| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Getting Back on Your Bike/Cycle | |
| Posted by: | Raymond Havelock | |
| Date/Time: | 26/12/20 13:03:00 |
| Phillips, I've cycled in this district for all my life and on the road since I was 12. But Ealing Borough is a very hilly place. Its also very leafy and slippery and has every poor road surfaces. It has never been a cycling utopia. Try riding a delivery bike or a trike. Try doing it in the wet or at night. When cars became affordable to the great unwashed, much to the disdain of the ruling classes, they could not wait to ditch their bikes. Getting cold, wet and sweat soaked year in year out. It was liberation from employers and freedom hitherto affordable to the few. I cycle all year round, but there are limitations. My work stuff weighs 12KG minimum. It is too heavy and bulky and fragile to safely carry on a bike. A vehicle is neccessary and my living is completely reliant of being able to anywhere at anytime. That is how it is for a great many. And you have to be fit. But above all you have to be able to ride a bike safely. That means obeying road signs, using the road safely and following safety laws and etiquette. It's simply being brushed over and it this rush to ride bikes it has become dangerous to other cyclists and pedestrians. It's not road traffic. Apart from the odd idiot, mother vehicle drivers are tested and laws enforced, right down to lights and wheels being enclosed to protect other road users . This is all being driven by middle class idealists who clearly don't use much more than laptop computer or purely commute to a fixed work location. Clearly in the belief that physical things only happen by a press of a button on an app and it all happens by magic. and doing very nicely from public coffers by cashing in on the current panic trend. A mentality that has led to this whole country being dependent on services, consultants and administrators and not particularly good at any of it. The rest, which is brushed aside is what actually makes a commercial city and nation actually work. Car ownership in the Greater London area is lower than anywhere else in the UK and has been for quite some years. But we still have ( albeit not currently) overcrowded public transport, very poor road networks and very little local quality employment. People have and will have to travel further to work. Not solvable with a 60 million plus population with 10% of the working age now looking at no work at all? |