Cycling England - Personality of the Month: April 2008
Martin Whitfield, CycleCity Guides
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I am director of CycleCity Guides, which surveys cycle routes and creates cycle maps. We have worked on everything from tiny A5 leaflets to cycling guides covering the whole of London.
How long have you done that?
We produced our first cycling map (Bristol) in 1996.
Where do you live?
I live in Worthing, on the South Coast.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
It’s relatively flat (unless you go up on the Downs) and the sea is always on one side, making it hard to get lost.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
That you can’t cycle on the wide promenade. It must be one of the few places where a perfectly acceptable marked cycle route has been officially obliterated by black paint.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
The bike is my first choice of travel every day, either on its own or in combination with public transport.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
Trying to ride my first bicycle (aged 7) with huge blocks on the pedals so I could reach them. I never looked back.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
The cyclepath from Newcastle quayside to Tynemouth. The mixture of great views of the river, the shipyards and industry, green open spaces and eventually the North Sea beaches is unbeatable.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
I hope all the maps we produce encourage people to cycle. But I am sure the survey work we did for the first series of cycling maps for Transport for London and the London Cycling Campaign really did contribute to increased numbers cycling in the capital. We are now working for the next generation - putting cycle routes on mobile phones.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Increase the budget of of both Cycling England and Sustrans by at least tenfold - and keep it at that level for at least 10 years.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
A wonderful spring morning at the bottom end of Hyde Park, waiting with many others at the cycle crossing of Hyde Park Corner. It felt like I was in a real cycling city at last.
What was your worst cycling experience?
A wet, dark, freezing cold evening in January on a busy road in Glasgow with a rear wheel puncture on a Brompton. And nine more uphill miles to go.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
The independence and freedom, plus the sense of achievement of getting somewhere under my own steam, even if it is only to the shops and back.
The answers given are the opinion of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of any organisation they may represent.
Click here to see our scheme of the month feature.
Tex Pemberton, West Sussex County Council (March 2008)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I am the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport in West Sussex, an elected Member of West Sussex County Council
How long have you done that?
For more than 7 years.
Where do you live?
In a beautiful country lane in West Sussex.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
The challenge, mostly hills and the lovely countryside of the South Downs.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
First and foremost having returned to cycling, encouraged by my wife, I have been deeply concerned at the volume of traffic on the road and the lack of consideration for the cyclist. Passing is invariably too close and car drivers are too impatient to wait for the right opportunity to pass a cyclist. Secondly, I would perhaps prefer fewer hills in the area in which I cycle!
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
I am a born again cyclist, with a 45 year gap!
What is you earliest cycling memory?
As a young boy living in York I went with my father to a second-hand cycle shop and there picked out my very first cycle. I rode it home with my father riding at my side and ‘holding’ me up so that I would not fall off. I was about 7 at the time. Imagine doing that with today's volume of traffic on the road!
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
I think Florida rates the top, very flat and lots of off-road facilities for cycling in a lovely environment.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Raising the profile of cycling in the West Sussex 10-year Transport Plan (some call it the Local Transport Plan) and giving greater prominence to cycling in the county with a determination to get a modal shift, not just for leisure, but also commuting as an alternative means of transport. I am raising awareness more each year, getting a good response, creating more off-road cycle routes and expanding the cycling network, spending more money, encouraging formed enthusiastic bodies. I have appointed an elected Member as the West Sussex Cycling Champion
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Sorry , not single, there are two that go together: more off-road facilities and linked with that, safe, secure parking for cycles.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
My youth cycling activities in York that I have described above. Those were halcyon days
What was your worst cycling experience?
Haven’t had it yet!!
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Exercise, obviously, and when in country quiet lanes the freedom of movement – even quite fast – but with no noise whatsoever, just the enjoyment of the countryside.
Emma Osborne, Sustrans (February 2008)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I am a Sustrans Bike It Schools Officer in Exeter.
How long have you done that?
Nearly 2 years
Where do you live?
I live in Exeter – I’ve lived here for 9 years and I love it!
