While news in general grinds to a halt in the summer, like the drive chain of a bike from Argos that’s been left in the garden all winter, people can take the opportunity to send out press releases with less exciting developments.
In this world it seems terribly exciting that the Cycle Superhighways have been opened in London. Let’s face it, it’s not all that exciting. They’re glorified bike lanes and, as many other people have pointed out, they are broken in places and not a magic carpet that will transport you smoothly to work without even getting wet. I’ve even heard rumours that you still actually have to pedal your bike along them and that you have to pay attention to traffic and not rely on the blue paint of invincibility.
While they’re not going to change the world, and they’re perhaps more of a publicity stunt than a really practical solution to the dangers of riding a bike into London they do actually mean that cycling gets noticed in the press.
For once there is a highly visible cycling presence on the roads concerned, especially with the new signposts and corporate imagery. Let’s face it, if something at least gets drivers to think about the fact that there are cyclists around then that’s a good thing (although clearly we need to avoid a feeling that cyclists should only be on the blue bits and have no right to be anywhere else).
So the FMFT view of the superhighways? They’re a nice image of cycling being more accepted in London, even if they don’t actually make it any safer.
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