Government Intervention

For me the ride into work in the morning is a time to relax, to be myself, to be out of the hubbub of life for a bit before I get to the office, and maybe to start to get over a hangover. It’s me-time in the best possible way and means I can push myself as hard as I want, or relax back at my own pace, think and let the worries of life settle in my mind, or clear my head and ride for the thrill of it. I might want to try and stop for a burger at a drive-through if they’ll allow me. It’s a time to be individual without having to worry about timetables and waiting for the next tube or train.

This all conspires to give me mixed feelings about the Cycle Fridays scheme going on in London through the summer. People are meeting at local hotspots and sites, such as the picturesque Finsbury Park and Brixton “outside KFC”, and riding in a conga-line of bikes into central London. It’s interesting to note that the class differences are held up and reflected in the starting places – the Greenwich ride starts from the infinitely more middle-class sounding Cutty Sark Gardens, and will probably have a lot more people on bikes equipped with Rohloff hubs. While I applaud any attempt to get more people into the wonderful world of cycling I’m not sure this is the right way to show them all that cycling is. They are taking away the freedom and the individuality that riding allows and you can’t have me-time in a snake of riders assaulting the centre of town. If you have to get to the meeting point and wait for the departure time you’re taking away the feeling of going when you want, and where you want, and as fast as you want.

Having said that at least the members of the train are left to make their own way home in the evening, maybe then they can appreciate the true value of that bike-time, as long as they’re not petrified and frozen to the spot like someone thrown into the middle of a pond, but not sure if they remember how to swim.

The other major initiative to get people riding in London is the cycle hire scheme that’s due to be up and running next year. The contractor has been named and the scheme is designed to follow the pattern of cities such as Paris and Montreal with bikes tracked by GPS and made unattractive to steal with parts that aren’t compatible with any other bikes. Let's hope they come up with a dispensing system like this one from Holland.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see if the bikes stay where they’re supposed to and if it becomes an attractive option to get around the centre of the city. I could see it being a fun way to get between pubs and clubs, or home, if you don’t fancy the night bus.

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