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news
London cyclists (coyright britishcycling.org.uk).jpgLondon needs to shed its white, male, middle-class cyclist image, says Will Norman
Will Norman, London’s cycling and walking commissioner, says that efforts to get more women and people from ethnic minorities cycling need to be stepped up.
He told The Independent that white, middle class males represent the typical cyclist in the capital, and accepted that London’s Cycle Superhighways were viewed by many as a means of getting “middle-aged men cycling faster around the city.”
With people from ethnic minorities making up just 15 per cent of London cyclists, and women accounting for one in four bike riders in the city, Norman said he may introduce targets to promote diversity.
“There is a problem with cycling and the way it is perceived of getting middle-aged men cycling faster around the city, which is not the objective at all,” he said.
“It touches on something which is a real challenge for London cycling, which is diversity.
“Even when we have seen the growth in the number of cyclists, we haven’t seen that diversity.
“There are a number of reasons for that,” he continued.
“One is that safety is paramount for getting different people from different walks of life cycling: older people, younger people, those from different backgrounds.”
Norman also defended Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s record on cycling infrastructure in the face of criticism from campaigners and London Asssembly Members who have been disappointed at what they see as slow progress in delivering schemes.
Some, such as the proposed extension of the East-West Cycle Superhighway onto the Westway, scrapped altogether.
“We have done more in the first year-and-a-half of this administration than Boris [Johnson] did in his first six years,” Norman insisted.
“It seems odd that that is the way people are looking at it because it is not actually true when you look at the figures.”
He insisted that London is on target to double the number of people cycling by 2026, but acknowledged that more action is necessary, saying, “Is it ambitious enough in the longer term? I think we need a higher level of change.
“The target that we have set out in the mayor’s transport strategy is over that 25 years we want to shift to 80 per cent of journeys to be walking, cycling or by public transport.
“That is a much more ambitious target and really is fundamentally rethinking the way that we move around our city.”
Simon Munk, infrastructure campaigner at the London Cycling Campaign, said that the key to getting a more diverse mix of people riding bikes in the city lay in building safe cycle routes.
He said: “The mayor just needs to crack on with making sure that network is there and is high-quality.
”Each new main road cycle track and safe-feeling quiet route brings loads more people to cycling as one of the most convenient, healthy and safe ways to get around.”
Norman added that dockless hire bikes, now a common sight in Outer London boroughs such as Ealing and also present in the Inner London locations such as Islington and Hackney, could also encourage more people to take to two wheels.
“There is an ecosystem of bike hire that is working well,” he said. “I personally think they are great.
“If we can get more people cycling, particularly in some of the outer London boroughs where we don’t have some of the resources to grow the Santander scheme, that is fantastic.
“But it has to be done in a way that works for all Londoners, so having those cluttering up the pavements is really not what we want,” he added.
“If that is done in a responsible way with good numbers then I think that is a very positive thing.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- stonojnr 9 min 44 sec ago
crazy that his own brief describes it as "his long suffering partner" also how come the two blokes he collected from the snooker club to assist in...
- stonojnr 17 min 52 sec ago
but in cases where you report other cyclists close passes, you literally are the witness to it, not the victim ?...
- S.E. 21 min 10 sec ago
1. It's obviously more aerodynamic, even a small backpack or hydration pack can help, there are studies about this....
- stonojnr 26 min ago
theres an attitude I encounter alot locally, and demonstrated in bucket loads by drivers on my commute home tonight, that cyclists shouldnt be on...
- FionaJJ 46 min 10 sec ago
When I was a student it was virtually unheard of for someone to have a car. It wasn't even that it was considered a luxury that almost no-one could...
- Keesvant 1 hour 45 min ago
If the chains snap that is lack of build quality or material.....
- Hirsute 2 hours 41 min ago
"Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good."
- Jaijai 3 hours 6 min ago
His life was only worth shy of 7 years ,that's too lenient in every book .Let alone drugged up and leaving him to die
- webbierwrex 3 hours 11 min ago
I came here to basically write the same thing, the floating bus stop near me has a very narrow cycling lane between a very narrow pavement and a...
- AS52 3 hours 34 min ago
It wasn't an official consultation meeting - see my comment above.
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122 comments
Meh. I used to cycle, and sometimes walk, through Whitechapel regularly. Maybe I'll go up and walk around there this weekend, just to see, eh?
I'm sure there are a handful of stupid self-regarding blokes who occasionally imagine they are enforcing Shariah. Much like the white yobs I've encountered who think they own the streets or their estate. Muslim yobs just use different terms, but it's the same fuckwit territorial impulse of people with nothing better going on in their lives.
And, as it happens, I do think hate speech in mosques is a problem. We should perhaps stop sucking up to the Saudis who fund much of this stuff?
(I strongly get the impression there's a lot of political infighting that goes on in mosques and Islamic cultural centres that generally doesn't get reported much in the outside world...not least between the different strands of Sunni Islam)
But the idea that this impacts on people on the streets on a daily basis is sorely mistaken. And your 'feeling uncomfortable' at being around non-white people is surely your own problem - why project it onto everyone else?
