It is shocking I know, but I have done very little cycling lately and I must try to get out there more often. To me, cycling is a leisure activity and a source of exercise and that, at present, is all. In addition it should be a self-perpetuating activity thanks to the pleasure that it provides. This is no longer the case for me and I suspect that I am not alone. Trouble is, I’ve “done” all the local routes that fall within my range and I really don’t want to cycle much further at present. In fact I have cycled those routes again and again and there is no incentive to continue.
The main reason is that I don’t really enjoy cycling on my own. However, I am not ideal company for most younger and fitter cyclists. I need to cycle at a leisurely pace over a fairly easy route covering a maximum distance of perhaps 10-12 miles just now, but certainly further as fitness improves. This sort of cycling is simply not catered for in my area by any established groups and I am sure that this problem is widespread, and as good a reason as any why so many potential cyclists, especially older ones, haven’t started, or re-started, yet.
I keep thinking that there must be lots of older people who would love to have a gentle cycle ride once or twice or more per week, if only to regain and maintain a bit of fitness but how to get them together? That is the question. With the best will in the world, the volunteers who run the established cycling clubs in provincial towns and cities cannot cater for every district even if they began to understand the particular needs of the over-60s, and in some cases the well-over-60s, which they probably don’t.
Having almost exhausted local ideas for getting such cyclists together I have continued to look at the internet for solutions. Recently, while looking at various cycling websites I came across one that was new to me, Cycle Social. It has been running for a little over a year and seems to be more user-friendly than other big national sites. It hopes to become Britain’s “biggest social network for cyclists” and I think that it’s potential could be enormous. It is free to join and has some useful features - the one that caught my attention was the members map. Members are able to mark their location (only approximately if preferred) on the map, which enables other members to see whereabouts members are in their district and communicate with them if they wish. So far so good.
I joined Cycle Social and marked my approximate location on the map. The search facility enabled me to discover that seven other members were located in the vicinity of Cardiff but it was disappointing to see that only two of them had marked the map and they were outside the city on the opposite side from me.
At this point it occured to me that there are around 320,000 people in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, so why only eight Cardiff cyclists on Cycle Social? Admittedly there are clubs in Cardiff allegedly catering for the city’s cyclists but Cycle Social wouldn’t compete with them. On the contrary, it could improve their communications and help to find them new members – assuming, that is, that they want new members.
As a matter of interest, I had a look at the situation in Bristol, which is only a few miles away, as the crow flies, and is Britain’s first Cycling City, a status that it has enjoyed for just over a year. The population of Bristol is in excess of 400,000. Apparently there are just 12 Cycle Social members listed for Bristol and, again, just one appears on the map.
It seems reasonable to conclude that, far too often, cyclists themselves are failing to promote cycling and encourage new cyclists, and to support the many campaigns, initiatives and organisations who are working to promote cycling.
Is it apathy, complacency, a lack of imagination or initiative? Or is it simply a failure to recognise that, with very little effort, we could do so much more to help ourselves in ways which could soon bring results?
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