VIP visit

[Si]

<political whinge starts>

At this point I would do some name dropping, but despite meeting him, shaking hands and chatting with him I still have no idea of what the heck his name is!

We at (Story Wood Cycle Hub) and Bike North Birmingham had a visit from the Minister for Transport today. On the one hand it's always nice to get some attention (even if you don't know who it's from and you have to shake hands with someone whose policies you are not too keen on), but on the other hand it was a very depressing affair.

We had a number of people, who had been on our led rides or learned to ride with us, along to relate their experiences. They all told him how cycling had transformed their lives and how great our project is, and of course, our parent organisation project: BNB. And in turn he said how great it was that making Birmingham into one of the Cycling Cities had had so much of a positive effect on people's lives. So plenty of back patting and 'what a wonderful world it is!'.

This, I think, is why rank and file cyclists should not be allowed to speak on behalf of rank and file cyclists! I often see some cyclists being criticised for being political or being some kind of loonie leftie rebellious agitators, yet the alternative is having people who have no idea of the wider picture trying to speak for all of us and being used as evidence that everything is rosy in the garden. (Yes, yes....I know.....I too am reminded of that episode of Dr Who where they are trapped in the pod and the Dr tells them what to do. One of them asks him why should they listen to him and he comes out with the slightly pompous "Because I'm clever.")

For my part (and I did manage not to swear at all) I attempted to bring up the subject of crap cycle paths/lanes. It was his contention that any kind of cycle lane is better than nothing....which got my dander up a bit and so I made a polite suggestion that we needed a new set of minimum design standards that had to be adhered to because so many new cycle paths actually create brand new dangers for people*. At which point he was whisked away to see someone else who was going to tell him how great we were. Great? well our volunteers do put in a lot of hard work and we have done wonders with those people who have come to us for training, but really, we are hardly scratching the surface......and if cycling is such a great thing for everyone then why is it being left to volunteers to get people cycling.

*something else amazing happened today - I actually heard a sustrans rep threatening not to sign off on an infrastructure project because the finish wasn't good enough...it truly is an age of wonders

<political whinge over>

[reohn2]

The last time I spoke to an MP(Andy Burnham)about cycling,I ended up telling him he didn't have a clue what he was talking about,his stance was one one compulsory helmets and keeping cyclists safe and out of the way of other traffic.
I was so depressed with his attitude and unwillingness to listen,I felt it was utterly useless continuing any kind of dialogue with politrickians.