Last year I wrote a blog post on this very subject reviewing the casualty figures for the five year period to the end of 2005. At the time, that post was in response to the anti-cyclist rants by an Aussie comic, and the celebrity chef, Jame Martin. I was particularly pleased with the comments that the post received. Although I note that we don’t seem to be anywhere nearer dealing with the speeding traffic on Chester Road.

The anti-cyclist ranting carries on apace, however. Only this week, an American DJ fell foul of no less a cyclist than the legendary Lance Armstrong who tweeted his view on Tony Kornheiser’s ill-considered opinions in no uncertain terms: http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2010/03/18/lance-armstrong-rips-tony-kornheiser/

So it seems that the public and media are still content to ignore the deaths caused by drivers texting, driving too fast and driving tired, and yet if one cyclist causes a pedestrian to be killed then the media jumps on it.  As Joby, my fellow blogger and tweeter who writes everyday about his experiences cycling in to Manchester puts it: “I really don’t want to read the Daily Mail comments on that story…”

When I got home I thought I’d check my email, and top of the list was an email from 10 Downing Street concerning the 3 feet 2 pass e-petition that I’d signed a few months back. Needless to say, the petition was rejected. I thought the irony was quite funny at the time.

And the good things? Since tweeting about my accident, three cyclists have offered to lend me a bike via Twitter. I’m going to take up @jobysp‘s offer of his Specialized with sincere gratitude. I came across Joby a few days ago when I chanced upon a Daily Mail article about his campaign to raise awareness about bad driving against cyclists. Turns out he’s quite local to me (Hyde) and his blog is definitely worth a look.

The second good thing is that when tweeting about the accident I suggested cheekily to @brainPOP_UK that they might like to make a cycle safety video for their brilliant resource bank of videos for schools. They thought it was an excellent idea and have asked for some input from me. If you are involved in education and you haven’t come across BrainPOP, their site is well worth a good look at. There is plenty of free content and free trials as well as the subscription stuff. So maybe I’ll be embedding a road safety video on here at some point in the not too distant future.

Spot the technical problem

My bike, however is looking decidedly worse for wear. My lovely high modulus carbon forks have snapped clean through; the headset is rattling about in the headtube; the front wheel isn’t quite as round as it was, and my shifters are most definitely hors de combat. Hopefully the driver’s insurance won’t have too many quibbles, which considering the police attended the accident and told me that they intend to prosecute, seems unlikely. The complete pain is the few weeks it will take to sort out while I am without bike.

To finish the Shakespearean quote “…Made glorious summer by this son of York;” Well, my summer will only be made glorious by the rapid delivery of a new steed. Watch this space.

For the record, the 5 Labour members of the committee voted to defer the decision until the report had been made public; the 7 Lib Dems and Conservatives voted to accept.

Manchester prefers cyclists to remain indoors

Image by johnthescone under a Creative Commons licence from Flickr

This is a shameful situation, especially when you compare London Transport’s attitude to the carrying of bicycles off-peak on the Tube.

This link is London Transport’s official map showing which lines may carry bicycles off-peak – including lines right into the heart of the city:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tube-map-bicycles1b.pdf

Click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of the map.

I also know that Manchester cycling campaign groups have provided evidence of long lists of European urban light railway systems that allow the carriage of bicycles, all of which appear to have been ignored by the report being presented this evening.

I’ll let you know the outcome.

Update:

And here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/jan/15/manchester-bikes-on-trams

And Manchester is the home of British Cycling. Rubbish.

You can find an actual copy of the report here.

Dear Cllr Wright,

As a long term and committed cyclist who commutes around Gtr Manchester on my bicycle on a regular basis I was heartened by the possibility that Metrolink were considering allowing the carriage of bicycles at off-peak times on the trams. I understand that, this week, the GMPTE have submitted a report on “The Implications of the Carriage of Bicycles on Trams”, with the recommendation that members should endorse the decision to continue with the current policy to ban the carriage of bicycles on the Metrolink network.

I am extremely concerned that having taken 7 years to produce the report it is being rushed through the transport committee this Friday without allowing groups such as the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign any chance to comment. This, despite the fact that the GMCC have regularly provided information and analysis of the carriage of bicycles on light rail systems across Europe and North America, none of which seem to concur with any of the problems highlighted by the report from the GMPTE.

In particular I am concerned that the recommendations in the report are purely based on the views of consultants Mott MacDonald, and there has been no public consultation or consultation with interested user groups.

Furthermore there seems to be remarkably few facts and figures in the report and much of the “evidence” seems to be assertion on the part of the aforementioned consultants and as such may contain misleading or incorrect information which no group or individual has had the opportunity to challenge.

It seems to me to be highly undemocratic and not in the best interests of Manchester voters to allow this report to be adopted without proper consultation. I would therefore urge that the committee postpone the decision to adopt the Mott MacDonald Report until proper public consultation and representation has been allowed.

