Riding my folding bike into work on Thursday I was thrilled to see a council stand on the High Street promoting cycling. A lovely young lady stood behind a table containing a couple of leaflets and three maps. To her side was a bike and behind her the poster you see at the top of this post. It turned out she didn’t really know much about cycling (this was not her department) and apart from entering people who cycle for 10 minutes during the next two weeks into a prize draw, Somerset is not actually doing much else to promote cycling.
So I complemented her on the fact that the people in the poster were dressed normally, but lamented that they and indeed everyone else on every leaflet was wearing a helmet. Well this is where it got interesting, apparently in the original poster they had no helmets, but the council bosses (car drivers?) had insisted the helmets were added. In case you are new to the helmet debate here is a website with all the scientific evidence for and against there use,
http://cyclehelmets.org/index.html
Well I went on to talk about how actually putting in new cycle paths and JOINING UP EXISTING PATHS might be a good way to promote cycling in Taunton. It has worked in Copenhagen. I also noted that the bicycle which was to be the prize in the draw was a men’s bike with narrow tyres, no mudguards and a ‘sports’ riding position, all of which are not good for cycle commuting or attracting women to ride more.
When I got home I checked the Moving Somerset Forward website to see if there was anything else going on I might have missed. The website is… well… rubbish! It has no real information of any consequence and it really doesn’t get down to any detail and help people to become everyday cyclists. It would not be difficult to do a better job and get it right, they have managed to do a pretty good job in London.
The lady in the London poster looks a little more comfortable on a bike than the helmeted nutters in the Somerset one!
So is there any good news? I managed to get three free cycle route maps. It is just a shame that there are no new paths actually being built and there are no plans to join up the existing ones to make them usable… or remove the dangerous ones… or resurface the potholed ones. Somerset is standing still not moving forward.
BSY
Nipper
Postscript: While cycling to work on Friday I was greeted by a large group (six or seven) of ‘never been seen before’ commuters puffing away on racing and mountain bikes. They were wearing those little laminated neck tags that showed them to be council workers on their way to County Hall. They were riding illegally across the pedestrian crossing and then proceeding along the pavements towards their offices. I assume they were breaking the law to avoid the dangerous and copious amount of motor cars on the road. They were like me probably thinking that there should be a cycle path, unfortunately they will probably have forgotten about it in a couple of weeks when they will once again be in their cars. They may even be wondering why the bloke on his little folding bike is riding down the High Street again; there is after all a by-law against that!
After a little bit of discussion (read the comments) about being positive with the nice chap over at Ecovelo, I should perhaps say that there is a website where we can monitor ‘live’ the cycling progress of the Workplace Challange. I do hope it is a success and the sheer weight of numbers of commutors will shame the council into improving the cycle paths in Taunton and elsewhere across Somerset.
Hi Nipper! Lovely to meet you! My Pashley is a Princess Sovereign… I am in awe lol! It is heavy as everyone else had warned me but Manchester is flat, so I am sure I will be ok, plus it rides so wonderfully, it will be a joy to build up my knees rather than a chore.
Interesting post, Manchester is definitely seeing a considerable increase in people cycling for commuting, mostly due to wanting to save money on petrol etc in this financial crisis (one good thing to come out of it?!), but our cycling lane system is very poor indeed. My boyfriend lives on his bikes (!) and cycles everywhere, commutes to work everyday and has been doing so for, well, ever really, and I thank the lucky star that he gets home safely every day, because as cyclist in this busy city we have to contend the road not with cars alone but with double decker buses and their drivers, who think it’s funny to overtake you and then slam on their brakes to stop at a bus stop…
… for this reason we both wear our helmets, but wear our normal clothes and no lycra in sight…
I completely agree with you on the matter of dedicated cycle lanes and yes I wish that we could adopt a copenhagen cycling culture too. Hopefully slowly but surely this will happen too.
Thank you for you comment, it’s lovely to find your blog. Happy Sunday!
Hi Nipper
Thanks for your interesting and amusing blog. Being a fan of cycling, tweed AND ukuleles, I’ve read a number of your posts in the past, but oddly never noticed this one before. I say oddly, because I’m actually responsible for the Moving Forward project at Somerset County Council, so of course felt duty bound to reply to your post!
I’m pleased you noticed the Cycle Challenge information and stand in the town centre. Did you take part?
I thought you might be interested to know that around 680 people did take part in that Challenge, about a third of whom hadn’t been on a bike more than once in the year before the Challenge. Although 10 minutes doesn’t seem like much to ask, and therefore that it won’t have much effect, the purpose of the Challenge was actually to encourage people who never usually cycle just to give it a go. Half the battle is breaking the habit and the conviction that it is difficult/sweaty/impractical.
Since the Challenge ended in July, we’ve gone on to provide personalised support to the people who took part of help them cycle more often. This has included cycle training, route planning, bike maintenance, loan of bicycles and more.
We’ve actually just started a second phase of the Challenge and are continuing to offer cycle training to adults and families for just £5 for up to 6 hours of lessons. I know you feel our website is limited, but if you look on the homepage – http://www.movingsomersetforward.co.uk – you’ll see two big glossy buttons highlighting some of the cycling services we are providing.
I agree it is difficult for us to provide a comprehensive network of cycle paths (although we have developed a plan of exactly that, which is awaiting funding for delivery. Might be a long wait in the current economic climate though.) Instead, we are concentrating on helping people to learn to cycle safely on the roads so that their cycling options are not constrained by there needing to be dedicated facilities.
We believe that until bicycles are seen as a normal part of practical, everyday traffic, cycling will continue to be marginalised and not adopted as widely as it should.
Given your strong feelings on cycling and sustainable travel, I hope you participated in the recent public consultation on the future of pedestrianisation in the town centre, which included the option to open the High Street to cyclists. I hope also that you will contribute to the forthcoming Future Transport Plan consultation (July – Sept) in which the direction of transport development in Somerset for the next 15 years will be decided.
It is all too easy for people to moan about cycling provision (and other aspects) in private, but fail to make the effort to comment when it counts. This leaves us council officers who want to expand and promote cycling opportunities in a difficult position when asked to justify to our Councillors the need/demand for such facilities.
If you’d like to know more about what the Council are doing to promote cycling, please do contact me and I’d be pleased to let you know.
Best wishes
Hannah Fountain
Smarter Choices Team Leader
Somerset County Council