He bought the web address quickerbybike.com and ordered shorts with it printed on the back. Then as he cycles past the hope is he may convert some of them into cyclists. When I came across this on BikeRadar I thought what a great idea but then when I read through the article I saw the response he has had is very limited.

Whilst I’m all for changing my entire lifestyle depending on things I have seen written on peoples butts I’m hardly surprised that not a lot of people have visited the site.

Yet, I would think that getting from A to B quickly is the main reason someone would convert to cycling. According to a recent survey in Copenhagen where people were asked why they choose to cycle, 56% of people said because its fast and easy.

So with the quickerbybike.com not converting people I came up with some more pure genius ideas.

My first one is for the back of the jersey:

The second one for the back of the shorts:

What would you print on the back to convert motorists?

See also:

• Cycling books
• How to lock your bike

Question 2: Do you think a new bike lane would be a good idea?

Question 3: Are you gay?

Uh? At least that is how I imagine the survey read. This is what residents of Brighton were asked in a survey about a new cycle path along the A23. They were also asked about religious beliefs.

The council has said:

“This type of survey helps us know whether we’re reaching all sections of the community and which people are using our services.”

I can only imagine this is a major blunder by the local council or maybe they are just really nosy. Apparently other relevant questions they were asked on the bike lane survey included: “if you were an animal what animal would you be?” and “what do you think of Danni Minogues new haircut on X-factor?”

I guess at least we can be glad a new cycle path is been considered. Hopefully, those residents not too offended by some of the questions will vote in favour for the new bike lane.

• Dramatic rise in cycling deaths and injuries – Waltham Forest
• Sharp rise in number of cyclists killed on roads – Guardian
• Cycle deaths and serious injuries rise 20 per cent – London Evening Standard
• Cyclist deaths and injuries increase as more people take to the road – Times
• David Prosser: Lazy motorists endangering cyclists – Telegraph Opinion
• More cyclists killed or hurt on the roads – Telegraph
• Number of cyclists killed on the roads soars as credit crunch transport gains popularity – Daily Mail

The story behind this is the Department for Transport has released figures showing a 19% increase in death or serious injury to cyclists from April to June of this year. This is compared to the same period in 2008. Add to that a rise of 7% to minor injuries.

Obviously as you can see from the headlines the finger of blame has been pointed in many directions. The CTC recons it is due to new and inexperienced cyclists taking to the roads. Though I find that a bit of a hard explanation to swallow. This would suggest that the responsibility lies mostly with the cyclist. Let’s not forget it is not the cyclist that is in possession of a vehicle with the potential to kill.

If you take a typical case such as David Prosser in the Telegraph then you can see there is little difference in what an experienced or inexperienced cyclist could do.

David was cycling along on his side of the road and the car failed to see him. Without indicating, the car turned right, straight into David’s path. Another case of “Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You”.

Or what about this recent video showing a bit of horrifically bad driving. I’m sure every cyclist can report their own cases of extreme stupidity.

Of course another thing to debate here is the severity of the fines. In David’s case the motorist got away with just a “driver awareness” course. This was after David pestered the police to do something.

It would be wrong of course to just criticise motorist behaviour. It is clear many cyclists are also rule breakers and often do not spend as much attention as they should do. However, it is also clear that the consequences are far more severe when it involves a motorists lack of attention compared to a cyclists.

The recent debate on London Cyclist raised the growing distaste at cyclists riding on pavements and going through red lights. So could this increase in deaths be attributed to so called anti-social cycling?  Recent statistics have shown that only 5% of accidents involved a cyclist passing a red light.

Whether it is poor infrastructure, motorists carelessness or new cyclists on the road let us hope this is just a blip in the statistics and the overall trend will point towards safer cycling.

If the safety in numbers research by the CTC is to believed then an increase in cyclists, like we are seeing now, will drastically reduce the amount of accidents. It is easy to see why. Amongst many contributing factors is that motorists become more aware of cyclists as they know more of them are around. We can only hope that figures such as these do not discourage new cyclists so that one day we could see the benefits of safety in numbers and perhaps this time next year we will be reporting on a drastic reduction of cyclist deaths.

See also:

• Can we share the road in London
• Draw your cycling accident
• Cycling socks and overshoes

"He needs to think less about attention-grabbing policies linked to niche modes of travel like cycling and grasp the bigger problems of transport in the capital, not least congestion in outer London.

With the best will in the world, encouraging a few more people onto their bikes is not going to solve the relentless jams in the suburbs.”

That is what the Director of the Royal Automobile Club Foundation, Stephen Glaister, thinks about cycling as quoted yesterday in the BBC. In short cycling is not the solution. I presume that from an organisation that represents the interest of motorists the solution, according to them, would be to continue building expensive infrastructure to support an unsustainable mode of transport. After reading their report I guessed completely right that is exactly what they want to do. Who would have thought it?

