The Times' Cities Fit for Cycling campaign returns

Posted by Mark Treasure on Monday 5th of November 2012

A year and a day after one of their journalists, Mary Bowers, was devastatingly injured after being run over by a lorry, The Times' Cities Fit for Cycling campaign returns with a vengeance.

A bold editorial observes that, while behaviour change is important,

the stated aim of this campaign has never been to change drivers or cyclists. Rather, it has been to change the cities in which they cycle and drive. It can be done. In Copenhagen, where 90 per cent of people own a bicycle and over a third of them ride weekly, the introduction of separated cycle lanes has seen fatalities plummet. It is not enough to daub a few roads with streaks of blue. The change must be structural and geographical.

This central message - about adapting towns and cities so that cycling is a safe, pleasant and convenient alternative for all - is carried through the paper's coverage, particularly in a piece on how Copenhagen achieved a genuine cycling revolution, and a touching article from Kaya Burgess about his friend Mary Bowers, which argues

In an age of increasing casualty rates, spiralling petrol prices, declining car use, child obesity and crushing congestion, it is clear that drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike cannot survive on Britain’s car-choked streets as they are. Provisions for cyclists must be part of any new road development. We are still hoping that Mary will make further progress in her recovery. And while we lend her all the support we can on that long road, it behoves us all to make sure that her accident teaches us something important about the cities, towns and villages in which we live.
 

You can join Kaya for a webchat at 12:30pm today, to discuss the future of cycling in the UK, and we urge you to give your opinions about what needs to change on The Times' online survey.

Today also marks the launch of a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into the reasons why people don't cycle. Entitled Get Britain Cycling, it is asking for submissions of written evidence, to be provided by December 5th.

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