Personality of the Month - 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.
