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Category Archives: Commuting
“Go on, fifty quid”
“Alright then, twenty. Look, it’s quality, this is”
“Ten?”
“Look, here’s a tenner. Take the sodding bike, I never want to see it again”
So the conversation with the security guard at work could so easily have gone today as I rolled into work on my Galaxy covered in muddy slush under a threatening sky the colour of dirty Tupperware.
Winter is a difficult time to cycle. But last week I bought myself a Citroen 2CV, which is like that car the Flintstones drove only less sophisticated, and I’m far from convinced of its ability to start in the cold, at least until I’ve treated it to an engine rebuild. So when I looked out of the window at lunchtime and I saw the snow I thought “gadzooks! what better day than today to cycle to work?”
Well. It started badly – I struggled to even get the bike out of the back yard without ending up in an ungainly tangle of limbs and handlebars on the pavement outside my house – and it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t going to get better until I’d got to work and left the bicycle somewhere I couldn’t see it, perhaps at the bottom of a deep hole or under one of the lorries. Within a mile I was soaked through and freezing cold. On the other hand, most of the motorised traffic gave me plenty of room, but as this generally involved putting their nearside wheels in the track of slush left by cars going the other way – leading to me being regularly showered in a curtain of filthy slush – it was what the term “mixed blessing” might have been invented for. Riding downhill through what in happier times I like to think of as the Forest Chicane was a bit like I imagine being a speedway rider must be like: both wheels kept trying to step out, often simultaneously, whenever they hit a recalcitrant patch of ice. My dynamo kept slipping, my hands and feet trebled in weight as my gloves and shoes went beyond wet, my beard froze, my bike started to look like something the Michelin Man would have proposed to and when I finally got to work the shower didn’t respond to my increasingly strident commands to supply warm water. On the other hand, I was able to ride past a long queue of cars waiting behind a lorry that had slithered into a ditch and I got a smile from the policewoman directing the traffic around it, so that was nice.
Would I do it again? Well, it’s still snowing, I’m still at work and though my cycling kit is spread all around the cab to dry, I don’t relish the thought of putting it all on and cycling home in the icy 3am darkness. So no, tonight I won’t be doing it again … I’m very much afraid I’ve bottled it and arranged with the chap who drives the truck on the day shift to cadge a lift home with him when he comes in at 5am. Discretion is the better part of valour and all that: I really don’t want to end up as just a frantically waggling pair of legs sticking up out of a roadside snowdrift at 3am. And yes, I am a bit nesh. But I’ll certainly be cycling again when the snow clears up. Assuming that security guard will sell me my bike back.
Till next time,
Reborn Commuter.
EDIT, four hours later: Ha! I cycled home in the teeth of the ice and the snow! If you’d told me 12 hours ago that I’d be doing that I’d have laughed hollowly before trying to block out your voice by hitting myself repeatedly on the ears with a bicycle inner tube, yet here I am at home in my cycling kit. How did that happen? I hear you ask. Well, I never really like not riding back from somewhere I’ve ridden to, and the weather had stopped being quite so horrible, so I thought I’d brave the ice. And I must say, it was quite fun, even if it was a bit lairy at times. But I’m still looking forward to the summer.
Filed under Bikes, Commuting
One of the most common issues which angers many motorists is that cyclists do not pay road tax. Cyclists shold pay the tax, they argue, before they should be allowed to ride on the road. Cyclists are tax-dodgers. Criminals. Hippies. The reaction of many cyclists when confronted with the statement you don’t pay road tax is the almost-instinctive neither do you, but I think that misses an important point. Perception.
That paper disc is important. For some drivers it is more important than not running low on fuel when the garage is closed. It is more important than checking tyre pressures or tread depth. It is important because it lets motorists drive their car. Motorists have to pay to use the road, so why are cyclists exempt?
Most motorists don’t care that Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is not road tax. It actually doesn’t matter that the money which is spent on the little paper disc which sits in the window does not go towards the road. It isn’t important. The argument that many (if not most) cyclists do pay VED is a moot point too. I own a car, currently two in fact, and pay my VED as appropriate. I pay VED for each vehicle – it doesn’t matter that I already pay it once for my other car. The tax needs to be paid for each vehicle. Motorists pay to use the road, cyclists don’t.
So what gives?
