tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post234979499040363997..comments2023-11-16T10:44:22.206+00:00Comments on The Mind of a Helmet Camera Cyclist: Inspiring or Depressing?magnatomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14920774671676488322noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-46770923964639028382013-11-29T10:26:35.587+00:002013-11-29T10:26:35.587+00:00Fair comments in the blog and DH's note. I ha...Fair comments in the blog and DH's note. I had similar thoughts when I saw this the other day (I think it was on road.cc).<br /><br />My kids cycle to school, and started off being escorted by me. But as suggested, I'm not "normal"... I'll be off to the school in 15 minutes to teach Bikeability Level 2 to P7, and I will have to bottle up a certain amount of despair that the minority who I'd be completely happy to sign off as quite capable of cycling round our (pretty benign) bit of Scotland on their own are by and large those who have the sort of parents who get about by bike themselves. So we have one generation of enthusiasts setting up the next, and while that's better than nothing it's still not very good.<br /><br />Last night I was doing a handout for the cycling class on how to decide when to use "facilities", and how to spot when they're worse than the road. My (Dutch) wife saw what I was at and lamented that she has a similar daily commute to one of our neighbours (who does it by car while Roos goes by bike) and is dumbfounded by the way her journey is apparently not as important, in terms of effort spent on making it fast and convenient.<br /><br />We really have to move on to where the inspiring stuff is that we have lots of children riding to school because it's the obvious way to get there, not where we think it's great that one can do it, in the company of an experienced cyclist.Peter Clinchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02975910923684361920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-7658923255309105012013-11-25T07:28:11.601+00:002013-11-25T07:28:11.601+00:00Anonymous: I dare say some Sustrans people have vi...Anonymous: I dare say some Sustrans people have visited the Netherlands, but whether they've learnt much is another question. We've invited Sustrans to send representatives on our <a href="http://hembrow.eu/studytour" rel="nofollow">Study Tours</a> but they've never taken us up on these offers. I live in hope that they will because from what I can see, Sustrans' ambitions are now a very long way removed from their original ambitions. The video of cycling in Assen was taken on one of our study tours. <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/school%20travel" rel="nofollow">There are lots more where that came from</a>.<br /><br />Well done Ethan, but Magnatom is absolutely right to call Sustrans out about this. This is a view of cycling as a minority activity - surely not what the original intention of Sustrans was supposed to achieve. It's absolutely not what the majority of parents would do.<br /><br />I wrote a blog post about exactly this phenomena two years ago, in response to someone else who made what could have been exactly the same video: <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2011/10/i-cycle-so-you-could-cycle-too.html" rel="nofollow">I cycle so you could cycle too</a>.<br /><br />Repeating the mistakes of the past won't lead to the majority of the British population seeing cycling as part of a normal routing. <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/the%20last%20six%20years" rel="nofollow">That takes actual change, which thus far Britain has proven to be rather incapable of making</a>. This is what Sustrans should be campaigning for - not talking about enthusiastic parents training children one at a time.David Hembrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14543024940730663645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-71867982603845251172013-11-23T12:16:08.381+00:002013-11-23T12:16:08.381+00:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16966055568760322958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-83972021955493868052013-11-23T02:42:44.540+00:002013-11-23T02:42:44.540+00:00Surely cycling organisations have been to Holland,...Surely cycling organisations have been to Holland, or at least have access to Youtube? I simply cannot believe that they don't know a) what real infrastructure looks like and b) how fantastically fabulous it is - so why aren't they calling for it? What's in it for them to keep doing things so badly?<br /><br />If I can find out all about it while sitting in bed eating donuts, then surely national organisations can. They're the ones people like me, and all the children who want to cycle to school are relying on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com