I thought I might write about my daily commute seeing as
how this blog is supposed to be about city cycling and the territory that goes
with it. I don’t have a helmet cam; I don’t want a helmet cam. I do stop and
take pictures on the odd occasion; I’m sure if I were to take pictures of the
state of the roads and cycling “infrastructure” on my route(s) then I would
probably take way longer than the forty minutes it takes me on average to get to
and from work.
Lots and lots of people write about their commute, and I
have to say I don’t think I want to add yet another list of traffic
infringements I spotted or list every bit of crap “infrastructure” – yes I
really ought to stop using those quotation marks now, you probably get the
picture, it’s almost all shit. So what will I write about? How about something nice
and simple such as the sheer joy to be had of not sitting in queues of traffic? Or the frustration of riding a
bike but having to ignore the desire line and take convoluted back roads that
take much longer but at least fill me with some small sense of subjective
safety?
Every morning, whether I’m on a bike or on foot, I pass
or travel along the A77, if I’m on a bike I tend to cut off it after a mere
hundred metres or so and head off either to Victoria Road (the indirect way) or
Pollokshields (the scenic way).
Why?
I see plenty of people on bikes travelling along the A77,
mostly heading towards the city centre, but though I have joined them on occasion
I remain reluctant to do so every day for one simple reason; I feel unsafe in
amongst buses, taxis, white van man, people in cars driving up the left hand
lane at outrageous speed to try and steal a few yards on the patient people,
people texting at the wheel, people talking on mobile phones whilst trying to
operate a ton and a half of machinery with one hand, people who ignore amber
lights then red lights then oh wait the road’s blocked! This is followed by the
incessant blowing of horns in frustration at the idiot who has just impeded
their progress. While all this is going on the bikes quietly slip through, not
weaving in between cars, just straight through. This goes on from one set of
traffic lights to another until the whole sorry mess dissipates around the cut
offs for the motorways near the town centre. It’s a very short distance, only a
couple of miles, but I personally prefer to reach work with my nerves and body
intact, goodness knows it’s bad enough getting through the working day without
the stress of feeling as though I could be knocked into oblivion by any one of
the aforementioned.
Maybe I am the problem, but the few times I have cycled
this route I can honestly say I did not feel safe. And yet…I recently browsed
the excellent View from the Cycle Path blog and found an old page that amazed
me. It wasn’t the excellent Dutch infrastructure per se; it was a page which
showed everyday street scenes in Holland and a comparable UK street. It showed
quite simply how easy it is to make a city fit for cycling, and by extension
make a city fit. Here is the link. Look
familiar? Of course it does, there is a misconception that so-called Dutch
infrastructure could not be built in this country because “we don’t have the
space to do it” or some such other rubbish. It CAN be done, it HAS been done,
it CAN be done again.
How?
Start by putting pressure on our government; let them
know that we are far from happy with the current situation. On Saturday April 26 the third Pedal on Parliament takes place in Edinburgh, sure it’s Edinburgh that offers a
logistical problem; how do I get my bike there? Well if you don’t want to ride
your bike to PoP just take the train and march on parliament instead. Let me
finish with a quote from the Pedal on Parliament news page:
