Talk to Rotary Club, August 2006

From Pedalpushers

Script for Talk to Sheffield Rotary, 9th August. The script certainly varies from what I actually said. (c) Simon Geller

Q. How many different kinds of cyclist are there?

A. There are many different types of cycling. There are the lean machines who are in training for road racing, tourists, whether just out for the day or on a longer trip, who are happy to be on or off the road as long as they can keep a reasonable speed, Mountain Bikers who are looking for some Rough Stuff to test themselves and their machines (and how much more fun is that than bumping over Stanage in a four-wheeled drive cage?) – or just like to pootle along trails - There are the commuters with their sophisticated folding bikes to take on the train, the tram or the bus, shoppers who might use trailers to carry heavier loads, the Human Powered Vehicle crew who use advanced bike technology to carry even heavier stuff, sometimes assisted with electric motors, electric bikes themselves (great for Sheffield) where the technology is coming along in leaps and bounds, recumbent riders (trikes or bi-cycles, and I have to be careful to talk about cycling rather than bi-cycling, as cycles can have a number of wheels) BMX’ers and stunt bikes. As campaigners we try to ensure that all of these are properly catered for.

Like many kids I was attracted to cycling as a low-cost form of mobility that was accessible to all – although I didn’t think of it that way, I just rode a bike to get around. Suddenly I discovered I could get home from my pal’s house in ten minutes instead of a half hour walk. When I reached 17 the time came for my obligatory driving lessons, but I’m afraid I didn’t get along with it, and having failed the test I put the whole thing on the back burner. I have to say that at the time I was a bit of a hippy (still am actually) and I used to read the “Freak Comics” of the time, of which the ethos was that all you need to do is get a VW camper van and head out on the highway. Being an idealistic young man I thought “that’s not it at all, that’s got nothing to do with “raising consciousness” which was the buzzword of the time. So I stuck with the bike.

Having finally escaped from the London suburbs in 1974, to study in Sheffield, I was struck by the cheap fares policy, and how easy it was to get around. These were the days of the “city on the move” and the Hole in the Road, as so vividly recalled in the Full Monty. The bus fares were so cheap that it was actually cheaper to use the bus than cycle, on a per mile basis, and the hills looked pretty insurmountable anyway, so I refrained from bringing my Sturmey-Archer 3-speed up with me from Hertfordshire. However, once you’re bitten the cycling bug doesn’t go away, so I found myself borrowing bikes, and eventually buying a touring bike that could cope with Sheffield’s hills.

Now in those days, there was no thought that you had to fight for your right to cycle – there wasn’t much traffic around anyway, Sheffield’s rush-hour consisting of a queue of buses. Having said that, I lived in Darnall for a year in a short-life house =, and vividly remember cycling in on Attercliffe Rd having to cope with a wall of trucks. Nowadays, the Lower Don Valley is very well served with cycle routes, with the Five Weirs Walk, the canal towpath, and the Woodbourn Rd route vying for your attention. I particularly recommend going out to take a look at the new section of the 5WW, with the Bailey Bridge, giving you a traffic free route practically all the way from Blonk St to Meadowhall and beyond. When the Northern Inner Relief Road is completed there will be more opportunities to improve this area, and have high hopes of it. We are starting to see the North Don Trail emerge as well, which will eventually provide a stress-free route between the City Centre and Oughtibridge

Another perennial reason to take up cycling in Sheffield, of course is the Peak District. I vividly remember the first time I managed to puff my way up Ringinglow Rd and over to Hathersage. The pheromones kick in on the way down the hill, giving you an instant “natural high” and you’re hooked. They say that if you can cycle in Sheffield you can cycle anywhere, and there’s some truth in that – certainly if you cycle regularly in Sheffield you don’t need to do very much other exercise. Anyway, things changed in the eighties, with Thatcher’s “Car economy” and de-regulation of the buses. Council officers will tell you that cyclists first appeared on their radar once bus fares started to go up. Soon we were all fighting for road space with more cars, buses caught in the traffic jams, and Sheffield’s hard-won clean air starting to worsen again. We started to need bus lanes, cycle routes and other measures to keep cars away from other traffic. With people no longer walking to and from bus stops, health started to become an issue, and obesity and heart disease rates started to rise.

So this was the time when cyclists started to get radical. I spent a year working in London and commuting by bike, and learnt a few tricks that have come in handy since. (London’s cyclists were very effective in clearing out newly built bus lanes by cycling very slowly in front of drivers who tried to use them.)

When I came back to Sheffield and started to raise a family although I still used a bike, along with a bike seat for my young lad, I realised that life without a car was going to get increasingly difficult and et about getting a driving licence. So I do know own a car, and as it happens I also own a camper van, although neither vehicle gets all that much use, and on my street are nearly the only vehicles that stay where they are on a working day.

In Sheffield in the meantime, a group of cyclists had got together to form Pedal Pushers, the Sheffield Cycle Campaign. Increasingly angry with the way cyclists were getting forced off the road, they started to address the council and demand better facilities.

