Yours is an excellent comment and I couldn’t agree more. I also find a contradiction the message of many aristogreens and political figures (no names) when they go to work by bycicle and have an expensive car at home. Sometimes, the bycicles they have may be as expensive as a the second hand cars that working class people have to use, because there are no regular buses to go to their low paid jobs.
We can choose between cars and on foot, but many people cannot choose. They have to go long distances to find water, for instance.
There is no freedom when there is no choice.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/roadsafetyconsultation/

But the govt have recognised that road safety is important and related to sustainability and social inclusion.

CTC (cyclists touring club- AA/RAC for cyclists) have a safety in numbers campaign. This recognises that more cycling tends to lead to fewer casualties-see Edinburgh/London etc .
The main problem UK cyclists face is that there are so few of them. Democracy can be bad for minorities.

The English cycling towns project is a good idea-focusing govt funds on towns like Durham and trying to build up the cycle traffic to a self-sustaining and self-protecting level in one place.

Big business prefers cars too, hence the attitude of much of the corporate media who hype cars and often ignore bikes. Big business tell the govt what to do. Cycles out sell cars in the UK, with 3m bikes imported annually (cars sales about 1.7 million). Exact figures hard to come by.

UK car sales are still collapsing (90% of car sales are on credit )and I am hoping for a follow on crunch when second hand cars start to become scarce/expencive/worn-out. I am hoping this will cut car use and make road cycling conditions easier.

I think encouraging recreational cycling on paths (and center parcs ) is worth supporting cos it allows people to learn to cycle. Confident riders are much more likely to have a go at commuting on real streets.

The revolution will not be motorised!

Back in England, on a local bike trip, a bus driver drove straight across a mini-roundabout to cut me off and overtake me, because he didn’t want to wait until I had cycled 1/4 of the distance (a few metres) and entered the new lane in front of him.

We didn’t experience anything like this anywhere in France, where drivers are also held liable for cyclists’ safety.

We do need the legislation, and we need it quickly. We managed in the UK to put a ban on drink-driving; we’ve managed to get used to no smoking inside public places–both ‘unpopular’ pieces of legislation that have been accepted with little complaint. We need the government to make the change in the Highway Code.

Does anyone know a likely MP would would be willing to table such an Early Day Motion, to ‘get the ball rolling’?

It is estimated that 90% of average weekly travels are due to commuting to work. That is producing most of the Co2 emission. The Scottish Government published an excellent report about this fact and the impact of e-work (telework) on transport. I used the report try to promote a telework policy in my work. In the UK only 18% of the current workers are allowed to telework. Companies are holding cultural conceptions and schemes which are a legacy of the Industrial Revolution.In the Society of Knowledge, work should not be conceived as a “place” or a “timetable”, but an activity or a cognitive process. Yet, for that, we need a cultural change, we need to build a society based on mutual trust, in which managers do not to “watch” their employees, to check if they are working or not.

The amount of cycling dosn’t happen by accident – if you compare the amount of cycling in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Brussels the differences came about though government intervention.

One factor is fear by cyclists of car drivers. Here legislation could make a difference as there are many stories where drivers have not been prosecuted even when a cyclist has been killed. Where the onus is on the vehicle driver to take care of the cyclists such as Netherlands the level of perceived safety increases.

Taking a bike on public transport is possible in the UK but often not easy – (e.g. try changing trains at Clapham Junction; poor space provision on new trains; refusal of buses/coaches to take bikes etc).

If there was a wider choice and availability of good priced bike trailers than there is currently this would also help to make it possible for more journeys by bike.

Once one converts to using a bike rather than car, one starts to see the places around oneself in a different way. Anything within about 10 miles is possible to travel to casually and increases reliance on making more use of local services.

So it seems to me to increase more journeys by bike requires a mutli pronged approach both by legislators, organisations such as Sustrans and individuals.