How strange. Three bits of borderline rationality in the media regarding cycling within a few days of each other. Are we - dare I say it - slowly moving towards a mainstream surge?
Firstly, Peter Walker at The Guardian backs (oddly) Tory leader David Cameron in this bit about the politician cycling without a helmet.
Then Lloyd Alter at Treehugger chimes in, citing Copenhagenize in his rational volte-face.
But the pearl is a brilliant piece by Janice Turner in The Times entitled Cycling Should be Dull, Not an Extreme Sport.
Be sure to read the whole thing, but here's a lovely bit:Because elsewhere cyclists are just that: a random cross-section of humanity. Not a Lycra-clad male vanguard pumped with aggression and self-righteousness. In Europe’s top three cycling nations — Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands — timorous old people cycle, women as often as men, children bike off unaccompanied to school. Cycling is not a moral manifesto or a carbon offset. It does not require DayGlo or £500 alloy wheels or attitude. Cycling is, as it should be, banal. Because it is safe.
The day when the cycling sub-cultures in emerging bicycle nations become 'people who cycle differently than the majority' instead of merely being 'those people who cycle' is moving closer, it seems, judging by the media over the past year or so. Hope is ahead. How far? Dunno. But ahead.Thanks to all the readers who sent in the links.
