and not 277K to 554K (281C for those that care)) but I do have trouble when those who should know better talk of what the weather should be like, as opposed to what it might be like, or, for example, of temperatures struggling to get into double figures.

Since when did the weather do what it should? Who decided what it should be doing? The suggestion that the weather was given its instructions and then either compliantly obeyed or was willfully disobedient just doesn't make sense and neither does the idea that a temperature could have such a sense of purpose that it struggles to try and reach some arbitrary target. Yet these metaphors survive even the good scientific sense of the by and large properly trained meteorologists who work for the BBC. So, why the inappropriate metaphors? The ones that suggest that there's a hidden plan, with targets, that the weather may or may not see fit to meet.

Last week's European elections brought mixed results across the continent, but it's clear that there's increasing distrust of the mainstream political parties and of their failure to deliver the prosperity and security that we feel we've been promised. In the UK this took the form of a large vote for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Since UKIP don't seem to have any policies that they're prepared to talk about, other than being against immigration and withdrawing from the EU, I don't think it would be unfair to say that they've ridden a wave of Xenophobia, one that is inclined to find someone to blame for  "things going wrong" rather than do the equivalent of the good meteorologists trick of standing back, looking at the patterns of political, social and economic change (note that I avoid saying "development" because this suggests a pre-determined state that we might be developing towards) and then trying to spot underlying patterns so that we might better understand how things might change in the future. After all, we've never been at this stage of history before and there isn't a way things should be any more than there's a way the weather should be. 

What links the foolish metaphors about the weather with the shallow political perspective of UKIP is the very human tendency to see active agents at work in what might otherwise be seen as essentially chaotic processes. This tendency has been given an explanation by evolutionary psychologists which can be summed up by one simple example. If you're a  vulnerable animal surrounded by hostile predators then there's a survival value in treating the rustle in the bushes as though it was caused by a lion rather than hanging around to find out if it was just a rustle in the bushes. Of course, living in a land of few serious predators, it's much easier for me to avoid jumping to this sort of conclusion and it has been argued that, first of all, this search for agency - even where none exists - is a prime driver of religious belief and, secondly, that as societies become safer the need for religious belief has declined. 

Now, if there is some grand plan, even a great creator, then the idea that things should be some way or other makes sense. Things either conform to the plan, or the great creator's wishes, or they don't. But if we're just an intelligent lifeform that happens to have evolved on this particular planet, carrying with us the baggage of our evolutionary history, then there isn't a plan and the best we can do is try to figure out why things are as they are and, if we don't like the situation we've found ourselves in, try to work out how to change them.

Bicycles on the mind

I'm aware of how many of my posts have got something to do with bicycles. So for those of you who might be interested in some of the earlier posts I've decided to make a list.

The very earliest "Situational or Dispositional" looked at how our sense of social identity influences our attitudes to each other - with particular reference to motorists and cyclists -

"Optical Flow" looked at a particular theory of perception, how it might account for the pleasure we get from movement and how this pleasure has been hijacked by the motor industry at some expense  to ourselves and the wider environment.

In "Time Travel" I recalled the implications of the late great Ivan Illich's simple observation that a transport system exists to save time.

"Sitting on the Job" looks at the role everyday physical activity can play in dealing with the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle.

"Windy Hills" looks at the way in which cyclists develop a visceral relationship with the landscape and why wind is much more annoying than hills.

"Circle to Circle" describes  Le tour à vélo de montagne de Scarborough A simple mountain bike route around Scarborough.

In "Insulation and bicycles" I argue that there are two key technologies that can mitigate the threat of Climate Change.

"Circling the Circle again" revisits "Circle to Circle" at a slightly different time of year.

If you've ever got cross on a bike then "The man with no endorphins" might make you feel better than the motorist you got cross with.

Back last year there was a cluster of cyclist deaths in London. "Boris and people riding bikes" was prompted by my own experiences of cycling in London and by the Mayor's response to these deaths.

