Anything But an Accident

Anti-cyclist attitudes amongst a minority of motorists in Darlington are well known.  We have had many reports of aggressive drivers shouting and abusing cyclists on our streets. And I have previously blogged about the reaction to cyclist Norman Fay's death on the Croft Road in 2008.  Most traffic planners, and many politicians, in the UK blindly continue to encourage this kind of "the roads belong to us" attitude amongst motorists. But this shocking video from Porto Alegre in Brazil is in another league.

It shows a motorist deliberately ploughing through a large group of cyclists. The incident took place last week during a Critical Mass Ride there. It has provoked a string of solidarity rides in Latin America, and indictment of the driver for attempted murder. It is not a video for the squeamish.

Critical Mass rides reveal the poverty of current traffic management thinking in countries like our own. Cyclists are expected to share road space with motorised traffic, but when there are enough cyclists on the road we suddenly become "an obstruction".  My own understanding is that "congestion" is the correct term, and that it is an issue at the top of the agenda for traffic planners to do something about - like providing better infrastructure.

And I refuse to label this post "accident"!

You can see more world-wide condemnation of the incident on Beauty and the Bike's Facebook page.

EDIT: Picture from the Buenos Aires solidarity ride:

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Local Transport White Paper - So Farewell Cycling

We better get used to it. There are going to be a lot of goodbyes in the coming weeks and months, as public sector cuts kick in, coupled with the new government's declared end to the love-in - oops, I mean war - on motorists.

Last Thursday came the first cycling farewell in Darlington - the council's Cycle Forum. The Forum gave local people - cyclists or not - the chance to get involved in the local authority's ongoing plans for cycling. This became especially important once our status as one of the first Cycling Demonstration Towns was announced in 2005. The Council explained that they could no longer justify the expense of officers' time at the Forum, especially as attendance by the general public had dropped.

Next to go will be the coordinators of the Cycling Demonstration Towns initiative, Cycling England. Use the link whilst you still can! Sacrificed in the government's so-called bonfire of the quangos, Cycling England had a paltry £60m a year to spend on cycling, or £1 per UK citizen. This compares with about £25 per citizen in the cycling-friendly Netherlands.

But now that funding is set to drop even further, to something like 20p per person. The new government's Local Transport White Paper sets out plans for the demolition of direct national funding for cycling, and its replacement with a competitive pot of money for all sustainable transport - including buses. Meanwhile, cycling funding will be reduced to sustaining Bikeability, the cycle training initiative. Then, the Local Sustainable Transport Fund will have an impressive £560m to spend - but over 5 years, and for all sustainable travel options. An excellent analysis of the Local Transport White Paper can be found here, on the excellent Lo Fidelity Bicycle Club blog.

In the name of "localism", the coalition refuses to take responsibility for a coordinated policy to increase cycling numbers. Meanwhile it announces 24 new road schemes. As Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said, " I am pleased that spending on transport was treated as a priority for the Government in the Spending Review."

With local authority budgets set to be viciously squeezed, the next farewells are likely to be the various cycle-related jobs currently attached to the public sector - whether directly employed, or via organisations like Sustrans.

It's not openly stated, but the lack of any coherent policy to make cycling attractive - like developing the kind of infrastructure enjoyed in countries with high levels of cycling - is the other side of the Bikeability coin. As the Lo Fidelity Bicycle Club blog states: "you can train all the people you like to cycle, and even experience a slight rise in numbers, but if the roads look dangerous, then the numbers will fall again and the expense would have been in vain. There’s a reason cycling is flatlining at between 3-4% and (the Local Transport White Paper) doesn’t address it directly in any way".

British cyclists don't need cycle paths! What they need is good quality training that gives them the guts to get out on these busy roads and tussle with all the new motorised vahicles that are going to enjoy all these new roads! So come on chaps (assuming the continuing exclusion of chapesses)! British cyclists have balls!!

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Learning from Copenhagen (and elsewhere)

More evidence that informed thinking about successful cycling policies is coalescing around the Cycling Campaign's call for a move towards high quality and safe infrastructure on our arterial routes, couple with traffic calming on all residential streets. An interesting exchange of letters between Richard Lewis, a principal town and transport planner at the London Borough of Newham, and Dave Horton from Lancaster University, asks how much we can learn from the "Copenhagen model", a somewhat PR-influenced shorthand for "best European practice" as spelt out lucidly and repeatedly by our friend from Assen, David Hembrow.