The thing that bothers me about this whole piece is that it could so easily present the same argument and deliver the same message (lets find out why minorities won’t cycle in London) without the devicive «white is bad» bullshit. This is a grandstanding whore of a publicity stunt that took a legitimate social issue and abused it like some ginger stepchild for nothing more than some public attention.
For shame, motherfucker, for shame.
Just had a cracking lunch in Whitechapel with Mrs Srchar and Miss Srchar (aged 7 months).
Whitechapel is as safe or dangerous as any bit of a large city. If you go looking for trouble, you'll find it. If you don't, you won't.
I'm afraid you've lost me, Concorde. Although I believe the truly right-on prefix is Mx.
I just want to be the 100th comment on a thread where neither helmets or hi-viz are mentioned.
Topical report with some (dodgey) stats
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-uk-safety-bike-l...
I don't think this is quite the minority role model the commissioner has in mind.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/shocking-moment-furious-cyclist-pu...
How is “middle class” defined nowadays, anyway?
Middle class is pretending to be smugly shocked at how much your house is worth whilst complaining that it will be so much harder for your children to get on the property ladder. Thinking that you are edgey by telling people you know that you might well vote for Jeremy Corbyn (but you never would). Spend more on humous than you do on fixed odds betting machines. Complain loudly about how the super rich hide their money offshore, but know how much you need to have to make the exercise worthwhile.
Middle-class problems
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Based on the above, then, pretty sure I’m not middle class. And yet I don’t consider myself working class. Is there anything in between?
Haha - I learned a bit of Italian when I spent some time there a few years ago (if knowing enough to get fed in a cafe counts as "a bit"). So far, I've managed to conceal my disgust of the lower middle class philistines in my local pub when they're ordering a panini and two cappuccinos for lunch. Obviously, I'd never make the same mistake, as I always go for the pie, chips and a pint meal deal.
Wholeheartedly agree. In fact, the article could even have posited the question - "who won't most people cycle in London?", given that women aren't a minority, and neither are BAME people in most of inner London. But then the cretins who infest most of our political machinery aren't interested in answering real questions, nor in genuinely improving the lives of voters. Otherwise, people like Will Norman would be getting on with actually DELIVERING something, rather than lazily spouting nonsense straight out of a sixth form common room's identity politics toolkit.
Surely you mean Ms. Srchar and Ms. Srchar...?
I think you just ruined that for yourself by mentioning both.
good point. Now I'm going to have to hand myself in to the Islington & Hornsey Gender Studies and Hemp Clothing Collective for a 6-month re-education retreat.
He is Giving Us All A Bad Name!
Seriously though, WTF?
If you ever complain that Waitrose has run out of Nocarello olives or alfalfa, then you're middle class.
you must be lower middle class, you poor thing.
I lived in Italy for a year and speak the language fluently. A few years back, I lamented on Twitter about the Anglicisation of 'panino' (singular, of course) as 'panini'.
A friend - a real life one rather than a Twitter 'friend' - replied saying that as far as he was concerned, it was perfectly acceptable in English, and explained to me briefly why that was the case.
Given that at the time, said friend worked for Oxford University Press and specifically was involved in approving and adding new entries to the Oxford English Dictionary, I considered my culo well and truly handed to me su un piatto.
Mind you, anyone from Up North who tries telling me that Southerners are pronouncing latte incorrectly can do one
Surely Dave and young Bob should be allowed to self-identify with whatever gender and marital status honorific they choose...?
Damn! Beat me to it!
Mx Srchar was born and raised in Hornsey, although we haven't made it to a re-education retreat because the customers of the myriad Hemp Clothing Collectives have priced us out.
If you wander around Waitrose wondering why tzatziki, limoncello yoghurt and pate are defined as "Essential", are you still working class?
Somewhere there's a forum of zombie-knife-wielders complaining about the guy giving them a bad name by associating them with cyclists.
Needs more subdivisions. I'd go with 'lower middle class' except by convention that would make me a Daily Mail reader, and I refuse to accept that as my demographic.
Maybe upper-lower-middle-class? But then that's what Orwell called himself, and he went to Eton. So maybe urban-upper-lower-middle-class (which is a different thing from rural or small-town upper-lower-middle-class, I reckon).
FTFY and no, working class people aren't allowed into Waitrose, the door butlers will confront any working class citizens and ask them very polite questions until they panic and leave.
Didnt Stephen fry once joke that the whole purpose of Sainsburys was to keep the plebs out of Waitrose?
It's like fresh snow - it's a beautiful thing but to enjoy it properly you have to destroy it.
have you actually read the article? Where is the ‘white is bad’ ‘divisive bullshit’?
They talk about perception that it is predominantly a white, middle-class male culture, but nowhere is there any suggestion that any permutation of white, middle-class or male is bad. They are pointing out that it is a monoculture and this by itself can become a barrier to entry for some people.
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