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
Firstly, the Cycling Demonstration Town project (and Bike It!) which truly is making the city more cycle friendly and secondly, the fact that you can almost reach out and touch the countryside from pretty much anywhere in Exeter so there’s plenty of motivation to ride out from the city as well as within it.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Intolerant, irate and inconsiderate people – whatever their mode of transport…this issue is really nothing to do with cycling per se (although it is often raised in relation to cycling), but it’s simply a matter of common courtesy that people should be considerate to one another.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Just someone that really enjoys cycling for a whole range of purposes – for transport, for leisure, for sport and so that I can get away with eating just a little bit more cake than I ought to!
What is your earliest cycling memory?
Being given my first bike at the age of 9 – I thought I wouldn’t get one until I was ten because my older brother got his at that age, so I felt really really lucky to have one “a year early”!
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
The section of the NCN between Ilfracombe and Lee Bay in North Devon – it follows a Bridle Path on the coast and the views are absolutely breathtaking!
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
There are so many fabulous teachers and families that contribute to making Bike It a success in the schools I work with, and thanks to our combined efforts, we’ve seen some really great increases in cycling to school in Exeter – some Bike It schools regularly have up to 20% of pupils cycling in now – I’m pretty pleased with that especially compared to the national level of 2%!
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
More Bike It Officers for schools AND in workplaces too.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
What was your worst cycling experience?
The first time I rode up Haldon Hill (a reasonably big hill just outside Exeter) – it was the best and worst experience all at the same time! I really didn’t think I was capable of it and I was so chuffed when I made it to the top! Although it’s a dim and distant memory now, to be able to remember what it is like to find cycling really hard work to the point of it being unpleasant is a great asset in my job.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
I can’t quite put my finger on why, but cycling just makes me feel happy.
Helen Ross, Nottingham Primary Care Trust (January 2008)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
Public Health Development Manager – identifying and addressing environmental causes of ill health.
How long have you done that?
10 years
Where do you live?
A suburb of Nottingham.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
A Sustrans Cycle Route, good bike shops, and a good canal towpath suitable for cycling.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Laziness - because it is easier to get into the car than onto the bike. I have to remind myself of the benefits sometimes – when I do cycle I remember why it is such a good form of transport!
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
I cycle as a commuter mostly – to get to work, to cycle to meetings, do my shopping and to visit friends.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
My dad taught me to ride a bike, and my earliest memory was when I realised that he had let go of the saddle whilst running along beside me and I was cycling on my own!
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Scotland – on one of the Islands. It was amazing to cycle past a herd of Highland Cattle.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
At work we held a Bikers' breakfast which encouraged one of my colleagues to cycle to work. It was a long way for her, but made her realise it was possible. As a result we gained a new Cycling Champion in the organisation.
On a personal level, when we met my partner had not cycled since he was a boy. He now cycles regularly into Nottingham and to the shops.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Local Authorities and health organisations joining up their efforts to encourage people to cycle and establishing cycle training services. Local Authorities need to encourage modal shift, health organisations need to encourage more people to take more daily exercise. The drivers are different, but cycling can help both to reach their targets.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
Leaving university in London to cycle home to Nottingham. London is so busy and fast, it was a great experience to set off on my ladies tourer along minor roads through beautiful villages to reach home. It took 3 days and was wonderful.
What was your worst cycling experience?
Falling off my bike on gravel; I was going downhill and applied my brakes. The bike skidded on the loose gravel. Why do people use gravel on cycling routes and paths?
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Richards' Bicycle Book explains this for me. Cycling is a holistic form of travel – it's good for my health, better than driving for the environment, is a safe and sociable form of transport (I feel safer cycling than walking on dark nights) and saves money. Most of all it's enjoyable especially when you reach the top of a hill, admire the view, and then freewheel down the other side with the wind blowing in your hair!
Andy Salkeld, Leicester City Council (December 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I am Cycling Co-ordinator in the Sustainable Transport Team of Leicester City Council and run the Leicester Bike Film Festival in my spare time.
How long have you done that?
I have worked in Sustainable Transport for 15 years. Initially Traffic Management, then Accident Investigation, Traffic Calming and Safer Routes roles before taking on this job in late 2003.
Where do you live?
