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r than average machines specifically adapted to their needs people travelling as a group who ve every right to travel as sociably as people within a car i think people advocate for cycling because they recognise its capacity to improve the world in a strong qualitative way i agree and i think that we shouldn t sell either ourselves or cycling short all this is perhaps less a criticism of the book than a critique of what cycling might become if left purely to the work of books such as this this book is important but it s not enough it can form only part of a broader struggle city cycling should push city cycling and is to be very highly commended for that but it raises more questions than it answers for future cycling research this is no bad thing cycling research much like cycling advocacy is part of the cycling system we need to establish and maintain in order to first make and then keep cycling normal tags activism bicycle system city cycling cycling john pucher ralph buehler posted in cycling promotion cycling thinking 2 comments cycling advocacy and the global future november 8 2013 there is no global cycling policy and globally cycling s future will emerge from multiple and intersecting trends including responses to big planetary challenges such as climate change the end of cheap oil and the growth in diseases induced by sedentary lifestyles patterns of car ownership and use especially across the world s fastest growing economies changes in cycling s profile particularly in globally iconic cities and the possibilities of new technologies including e bikes and public bike schemes to re define current meanings and practices of mobility but cycling s future and so also the globe s will be importantly shaped by its advocates views of what cycling is for why advocate cycling simply so it becomes easier for us as cyclists to move about by bike or is there a bigger vision of what everyone s lives relationships places and world should be and feel like i think the latter the bicycle is both symbolic of and a pragmatic path to another way of life and this is why so many of us believe in cycling and want to make it bigger the bicycle isn t yet the iconic vehicle to and of a brighter world but it could and should be there s an empty space in the global imagination awaiting it to fill though the idea of the bicycle achieving globally iconic status might seem ridiculous a hundred years ago the same might have been said about the car and the bicycle s deeply loved by people everywhere if we want a different world organised around the bicycle not the car it s our business to make it cycling s global future depends partly on how successfully its advocates build and sell cycling as core to a better world and for that we need bold and powerful visions yet in britain at least no cycling advocacy organisation obviously and proudly struts an alternative global vision the small grassroots activist initiated bicycology perhaps comes closest ctc the national cycling charity endured the time of the car and has understandably found ways of co existing with it though its recent cycletopia initiative seemed a tentative step in a more visionary direction sustrans gives tantalising glimpses of cycling as a route to a better world in its publicity material but doesn t really deliver more a new organisation the cycling embassy of great britain is less constrained more impatient and ambitious but has yet to develop a really compelling and inspiring vision of why transport cycling is worth fighting for and although it s become more common even acceptable to aim not for 2 but 25 of journeys by bike it s still unclear why this absence of big and persuasive stories about why we want more cycling is a problem for two reasons first it means the value of cycling gets colonised by institutional agendas and ambitions institutions embracing cycling is no bad thing but is it generating a bland pragmatic and in the long run counter productive view of cycling is the dominant trope becoming of cycling fitting this world rather than creating a route out towards a better one in projecting the idea that cycling belongs to the same world as today s driving one institutionalised cycling promotion prevents our getting somewhere else cycling s potential sold short and stymied second it s hard to motivate and inspire without a vision as advocates we should help people cycling feel part of something big and transformative a movement changing the world for good then they won t be merely cycling they ll be on a mission and might get more involved but the absence of global and national visions for cycling is felt locally cycle campaigns everywhere struggle against a tide of indifference when they could and should be trail blazing vibrant radical and inspiring visions for their districts at this local level in britain and elsewhere two styles of cycling advocacy tend to co exist often uneasily in one advocates view themselves as cycling s representatives and make suggestions for things that ought to be done usually by others mainly local government for cycling and complain about schemes so many that fail to value cycling here cycling is done to us by those we lobby and to whom we protest however much we love cycling it becomes something given us by others with respect to everyone who engages in such work and i ve done my share such advocacy gets cycling a few crumbs from transport s table and achieves little beyond reproducing itself as marginal it s jaded lacks vision and disempowers both ourselves and others the other style of cycling advocacy is more obviously vision led cycling is not done to us we do cycling although it rarely finds its way into mainstream cycle campaigning this style of advocacy can be found in grassroots projects often workers co ops across the world and it s one to learn adopt and adapt more widely how i m not sure the necessary work is neither obvious nor easy but articulation of a global vision could start in our own backyards and involve two main tasks the priority is to develop and strive to popularise a local vision based around the bicycle we need to open to and convince not just others but also ourselves of a future where cycling is the practical ethical and aesthetic glue joining things together this could entail shifts to advocacy in artistic literary and educational directions to produce locally pertinent and collectively owned stories about cycling s relevance to a fair and sustainable global future the next step is to direct energies into projects making these locally owned visions real like everything the way to proceed is through practice and to try to have fun advocacy can be dreary but it could be exciting and so much more effective it s time to reclaim cycling for a cause more noble than getting people to work on time time for visions inspiring more people to really get cycling by which i mean not just doing cycling but having reasons why reasons dictated not by government policy priorities but real thirst for change cycling advocacy influences cycling s future and so too the globe s so we must be bold and visionary dream and demand too little and we ll get less than cycling deserves how depressing if more cycling doesn t when it so obviously could change the world so let s work for a cycling revolution which is no chimera but real this post is based on a talk i gave on 23rd october 2013 at the agm of dynamo lancaster and district s cycling campaign thanks to dynamo for