Fighting back

 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.

Lycra looms large

In an earlier post we examined the issue of how female cyclists dress and the impact that has on whether women will take up cycling. It seems lycra may be a bigger issue than we first imagined. For every person who wants to show off their latest outfit and the value of fluorescent colours in dazzle patterns to improve visibility, there is at least one other citizen who shies away fro cycling gear and cycling as well. a 2010 study by Dr Chris Rissel of the University of Sydney wprking with Michelle Daley of the Sydney South West Area Health Service reveals that how we perceptive cyclists determines whether we take up the sport.

The actions of some people riding bicycles were sometimes seen as negative, and the lycra-clad image of cyclists put some people off because they didn't identify with it or thought it a turn-off.

The study also confirmed what we have noticed that recreational cycling is seen as acceptable by most people. Slightly less acceptable is cycling for sport or exercise, even though this group probably makes up the majority who ride Taupo each November.

At the other extreme , cycling for business, i.e. bicycle couriers, were seen as far less approachable and cycling as a way to commute to work is regarded as bizarre.

Dr Rissel says: "We can use this information to encourage more people to cycle. We need to improve the status of transport cycling,"

You can read a full report here:

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20101410-21429.html

As I see it, the problem is not that we did not know this before. The problem is how we move to confront these attitudes.