The next part of the report is really startling. Get this, some parts of London may become “no go areas for cars”. Heaven forbid!

“With increasing demand for road space, many areas of central London could become no-go areas for cars because of the proliferation of road works, bus lanes and cycle-ways.”

Wouldn’t that be terrible! Roads open to just cyclists and buses?

What if?

What if instead of doing the exact same thing we have been doing since the 1970’s, ignoring cycling and promoting dominance of our society by cars, we instead allowed ourselves to think differently for a moment. What if we just stepped outside that limited sphere of thinking that says the car is the only way to get around and allowed our minds to drift. What if we asked ourselves: what if?

What if John, who is constantly tired of his 2 hour commute into work, cycled to the train station, got on a train and then cycled to his office. Maybe he would feel more energised. I think he would certainly feel better with around £2,500 extra in his pocket if he goes car free*.

What if Alison, who is scared to take up cycling due to the manic traffic, was able to cycle on a path separate to the road. Maybe she would leave the car at home?

What if Jamie and Lisa, were not afraid to let their kids go to school on their bikes so that would be one less car on the road every day, twice a day.

These are just hypothetical people that represent millions of daily commuters. What if everyone started doing this? When would we reach the tipping point? 

What if we allowed ourselves to dream? Would London’s transport infrastructure look a bit more like this:

What if London was a bit more like a fellow European country, the Netherlands, where 27% of journeys are made by bike. Would that then still be considered a  “niche mode of travel”?

The definition of insanity by Albert Einstein: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. No RAC Foundation, we refuse to be insane.

*Rail season ticket into London for a year from High Wycombre = £2,760, Second hand folding bike = £200. Typical cost of running car for a year = £5,539

Image source: Martino’s Doodles’

You can shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow in Chester, a pregnant woman may relieve herself anywhere she likes, including in a policeman’s helmet and cyclists cannot cycle down one-way streets. All very silly laws and all actually still exist. But of all those, the third may be about to change.

There is a trial currently being run in Kensington & Chelsea borough that will involve placing signs that say “Except cyclists” beneath the no-entry signs. This will come as a surprise to some, however it is already common practise in many other countries and is about time it came to the UK.

As any seasoned London cyclist will realise there are many times when going down a one way street is far more appropriate. The main reason being that often the one way street is a far quicker route. Also it can often be safer than on the main road as side streets tend to be more quiet.

Obviously the success of the trial will depend on a number of things such as people not getting hurt so make sure you cycle safely. For now I think I, like David Cameron, will continue to use one way streets illegally but will feel a little better about myself when what I’m doing is legal.

See also:

• How to choose a bicycle helmet
• Bicycle insurance

  Image from Brian Suda photo stream

London Cycling News

(Shuffles papers in news anchor style) Cycle Fridays are continuing in the capital this month, encouraging new cyclists to ditch public transport by learning in a safe group environment. The other big news this month is of course the new information regarding London’s bike rental scheme. Statistics also emerged about a 71% growth in bike theft, though many attribute this to the increased number of cyclists. I would suggest everyone familiarises themselves with how to lock their bike. Finally there were calls for Boris Johnson to visit Copenhagen to learn about cycling culture. While he is out there he should also trade notes on Cycle Superhighways because it looks like Copenhagen’s will be much cooler than ours.

General interest

• Eye Candy Bicycles – 45+ Awesome examples
• What now? A bike ticket? – I would love to have a note like this left on my bike
• Video: Avoiding the door zone
• How decent bike parking could revolutionise American cities
• Flat tire and no patch – no problem
• James Bowthorpe is all set to beat the world record for around the world by bike. I thought I did well going from Birmingham to London.

Who I have been following

• @dingday – All London’s cyclists: Remember remember, the 9th of September
• @bicycletutor – Cycle Chic Top 10 List of Gorgeous Bicycles for Stylish Ladies: Welcome to Bicycle Culture 2.0, world.
• Also quick note to say thank you to everyone who is replying to my Tweets and retweeting things – I love connecting with you guys in this way.

Great deals

Its sale time in all the bike shops so grab some bargains!

Castelli Van Looy Cycling Gloves 30% off – save £6	Merston ThermoLite Socks Pack Of 3 43% off – save £7.68
Montane Cadence Jersey 40% off – save £20	Vaude Trail Light 15 Backpack 22% off – save £10

Image from the fantastic: Girl in the cafe check her out on Twitter

Cycle Fridays is the newest initiative by Transport for London and London Cycling Campaign to encourage people who have never cycled before to make a start with the help of a marshal and in the comfort of a group ride.

