See previously and again. We really have been saying this for 30 years. In the third reading of the Cycle Tracks Bill, Hansard, 27 April 1984: Mr Simon Hughes (Southwark and Bermondsey)The figures are interesting. The Cyclists Touring Club tells u…
This whole “debate” of two speeches is packed with amazing snippets for the archives of history repeating. From Hansard, 16 May 1985. We’ve got claims that there is a cycling revolution going on, that the department is “encouraging” local authorit…
Just another instance of claiming that there has been a cycling revolution, because there has been some sort of fluctuation in the statistical noise of miserably low cycling rates, from Hansard, 21 May 1985. Mr James Craigen (Glasgow Maryhill)In t…
An exchange from the house, recorded in Hansard, 10 June 1985, which is rather reminiscent of Norman Baker’s recent letter to local authorities, and their reply. Mr Jack Dormand (Easington)Is the Minister aware that there is a growing desire among…
Amazing exchange from a brief debate on road congestion, Hansard, 10 July 1989, in which disastrous and soon to be booted out Transport Secretary Paul Channon tells Andrew Smith explicitly that, because the Rover car plant is in his constituency, …
Road Safety debate, Hansard, 3 Nov 1989. Mr Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)I often cycle to this place. It is impossible to get here entirely on cycle routes from north London, which is where I live. The last part of the journey, which takes me do…
I collect quotes in which politicians boast of or “welcome” recent growth in cycling. Apparently, there has been a massive recent growth in cycling constantly for 30 years. Imagine that. This is a particularly fun one, from Hansard, 23 November 19…
my suspicion is that the Thatcher government, with its Great Car Economy, saw cycling as a mode of transport in terminal decline and saw no reason to modify policies that would have the effect of suppressing cycling. I understand the “cycle tracks…
J Med Ethics. doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100085 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION We agree with the BMA that governments around the world should continue to provide public health information to their citizens to inform them about the potential…
FAO, David Cameron. Some nice lines from the BMA’s 1992 book on cycling, concluding remarks on helmets and other “roles for the individual”, p94: In turn, this points to two conclusions: first, that it is dangerous to pass all responsibility for r…
People still talk about the 7/7 effect on cycling in London — the theory that fear of terrorism and/or the weeks of disruption that followed the bombings led to people taking up cycling in London. I’m a skeptic, and have doubts that, if there eve…
The BMA’s 1992 book on cycling, compiled by Mayer Hillman, made me giggle. Another set of attitudes which has been progressively changing relates to appearance. A track-suit and trainers, which are in many ways ideal cycle-wear, are no longer rega…
On the Locomotive Act of 1865, from Chris Mosey’s Car Wars p26:This had the effect of greatly stimulating production of the newly invented bicycle as a faster alternative. Bicyclists were at first abominated as “ironmongery riders” and “cads on ca…
Chris Mosey, discussing the arrival of motor cars in American cities at the turn of the 20th century, in Car Wars p36. In America too there was initially considerable opposition to the introduction of cars. A New York alderman unsuccessfully propo…
a couple more delightful extracts from Chris Mosey’s Car Wars, on how the car came to be accepted — abridged from p39. A poster from this period read: “Men of England. Your birthright is being taken away from you by Reckless Motorists. Reckless M…
enjoyed this, from Chris Mosey’s Car Wars, p64.And it came to pass that in the white heat of Wilson’s scientific revolution, the planners decreed that Birmingham — Britain’s second city in the industrial West Midlands — would become the country’…
Chris Mosey’s Car Wars on Cecil Parkinson’s response to the “London Assessment Studies” and Archway Road battles (pp94-95): The uproar so rattled the government that in the spring of 1990, Parkinson announced that the Studies would be scrapped. At…
A little bit in John Vidal’s description of the M11 link protests, from the Graun, quoted in the Chris Mosey’s Car Wars, sounded somehow familiar… Vidal was there when the tree finally came down. “It has been a life-affirmative drama,” he wrote,…
A couple of weeks ago Oliver Wright of The Independent ran a hatchet job, both horrible and nonsensical, about the head of the RCGP, Clare Gerada — the tireless and currently ubiquitous critic of the NHS privatisation Health and Social Care Bill. You may remember Ben Goldacre wrote about Oliver […]
I originally wrote this in Feb 2008, and later updated it for the old Lay Science. While making sure that this website was up-to-date, it occurred to me that this post would have disappeared with the rest of the Lay Science site. I have forgotten what updates I made when […]
Shortly before parliament rose for the summer, an unusually large audience tuned in to the entertaining spectacle of Prime-Minister’s Question Time in a week when a scandal-rag had sunk in its own great scandal. I don’t suppose anybody noticed the interruption of David Ward, the hon. member for Bradford East. […]
I stumbled upon an article in The Lancet, volume 138, issue 3554, of the 10th October 1891, which it seems has been overlooked by the internet so far. It celebrates the rise of the bicycle, but warns against its abuse — addiction, even. It has a message that James Cracknell […]
The Cycling Embassy has a manifesto and a set of demands. But it needs something shiny, a pretty picture to grab the attention of the people who need to read that manifesto and meet those demands. We’re looking for poster and postcard design ideas. Something that sums up the problem […]
This week, the Department for Communities and Local Government put out a press release about town centre parking. Unlike last time, they didn’t even have to announce that Pickles is ending The War On The Motorist™. On that point, their work was done for them, by 36 newspapers and the […]
In 2000, London’s previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, began the process of fixing forty years of mistakes that had been made in the pursuit of the impossible — the comfortable accommodation of mass motor vehicle use in a dense city centre. He recognised that cities are supposed to be places for […]