London Banter - View Single Post - London bus and Tube fares go up 4.2% from January

[email protected] · November 7th 12, 11:53 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Wed, 7 Nov 2012 12:18:02 -0800 (PST), allantracy
wrote:

I've never stumbled over a Boris-Bike rank on my various recent trips
to London[1], nor of course would I impose a bike on my fellow
travellers on the train to London.

I've nearly stumbled over the odd cyclist though.

The place has gone mad - young eco warriors, cycling everywhere,
convinced they're saving the planet, though clearly not themselves for
a ripe old age.

If they don't end up under a bus the fumes, worthy of any a sixty a
day smoker, will get them first and you just know they're all non-
smokers (why?) as well.

Mad as a box of frogs, the lot of them, and surely absolute proof that
a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Oh come on. Only a tiny proportion of London cyclists fall into the
"young eco warrior" category and I suspect my view of that stereotype
is different to yours. This is just classic Daily Mail "outrage"
terminology to besmirch a group of people that the Mail's readers
don't identity with.

People have moved to cycling because it is a generally convenient way
of getting around, costs very little money and is typically much more
reliable than motoring or using some public transport routes.

I used to cycle commute years before it became popular. I rarely
suffered any sort of mechanical issue, the journey time was
predictable and it obviously did me some good in terms of fitness. I
didn't find traffic too much of an issue to be honest and there were
far fewer bus and cycle lanes back then. The downsides were lack of
changing facilities / showers and the filth from exhaust fumes was
horrible. I think I gave up when I bought a motorcycle!

Many journeys are of an average length that ideally suits using a
bicycle. The issue in the UK is making those journeys safe enough for
the average person to contemplate using two wheels. We are years
behind the Danish, Germans and Dutch but I get a small sense that
people are now wanting to see much better facilities. This partly
comes from British cycling as a sport being attractive to many people
and people struggling to pay for petrol to keep their cars going.

One big question is how to translate the ubiquitous (by UK standards)
cycling in a place like Cambridge across the country.

--
Colin Rosenstiel
Cambridge