The organised routes will be running every Friday (Starting today!) until the 2nd of October. The total of 8 cycle Fridays should give plenty of people an opportunity to get started.

As the rides are meant for beginners organisers have allocated up to an hour to complete the routes though in reality for more seasoned cyclists the routes won’t take anywhere near that long. Hopefully this won’t put people off (especially with a start time of 8am!). For anyone out there doubting whether their bike is even road worthy the LCC marshals will be providing bike checkups. Additionally advice on safe cycling will be provided (worth a visit if you are interested in this is also the TfL cycle safety video).

No doubt this initiative has been born out of the “bike tubes” that took place during the recent tube strikes. During that initiative people had mixed reviews of the effectiveness and attendance varied. Hopefully this regular Friday slot will work well.

Routes

1. Brixton to Russell Square
2. Finsbury Park to City (St Pauls)
3. Mile end to City (St Pauls)
4. Ravenscourt Park to Trafalgar Square
5. Swiss Cottage to Holborn continuing to the City
6. Greenwich to City

Check out the TfL Cycle Fridays site for more information.

You may also be interested in:

The list of flaws are outlined in the article as follows:

1. The Purple Eagle is a ladies’ bike. So why the men’s saddle?

2. The components are rubbish and made out of the biking equivalent of a supermarket own-brand. The derailleur, gear shifts and more are made by a brand that sounds like Shimano but isn’t. It’s even written in the same font.

3. The brakes are made from plastic, rather than more expensive aluminium, and so will flex and bend, wasting energy.

4. The handlebar stem is the old “quill” style (instead of attaching to a steerer tube it fits directly into the headset and screws onto the forks), rather than an a-head stem.

5. The rear derailleur is hooked onto the axle, rather than bolted straight to the frame, making it almost impossible to adjust the gears properly.

6. The cheap plastic pedals will “simply fall apart before long”.

7. The rear wheel was badly out of true.

8. The front wheel wasn’t round, and was wobbling about the place as if the bearings have already gone. Apparently this shouldn’t happen on a decent bike until you’ve done at least 1,000 miles.

I think you are much better off paying around £100 – £150 for a second hand bike as I did with my Marin San Alselmo which is worth around £600+ new (Check out our negotiation tips for more on this)

I also predict that soon enough you will see even cheaper Chinese bike imports though the quality of these has yet to be proven. In China you can pick up an electric bike, which is extremely popular, for around $290 (£175).

Cycling in London is up, but do we have Boris to thank?

Sold out summer of cycling – an indepth review of the Boris cycling initiatives by Boris Watch

Copenhagenize visits London

And falls in love with a bespoke bikes shop in Finsbury Park

Not enough bikes to go around

Manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand

Excuses people give for not cycling

Who isn’t bike commuting and why not – 18% say because there is not a safe route available (Via EcoVelo who have recently reached 1,000 posts!). Don’t they realise that gardening is more dangerous than cycling? 

Should cyclists pay road tax?

A resounding no

How to enjoy the bike

Unfortunately as cyclists we are often the target of abuse. Cyclinginfo looks at how to rise above it

Doing a victory salute

Cozy Beehive looks at how to give the perfect victory salute

Recycling bike parts into art

The ultimate clock for a cyclist?

Fat Cyclist fought the law and won

The evil crime committed: Throwing rocks off a cliff

Girls on bikes

6 reasons why the world needs more girls on bikes

More than Wimbledon centre court

Over 15,000 people have looked at the top 50 cycling blogs list. That is more than the capacity of Wimbledon centre court! I plan on updating this list twice a year but for those of you who can’t wait here are some of the blogs that have been recommended to me:

• Bicycle touring pro
• Real cycling
• Cycling info
• Path less pedaled
• A practical cyclist

Miami is trying to become a more bicycle friendly city and the mayor has started an initiative whereby certain central roads are restricted to just cyclists and pedestrians. This idea could work quite well in London, the nearest example I can think of is the London Freewheel.

Another great idea that could encourage more people to cycle is getting paid to commute by bike. That is exactly what Anna from the Bike Skirt Blog is eligible for. Wouldn’t it be great if you got paid a pound a day to cycle?

Sticking to the theme of great ideas the light lane by Alex Tee and Evan Gant involves a light projected from the back of the bicycle onto the road creating a virtual cycle lane. This helps drivers to calculate how much distance they should allow between the car and your bicycle.

In other news the BBC World Radio service has produced a three part podcast series on bicycles and how their usage has changed, it may be worth having a listen to. Also in the UK press James May (who presents Top Gear) discusses the difficulties and benefits of cycling by taking us through his daily commute [via Bike Hugger].

From the London Cyclist archive:

Have you checked out our speedy cycling tips? They may help you make your daily commute even faster.

Hope you enjoyed the news roundup, if you have any comments for improvements let me know!