Dave Horton visited Copenhagen at the beginning of December as part of a wider piece of research called On Our Own Two Wheels, documenting the experience of riding a bicycle in cities around the world. The exchange of letters followed that visit.

As David Horton concludes:

I think increased provision of specific and segregated cycling infrastructure might be key to getting the velorution rolling. The current and massive problem with otherwise wonderful initiatives such as Bikeability (a UK cycle training scheme, not to be confused with the Danish research project of the same name!) is that, given the existing cycling environment, we’re destined to lose the vast majority of those we train. However well we train them, only the hardy minority will stay on their bikes for long. We have strategically to crack, and then mine, the current dominance of car-based urban automobility, and the establishment of cycling corridors – a la Copenhagen and (in a fashion) London – on key, highly visible arterial routes seems one way of doing so.

This echoes the conclusion of Darlington Cycling Campaign following the completion in our town of the Beauty and the Bike project, which we published a year ago. What is becoming clear is that such policies cannot be delivered at a purely local level, whatever the new government rhetoric about localism. Local cycling policies are dominated by the DfT's and CTC's hierarchy of provision, which ironically puts infrastructure at the bottom of the list in a table of "considerations" for local authorities to follow. Unlike the fate of Cycling England, this particular policy is likely to survive for some time.

Dave Horton concludes his post with notice of a gathering of like minds at The Phoenix Digital Arts Centre in Leicester on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June 2011. Perhaps this will come up with strategies for making national in the UK, cycling policies that clearly are "best practice" elsewhere.

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Vancouver: Preparing a Cycling City

A Cycling Campaign Talk with Bonnie Fenton, former Chair of the City of Vancouver's Bicycle Advisory Committee

When: Friday, 2nd July 2010, 7 pm
Where: Darlington Media Workshop (Arts Centre)

How does Darlington compare with other towns and cities around the world that are starting out, from a low base, to make cycling a popular everyday means of transport? Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada, is a city with a similar transport history to ours. But a new regime is trying to change things. On entering office at the end of 2008, Vancouver's centre-left local government pledged to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020 and cycling is part of that plan. Vancouver currently has a cycling mode share of about 4% and has set a goal of 10% by 2020.

Cycling advocacy was a rather slow slog for many years in Vancouver but the seeds that have been sown seem finally to be bearing fruit. Bonnie will take a look at the development of cycling in Vancouver (and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition) over the past 10-15 years. She will touch on issues like:

* getting started: making friends at city (town) hall
* knowing what you want: with car traffic or separated facilities?
* reaching the non-converted: education and promotion
* the money question: can we afford (not) to do it?
* "the next Paris": public bike sharing
* signs of progress: peer pressure forces and two Vancouver city councillors to take a cycling skills course

Many of these issues are central to Darlington as well, and reflect much of the work of the Cycling Campaign here:

* consulting with the council over infrastructure
* cycling in the Pedestrian Heart
* arguing for good cycling infrastructure on main and busy roads
* the film and book "Beauty and the Bike“ (which has already been screened in Vancouver!)
* our Bike Hire scheme Darlovelo (10 bikes, rising to 30 bikes soon)

Come along and meet Bonnie next Friday evening, July 2nd, at 7pm, and enjoy a rare chance to meet a cycling advocate from across the ocean.

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Karl McCracken Guest Speaker

Leading cycling campaigner, Karl McCracken is the guest speaker at Darlington Cycling Campaign’s forthcoming open lecture event.

The second event of the new DCC season is on Friday 19th March when we welcome Karl McKraken. He has titled his illustrated talk "What's needed to make riding a bike part of the transport rather than the sports & leisure agenda"

This will certainly chime with any cyclist who views their bicycle as a legitimate means of everyday transport and yet wonders to themselves…’Surely, things could be better than this?’?

Karl’s talk will be very much an open forum, with everyone encouraged to ask questions and voice opinions. For more information on the McCracken view of everyday cycling, please visit his website at www.mccracken.me.uk

The talk is being held at Darlington Arts Centre on Friday 19th March, starting from 7.30pm in the Media Workshop, Entry is free and open to all.