The main body working for cyclists nationally is the Cyclists Touring Club, or CTC, and it has to be said that they were quite slow in recognising that more needed to be done to promote cycling, That was why groups like Pedal Pushers sprang up around the country .The local branches of the CTC, known as District Associations, are great at putting on social rides and other events, but campaigning isn’t really their forte. The link between the CTC and local campaigning groups is therefore the Cycle Campaign Network. The CTC has now raised their game and has very effective campaigning team based in Guildford, working for cycling at a national level. With the Internet and email, the whole face of campaigning has changed, and we often have to respond very quickly to issues that come up.

One of the reasons I got involved in campaigning was the issue of bikes on trains. I was unlucky enough to be coming back from Norwich to Sheffield on the day that HST’s, known then as 125’s were brought in (although they never reached their cruising speed of 125mph on the London to Sheffield line and they still don’t now) This was the “good old days” of the nationalised railway which for those who actually remember them could be quite miserable. Firstly there was a work to rule on the Norwich to Leicester line, which meant myself and the other cyclists had to put labels on our bikes with our names and addresses before the guard would let us on – then the guard had to walk up and down the train at each stop making sure all the doors were shut. Needless to say I missed my connection at Peterborough (in those days there were two trains a day between East Anglia and Sheffield, not the one an hour we have now) and had to continue to Leicester where the brand-new HST’s were arriving with lots of men with gold leaf on their hats on board. Needless to say these trains were far too smart to admit scruffy cyclists, despite having lots of room on board, and having been refused access to two of them I thought sod it, took the wheels off the bike, tied them to the frame with toe-straps, and got on. As you can imagine the top hats coming down the train were not pleased to see this pile of rubber and metal on their brand new train, and sent the guard to tell me off. I was able to give him a piece of my mind and arrived at Sheffield several hours late for work and seething. Another issue at the time was the Settle and Carlisle Railway, a vital link for cyclists to get to the Dales, which was threatened with closure, and I got my first letter from Mrs Thatchers office acknowledging that my views had been noted. Since then I have managed to get my name in Hansard, on a debate on cycle helmets.

So I got involved with campaigning for bikes on trains, and this is something I am still involved with. Although as you can tell I was not a big fan of the nationalised railway (and as a non-car owner I was a bigger user of it than many) we still have problems getting the private operators to carry bikes, and constant vigilance is necessary, despite all the talk of integrated transport and getting people out of their cars that has gone on since. Cycles really are the missing link in public transport – the inconvenience of a getting to the station, the bus stop or the tram stop disappears if you can cycle there, and either leave your bike safely or take it with you.

Just up the road at Dore is an example that’s crying out for some cycle parking, to reduce the number of cars parked on verges belonging to commuters to Manchester and beyond. The cost of providing for cyclists, in terms of on-road lanes and parking is far lower than providing for cars. I have to say we were quite cross when the bus lanes were taken out on Abbeydale Rd without providing any alternatives for cyclists.

This led on to becoming a Right to Ride campaigner, part of a network of local campaigners that was set up by the CTC once it had woken up to the problems that cyclists were facing around the country.

However, this idea of “cycle routes” was quite new to planners, and some of their first attempts to provide for cyclists were frankly, not very good. We have been able to go back and point out the error of their ways, and in general the more modern facilities for cyclists are much improved. Nevertheless, we need to continue to be vigilant and watch out for some of the dafter schemes that come along. Sheffield Station was one of those schemes, where having been to consultations and agreed what was going to happen, we discovered that something totally different was planned. Much letter writing ensued.

Transport is a perennial problem, not just in Sheffield but just about everywhere. We are now starting to appreciate the impact of our activities on the climate, and in the UK transport accounts for about 28% of our carbon emissions. Changing your travel habits is one way that you can do something about it as an individual. Even if you only cycled one day a week, it would be a start. The health benefits of cycling are starting to be understood - I always say that if you want to be convinced of the health benefits, have a look at the obituaries in the CTC magazine - there’s hardly anyone in there who’s died under the age of 95! It is thought that cyclists enjoy the health benefits of someone who is 10 years younger than themselves. Health, heart disease and obesity are increasingly seen as major problems, with the cost to the NHS of inactive life-styles burgeoning.

What about safety? People say “oh it’s far too dangerous”. This is based on a misconception. Cycling itself is not inherently dangerous – it is the actions of others that can put you at risk. Helmets can help, but only at low speeds, and we believe that the wearing of helmets should remain a personal choice. I myself have come off a bike when not wearing a helmet, and as you can see I am still here. You have to look at the bigger picture on these matters, and the jury is still out on the efficacy of helmets. Wearing a hi-vis jacket however is definitely a benefit. Lights are essential at night. A big problem in Sheffield has been the re-introduction of the tram tracks, and knowing how to either cross them safely, or avoid them completely, is a vital skill for a Sheffield cyclist.

If you’re thinking of starting cycling, training is definitely worth doing. We are fortunate to have a team of CTC qualified cycle instructors in Sheffield, and the council are offering free two-hour introductory sessions. Such things as knowing where to position yourself on the road, correct signalling, etc are vital.

