{"id":7731,"date":"2017-09-20T16:24:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T15:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7731"},"modified":"2017-09-20T16:24:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T15:24:28","slug":"40-years-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7731","title":{"rendered":"40 years of cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2016-09-14-17-16-48\"<\/a>Our local cycle lobbying group spokes is celebrating 40 years of cycling (or lobbying).\u00a0 2017 being one of these years when there seem to be lots of anniversaries.\u00a0 This is also coincidentally about the same time I have been cycling (a bit longer).\u00a0 How time flies!<\/p>\n

How life has changed.\u00a0 I was not in Edinburgh 40 years ago but in those days there was no cycle lanes and cycling was banned in many places where its now possible.\u00a0 Spokes came out of some Friends of the Earth people who wanted to improve cycling provision in Edinburgh.\u00a0 Many had linked up in the unsuccessful fight against Torness.\u00a0 In those days only a tiny number of people cycled.\u00a0 Those who did were thought to be eccentric at most and according to one Tory councillor at the time dangerous “commies”.\u00a0 He was forced to retract.\u00a0 The whole attitude to cycling is much better and I (rarely) get abuse.\u00a0 My boss says on the West coast abuse and even attacks are common.\u00a0 By the time I arrived in Edinburgh in the 90’s there were cycle lanes (off road) and a growing number of “Sheffield cycle racks”.\u00a0 The number of these has grown exponentially.\u00a0 There were also by that time cycling officers employed by the council to plan and improve cycling provision.<\/p>\n

One of spokes big successes in 40 years of cycling lobbying has been over getting bikes on other forms of transport.\u00a0 This was a right battle when new trains started appearing in the 90’s.\u00a0 At first Scotrail banned bikes!\u00a0 After 4 weeks of sit down protests at Waverley station (which I regret not taking part in), Scotrail caved in.\u00a0 They then said there would be a \u00a33 fee for each journey.\u00a0 This was quite a lot of money in those days.\u00a0 All right for intercity but very bad news for commutes.\u00a0 After further lobbying this was dropped.\u00a0 The same thing happened with the trams.\u00a0 Spokes lobbied at the design stage. Again we were told that its was unsafe etc.\u00a0 It was pointed out European trams carried bikes.\u00a0 My understanding is that you can take a bike on the trams.<\/p>\n

Other things spokes has done over the last 40 years are produce a series of excellent cycle maps and start an annual transport survey on a key route into the city.\u00a0 This suggests that cycling is rising slowly from the low level.\u00a0 This is borne out by my anecdotal experience.\u00a0 We have reached the 3% level where there is always a bike in front of a car.\u00a0 Spokes lobbies in a patient positive manner and its been very successful but key challenges still remain.\u00a0 These are as I see them.<\/p>\n