On Your Bike

Jorge Solis

The bicycle was invented 200 years ago. So why have sales suddenly boomed in the UK？ Why are so many people choosing to change their lifestyles？

Sporting success

Cycling has become more popular in the UK recently for a number of reasons. One of those must be the British cycling success at both the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and the London Olympic Games in 2012. Sir Chris Hoy won three gold medals in Beijing and another two in London. He is the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time. He and Sir Bradley Wiggins， another Olympic gold-winning cyclist at London and Britain’s only ever winner of the Tour de France， both have seven Olympic medals， making them the most successful British Olympians of all time. And with mountain biking and BMXing also big in the UK， it’s no surprise that the Tour of England road race was relaunched in 2009.

‘Touring Tony’

Cycling is not just a sport though， and Tony is just one of the many people who like to cycle long distances because they want to enjoy the natural beauty of the UK. He belongs to Sustrans， a volunteer organisation created in the 1980s. Sustrans has combined quieter roads， disused railway tracks and bridleways to create the National Cycle Network of designated cycle-friendly routes spanning cities and countryside. The best known of these routes is the 140-mile C2C （‘sea to sea’ or ‘coast to coast’）. An average of 15，000 cyclists follow the whole route every year （and hundreds of thousands do shorter sections of it）. Tony has been riding this route for a few years now， along with his local friends. They do it to raise money for charity， but also because they enjoy the views across England’s scenic landscapes and like to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

‘Commuting Connie’

Connie lives and works in London and， like half a million Londoners every day， she travels to and from work by bike. Since the introduction of the Congestion Charge （where drivers pay to bring a car into the centre of London during working hours） in 2003， the capital city has seen an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of people commuting by bike. The resultant reduction of car traffic means that cycling is safer. Connie says that cycling to work takes the same amount of time as it would by bus or tube （London’s underground train system）. Biking is cheaper too， and keeps her fit.

The growth in cycling can partly be attributed to the launch in 2010 by Transport for London （TfL） of the Barclays Cycle Hire system （Santander Cycles since April 2015） throughout the city’s centre. Bikes are ‘stationed’ around the city and regular users of the scheme can register on the TfL website and buy access for 24 hours， 7 days， or one year. Users are then posted a key to release the locking systems on the bikes. In the year 2014 more than ten million journeys were made.

Of course， London isn’t the only place where cycling has taken off： people cycle to work in towns and cities across the UK. In 2008， in order to promote the benefits of cycling more widely， the UK government organised a competition to select the country’s first ‘cycling town’. The city of Bristol won and received money to improve its cycling infrastructure—more cycle lanes and increased parking spots for bikes， etc. —and make cycling on roads generally safer.

‘Eco Nigel’

Nigel is a campaigner. In addition to travelling to and from work by bicycle， doing some charity rides and generally enjoying cycling， Nigel runs a local campaigning group and helps organise the ‘critical commute’—where cyclists gather every last Friday of the month and cycle into work together. For Nigel， cycling is about saving the planet—a cost-effective way of reducing our carbon footprint today. He regularly writes to his Member of Parliament， to ask her to support his campaign. He writes letters to the local newspaper to explain the benefits of cycling and lobby for better cycling infrastructure， and takes part in demonstrations and activities to show the public what cycling is all about.