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Carlton Reid Talk in Darlington

Carlton Reid, that’s Mr. Cycling to you and I, is the Darlington Cycling Campaign’s first guest speaker of the 2010 season. Carlton possess an unrivalled knowledge of all things cycling and certainly has a thorough understanding of the issues and concerns as well as solutions for the likes of you and I, that is, the every day cyclist, be that for leisure and pleasure or simply getting from one place to another.

The evening promises to be insightful, amusing and fun. Entry is free, alas the beer is not…you could of course bring your own!

Check out Carlton on the following websites…enjoy.

www.bikebiz.com
www.bikeforall.net
http://quickrelease.tv/

Where Darlington Media Workshop (The Arts Centre)
When Friday, 15 January 2010
Time 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Bike and Trains Study Tour, Netherlands

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The All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group visited the Netherlands in April 2009 with officials from British cycling organisations. This excellent video by Newcastle-based Carlton Reid of QuickreleaseTV documents the group's findings.

Carlton Reid will be a guest speaker of Darlington Cycling Campaign this coming autumn.

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The Forgotten Art of Political Rebellion

Darlington's Beauty and the Bike project includes a youth exchange with the German state of Bremen.

On Monday one of the project's researchers will be meeting Dr. Reinhard Loske, Bremen's Senator for the Environment, Europe and Transport, to discuss his work on improving Bremen's already good cycling infrastructure.

He also appears in the following video, advocating speed limits for Germany's motorway network. In fact, he is imposing these speed limits on all the motorways in Bremen State anyway.

In Germany, motorways without speed limits is gospel. Like America's freedom to bear weapons, the vast majority of Germans see fast driving on motorways as sacrosanct. Dr. Loske is not exactly the establishment's favourite politician, limiting their god-given freedom to burn fuel. But he understands when it's necessary to confront national orthodoxy - to rebel. Even when this means taking on the most powerful political lobby in Germany, the car industry.

Our own "national orthodoxy", as far as transport is concerned, also revolves around the car. To deny our citizens their god-given right to drive the kids 500 yards to school, to the shops, or to the local office, is not only too much for our politicians, but "corridors of certainty" are required to make the trip faster, easier, and more direct.

Heaven forbid the idea that we might disrupt this sacred tarmac by taking a square inch of road space away from the car to construct safe cycle paths. The only space available for such fanciful stuff round here seems to be pavements. If there is a definition of the political rebel that we need here in Darlington, it is the politician brave enough to state the obvious - road space, especially on our main roads, needs to be taken from cars.

The local authority have successfully encouraged many Darlingtonians to switch from car to bicycle. But a cursory count on the streets of the town will tell you that, unlike we seasoned cyclists, these beginners are very often seen on our pavements. The main roads are clearly regarded as just too dangerous.

Our "national orthodoxy" reaction to this, of course, is to curse and scream at those wicked cyclists - and we all know how easily this attitude spreads to include all cyclists. But the brave politician, the politician willing to reflect and understand, must rebel against this orthodoxy, defend cyclists, and state the obvious conclusion. These new cyclists need proper infrastructure.

So until the day we hear this on our own transport agenda, lets celebrate the art of political rebellion, German style.



...and by the way, we hope to invite Dr. Loske to Darlington in the future.

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20MPH in Darlington Getting Closer

Darlington Cycling Campaign's policy of a 20mph speed limit for the town is a step closer to becoming reality.

Proposals to bring down speed limits in areas of Britain where there is a higher risk of accidents have been announced by the government.

Reductions from 30mph to 20mph in urban locations and 60mph to 50mph in the countryside are being considered.

Road safety minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the way people learn to drive and are tested is also set for reform.

The plans are part of a new strategy to reduce road deaths in England, Scotland and Wales by one-third by 2020.

Places such as Newcastle, Portsmouth, Oxford and Leicester already use 20mph speed limits in residential areas, and other local councils will be given new guidance to cut speed limits in residential areas and outside schools.

Darlington Borough Council have been introducing 20mph zones in selected residential areas, but have been hampered by a "can't do" mentality amongst local professionals, who for example cite the need for regular signage and speed bumps as a barrier to the wider use of 20mph.

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Create more bike-friendly streets by empowering councils

Councils should be given greater powers to create designated streets that favour cyclists over cars, a national inquiry has concluded.

'Active communities: cycling to a better quality of life' is the report of an inquiry held by the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and Cycling England.

This report has found that transport regulations should be reviewed to give councils greater control over cycling routes to get more people out of their cars and onto their bikes.