Western Park in Leicester. About 15 minutes by bike or 30 minutes on foot, car or bus from the City Centre.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
More people cycling. The last time Leicester last time had a development boom on the current scale was when the Chartists' children threw away their clogs, and suffragette sister hosiery workers donned bloomers and took off by bike to social freedom. It’s happening again.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Punctures, rain and bike thieves.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
A lazy pedestrian and smart car-driver. I cycle every day because it is easier than walking and faster, cheaper and more convenient than a car. Using a bike also helps me stay relatively fit and happy.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
Miriam – an Asian neighbour - taught all the kids on the street to ride a bike in the summer of 1972. I was five. On my first ride I managed four left turns around the block before crashing into a parked caravan. Inspired. I have not looked back since.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Brooklyn Bridge in New York, on hired bikes from the Recycle-a-bicycle’s DUMBO (Down under the Manhattan Bridge) Workshop to get to the Bicycle Film Festival in Manhattan. Crossing the East River is stunning. Believe the hype – it is better by bike.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Supporting Leicester’s Bikes 4 All Project. We now rescue and re-cycle over 1,000 bikes a year, provide bikes for people who need them most, train new mechanics and employ half a dozen people in a cycling social enterprise that works.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Stop the motorway-widening programme and spend the billions on sustainable transport options and people-friendly cities.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
A ten-day camping trip by bike from Santander to Santiago de Compostela via the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain. Exhaustion, sunburn, food poisoning, bears and fleabites from a giant wolf-dog could not diminish how beautiful it all was.
What was your worst cycling experience?
Riding around Sandy Bank near Middlesbrough and making it to the bottom of Laughing Hill on a scrap-bike for the first and last time without breaking my neck, the bike or my confidence - but only just.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
You taste fresh air and freedom on a bike - sometimes with flies, mostly with friends.
Sarah Dewar, Merseyside TravelWise (November 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I work for the Merseyside Local Transport Partnership Co-ordinating the TravelWise campaign to encourage more sustainable travel.
How long have you done that?
8 years
Where do you live?
Sunny Liverpool
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
Riverside paths, big coast skies, taking my bike free on the trains and ferries, greeting early morning people, checking up on the swans, herons and goldfinches in Toxteth’s Princess Park every morning and a traffic free route home from the pub!
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
While I’m lucky enough to be fit and healthy nothing, but a city centre cycle shop would be good!
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Happy
What is you earliest cycling memory?
Getting too close and scratching a scary neighbour's car when I was learning.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Island and ferry hopping round the Outer Hebrides was blissful, but Wales and the Lake District are tough to beat for forest, fell and pub combinations and big freewheeling moments.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Helping to set up my brilliant team so we can join up everything we do as a TravelWise partnership working with schools and companies, and marketing campaigns and setting up our joint Cycle Training Scheme, Merseybike, with Cycling Solutions, now the biggest in the country!
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Peak oil – the end of oil reserves - coming sooner rather than later, so supplies of petrol are scarce and expensive.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
The sun is shining, I’ve just got off the train, with my tent on the back of my bike, the hills to one side and the sea to the other.
What was your worst cycling experience?
An altercation with an HGV in Salford - but it was 12 years ago now.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
It makes me happy.
Hugh McClintock (October 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
In 2006 I retired from Nottingham University where I had been lecturing in town planning for 30 years. However, I am still very active in cycling, nationally, regionally and locally as an occasional lecturer, consultant, professional trainer and campaigner with Pedals (Nottingham Cycling Campaign) since 1979 and with the East Midlands Cycling Forum since 2006.
How long have you done that?
My first active (though incidental) involvement in planning for cycling was in the early 1970s when working through Voluntary Service Overseas in Western Kenya.
Where do you live?
Nottingham, within about 3 miles from where Frank Bowden started his small bicycle factory which eventually went on to become Raleigh and gain Nottingham a reputation as “the home of cycling.”
