As I write, the Paris Olympics are in full swing. Elise Andrews has won the Women's Keirin. The Women's Pursuit Team won silver and Manawatu are claiming Emily Shearman as their own. Our athletes and the cyclists can do no wrong, but that largesse doesn't extend very far. Cycle friendly initiatives such as the Featherston Street Cycleway are still widely condemned? Why?
Well, I image the rationale goes something like this; Paris is far away but Featherston Street is on my regular commute to work and I want to drive unimpeded. We prefer to watch our elite sport sanitised and keep it in its place, which isn't where I might have to compromise how I conduct myself.
The time has come for the people who support active transport, who believe we can not go on using our cars for every type of trip from home, to speak out and challenge the naysayers. If correspondents to the Manawatu Standard are going to claim no one is using the cycleways or the new buses, then we must use those services and we must contradict these voices or their version of events will be taken as a true and correct record.
