Cycling in lockdown London
Strange times does not quite cover it. It is paradoxical that while we were living with the terror of full lockdown and the paranoia some of us felt while out gathering supplies in supermarkets, working with others indoors or just entering and leaving our own home, the air was more alpine meadow than factory town. Now that so many seem to be 'over' the virus and lockdown, even prior to the official relaxation of restrictions, traffic is approaching normal levels and for a few weeks the stench of ICE based urban transport will really be apparent. Soon our senses will be once again numbed by the new new normal or social distancing while living in a polluted hellhole.
For a while I did get carried away with the enthusiasm of certain leaders: Andy Burnham, Sidiq Khan about the sunny future of cycling in our cities. Now I'm not so sure. People have cars and like driving them. They don't like doing something they perceive to be difficult, dangerous and a nuisance. For a little while I thought the pandemic would be the radical watershed moment akin to the dutch realisation that cars kill kids in cities and their tranport paradigm shift. The trouble is we are not the dutch, we are not intrinsically progressive. It seems small c conservative is the default setting here. Preserving the golden glow of an idealised past, rather than trying to find inspiration to do things better in the future. Little eagerness for trial and error and progress, where possible at all, is slow.
The Waltham Forest little Amsterdam project met strong nimby opposition initially, now it is hailed as a success. But it seems there is little thirst for progress in London's richest boroughs: Westminster has stalled and blocked the Mayor's efforts to increase cycling and walking provision, some say due to incompatible political outlooks, rather than inability to accommodate the substance of the policies.
I am looking forward to moving out of London and eventually out of Britain, as much as I love much of its culture, sense of humour and healthy scepticism of authority. Simply put, I am tired of being treated like vermin by some drivers and having little recourse in law. Punishment close passes almost every ride I go on with one other person. This can be when the roads are empty and there is plenty of space to pass, or when we unintentionally hold up a car for 3 or 4 seconds as we negotiate a junction. It seems certain Brits are stupid in a very specific way I have not encountered elsewhere in Europe. I'm sure there are many other places where it is more dangerous to cycle in Europe, but this sort of psychopathy I have not seen in the Canary Islands, Netherlands (obviously) or Germany, having covered many 100s of km in each of those.
In the end this article has descended into more of a vent/rant, so I will end here. I have come to the point where I won't ride a bike without a camera record of the journey, as the number of dangerous idiot drivers appears to have grown, even as traffic petered out.
For a while I did get carried away with the enthusiasm of certain leaders: Andy Burnham, Sidiq Khan about the sunny future of cycling in our cities. Now I'm not so sure. People have cars and like driving them. They don't like doing something they perceive to be difficult, dangerous and a nuisance. For a little while I thought the pandemic would be the radical watershed moment akin to the dutch realisation that cars kill kids in cities and their tranport paradigm shift. The trouble is we are not the dutch, we are not intrinsically progressive. It seems small c conservative is the default setting here. Preserving the golden glow of an idealised past, rather than trying to find inspiration to do things better in the future. Little eagerness for trial and error and progress, where possible at all, is slow.
The Waltham Forest little Amsterdam project met strong nimby opposition initially, now it is hailed as a success. But it seems there is little thirst for progress in London's richest boroughs: Westminster has stalled and blocked the Mayor's efforts to increase cycling and walking provision, some say due to incompatible political outlooks, rather than inability to accommodate the substance of the policies.
I am looking forward to moving out of London and eventually out of Britain, as much as I love much of its culture, sense of humour and healthy scepticism of authority. Simply put, I am tired of being treated like vermin by some drivers and having little recourse in law. Punishment close passes almost every ride I go on with one other person. This can be when the roads are empty and there is plenty of space to pass, or when we unintentionally hold up a car for 3 or 4 seconds as we negotiate a junction. It seems certain Brits are stupid in a very specific way I have not encountered elsewhere in Europe. I'm sure there are many other places where it is more dangerous to cycle in Europe, but this sort of psychopathy I have not seen in the Canary Islands, Netherlands (obviously) or Germany, having covered many 100s of km in each of those.
In the end this article has descended into more of a vent/rant, so I will end here. I have come to the point where I won't ride a bike without a camera record of the journey, as the number of dangerous idiot drivers appears to have grown, even as traffic petered out.
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