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
As elsewhere the quality of local cycling provision varies greatly but I personally have been encouraged by the benefits I have got from the many of the facilities introduced since the early 1980s locally by local authorities in the area. I also benefit from having the start of the very enjoyable annual Great Nottinghamshire Bike Ride within 15 minutes ride of my front door step, helping me to ensure that I have taken part in every GNBR since Pedals started the event in 1982.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
My utter failure to prevent the increasing incidence of irresponsible and discourteous riding and driving behaviour by a good number of cyclists and drivers.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Not the slightest bit lycra-clad and indeed much more of a plodder than an aspirant Tour de France yellow jersey winner!
What is you earliest cycling memory?
Managing to ride without stabilisers on the light blue cast-off bike passed on to me by my brother when I was about 6 or 7.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Cycling down the Champs Elysée in Paris during a 4km mass ride to a reception at the marie with 12,000 local cyclists joining the 800 of us participating in the Velo-City Conference in September 2003!
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
No firm evidence of any such achievements but I may had some role in assisting the growth of the very popular Great Nottinghamshire Bike Ride, with its various short and long route options, and also developing the Nottinghamshire Guided rural rides programme.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
No single thing but many including better weather (!), the inevitable much higher oil prices, a much more widespread political and cultural willingness to restrain car use. This should be coupled with much greater official and social recognition of the bike as a serious means of transport, for daily and leisure purposes, instead of the all too common indifference we now encounter.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
About 6 months after the Berlin Wall came down, to have the great privilege on a day’s ride at the end of the Velo-Sekur Conference in Salzburg in May 1990, of riding along the Salzach river valley out of the city into superb and sunny alpine scenery, at its spring best, in the company of some cyclists from former East Germany, who were revelling in the opportunity at last to enjoy at first hand scenery that until then they had only seen in picture books!
What was your worst cycling experience?
At the end of a thoroughly wet day several years ago on a cycling holiday on the Sustrans Celtic Trail in South Wales when my wife and I, arriving at our destination, discovered that our intended B&B hosts had been urgently called away and that there was no-one to let us in and allow us to dive into the hot bath that we desperately craved!
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
The convenience, flexibility and freedom it offers most of the time, especially on a fine sunny day with the wind behind you!
Dr Harry Rutter, South East Public Health Observatory (September 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I’m an NHS consultant in public health working on obesity, physical activity, climate change, sustainability, transport, built environment and inequalities; cycling has an important role in all of these areas. The main work I’m currently involved in is a project with the World Health Organisation to develop tools for economic evaluation of the health benefits of walking and cycling.
How long have you done that?
About 10 years.
Where do you live?
In Oxford.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
All the things that make cycling appealing everywhere – it’s fun, healthy, cheap, quick, and sustainable – along with the opportunity to get away from the traffic and ride along the river to work, ride off road to school with my kids, or head out of my front door and ride into the countryside on my mountain bike.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Traffic, especially the buses.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Happy.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
The day I took my stabilisers off, cycling along an alleyway near where we lived in Cambridge – I can still taste the excitement and the anticipation of freedom.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Off road in Norway last summer, with wonderful, incredibly steep trails up the mountain, cool, clear lakes at the top, and knuckle-whitening descents.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
In the end I think the work on the economics will probably turn out to be most effective, that and aligning cycling with other policy priorities, especially climate change. But right now I’m proudest of my contribution to my kids’ school travel plan.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Increasing cycling requires system-wide changes, so no one thing is likely to be terribly effective on its own. If I was forced to pick just one thing I’d say internalising the externalities of motorised transport and making the true, marginal cost of motoring apparent to drivers every time they drive. That might sound geeky and esoteric, but right now the economic drivers are hugely distorted in favour of driving.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
Other than mountain biking in Norway, taking my Brompton on the Eurostar and cycling off from the Gare du Nord when I got to Paris.
What was your worst cycling experience?
Coming out of a meeting to find my Brompton had been stolen.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Beating the traffic.
Mary Farrar, Cycling Officer, Calderdale (August 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I work in Transportation. I have been mainly involved in building cycling infrastructure, but have established an annual Cycling Festival, which has turned into a weekend event now. This year we are holding our first annual Cycling Criterion supported by British Federation of Cyclists. The town centre will be closed to traffic from noon until 9pm. That a success in itself!
How long have you done that?
3 years in Safer Routes to School and now 3 years in Transportation.
