How (not) to encourage children to cycle
- Thread starter the_killjoy
- Start date
This is so weird, in Aussie where I just spent 33 years, it's illegal to ride on the road in most places, you must ride on the footpath if there is one.
Tony
Tony
Ahh but the pavement _sorry sidewalk they are sooo Americanised there never does. There are much more cycleways there.
Tony
When we have 78% of our population riding bikes for the majority of journeys as they do. Until then the cost is politically impossible.
Even when we do have ideal conditions, they are often hardly used, such is the low proportion of cyclists. Below is an example, serving a population of at least 100,000, it's as empty as this virtually all the time, just an infrequent cyclist in the two "rush" hours:
I think your photograph highlights one of the problems with cycling infrastructure. At present there are some excellent facilities, some good ones, some mediocre ones, many appalling ones, and for the vast majority of roads, none at all. The individual planning a journey has to consider the whole route - and make their decision as to whether to go by bike mostly influenced by the worst part of it.
Take for example a commute I used to do. 90% quiet country roads, 80mph busy, narrow laned, dual carriageway. Most people told me they would never consider doing it because of the 10%.
Now a new cycle path has been built which has removed the need for the 10% and its become 10% quiet roads and 90% cyclepath.
The used of the path by cyclists has exploded, a new cafe has opened on the route, its becoming so busy I think it will need widening in a few years!
We need a comprehensive network, not just a few isolated sections such as the one in your photo.
And as Andy says we also need signposts that tell you where the path goes to, not just that it is a cyclepath.
Take for example a commute I used to do. 90% quiet country roads, 80mph busy, narrow laned, dual carriageway. Most people told me they would never consider doing it because of the 10%.
Now a new cycle path has been built which has removed the need for the 10% and its become 10% quiet roads and 90% cyclepath.
The used of the path by cyclists has exploded, a new cafe has opened on the route, its becoming so busy I think it will need widening in a few years!
We need a comprehensive network, not just a few isolated sections such as the one in your photo.
And as Andy says we also need signposts that tell you where the path goes to, not just that it is a cyclepath.
But the one I illustrated is part of a route that has plenty of good parts. The problem I'm highlighting is the tiny proportion of cyclists among that 100,000 who could be using the route.
As said, the costs of comprehensive nation wide networks is untenable with an under 3% cycling rate. The Dutch have that rate at 78% and they've never dropped below 50% at any time post WW2, so their expenditure was and remains justifiable.
We'd need our cycling rate to be multiplied 5 times to 15% at least for such huge expenditure to be considered or accepted by the public at large. Can you imagine it? Countless billions spent on cycling facilities for 3% of the population while A & E fail to meet targets, the NHS fails to provide, education is being starved of funds and defence is being slashed. There'd be an uproar!
As for signposting and where that route and the like go to, Greater London has a set of 19 excellent cycle route maps free of charge by post or from any library. That makes planning or altering any commute very easy.
The fact is most Britons don't want to cycle, and good facilities fail to change that.
.
Last edited:
Not nearly as easy as it would be if those maps were made available online. Why they're not already online - given that's it's a complete no brainer - remains a mystery to me.
I'm not sure that's true and it would in any case depend on the definition of 'good facilities'. For me I would consider good facilities to be only those on a par with Holland. Given that no such facilities exist in the UK I would argue that we don't yet know whether Britons would choose to cycle if they had good facilities.
Agree 100%. I'd also add that there needs to be other facilities aside from just good quality fully segregated cycle paths e.g. dedicated traffic lights for bikes at junctions, bike 'hubs' with changing facilities and secure cycle storage in town centres, train stations and other frequently visited destinations, cycle racks outside shops and supermarkets, secure cycle storage and changing facilities at places of employment etc.
In Milton Keynes we have probably the best cycle path network anywhere in the UK. I can cycle the entire city and sometimes beyond on traffic free cycle paths. Yesterday for instance I did a fantastic 23 mile ride around parks, canal towpaths, leisure routes and cycle paths without ever once having to ride on a road, and even after 30 years of living here there are many parts of the MK cycle network I have yet to explore. However, cycle usage in MK remains relatively low. That I believe is partly because we have very little traffic congestion making motor transport more attractive than it otherwise would be and the lack of the other aforementioned cycle facilities. For instance I recently visited the Milton Keynes branch of IKEA on my bike and while the seven mile ride from my house on traffic free cycle paths was blissful I was shocked and disappointed - given their so called 'sustainable' credentials - that there were no cycle storage facilities. The IKEA is situated in a huge retail park next to a ginormous Asda store and the recently built MK Dons football stadium. I cycled around the entire retail park - where there must be literally thousands of car parking spaces - and I found not one single cycle parking rack. In the end I had no option but to lock my bike to a metal pole at the back of the IKEA store.
