The Economic Cycle?

bristol | transport | opinion/analysis Tuesday July 01, 2008 19:58 by Steve Ward - Carfree UK steve.ward at carfree dot org dot uk

Fluorescent Vest? Check. Lycra? Check. Helmet? Check. Knee and shin pads? Check. Smog mask? Check. Shoulder and chest body armour? Check. Right, I'm ready for a nice bike ride to the shops.

Cycling as a 'normal' activity - Bolzano, Italy

Something went wrong, horribly wrong with cycling in this country sometime after the 1950s. If you don't believe me check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyz5d3entBw.
Other European countries, struggling to rebuild their war-torn countries, decided that the unrestrained growth in private car traffic was not compatible with 'civilized' life and so they decided to separate out the vehicles from the cities.
Britain, preferring to follow developments on the other side of the Atlantic more than those on the other side of the channel, decided that the Car was King. If the Luftwaffe spared it, the planners would bring on the wrecking ball; Bristol city centre would finally be erased from the map, with the Broad Mead replaced by Broadmead, the Dutch House replaced with the House of Fraser; and a noose of flyovers, dual carriageways and orbitals would hold the city in their grip. Pedestrians needed to be banished to underground warrens such as St James Barton; on the surface cycles needed to be pushed off the road onto pavements (an act that many people seem willing to participate in) and pedestrians had to push a button merely to cross the street. Bristol duly got its ring-road, much larger than anyone in the 1970s dared to imagine, and while the car was made king, its progress through the remainder of the medieval centre was consequently slowed to the lowest in the country.
Somehow, despite all this awfulness, Bristol expects to spend £23m (http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Transport-Streets...ty.en) on cycling in the next two and a half years - about a forty-fold increase on spending to date. This would match the levels spent in the famous cycling city of Amsterdam.
Having marginalised cycling as an extreme sport akin to snowboarding, and having criminalised cyclists as red light-dodging, pavement-terrorising fanatics somehow cycling is to become mainstream again. How? Can we expect a new cycle 'facility' (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/facility-of-t...x.htm), every month from now until 2011? How much freedom to develop a cycling culture will Bristol get from Britain's 'command and control' government to do what is best to develop a European cycling culture, including challenging the right of Mr Angry to drive his 4x4 into the city centre every day at 40mph? Only time will tell...

A junction in Verona, Italy - no barriers for cyclists or pedestrians