Where do you live?
Sowerby Bridge, halfway between Hebden Bridge and Halifax. It’s very hilly here in the Pennines.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
It has beautiful scenery; the hills are challenging and make the rides more interesting. The National Hill Championships were held here, and the Tour of Britain comes through each year. We have the longest continuous gradient in England! I think all people; especially our kids should have a fitness level to climb these hills. That’s what I tell the head teachers and they never argue with me!
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Traffic.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
A masochist!
What is you earliest cycling memory?
I wanted my first bike for Christmas. It wasn’t under the tree. My mother asked me to get her a glass of water in the kitchen. I went in and a new bike with a sparkling, banana seat was in there. I learned to ride that day.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
I cycled over 1000 km from Roscoff to Toulouse and back on a tandem. The French would put down their shopping and clap as we went passed then buy us a drink in the bar. I think they love cycling and romance and the tandem combined the two.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
In 2001, I got 100 kids to ride their bikes to school every day for a week on a bike train. A week later I went to the town and there were kids on bikes everywhere. That was the best moment of my career.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Doubling the price of petrol.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
Going over the handlebars three times whilst mountain biking, and it didn’t hurt.
What was your worst cycling experience?
When a car pulled in front of me then slammed on its breaks to park, oblivious to me. Scary.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Blasting down hills at 40 mph after a long climb.
Jessica Varnish, GB Cycling Team (July 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
Full time at school, working through GSCE’s. Hoping to stay on for A levels
Where do you live?
Finstall Bromsgrove Worcs.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
I’m very lucky as I have an outdoor velodrome about 5 miles away from my home, also the lanes and countryside around here are great roads to train on.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Traffic at peak times.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Focussed.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
Probably doing “Pee Wee” MTB races when my dad was racing, he used to run behind me to make sure I was OK.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Australia was nice but the roads were very heavy. The velodrome in Ghent was cool.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Well, I recently won Hereford and Worcs Junior Female sports personality against the all the more mainstream sports. This really shows how strong cycling is becoming in the sporting world.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
More indoor tracks, without doubt. It gives a safe coaching environment and is breeding the best riders in the world. Why don’t we have one in the Midlands?
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
Racing for Great Britain last year for the first time was very special as I was actually too young, but was given special permission to compete in Vienna, and did quite well (beating the British record for the flying 200m time trial). Also doing an international sprint event at Revolution series in Manchester on my birthday was great.
What was your worst cycling experience?
I don’t really have one. Racing with the best is always hard and you have to live with your own, and sometimes other peoples, mistakes.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Coming off the banking at full throttle in a flying 200m effort is amazing...
Stephen Holt, Birmingham International Airport (June 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
As part of my job at Birmingham International Airport I try to encourage staff to cycle to work, but I am also a Sustrans Volunteer Ranger, co-ordinate a local community initiative, "Cyclesolihull" to encourage more cycling in the local area, and provide National Standard Cycle Training under the name Purr-fect Pedalling.
How long have you done that?
6 years, 5 years, 2 years and 1 year!
Where do you live?
Solihull in the West Midlands.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
There are still many people in Solihull who ride their bikes for leisure, most of the roads in the area are reasonable for cycling, and it is easy to get out into the (flattish) Warwickshire countryside where there are miles of quiet lanes. The challenge is to get people to ride more as a means of getting from A to B.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Many Solihull residents seem to love very large vehicles which are often driven much to fast – this can be intimidating.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
I see myself as an ordinary person who happens to cycle…and who would like others to discover the many advantages of doing so - I am not very much into special cycling gear or cycling culture.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
I have memories of tearing around the local roads in the sixties on my small bicycle pretending to be Stingray (!) and crashing into a parked car which was very painful.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Being interested in industrial archaeology, I love cycle routes which take you around old industrial areas, rail lines and canals and fortunately the UK is full of such routes! The National Cycle Network route between Runcorn and Warrington particularly sticks in my mind.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Becoming a cycling instructor. Helping people to ride a bike for the first time is particularly satisfying as many of the people I have trained have wanted to do it for years and are very grateful when they discover the fun of cycling.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
A tautology I know, but having more cyclists! - every cyclist on the road is an encouragement to someone else to cycle, so the best thing we can all do is to cycle as much as possible. Lower speeds would also help but more cyclists on the roads would also help reduce traffic speeds.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
After being stuck without transport in a small resort in Minorca for a week, I “escaped” on a hired bike along the coastal path – the feeling of freedom was wonderful!
