Author name: Steven Edwards

I felt like a bit of a legend when I started cycling in London 18 years ago. Everyone was always congratulating me on my bravery. “Oh, you wouldn’t catch me on a bike,” people would say if they spotted my helmet or the cycling shorts peeking out beneath my dress. “Far too dangerous.”
To be fair, it was quite hairy at times. Cycle superhighways were yet to be invented; bike lanes were marked out in paint, at best, rather than protected by any kind of physical barrier; and cab drivers still seemed surprised to see me. Young and dumb enough to believe myself invincible, I rather enjoyed the sense of peril, timing my turns to avoid getting wiped out by a bendy bus and feeling like a warrior princess at the end of every commute. I was sometimes on the receiving end of catcalls – “Lucky saddle!” or “Ride me instead!” – but no one seemed to actively hate me. Those were the days.

Michael Goodier
A cyclist on a cycle superhighway in Shadwell, London. Cycling UK has issued a plea for proper cycling infrastructure. Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
Boris Johnson’s “cycling revolution” has so far failed to build on the gains made during the pandemic, as the proportion of people cycling at least once a week has fallen to its lowest recorded level in England.

Paula Cocozza
Len Collingwood, a clinical nurse specialist in psychotherapy, retired on his 65th birthday. He had made a deal with his wife, Sally: she would train as a yoga teacher and he would “start out as an adventure cyclist”.

Four months later, he set off on a 13,000km cycle ride from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia to Edinburgh, much of it roughly shadowing Marco Polo’s Silk Road. No sooner had he started out than a snowstorm hit. He hid in his tent, wearing every item of clothing he had packed. At -18C it was too cold to venture outside to cook. He survived the next 48 hours by eating a “massive bag of Snickers and Crunchies” his colleagues had given him when he retired.

Broadcaster and safe cycling advocate Jeremy Vine has revealed that he is “grateful” that an investigation by the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) – which ruled that the presenter breached the corporation’s impartiality guidelines by publicly expressing his support for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – has “exposed” what he describes as years of “one-way” abuse and “personal vilification” towards him and other local cyclists by groups committed to opposing active travel measures.

The BBC has warned staff against expressing support for low-traffic neighbourhoods, after ruling that Jeremy Vine breached impartiality rules by backing safe cycling measures near his London home.
The Radio 2 presenter, a well-known cyclist, has posted repeatedly on Twitter about his support for LTNs – and publicly criticised individuals who objected to the introduction of the traffic-calming scheme near his house in Chiswick.

France has come up with an innovative idea to reduce polluting vehicles from the roads. Citizens can now exchange their vehicles in return for an amount as high as €4,000 (approx. $4,073) which they can use to buy an electric bike, The Times reported. The generous subsidy is aimed at not only reducing pollution but also to push people to embrace active mobility. The scheme can be used for every family member.