Councils would be able to design the street to favour cyclists while also making it accessible for cars and pedestrians.

For every car driver converted to a bike, the UK economy saves around £400 a year through reduced medical bills, congestion and pollution, according to research conducted by Cycling England.

The inquiry report - downloadable as a PDF here - also calls for every public building to be an exemplar to encourage cycling, for example by implementing storage facilities and bike loan schemes.

LGiU Centre for Local Sustainability policy analyst Gemma Roberts said: "Councils should be given greater control over cycling routes to ensure more roads are made cycle friendly. We need to make it easier and safer for people to cycle.

"Local authorities need to take the lead and make cycling a priority in their communities," she said.

"But the efforts to promote cycling do not stop with the council. We also need the professional and political backing to invest more heavily in cycling so we can really tackle some of the wider issues communities face, such as obesity, climate change and congestion."

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20mph Zones - Now Politically Attractive?

Rewind back nearly two years to our call in February 2007 for Darlington to introduce a town wide 20mph zone. At the time we were told the whole idea was "impractical" by our Labour-controlled local authority.

Now Lib Dem run Newcastle upon Tyne are rolling out a programme of 20mph zones that will, over three years, result in a blanket 20mph speed limit for all non-trunk road streets. Given the experience in this Sustainable Travel and Cycling Demo Town of ours, you would imagine the Labour opposition in Newcastle would be crying "impractical"?

Far from it. The Lib Dem council has been criticised by Labour for being too slow off the mark. In fact, the Labour Group called for such a scheme in April 2006. Labour leader Coun Nick Forbes said:

This is exactly what we called for two years ago. The Lib Dems would have saved a lot of time and money by accepting our proposals at the time. I’m delighted they’ve finally seen sense.

Answers on a postcard, please, as to why Sustainable Travel Town status gives us more backward policies than towns and cities without.

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Today Programme on Cycling - A Tory Travel Mode?

This morning's cycling item on Radio Four's Today programme raised the idea that cycling is a natural Tory past-time. No doubt prompted by the number of Tory MPs who now cycle to work at the House of Commons, correspondent Norman Smith asked Tory MPs what was so "right wing" about cycling.

This intriguing answer emerged from Ed Vasey MP:

The heritage of cycling (is) very much woven into the British character. It's also a right wing issue, because it's about the freedom of the individual. It's about taking one's own action against an over-bearing state.

Setting aside for a minute the vast numbers of Tory councillors we see regularly cycling through Darlington, does this imply that the next Tory government will be challenging the hegemony of the motor car, due to the latter's role as the bastion of our over-bearing state?

Or will this lead to cycle-friendly towns and cities becoming the new bastions of state control, with Tory MPs (and councillors) driving their cars as a statement of individual freedom?

Discuss...

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Inconvenient Truth in Darlington

Over 60 people, including many Borough Councillors, viewed ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore’s Oscar winning film about climate change at the Friends Meeting House in Darlington on Wednesday 5th March. This successful event, organised by Darlington Friends of the Earth, was followed by a discussion with a panel of local councillors representing the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties supported by council officials. Darlington Cycling Campaign was also present.

Councillor Veronica Copeland, the Labour Cabinet Member with responsibility for Environment and Climate Change, told the meeting that every one would learn from watching the film and she would make it her duty to organise showings so every Darlington Borough Councillor can see the ‘The Inconvenient Truth.’

The consensus of the meeting was that on such an important issue, all politicians should pull together to use their influence to pursue policies to improve the environment and halt climate change. Several people present called on local councillors to set an example and lead from the front.

Darlington Friends of the Earth Coordinator, Kendra Ullyart, told the meeting that the group and its members will continue to pressure for change. She said ‘that in addition to our national campaign for a strong climate change law to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050; we will also be concentrating on local issues, and campaigning to get robust recycling policies in place throughout the area’, She then invited the audience to continue their interest in the environment and join the group. The next meeting of Darlington Friends of the Earth will be held on Monday 10th March at 7.30 pm where members will have the opportunity to quiz Ian Thompson, the Borough Council's Assistant Director of Environmental Services, about waste management policy and practice.













How politicians lead from the front - in Germany! Dr. Reinhard Loske, Environment Senator, Bremen.

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Strike Bikes Built Under Workers' Control

135 sacked workers at the Bike Systems GmbH bicycle factory in Nordhausen,Thuringen (in the old GDR) have resumed production of bicycles under workers' control, by occupying the factory since 10th of July 2007.