Let us spin back to the beginning, the idea that cyclists don’t pay for the road. They do, through their council tax. By and large, cyclists are not tax dodgers and pay their council tax, which in turn goes on to fund the building and maintenence of local roads. Cyclists also contribute to the general pot which funds motorways as well – they don’t get a rebate just because they can’t cycle on them. This is not to mention that regular cyclists are likely to be healthier and less likely to be a burden on the NHS. Cycling saves the tax payer money.
What was that about maintenance? Roads need to be paid for sure, but over time they get damaged and need to be repaired too. More costs mean more tax, and drivers often perceive that they pay more of it than cyclists.
So what damages the roads? Rain, ice, and vehicles are the major culprits. The heavier the vehicle, the more damage to the road. Even the heaviest bike doesn’t weigh as much as the average car… so it doesn’t do as much damage. Perfectly logical. What isn’t clear is just how many powers more damage a car does to the road than a bicycle.
Assuming fourth power axle weight ratio if a bicycle had a weight of half that of a car, the car would be causing approximately 16 times the damage to the road surface than the bike. A bike does not weigh half that of a car, but substantially less. Cars and heavier vehicles cause hundreds (or even thousands) of times more damage than a bicycle. Cycling, once again, saves the tax payer money.
This is not even including additional damage caused by air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, space used for parking, congestion, fatal and non-fatal “accidents” all of which is exacerbated by high vehicle usage. VED paid by the poor persecuted motorist barely makes a dent in the costs.
And – get this – VED is, in many cases, an entirely voluntary tax anyway. You don’t have to pay it if you don’t want to. This is no secret although it is rarely talked about. No one will strongarm you into signing the cheque, or drag you off to court. Saving that extra cash from the Government’s pocket is easy, and all it requires is to do something people have been doing since the dawn of man: live without the car.
The automotive industry has been hugely successful in promoting the lifestyle idea that cars are necessary. They are not. Desirable, maybe. Useful, certainly. However as a culture we have become dependant upon motorised transport by choice.
A case in point: each Saturday my wife and I walk into town to do our weekly shop whilst our neighbours drive. We arrive at the shops roughly the same time, once the neighbours have found somewhere to park, paid, and walked from the car park to the High Street. Now, it is certainly more convenient to use the car to transport the shopping back home, but is it really necessary? No, of course it isn’t, but they choose to drive because it suits them. It isn’t laziness (far from it) but it is a choice.
A cyclist does not pay “road tax” because they do not inherently pollute, and because they cause substantially less damage to roads than heavier motorised vehicles. They reduce the tax burden on other government and public departments, and help to reduce congestion.
See also:
Why do cyclists ride on the road?
Why do cyclists ride in the middle of the road?
Posted by admin on April 20, 2009 – 1:29 pm
What is a serious cyclist?
An interesting discussion has been raised by Bonj on the forums and it has left me wondering whether I am one or not?
I like to think I take my cycling seriously; I have lots of bike bling, two bikes, plenty of lycra, expensive helmet (there’s a whole other debate there!), and have several 50 milers under my belt.
However, I also chicken out and take the car if I’m running just a little bit late, and I can’t always drag myself out of bed on a Sunday morning to go training.
Let’s have your comments on what you think defines a serious cyclist?
Cheers,
Shaun 
Posted by Catrike UK on January 15, 2009 – 5:04 pm
Things were very hectic on the run up to Christmas so the new year has turned into catch up time with a few trikes still needing completing. Hence no posts for a while.
The weather as we know has been hitting us with very low temperatures and even some snow, many mornings I have been greeted by icey roads on my cycle to work which has been interesting to say the least. It is times like this that I realise I will never go back to two wheels, I have seen a few fellow commuters fall quite spectacularly in recent weeks. While you will not fall off a trike in the ice due to wheel slip, you still have to take care, if you slide and clip the kerb you can easily flip over, but with the right attitude, ice can turn from hazard to entertainment.
One of my first experiences of trikes that sticks in my mind from some years ago was sliding sideways round a fairly fast bent and coming across the local cycle club strewn across the road, up until this point said club members would not give me the time of day as I was on a recumbent trike. I stopped and helped various people up etc… and gave some mechanical assistance and to this day they all say hello. Although non have bought trikes they do now get their tyres and some servicing from me.
Now after some years of practice I get great enjoyment of inducing slides in the ice where safe to do so, wether it be in a car park or feigning panic as kids cross in front of me then scatter as they see this three wheeled death machine fishtailing towards them, it gives me a great sense of fun and control and encourages me to ride through the winter when I would normally take the car instead of risking two wheels. The trike really is an all year round commuter. I still want it to be warmer though
Posted by magnatom on August 25, 2008 – 11:41 am
It was the 25th March 2008. It was a fairly typical day at work, at least it was until I got a phone call from my wife.
