A bit of a wobble but I managed to bike all week
Oct 13 2008 By Sarah Evans
A working week without using my car. Was it possible? Or was I truly addicted? Is this a saving in these dark economic times that I could realistically achieve? Could this be my commitment to saving the planet?
Could I function at all when not able to pop into my own car whenever I wanted and go wherever I wanted, using it as a cross between a wardrobe, desk, emergency crisis centre (I discovered I still had a spade and blanket in my boot from last winter in preparation for the unlikely event of being snowed in between Moseley and Edgbaston) and shopping trolley.
I monitored my car use the week before and clocked up 56 miles on 14 (obviously short) journeys.
The 2.7 miles distance between home and work took me a variable 13 minutes to 40 (yes 40) minutes in the car depending on the traffic conditions.
Languishing in our garage was a bicycle my son had outgrown so last weekend my husband with considerable aplomb dismantled and reassembled it and we set off to the very nice bicycle shop in Kings Heath to acquire various accessories required by the serious cyclist.
The last time I rode a bicycle with any regularity was in the spring of 1975 and it came back to me that I wasn’t very good even then.
But in the intervening years, things have become more complicated.
I am sure that in 1975 my bicycle did not have gears.
There are two things to adjust gears on my son’s ex-bike but by the time we had got to the end of our road on the Kings Health expedition, my husband thought perhaps I should just concentrate on one.
It is not as easy as you might assume remembering that going up hill, you go down, in terms of gear numbers, and the other way round when going down. I think.
Then there is the traffic. It is no startling revelation that there is more of it than in 1976.
The problem with roads I now see is cars. If there weren’t any, it would be hugely more pleasant cycling along all those arterial Birmingham roads with their great, lovely trees just starting to turn red and gold.
But the moment your attention wanders to their delights, another car virtually brushes your elbow and if you are me, you wobble.
In fact most things seem to make me wobble, even the thought of wobbling makes me wobble.
As if tearing along roads wasn’t bad enough, cars have the temerity to park on them too. And that, for a cyclist, means veering out into the middle of the road to overtake.
Taking my hands off handle bars is more or less certain death, and so is turning to look over my shoulder – which of course can be rather useful if wanting to overtake a parked car.
I have watched carefully other cyclists doing it.
They swizzle nonchalantly round taking a hand off the handle bars – horrors – and yet seem to carry on going ahead in a straight line at the same time.
Quite remarkable. A skill I seem a long way from perfecting.
So having practiced – a bit – and equipped myself with essentials such as a helmet, the other challenge to over come was all the stuff I carry from home to work.
I confess to a David Cameron moment.
I took my car to work at the weekend filled with all the unsuitable-for-bicycles clothes I wear and all the heavy items I thought I could possible need in the week. I know, it’s a cheat but in the interests of a higher good…
With the exception of last Tuesday, the weather was gorgeous and offered no excuse for not enthusiastically jumping on my bike.
My route was about as road free as you could reasonably expect a couple of miles from a big city centre.
In consideration to other road users, since I couldn’t manage a route where I never had to turn right, I decide that I would just get off and push the bike if there was any possibility that I might be expected to make a hand signal. I even managed to get up the one hill by Friday.
It’s an oddly liberating experience to know I did manage for a week. I now have a fully functioning bike so who knows to what high-principled excesses it might lead?
