An ever spinning wheel

Recently, a freelance writer for the Guardian, Laura Laker, wrote a piece about cycling in Cambridge, titled:

What makes Cambridge a model cycling city? With considerate drivers, dedicated bicycle parking and bike-friendly city planning, it's no wonder cycling is a popular means of transport.

The article made me mad, incensed even, so much so it incited me to write a comment on it. 186 others, and still counting, have done the same thing. It wasn’t just that it was poorly written, rambling, repetitive and riddled with delusions. The delusion came down to the fact that the writer based her whole article on seemingly one visit to Cambridge, in a quiet time on the roads and no proper experience in cycling around Cambridge. It wasn’t even that initially she wrote, “in a city of 120,000, students number only 3,500.” It was subsequently changed, after a few comments citing the error, to 43,000! How could someone get it so wrong? No, it was because she painted this misleading idyllic portrait of perfection, a haven for cyclists and everything is bright and sunny in the world. She relied on facts and figures, not opinions, perceptions and most of all, experience.
What she doesn’t seem to understand is that Cambridge is a cycling city. The new measures creating cycle routes and the such like haven’t made it into a cycling city, like the much lauded Sheffield, it just has an inherent cycling culture. She comments on the cycle racks at Cambridge train station, stating the numbers, the facts, but not mentioning that cycle thefts are rife, that it’s impossible to find a space unless you get up very early, and even if you do find a space, the chances are you won’t be able to get your bike out again as someone will have locked theirs to yours.
She goes on to say, “Cambridge drivers are considerate of cyclists in a way I've never witnessed in the UK.” Yes, drivers are more considerate, but through experience rather than civility. As one commenter said, “you just assume that every cyclist is an idiot and, despite the city being a world-renown centre of education, you're rarely proved wrong.” There are too many horror stories about cyclists being clipped by cars, forced into the curb and attacked by other road users to say that drivers are considerate.

There "were no buses driving on [her] back wheel and no cars revving their engines trying to overtake dangerously". She was certainly not there during rush hour and had a very lucky journey by the sounds of it, found a sweet spot in time when there was barely anything on the roads, an eerie silence which I have experienced; it’s like Cambridge is a ghost town. She sees all the bikes chained to every conceivable object or just chained to themselves, not commenting on what that means: not enough cycle racks or racks in convenience places. She also mentions the cycle parks, which she doesn't say are usually full.

Lastly, and the comment that got me the most incensed, "Hills Bridge Road [sic] near the station, for example, is used by 4,000-5,000 cyclists a day, and recently priority was given to cyclists, pedestrians and buses as a result." Let’s say we ignore the possible typo, but more likely idiotic naming mistake. She hasn’t done her research. A little digging would’ve found how long it’s taken to make the “improvements” to that damn bridge. How they changed their minds three times before they settled on the design of the cycle route over it and if she had asked any cyclist who uses the bridge, bar the kamikaze ones, they would have told her how dangerous it is. It wasn’t just me who got incensed about it, "Hills Road Bridge is a complete nightmare and the planner who redesigned the cycle path 3 times in about a year, each time just as dangerous and confusing as the last, should be shot." Here's a picture of the lovely cycle bridge instead:

Anyway, here is my comment, under my moniker mingsysar, don’t ask:

I am Cambridge born and bred. I have been cycling since I was a child. I cycled to school and I cycle to work. Every day. I have been cycling the Cambridge cycle routes for over 10 years, and I still don't think I'm qualified enough to write an article about cycling in Cambridge, but here goes.Cycling is extremely popular in Cambridge, there are many cycle routes and there are lots of cycle racks, repair shops and schemes to support cyclists. There are less lycralouts as @burtthebike called them, cycling is the best way to get around Cambridge (the traffic is terrible and the buses are expensive and unreliable), as my refusal to use any other mode of transport will attest, and I did start cycling to school on my own from the age of 11.

However you cannot write an article about cycling in Cambridge until you have experienced rush hour, which, lets be honest, is when the majority of cyclists are out; apart from students, most of the Cambridge cyclists are made up of commuters, parents taking their kids to school and schoolkids themselves. Cars cut cyclists up, buses gets so close that it is frightening, cars encroach on the cycle lanes and don't get me started on the new Hills Road Bridge which is going to get a cyclist killed it's such a death trap; cyclists will have to cut across traffic to go straight ahead on the Leisure Park side. It's not just Hills Road. We do have a great cycle bridge over the railway, but Cherry Hinton Road, Queen Edith's Way and Newmarket Road are extremely hairy to cycle down. But by far the worst for me is Mill Road; it's so bad, I refuse to cycle down it. It's not just me and the roundabouts are notorious for cycle accidents; Elizabeth Way, Coldham's Lane, Midsummer Common, Perne Road/Cherry Hinton Road, Perne Road/Birdwood Road... Cycling round Cambridge in ice and snow is treacherous as well.

It's not just vehicles, the cycle routes and the roads themselves, there are cyclists that make good cyclists look bad, cyclists that think they rule the road and foreign students ride three abreast; there are ideas afoot to run cycling proficiency courses for foreign students. There are cyclists that flout the law, running through red lights, going up on the pavement endangering pedestrians and despite the schemes the police run, more cyclists still don't use lights than not. You only need be out of an evening to realise that. It's become so bad the police are issuing on the spot fines.

Cycling isn't safe in Cambridge for another reason too. You should see the cycle store at the Police Station, it is full of stolen bicycles. There is a dedicated team of policemen who work flat out trying to prevent cycle crime in Cambridge, but the thieves are just getting cleverer. The amount of bikes that get stolen in Cambridge rises each year. You have to be extremely savvy when locking your bike up in Cambridge.

Lastly, there must be a reason why cyclists put cameras on their helmets and film their journey. And why was this never mentioned in the article?


That's my beloved old bike, Destiny. To big myself up a bit, my comment is the second highest recommended comment (out of the 185 comments, mine has been recommended 117 times) after this one, and so many cyclists in normal clothes and no helmet. This is what all other conurbations in the UK should aspire to: cycling as a perfectly normal activity, not just the preserve of lycra louts and pastie heads.”

Here a couple of comments on mine, Have to agree with mingsyser [sic]. His [sic] article is much closer to the truth than Laura's." "I'm a longtime Cambridge resident. Mingsysar nails it. Laura really, really doesn't."

Oh and in case you didn't get the reference, the title is taken from the song Windmills of Your Mind” used in the film The Thomas Crown Affair. Check the lyrics out, they’re haunting, poetic and perfect.