Mrs Magnatom: You’re on lunch time news.
Me: What!?
Mrs Mag: Your on the STV lunchtime news! They are trying to find out who the ‘vigilante’ cyclist is, called Magnatom!
Me: Oh, poppycock! (Or words to that effect)
This was the first I knew of what would become a very interesting day….
I’d been posting my youtube videos for quite some time by March 2008. My videos seemed to be having an effect on those who viewed them. There were those who looked at my videos and thought my videoing of incidents was a good thing. Highlighting road safety issues, showing what happens on the roads when there is a cyclist about. There were also those that seemed to think I was the spawn of Satan. In fact I appeared to affecting people enough to gain my own cyber stalker.
Why people took such a dim view of me, I do not fully understand. I know that on one of the forums that I posted (bloodbus where I tried to reason, but I was often threatened and lied about), some would say I could come across as condescending when I tried to discuss road safety issues. Maybe I did come across like that, but it was never my intention. I just believe in the rights of cyclists on the road, whilst admitting that cyclists are sometimes their own worst enemies (i.e red light jumping, pavement cycling etc).
On bloodbus, a couple of characters took a particular dislike to me. Hamsters4breekie, The Paramedic (who allegedly died), HamiltonNutter and later Paramedsis (who claimed to be Paramedics sister) all took exception to me, mainly for the fact that was a cyclist, and all cyclists were scum. On one particular day though things got very nasty. Paramedsis claimed to be a policewoman working in Glasgow. She had provided quite a lot of details about her work, so it might have been true. HamiltonNutter had also claimed to have met her whilst working, so that backed up her story.
Anyway to cut a long story short Paramedsis made claims online that she had previously caught me for drink driving and that was why I cycled to work (not true of course!). A lot of commotion occurred at that point and after some research it was found that not only was she, not a police woman, but she probably wasn’t a she. In fact Paramedic, HamiltonNutter, and Paramedsis were all the same person and appeared to be out to discredit me!
Hamsters4breekie (I later found out who he was in the real world and he was another who had multiple online persona) did something similar, claiming that I had got him the sack from First Buses (since proven to be a lie with the aid of First).
 Shortly after all of the hullabaloo I started receiving death threats on my youtube and videos and one was sent privately to me. Things started to get nasty. The threats had obviously caught the eye of a freelance reporter because I received an e-mail message from him asking to chat to me about my videos and the abuse I was receiving(he mentioned the Sun, so I didn’t contact him). He decided to run a story on Magnatom anyway and an article appeared in the Sun (unbeknownst to me) on the 25th March 2008 (see left).
Obviously the STV caught site of this and decided to run the story as well. So without my knowledge the Sun and STV were asking people to phone/text in, if they knew who the ‘vigilante’ cyclists was. 
I was faced with a dilemma. Should I talk to the press, and reveal my identity, especially considering the threats that had been made against me, or should I remain quiet. The problem with remaining quiet was that I would have no control over what the follow up stories would be, especially in the Sun, although the first had been reasonably positive.
After having a chat with the police where they suggest that, as I wasn’t Marin Luther King, it was unlikely that anyone would go out their way to harm me, and after consulting with my wife, I decided to contact the STV and to do an interview with them. I hoped that in doing that I could get my point of view across and it would head off any negative press that the Sun might have been planning the next day.
Here is what resulted.
Following this, the sun posted an article the following day, where they took all of the text from what I said on the news interview, although the day after that in John ’smeato’ Smeaton’s column I got called an Al Qae Pedal cyclist (I laughed at that!). Overall though, the press was positive and my decision to do the interview with STV had worked out well. I even got on Radio Scotland a week later!
Thankfully, after that, things returned back to a more normal level of abuse and I started doing after dinner speeches at a reasonable fee. Ok I might not have any takers yet  . The death threats slowed to a trickle and most of the abuse I get now is of the get a life/job/car etc all of which I have, thanks!
Who knows, maybe out of all of it a few people might have realised that cyclists should have as much respect on the roads as everyone else, just as cyclists should respect others. Maybe a few drivers will think twice when driving around cyclists Does that cyclist have a helmet camera? And who knows, maybe I have increased the turover of a few companies that sell helmet cameras……..
Disclaimer: These views are not necessarily the views of Cyclechat.
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