Yours faithfully,

John Sutton

Committee representatives:

dylan.butt@trafford.gov.uk,
Councillor.Dawson@salford.gov.uk,
cllr.a.fender@manchester.gov.uk,
cllr.d.jones@oldham.gov.uk,
richard.knowles@oldham.gov.uk,
councillor.macdonald@salford.gov.uk,
scottsclp@aol.com,
E.Smethurst@wigan.gov.uk,
cllr.david.white@stockport.gov.uk,
victoria.fletcher@tameside.gov.uk,
cllr.k.whitmore@manchester.gov.uk,
M.Winstanley@wigan.gov.uk,
cllr.craig.wright@stockport.gov.uk,
peter.evans@rochdale.gov.uk,
P.Holland@wigan.gov.uk,
cllr.d.sandiford@manchester.gov.uk,
cllr.v.stevens@manchester.gov.uk,
b.theckston@bury.gov.uk, Councillor.Warner@salford.gov.uk

Image by Ingy the Wingy under a creative commons license from Flickr

I feel a degree of sympathy with Redbikes, after all, buying a decent quality SRAM chain for my bike cost me just over £40 the other week. But, is he right about savings being illusory? Let’s have a look at the figures:

Example:

Cost of owning, taxing, insuring a small diesel car, value £12,000 = £2,353 per annum assuming you are using finance to purchase the car. If you financed for a 3 year period then the total cost to keep such a vehicle legally on the road (without driving it anywhere) would be £7.059

Now add to that the running costs. If I drove for 5,000 miles per annum it would cost me approximately 15.8p per mile, an additional £790 per annum. Thus, the total cost of running such a vehicle over 3 years would be £9,429 or £3,143 per year: the cost of a pretty high spec road bike, the likes of which Lance Armstrong would be happy to ride.

If you owned such a vehicle outright and you intended to drive it to its grave (i.e. not sell it on and ignore the annual depreciation, the cost of running such a car would be £1,349 per year, still quite a decent bike in value.

Source of figures: AA running costs tables

Thus, if I ignore the purchase cost and depreciation, riding a bicycle instead of a car will save you £1350 per year minus the cost of servicing the bike and extra clothing etc, or over £3,000 per year if you’re having to finance the cost of a car.

For most people, though, owning both a car and a bicycle is the most likely situation, and this makes the scenario a little more complex. At the moment, I’m only commuting to work by bike on one day a week (as a consultant I work all over the northwest) and based upon my car’s running costs (medium sized diesel), I’m saving approximately £5.84 per 20 mile commute or, if I include car cost and depreciation etc, £21 per commute ( I own the car outright and will keep it going until scrap). So, if I commute 38 times per year (term times) I will save £222 per year by commuting once a week – coming nowhere near the cost of servicing  and spares for my road bike.

That’s not the whole story, though. How much better do I feel for commuting by bicycle? How much is my health benefiting? And, how much CO2 emmissions am I saving by commuting?

So, owning a bike and a car doing the occasional commute by bike is actually going to cost me more than owning a car alone. There are big savings to be made if you can do as we did and go down from a 2 car family to a one car family, or better still ditching car ownership altogether, but, if you think you’ll save money by commuting by bike on the odd day you’re going to be disappointed. If you can manage a cycle commute on 2 or 3 days a week or more then you’ll probably be saving more than the cost of your bicycle and associated servicing.

I’m really not sure what’s going on in this video, but it’s certainly a new approach to policing. I suppose it’s one way to get those lycra louts onside. Although, if you look at the attire of the cyclists there’s definite evidence for Michael Colville Anderson‘s thesis that cycling in the city should not be seen as a weird technical subculture fixated on the fixie or the trade team outfit. Cycle in what you’re wearing is Michael’s view – and this lot seem to be happy enough despite the fact that none of them seem to be wearing the latest ubercool Rapha technical jacket. Hat tip to Ewan McIntosh for spotting.

My wife’s experience of commuting the few miles to work has generally been very positive. She has lost weight and is much fitter and healthier as a result. There have been one or two negative moments when she has been abused by drivers, once when she was approaching a junction to turn left and got shouted at for cycling too slowly; and once when moving to the right hand lane in order to turn right at some traffic lights – apparently she should have stayed left in the gutter until reaching the lights before attempting to turn. Luckily, this hasn’t put her off.

Clearly such behaviour by drivers, as well as alarming rises in casualties isn’t going to encourage too many folk into abandoning their cars. Recognising this, a group in Manchester known as “Bike Friday” has been set up precisely to provide support to people considering commuting to work. It’s a monthly ride into Manchester from numerous start points around the city and as well as raising the profile of cycling, organisers will try and help new commuters by pairing them up with experienced cyclists. A laudable effort which I’d like to support, but on Friday mornings I’m always on the train to Liverpool to teach at a school in Garston.

Bike Friday can also be found on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=99198337652