Incidentally I contacted IKEA about this and they said they would raise the issue at their next staff meeting but it hardly inspired confidence. I'd seriously like to know where this bloke parked his bike!
Last edited:
They were a Ken Livingstone initiative when he was the London mayor and that was last two full terms ago when being online wasn't as common as now. The car driving outer Londoners then voted in Boris Johnson who is only interested in self-publicity projects like the London Hire bikes which annoyingly the public call Boris Bikes. They don't remember that the first economy Johnson brought in when elected was to cut £20 millions from the annual cycling budget in London.
I think it's largely true because we missed the boat. The Dutch acted when cycling declined sharply in the 1960s and started bringing in the facilities when cycling was still quite common and most still knew how to cycle. Ours also decined in the 1960s but we did nothing.
It's true now that a huge proportion of those in the UK under 45 years old have never learnt to cycle, since from the early 1980s our safety conscious parents often haven't allowed them to cycle when young. Its my experience that adult car drivers who haven't learnt refuse to even try, so that is a very big problem. So we will have to first get parents reassured enough to start to allow their kids to cycle on the roads so we can grow a whole new generation of cyclists, so widespread cycling remains many years away yet.
You've said yourself that MK's impressive facilities still don't get enough using them for cycling, bearing out what I've said, that facilities alone won't do the trick. Only removing the unnecessary safety fears will do that over time so that a new generation of kids all cycle again and get used to the idea.
.
Last edited:
Is it really the case that a large number of people under age 45 don't know how to ride a bike? If so I'm shocked as I'd always considered learning to ride a bike as one of the things in life that everyone did. A right of passage so to speak. Incidentally - and going back to the topic of the original post - this is where MK's cycle network comes into it's own, the Lycra brigade often favour the grid roads but for kids the redways are a cycling paradise and most kids seem to have bikes. I grew up in MK so perhaps I'm a bit out of touch with cycling trends in other towns and cities,
Cycle usage in MK is a bit of an anomaly. On the one hand we probably have the best cycle network in the UK but on the other we also have very little motor traffic congestion thanks to the grid road system. And car parking up until very recently hasn't been a problem. Also there is a perception, particularly amongst women that the redways can be unsafe as they can at times be a bit lonely and secluded with lots of underpasses etc. So while the city was designed from scratch for cyclists and pedestrains, it's not perfect, and it was also designed from scratch for motor vehicles. In other cities traffic congestion is often a big problem, especially in London, and public transport can be unreliable and expensive. This acts as a motivator to get people out of their cars onto a bike. On a positive note I have over the past couple of years seen a lot more cyclists in MK and where I work in central London.
Cycle usage in MK is a bit of an anomaly. On the one hand we probably have the best cycle network in the UK but on the other we also have very little motor traffic congestion thanks to the grid road system. And car parking up until very recently hasn't been a problem. Also there is a perception, particularly amongst women that the redways can be unsafe as they can at times be a bit lonely and secluded with lots of underpasses etc. So while the city was designed from scratch for cyclists and pedestrains, it's not perfect, and it was also designed from scratch for motor vehicles. In other cities traffic congestion is often a big problem, especially in London, and public transport can be unreliable and expensive. This acts as a motivator to get people out of their cars onto a bike. On a positive note I have over the past couple of years seen a lot more cyclists in MK and where I work in central London.
Last edited:
It certainly is the case in our cities and large towns that parents have long been preventing kids from cycling out of safety fears. Since 86% of our population live in the cities and large towns, the effect has been severe. It's just a part of the way children are being over-protected from every imagined fear. Like so many older people, from 5 years old on I always walked to school unaccompanied, but when I mentioned that in a magazine letter, they got a reply accusing me of lying! The woman penning that reply just couldn't imagine that ever happening which I found astonishing. It's a greatly changed world since about 1980.
In London we have an added problem, all children up to 16 years or 18 if in full time education travel free on public transport. With the comprehensive nature of our public transport, there's little incentive for kids to cycle anyway so they are less inclined to push parents into allowing it.
.
Bit of a Freudian slip there. But a lot of people from outside of the UK think London is Britain, and it isn’t of course. In fact it really is another country.I lived in London for about 8-9 months in the mid '70s. I have been back a couple of times and... well it isn't the same country I lived in. (n.b. my opinion on CCTV cameras). Chin up though, you haven't gone as far downhill as the States