There's loads of articles in my daily read The Guardian about the attempts to make Britain a 'cycling nation' and they usually take the depressingly familiar route of 'no chance' despite quite a few government initiatives aimed at just that. It seems to me that some of us want this 'cycling nation' thing to be presented to us on a plate, with gold plated roads, segregated lanes and those pesky pedestrians kept well away. The reality is that most people don't cycle because they simply don't want to, based on hundreds of different reasons, one of them being the safety angle I'm sure, but my guess is for most, that is just a convenient excuse they can hang their raincoat on as they reach for the car keys or switch the TV on.
I would hazard a guess that if there was a guaranteed safety zone for all cyclists wherever they went take up would go up only a few percentage points, and probably drop down again after a while when the novelty has worn off (or it rains). I'm not saying that safety isn't important, far from it, but we are used to quite a lazy lifestyle nowadays compared with, well... I'm not sure when to compare it with. Let's say before the industrial revolution. i.e. before cars were ubiquitous, before regular work patterns were established, long travel to work was unknown and owning a bike (and using it) was the norm. The basket on the front was quite useful to collect the day's groceries from the local shop (the bread shop with the Hovis was always up a hill), supermarkets were years away and work was always local, even if you had to move to find it.
Mind you, as one of the Lycra clad versions of cycling, I'm not really best placed to talk about this cycling nation lark. I'm not one to bike to the shop (no basket), and I only bike to work twice a week at best (well, it is 40 miles away). Maybe I should try harder. I wonder if Wiggle do a basket for my Trek Madone?
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