What was your worst cycling experience?
No major catastrophes but on a four-day tour crossing the Pennines alone, my chain broke and I had no option but to turn round and freewheel back down to the nearest town. The next day I had to find a bike shop (it was Bank Holiday), fix the bike and do two days mileage to regain my schedule - pretty tough!
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Being able to get from A to B reliably and quickly without having to worry about traffic jams and parking, whilst at the same time getting exercise, feeling healthy and that warm glow you get from going places under your own steam!
Colin Langdon, Cycling Solutions (May 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I'm the Managing Director of Cycling Solutions, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that promotes cycling mainly through the provision of Bikeability cycle training.
How long have you done that?
Since we formed in 2002, but it's only really taken off in the last 18 months.
Where do you live?
South Liverpool.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
I'm not too far from the country lanes surrounding the conurbation.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Seeing too many people cycling on the pavement and running traffic lights.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Difficult this one, I'm only really a 'cyclist' when I'm on holiday. The rest of the time I just use a bike to get around.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
Far north of Scotland; I love the landscapes and uncertain weather.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Providing cycle training for 8,000 school children a year across Merseyside.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Whole-hearted cross-government support for cycle training, not just transport departments but health, social services, environment and treasury.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
Leading CTC Cycling Holidays, especially folding bike tours.
What was your worst cycling experience?
My first longish distance solo cycling holiday. I was horribly over optimistic and unprepared.
What is it about using your bike that you like the most?
Door-to-door efficiency, it's quicker for most journeys
Ian Walker, University of Bath (April 2007)
What is your job or other main activity that involves cycling?
I do research on traffic and transport psychology and my main interest is in issues surrounding cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists. I look at factors affecting their safety as well as how and why people choose to travel in these ways.
How long have you done that?
About 5 years now, although my interest in cycling goes back much further.
Where do you live?
Salisbury, Wiltshire.
What most encourages you about cycling where you live?
It’s just a few minutes riding to get out into some wonderful countryside; there are plenty of options for rides and I can choose challenging hilly routes or stick to valleys if I fancy something less taxing.
What most discourages you about cycling where you live?
Too much traffic in the city, especially the young men in chavved-up cars. And the usual lack of effort from local government when it comes to providing good facilities.
How would you describe yourself as a cyclist?
Practical. I do most of my utility riding in a nippy fashion on a Brompton and determinedly avoid any sort of specialist cycling clothing, as it sends the erroneous message to non-riders that cycling is something “special” done by “others”.
What is you earliest cycling memory?
Whizzing down a hill when I was about six or seven. Sadly the hill ended in a T-junction and I went straight across, hit the kerb and went over the handlebars.
Where is the best place you have ever cycled?
The Carpathian mountains in Romania. They are extraordinarily beautiful and untouched, and the remote village communities are extremely hospitable – stop by the side of the road and it’s only a matter of time until someone appears offering watermelon.
What is your greatest achievement, in terms of encouraging more people to cycle?
Perhaps getting the issue of motorist-cyclist interaction into the news, and making people more aware of what’s happening on the road.
What single thing do you think would do most to encourage more cycling in the UK?
Given the clear increase in cycling in London since the congestion charge came into effect, it sadly looks as though it might need to be more enforced discouragement of driving relatively short distances into cities.
And a much more sensible attitude to infrastructure would go a long way to making things better. Every “Cyclists Dismount” sign should be replaced by one saying “We Have Failed”.
What has been your favourite cycling experience?
Cycling from York to the Black Sea in 1999 – I took a month and had a wonderful time doing it.
What was your worst cycling experience?
I’m not sure I have one. I cycled John o’Groats to Land’s End last April. The weather was appalling and I spent the first eight days battling into blizzards, sodden to the bone and sleeping in a frozen bivvy bag.
What is it about using your bike that you l