If you are thinking of buying a new bike in the near future, have a look at their Strike Bikes web site. Click on "english" to get a babelfish-style translation. For 275 euros - under £200 - you get a city bike with a state of the art hub dynamo, three gears, and reverse-pedal braking. The workers are trying to build up 1800 pre-orders by 2nd October to create a viable basis for production under workers' control.

You can email your support to fahrradwerk@gmx.de

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Cycling in Europe - Conclusions

So there it is, cycling in the Netherlands and Germany can be just as variable in quality as in any other country - although the standards by which quality gets judged tend to be much higher than those in the UK.

What really puzzles me is this. Is traffic engineering in the 21st century really a science, or is it just a political football? I ask this honestly of the traffic enginners of Darlington, and of the politicians who rule them.

This trip clearly demonstrated that, when planning for cycling (as, we are told, Darlington, Cycling Demonstration Town, is doing) a raft of traffic measures is at the disposal of traffic engineers to consider, whenever a new scheme is developed. These include - all of which have been clearly illustrated on this blog:

*priority to cyclists at crossings with side roads
*cycle rings around roundabouts
*scrapping of centre lines on narrow roads to enable cycle paths to be created
*20mph zones
*shared space projects
*cycle paths that use both road space and pavement space at different times, depending on space availability
*making car driving in urban areas more difficult, to get people out of their cars
*cycle streets
*one way streets for motor vehicles that are two-way for cyclists

I genuinely ask - do these traffic engineering tools ever get considered in a town like Darlington, or are we victims of car-induced brain death in this department? Would it not be useful to at least have a traffic planning process that required engineers and politicians to explain why they have rejected such solutions, rather than never even having to consider them?

What this variation in cycling provision also suggests is that a grading of cycling provision - independent of country - is both appropriate and possible. The cyclist priority roundabout in Ijmuiden would get 5 stars, the cycle paths on country roads in Friesland only 2 or 3.

Similarly, our (current) right to cycle through Darlington's town centre feels something like a 4 star hotel, with no dangerous vehicles, plenty of space, and only the sudden changes in direction, and ongoing obliviousness, of pedestrians to consider. The ring road, on the other hand, could be classified as the equivalent of a whorehouse, with cyclists the unpaid prostitutes.

Just as houses are now subject to an eco-grading when they are sold (well, at least 4-bedroom houses at the mo), maybe we should introduce the same scheme for roads.

Ah well, back to the joys of the little island.

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Cycling in Europe 4 - Friesland Surprises

You sometimes forget when visiting a country like the Netherlands that it is made up of towns, cities, regions, each with their own unique identities. Crossing the 30 kilometre dyke on the Ijsselmeer reminded us of this fact.

South of the dyke is Holland proper, not to be confused with the rest of the Netherlands (cf with use of "England" for "Great Britain"). North of the dyke is Friesland, a largely rural area famous for its cows.

What immediately struck us as cyclists was the change in traffic treatment. Where previously we were given clear priority of crossing motor traffic - at side turnings, for example - in Friesland the approach is more tentative.



Crossings like the one in the picture ask cyclists to give way to car traffic - and car drivers take the hint by driving faster, and with less awareness of what is going on around them in much the same way as Brits.

The first major town we passed through after the dyke, Bolsward, proved to be typical of the region. Here, the town centre has a 30kph (20mph) speed limit, and little or no separate cycle paths. With cycling as popular here as in the rest of the Netherlands, the streets are loaded with brave cyclists and rather aggressive motorists - though thankfully far fewer than in Darlo.

The layout of Friesland roads became apparent as we continued on to Sneek. Small country roads typically have no central line, but instead are narrowed either side with non-mandatory cycle paths, to both warn motorists that cyclists may be round the next corner, and to give them less of a feeling of the open road. Here is one example.



Is this a chicken and egg problem? Does good behaviour follow clear traffic measures that give cyclists priority, or are such measures not possible where motorists are typically possessive about their road space? Perhaps the clue lies in the politics of the different regions, though little can be gleaned from the electoral arithmetic of the 2006 Dutch general election.

But it does make sense, that if strong political leadership is forthcoming, anti-social driving behaviour can be challenged. And what is clear from this experience is that national patterns of behaviour can and do vary. Darlington pundits take note - stop hiding behind the "we are British, we can't do it" excuse for inaction.

