Lance Armstrong says "We have to promote (bike) commuting"

[Herbsman.]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...or-streetcorner-cycle-hire-stands-781025.html

 

[fjydj]

You're so very wrong on a number of levels.

Firstly theres your assumption that a cycling club is all about racing: it isn't.
.... Why don't you say what you think needs to be improved instead of a load of well trodden knee jerk crapola?

crikey! you're missing my point that I probably made badly in that I'm suggesting that there is a divide between recreational cycling (racing/club/mtb/what I ok wrongly termed fancy bikes and lycra) and utility cycling (commuting/work bikes/general transport/what seems to be called cycle culture)... for the purpose of this discussion on bike commuting I thought it was note worthy that Lance Armstrong was specifically promoting bike commuting as a "good thing" and not just selling bikes for recreational use.

As to what needs to be improved is this for the benefits of recreational cycling or for utility cyclist?

I think there is one place that has demonstrated how promoting cycling as an important form of transport over the last 40 years has created a pleasant and successful city where car use has fallen and bike use is enormous. That city is copenhagen... we have a similar if better climate and less dense city suburbs: that is he model that I would like to see our towns and cities adopt and to be honest I am quietly angry about the total failure of the last 11 years of nu labour to address anything like this in their transport plans.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

er great...

cept I don't think I am missing your point - you again make an arbitary distinction between as you call it 'reacreational' and 'utility' cycling - lots of people do both on the same bike. I'm saying theres no such distinction - and constructing and reinforcing one only suits your idea of what cycling is.

As to what needs to be improved is this for the benefits of recreational cycling or for utility cyclist?

I didn't ask you that - I asked you specifically what you thought your local cycling clubs could be doing to help your (distinct) group of non 'fancy bike' cyclist. So far you've not answered.

 

[Balbi]

Was in Paris this week - despite drizzle, I saw literally hundreds of people using the City run bike scheme - good quality, distintive grey bikes with baskets on the front and lights, available to registered users who pick them up at bike stands scattered all over the city and suburbs. You pay a small charge to register (a one off), then get free minutes, and then a smallish hourly charge after you've used them up (the charge deters people from keeping the bikes at home, so keeps the available pool big). They were being used by "ordinary" people in the centre of the city. Seemed to be a success, from talking to locals - they enthused. I think Ken is keen for London.

barca has them and i became more and more convinced of its genius by the sheer number of people using them and the wide demographic of those people

that and underground car parking as opposed to multi storey monsters is brilliant

 

[stavros]

The Paris scheme sounds fantastic, and I can't wait for London to embrace it. I heard it rather wittily refered to as "Le Velorution".

 

[fjydj]

er great...

cept I don't think I am missing your point - you again make an arbitary distinction between as you call it 'reacreational' and 'utility' cycling - lots of people do both on the same bike. I'm saying theres no such distinction - and constructing and reinforcing one only suits your idea of what cycling is.

I didn't ask you that - I asked you specifically what you thought your local cycling clubs could be doing to help your (distinct) group of non 'fancy bike' cyclist. So far you've not answered.

You're right lots of cyclist do both, I know... I can't find any stats on how people use bikes so in my experience more people just commute than commute AND are in bike clubs, if you are in a bike club then vice versa you know more people who do both.

Anyway having stumbled on the lovely copenhagen bike blog I was wanting to try and understand why London cannot be like copenhagen. Whatever cycle advocacy groups like LCC and CTC have done so far on any measure cannot really be said to be a success and in my opinion cycling in London only increased post 2005 firstly as a result of the tube bombs and secondly because the tubes and trains are just too hot smelly and jam packed.

I have no idea what bike clubs should be doing other than gently encourage non cyclists to cycle and try to make cycling something that is considered a safe and normal thing to do. If you're going to schools and doing the cycling proficiency tests then thats really great too.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

I have no idea what bike clubs should be doing other than gently encourage non cyclists to cycle and try to make cycling something that is considered a safe and normal thing to do.

Which is happening (albeit you provide a very woolly definition)...so again why the use of such pejorative terms?

Actually don't bother.