having me speak and to those who attended for stimulating discussion the art work is by mona caron whilst i m sure not alone she s the only artist i know of who has done work that embodies a clear vision of cycling based futures tags activism cycling cycling advocacy politics posted in cycling promotion cycling thinking 22 comments butter tubs october 9 2013 the climb of butter tubs will be better known once the first stage of next year s tour de france passes over it how hard the riders find it will depend a lot on the wind yesterday damp and blustery with the wind at my back i barely noticed it the gradient never so steep as to force deep effort but at over 500 metres conditions towards the top can be dreadful i ve been brought almost to a standstill by head winds here and felt my bike being blown beneath me by side winds the butter tubs themselves lie just over the pass from wensleydale to swaledale this is limestone country and the tubs are deep potholes set close to the road used legend has it for keeping butter cool from the little market town of hawes in wensleydale you can see the butter tubs road climbing north over the moor disconcertingly the road seems to be clinging to the fellside for dear life out of hawes and across the river ure you wind up past the hamlet of simonstone below you upland rain pummels down through hardraw force england s highest unbroken waterfall there s a short steep section where the biggest crowds including me and my family will gather on the first saturday of next july before the road relaxes its way across higher ground and this is a road not a lane i guess it was chosen partly because it stays so wide as it goes so high coming half way through the stage it s unlikely to make much impact on the race chances are a break hopefully including a brit even a local or two will have formed and the peloton will mind the gap before reeling it back for a bunch sprint to the harrogate finish but what impact might the tour s passing through this part of the world have on cycling more generally i love cycling s continuing high profile i try to keep it in perspective for most people cycling continues to be mainly irrelevant but after a lifetime spent loving something strange i m starting to feel a bit more normal still imagining we re in the midst of a cycling revolution is wishful thinking and for the tour de france to have local impact on everyday life in the yorkshire dales and so contribute to a nascent trend of britain embracing the bicycle requires work revolutions never happen they re made can almost 200 of the world s strongest male cyclists passing over butter tubs help get yorkshire cycling can the spectacle be turned to participation and the participation not just of cycling enthusiasts drawn to yorkshire s hills and dales however good that might be for the tourist economy but also of local people going about their daily business put differently can carbon heavy cycling for le tour is certainly that be converted to carbon neutral cycling because only cycling which replaces rather than adds to carbon based travel will help move us towards sustainability and no matter how many good things bringing le tour here might achieve that s surely what matters most from butter tubs the road drops into swaledale it s steep with some tight corners but remains wide and is surprisingly well surfaced although it ll probably need re doing after another yorkshire winter unless it s particularly wet and windy the tour carnival will hurtle down without a second thought you can t talk about yorkshire cycling without mentioning hills wind and rain cosy in a car you re immune to all three but on a bicycle it s a different story so is cycling here only for the fit and adventurous riding just for fun never for ordinary people doing ordinary stuff will le tour s legacy be more outsiders coming to ride in yorkshire while locals stay stuck fast in their cars hay barns dotted prettily across its floor upper swaledale is gorgeous here i turn left my route takes me to the top of the valley and the cumbrian border on the wild and windswept birkdale common but all the riders and the fuss will turn the other way through muker and reeth before crossing back to wensleydale down at leyburn yorkshire is talking of le tour for people here there s no escape so what to make of it in a place like hawes cars are everywhere and the people you occasionally see on bikes look much like me the car enables life here to continue to be lived as it s come if only in quite recent times to be lived everyday life without a car has quickly become unthinkable is then re thinking the bicycle as able to do some of the work which the car currently does in places such as this too big a challenge if so would that be a failure of cycling or of our imaginations yorkshire s landscapes and people will next year add colour and character to the world s biggest bike race but how will the race leave yorkshire essentially unchanged beyond a momentary tourist boom and a contribution to re making the region as a cycling destination or can it leave a longer lasting and more locally relevant legacy developing the region not just as a destination for but also an origin of cycling we re seeing some money to get people living in cities cycling and also visitors to national parks for sure we need new thinking and ideas to help make it happen but we could also now do with some money to help people who actually live and work in places like yorkshire s dales cycle too the 2014 tour won t by itself make much difference but we can make it make a difference so i suggest we find ways to use the tour s yorkshire passing as an impetus to develop a rural cycling which doesn t disappear once the race is gone but survives locally and contributes to sustainability tags cycling hawes tour de france yorkshire dales posted in cycling promotion 13 comments wide open road october 4 2013 there are parts of england never mind britain where it s possible to do a long day s ride almost entirely on a and b roads for those who live elsewhere that s big roads yet rarely see a truck or car though tractors quad bikes and post vans are a bit more common i d been invited to the department for transport s cycle stakeholder forum which took place on monday in london although on paper i m a member of this forum i ve yet to attend a meeting frankly the continuing taking cycling seriously waffle whilst so little s being done to make cycling easy makes me nauseous and whilst i know it s not a particularly rational political strategy and even immature i increasingly want nothing to do with it to be honest i m still not sure whether men and it is mainly men in suits pretending to take cycling seriously is a good thing it s probably an inevitable and necessary stage in the process of making cycling mainstream something i ve long hoped to see but and this is where the nausea comes in i hate seeing cycling instrumentalised reduced and bureaucratised all so it makes sense within worlds which at least for me are antithetical to what cycling is and should be so rather than go to london i promised myself a long ride instead then i d save the 90 train fare and likely spend and end the day energised and elated rather than dejected and deflated some days all i want to do really is sit on the bike and ride spend the day thoughtlessly pedalling on those days i tend to devise a relatively flat route along relatively big roads and i almost always ride an...
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