OPINION
e-bikes all the way. Not having to own, store and maintain a cycle, and the availability of e-assist bikes scattered across cities like London, has opened cycling up to far more people.
That’s not to say some of the hire bike cohort won’t buy a bike one day. The difference between them sticking with cycling long enough to do so, or not, is whether they feel safe cycling. I am unusual in that almost nothing would stop me riding my bike: I love it enough, and am stubborn and gung-ho enough to persist almost no matter what. I am in a tiny minority, however, especially among women. For most normal people a scary incident on the road or two, something like a puncture they can’t fix, or indeed the theft of their bike, will send them back to the bus or car – a phenomenon known as churn. Maintaining cycling growth means removing as many of those potential ‘churning points’ (sorry not sorry) as possible. The bike industry has suffered an unparalleled boom-and-bust period since the pandemic, but there are hopes the green shoots are starting to show. Policies across Europe to boost active transport, i.e. walking and cycling, have been described as essential to those shoots’ survival. In the UK, as around the world, we know most people – around two thirds – want to be able to cycle
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PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE DISCOVERED, EN MASSE, THE JOYS OF A FRONT RACK FOR CARRYING STUFF, A JOY DUTCH RIDERS HAVE LONG KNOWN. IN LONDON AT LEAST, THERE’S JUST MORE PEOPLE CYCLING THAN THERE WERE 20 YEARS AGO.
more, and most support investment in safe routes to help them do so. The thing holding them back is an understandable fear of sharing with traffic. With the culture wars largely over at national government level, the rhetoric at both national and local level apparently favours walking and cycling (more weakly since the departure of Louise Haigh as Transport Secretary). The implementation of cycle-friendly policies is too often lacking: councils say cycling and walking come first, but almost none are making that a reality. As friend and colleague, Sam Jones, writing for one of Cycling Weekly’s excellent ‘new-to-riding week’ advice features put it recently, safe routes don’t happen because of the good intentions of local decision-makers, they happen because people and campaigning organisations push for them, for years. That also includes communities and businesses both on a local and national level.
The status quo has a habit of enduring, and it takes a determined and concerted push to change it. That might just mean having the right conversations with those in a position to change something and joining industry advocacy bodies. Sometimes it means not taking no for an answer. We have to try and push at this open door,
to make policy and rhetoric mean something on the ground; if you like a clumsy metaphor, it means rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty in the real world. We’ll struggle to get in out of the rain otherwise.
April 2025 | 35
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