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Cycling in Europe 3 - Ijsselmeer

Pictures without words.

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Cycling in Europe 2 - Joy in Central Holland

Within 300 metres of getting off the ferry in Ijmuiden, we are confronted with a magic roundabout. A cycle ring towards the outer rim gives cyclists priority over vehicle traffic joining and leaving the roundabout. We know this phenomenon from previous visits to Bremen, where we have filmed a roundabout that is designed for motorists to give way to cyclists on entering or leaving. (Have a look at the Things to Come video on our 2007 Cycling Symposium site for an idea of what this means).

This bikezone article gives an overview of the problems with British roundabouts from a cyclists' point of view.

Accident rates at roundabouts are a concern in most industrialised countries. It just seems that some (including the UK) can't imagine a solution that gives such priority to non-motorised traffic. Yet studies consistently suggest that driver awareness and attention is the key to reducing accidents. Even at these cycle ring roundabouts, cyclists are watching out for sleepy car drivers. A clear run through a roundabout for a car driver reduces their propensity to pay close attention to details like cyclists.



We team up with Martin (above), a cyclist from North Shields who is touring Holland for a couple of weeks. Martin has Dutch parents, but sounds Geordie through and through after being brought up on Tyneside. He struggles to enjoy cycling in North Shields, but loves it here in Holland. Martin's choice of cycling on Tyneside is partly economic - he is not burdened by the spiralling costs of car ownership, and has adjusted his lifestyle accordingly.

Then we cross the nearby river on a ferry that separates cars from cyclists/pedestrians, the former paying for the crossing, the latter not. So pricing policy favours sustainable transport there.



When we come across this small railway station in Castricum, we realise the depth of cycling culture in this part of the world - hundreds of bikes used to commute to a station the size of Thornaby.

We say our goodbyes to Martin, who is heading up to the islands. A short train trip from Castricum to Anna Paulowna near the dyke to the north is perhaps less inspiring, and explains why most bikes are left behind. Whilst it is possible to walk on a train with your bike without pre-booking, it costs six euros for a bike "day ticket", however short the journey. And there is little space to store bikes in the designated areas - maybe 2 or 3 bikes at a time in two or three spaces near doorways.

When we tell a passenger we are heading for Germany, they mention in passing how German trains are both better and cheaper. Judgement withheld until later.

After two days of rain, at last the sun comes out as we leave the train. Coupled with a decent breeze on our backs, the long ride to and over the dyke now becomes genuinely exhilarating. Tim decides to burst into song. The joys, the joys.

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Cycling in Europe 1 - Tyneside

Two of the Campaign's members are off to Holland and Germany for a few days to experience first hand day-to-day cycling in nearby European countries. No lycra-clad thousand miles and more style cycling - this is a leisurely journey to Bremen in northern Germany by bike, ferry and train.

The start of this short investigative trip was the 12 miles or so from Newcastle Central Station (a horrendously wet day inhibited cycling direct from Darlo) to the ferry terminal at North Shields. This meant using the riverside cycle route along the north of the river Tyne.

Much of the route followed a very pleasant track bed, presumably an old industrial railway line, frustratingly interrupted by regular crossings of roads. At each of these crossings, the former bridge had been demolished, to be replaced by a long descending run (resulting in a gathering of speed) to the road crossing, followed by various barriers to maintaining that speed - barriers, give way signs, roads with no warnings to motorists to take care, and of course your average uneducated UK urban car driver who blasts his youthful way through such situations with a full throttle in a 30 miles an hour zone. All this followed by the steep climb up the other side.

One aim of our trip is to try to understand why so many of our motorists can be so unhelpful towards cyclists; another is to consider whether the adage that "we can't change them - this is Britain" is really true. This is crucial to us finding ways to make driving behaviour more considerate. We overnight on the ferry to Ijmuiden in Holland to see how - and if - they do it over there.

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There is a quiet revolution afoot, but the Government is not rising to the challenge

Steve Richards thinks that there is a quiet revolution afoot, but the Government is not rising to the challenge

I detect an understated revolution from below, one that is only indirectly connected with decisions taken by elected leaders in this country or anywhere else. The revolution is in its early days. I predict confidently that it will lead to a dramatic decline in car usage and holidays in far-flung places.

Indeed I wonder whether we are seeing the beginning of the end of cars, at least in cities.

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