In "Ask a pejorative question" I look at some of the social barriers to getting more people on bikes.

There are thoughts on how to get more people to use bikes as everyday transport in "Two wheels good"

"Seamer Road" presents a case study of a particular route in my home town.with the odd photo thrown in.

"Taking the lane" examines the situations where the only safe way to ride a bike is to be assertive. 

If asked what my slogan would be for the "Cinder Track" it's "Smooth enough for buggies and wheelchairs, wide enough to pass"

Finally, there are two posts linked to the recent cycle tour of the Borough of Scarborough. The first "Teasing the Rugby Club" is part of my appeal for an unusual kind of sponsorship and the second "Reclaiming the lanes" is a personal reflection on the event itself.

My favourite ever bike, now deceased, in North Bay

Reclaiming the lanes

A couple of days ago 39 of us cycled back into Scarborough Rugby Club having just completed the inaugural "Ride the BoS", a bike ride that visits every town, village and hamlet in the Borough. Apart from one person who could only make the first two days because he'd also committed himself to riding from Hull to Ypres in memory of those that fell in the Great War, everybody made it to the end. No mean feat considering the 206 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing that the route involved. Two of the riders were/are in their 70's and 6 weeks ago one of hadn't ridden a bike for over 20 years.

The original idea for the ride came from the current Mayor of the Borough. Prompted by his wife, fellow Borough Councillor and Mayoress, they decided that they would take their mayorality on a tour of the Borough, all of it. You might think that all they had to do was plot a route on the map, get on their bikes and go. If it had just been the two of them, then this would have been the case. Instead they decided to invite up to 40 other people to come along as well and this meant risk assessments, arranging overnight accommodation, recruiting suitably trained guides, organising publicity. In short,  they needed a committee.

Now I've been gently campaigning on behalf of cycling for many years. As far as I'm concerned getting more people on bikes not only helps cut congestion and pollution but also improves public health and, in general, encourages us to be more civilised. To quote from H G Wells 

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the future of the human race.

So, when I heard about the proposed event I made sure that I got myself invited along to the meetings and then, when it came to recruiting guides, I immediately offered to help, began to spend even more time cycling up hills, went on a training course with fellow guides and did reconnaissance runs on the trickiest parts of the proposed route. For a few weeks it wasn't quite the only thing I could think of but it was certainly always at the back of my mind.

It turned out that I needn't have worried about the weather - the prospect of 4 soggy days with driving rain stinging your cheeks was not a happy one - which turned out perfect and the team of people that I was given to lead turned out to be just about perfect too. 

The rest of Team 3 on the old packhorse bridge in Glaisdale

Actually, and no disrespect at all to the Baker, Farmer, Plasterer, Farrier and Investment Manager that made up my team, I suspect that almost any combination from the 32 would have worked just as well. We had 6 different teams led by 6 very different characters and yet after an hour or so in the saddle they all became coherent, self supporting units. Some may have done the whooping and yelling "go girl go" sort of encouragement, as opposed to the gentle pat on the back "well done" style of my own, but whatever it took it worked.

Two or three times a day we stopped for tea, cakes and sandwiches at village halls and churches along the route The welcomes we received were as genuine and warm as the folk that gave them. It would be wrong to single out any place in particular, but I'll run the risk by saying that for me the highlight was the crab sandwiches in Staithes, where my greed no doubt deprived some others of the pleasure, sorry. 

Of course, those of you who've read more than a few of my blog posts will know that I tend to find a political purpose in just about anything that I do. I this case I chose to ride my ordinary everyday bike, the one that I use to go to the shops or head off around town - instead of the fancy carbon fibre framed road bike that I inherited from my late friend John Wilson and that I can't think of as other than John's bike - not just because I'd be making a point about everyday cycling but also, to be honest, because it was the better bike for the job. It might be a bit heavy but it's easier to control while looking over your shoulder on a steep descent and keeping an eye on 5 other helmets and easier to wind up the steepest bits alongside whoever it was might have been needing encouragement or distraction. 

