Excellent article on the Guardian website about why all the pro-cycling campaigns thus far have failed to increase cycling numbers any great deal. -
The article is in light of a study looking in detail at why people in four towns/cities around England (don’t) cycle.
A few choice quotes:
A key finding was that the small numbers of people who do try cycling tend to be intimidated by overwhelmingly car-oriented urban layouts.
Even to experienced riders these often resemble "a dangerous obstacle course" […]. "The minority of people who cycle in English cities tend to do so despite, not because of, existing conditions. Some people try cycling, but are quickly put off."
The […] study concludes that even training the young to ride safely achieves little while road conditions remain so unfriendly. The only way to bring in mass cycling, the researchers argue, would be a series of […] measures to reshape towns and cities. Chief among these would be to build well-made, continuous, segregated cycle routes on all major urban roads and encourage people out of cars by restricting traffic speeds and parking.
It [is] vital […] that cycling advocates got behind the idea of segregated lanes: "The cycling world has in the past been divided over the best way of growing cycling. But if we want to achieve high levels of cycling across our cities, this has to change.
"Perhaps above all, and probably most controversially, our research has made it very clear to us that in order to create a mass cycling culture in English cities we need to segregate cycling from motorised traffic along main roads. Combined with a range of other measures, very high quality segregated cycle routes could push English city cycling from its currently marginal status towards a mass phenomenon."
