GLC Cycling for London

[thom]

I saw this link from Jack Thurston & thought it might pique some interest/nostalgia:

1984 Film describing the work of the GLC and its Cycling Unit. Demonstrates the huge changes in cycling in London over the last thirty five years. Director J.R.Davies.

apologies if already posted elsewhere

 

[thom]

Amazing to see some of the cycling infrastructure around town, like on Waterloo bridge, is essentially the same as 30 years ago.

I love the bit at 14.30 where Dick Jones from the GLC cycling project (and @dellzeqq may be interested to see him wearing a delicious pair of Breton reds), does a shot to camera on a bike bang in the middle of traffic outside Paddington. He then rolls off gently past a car and you catch a line from the Bee-Gees "Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive…".

I saw no cycle helmet usage but a few kids cycling blithely through the traffic

 

[ianrauk]

Not much lycra either.

Filmed the year after I started cycle commuting.

 

[dellzeqq]

Astonishing stuff! Paul Moore in a suit!

 

[Roadrider48]

Ahhhh! The 1980's....the best time of my life and the best music too.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I had a girlfriend who lived in Somerstown in the 80s. I was up there a year or so ago and that bit of cycle infrastructure isn't there any more. Neither is she. Shame really, she was a very naughty girl.

 

[robjh]

People cycling in everyday clothes, and without alien headgear! The classic bikes! All the Routemaster buses! I want to go there.

(actually wait a minute, I was there, or at least a year later when I started commuting up the A24. No cycle superhighway then, that was real urban cycling......)

 

[buggi]

wot no helmets !!! lol. Great film. What happened? They were doing so well! We could be Dutch by now if they'd kept the momentum

 

[green1]

wot no helmets !!! lol. Great film. What happened?

They all died obviously. Nothing that definitely saved their lives when they had a minor spill.

 

[theclaud]

@zimzum42 will be pleased to hear that I blame Thatcher.