On day 2 (out of 4) we were joined for the 30 mile run from Hackness to Goathland ( Heartbeat country for those with a taste for nostalgic TV programmes set in the 1960's) by the head of Welcome to Yorkshire, and the man responsible for bringing the Tour de France to the County, Gary Verity. He was duly lobbied over a sandwich about the Cinder Track and my day was complete, even though there were 20 miles, and the steep hill out of Egton Bridge, still to go..

Several times during the ride, when I could see all these people having such great fun, claiming the lanes as their own and building a visceral relationship with the landscape, I could feel a tear coming to my eye. Softies ride bikes too..

The bike that stayed at home

Teasing the Rugby Club

Next week I'm acting as one of the guides for the Mayor's cycle tour of the Borough of Scarborough - now given the what feels like slightly macho title of "Ride the BoS - conquer the elements " - and the participants are being encouraged to use the event to raise money for charity.

Those of you who've read more than one or two of my posts, will now rightly be expecting a personal twist in this narrative and will not be disappointed, or dismayed, to find it coming now. Getting sponsored to do something that's clearly fun and brings no obvious wider social benefit simply feels like a way of offsetting an indulgence. Not only will we be absenting ourselves from domestic responsibilities for the four days of the ride itself but we've already been doing this when we've been out training. Not only will we get the personal buzz from completing a physical challenge but we'll get the bragging rights that go with it; in particular those that come from being on the limited edition inaugural ride of what we hope, and I fully expect, will be a well used cycle route for years to come. 

Whilst I couldn't possibly say that raising money for any of the charities involved is anything other than a good thing, I can't help thinking that if it was such a good thing why couldn't you just ask your sponsors for the money anyway. Why link it to the completion of a self indulgent task ? (It probably has something to do with the way people find it easier to identify with another individual rather than the abstraction of a charitable cause, but please allow me the rhetorical indulgence)

Now what's this got to do with the Rugby Club? 

Well,  a few years ago Scarborough Rugby Club relocated itself onto a green field site to the north of the town and adjacent to the Cinder Track. Before they'd even got their plans off the drawing board we, the then Renaissance Walking and Cycling Action Group and the Friends of the Old Railway, suggested that it would be a really good idea to give the site a quality access route off the Cinder Track. Not only would they make it easier for club members, young and old, to get to the Club under their own steam, with all the health and fitness benefits that come from routine everyday physical activity, but they might also reduce demand on their car park.

It's likely that the Club were so preoccupied with the important matters of building buildings and beginning to generate income off them that they didn't really give this issue the attention it deserved. So, instead of a high quality access route what we got was a bumpy ditch.

Narrow bumpy ditch with barbed wire edging

I did speak to the Club about this apparently wasted opportunity but it would be fair to say that I received a frosty response and, without giving a probably unhelpful account of the details, the path remains as inadequate as the day it was put in.

However, the Rugby Club have been extremely helpful in providing the use of its facilities for the organisation of the Tour de Borough and as far as I can tell I'm the only one of the participants in the ride who've used the path to get to the club for any of the many meetings involved - and then only to get an up to date photo - . So. it occurred to me one day that one way in which I might a) deal with my own feelings about sponsorship and b) to be perfectly frank, tease the Rugby Club into doing something about the path, would be to announce that I was seeking sponsorship to raise money for the Rugby Club with the specific purpose of establishing a fund to go towards the cost of making a decent cycle-able entrance to the Club from the Cinder Track.

Now I fully appreciate that the Club may not wish to accept any funds that I raise in this way so I have decided that if they're unwilling to accept money for this purpose then I will instead devote 3/4 of any money I might be pledged to Sustrans with the remaining 1/4 going to the Mayor's chosen charities.