It is a great pity that a generation has been lost to cycling due to a lack of training, and it is most likely that these are the people you will see riding on the pavement. We do not condone pavement cycling, and it is generally more dangerous than cycling on the road, but we do not believe it as much of a problem as people sometimes make out. You are actually far more likely to be killed by a car on the pavement than you are a cycle, and what’s more that car is quite likely to be a police car! Sad but true. On the topic of the police however, it’s been great to see cycling policeman around in Sheffield, and they have proved to be highly effective at fighting crime, reaching the parts that cars or police on foot can’t go.

So what do Pedal Pushers do now? We have an membership of around 250 (which I like to think is probably rather more than the Tory party in Sheffield, or quite possibly Labour) We organise a regular Tuesday night ride, have a social in the Rising Sun once a month where members can come along and discuss cycling issues with us, and attend the bi-monthly City Cycle Forum, chaired by councillors. In general, we keep an eye out for ssues that might affect cyclists, provide a resource for people to come for advise, whether on best routes, what bike to buy, what to do in the event of an accident, or anything else we can help with. We attend regular conferences organised by the CTC that help keep us up to date with current thinking on cycle planning, as well as the international “ Velo-City conference”. We take our stall to festivals, sell a few trinkets, and do our best to keep cycling in the public eye as a viable form of transport.

One thing that has been very important in getting cycling accepted has been the attitude of major employers. I’m lucky enough to work for Sheffield University which has a fairly enlightened attitude to cycling. They were one of the first employers in Sheffield to bring in parking charges and use the money raised to pay for cycling facilities, showers, and subsidise public transport for those who feel unable to cycle. Now all employers are being encouraged to introduce Travel Plans that encourage people to cycle work, and it is that change work culture so that cycling is seen as a mainstream activity and not seen as something done by a few nutters that is so important.

Another organisation that has done much to encourage cycling is Sustrans – it stands for “Sustainable Transport” They got the National Cycle Network together on the back of Millennium Lottery Funding, the local section being the Trans-Pennine Trail, covering the 5 weirs walk as I mentioned earlier, and the Derby to York route. Not everything about the NCN is perfect, and we do have problems with some of the sections in Sheffield running alongside the Parkway and through Parsons Cross, as you can imagine, but it has brought cycling to areas that were traditionally starved of facilities and where they were most needed., and provided the means for anyone to set off on their bikes and travel far afield – Manchester, York and Leeds for example are all within a day’s ride. Getting out of Sheffield to the East has always been difficult, and the TPT has made that a lot easier and less stressful.

I’m quite excited about an event that will be taking place on September 17th, ITVs Big Clean Up, where we are encouraging up to 300 young volunteers to help out clear up a section of the River Don/ riverbank/ footpaths and cycle paths just north of the city centre. ITV will feature the project on regional news programmes.

So where are we now with cycling in Sheffield?. We know that the number of cyclists in Sheffield has gone up – the latest cordon count shows 3,427 cyclists a day crossing the ring road, an increase of around 20% on 2004 , which was a bad year. If you think that doesn’t sound like a lot, try to imagine 3,427 cars all in row – it would be something like a line of cars from Park Square to the Motorway. If it does sound like a lot, perhaps it is. Sheffield has quite high levels of cycling compared to some even quite flat cities. Although the hills are seen by some as a disincentive, to others they are an opportunity - you can keep fit just by cycling around. The road to Fox House is packed with cyclists on a Sunday, so plainly not everyone is put off. More could be done to help, with bikes on public transport, and if we’re going to have cable cars, why shouldn’t they carry bikes? We do have an emerging Strategic Cycle Network, an Inner Ring Route that is coming together quite nicely, and traffic calmed areas that are safe for cycling. The Waterways Strategy aims to open up Sheffield’s long-neglected river banks for walking and cycling, and I have a dream of one day being able to cycle from Middlewood to Hunters Bar without once seeing a car, but I guess I’ll have to wait a while for that.

Cycling covers a lot of bases – it’s transport, it’s a sport, it’s a social activity - one of the great things about it is if you see a friend cycling along, you can stop and have a chat, or you can cycle along chatting to each other (and by the way cyclists do have the right to cycle along two abreast, just as drivers have right to drive along two abreast even when there is only one of you in the car) - how much more pleasant is that than driving along in your steel and glass cage, catching sight of a friend and at best being able to give them a wave or a quick word at the lights before the guy behind toots at you to get a move on? As a cyclist you become environmentally sensitised – try cycling alongside a motorway and you’ll see what I mean, the noise is amazing. It addresses the problems we have of air quality and congestion. Then there are the political aspects of how we provide mobility and social inclusion for the poorest members of our societies, or refugees and asylum seekers who come from societies where cycling is the norm – if we are to absorb these new communities sustainably, giving them all cars is not going to be an option. I mentioned health earlier, and people are increasingly concerned about inactivity amongst young people – but kids love cycling, and many would prefer to cycle to school if they could. Progress is being made at schools, with training, cycle parking, & modern bike sheds. Personally I always hated sports at school, but if I had been offered cycling as an option I might well have done it.

So there’s never been a better time to take up cycling in Sheffield, and if you’d like to know more about it I’ll be happy to help. Thank you for listening, and are there any questions?

Simon Geller 9 August 2006