mrtmullins

In June of this year, when riding my bicycle, I was involved in a collision with a car and I lived. I lived because I was on the bonnet of the car as it hit the building. A few inches lower and this would have been a very different story. Needless to say, my bicycle did not survive, neither did my shoulder, most of my left side nor did my mental health get off too lightly either. 

In the following months, there’s been plenty of rehabilitation, both physical and psychological, many uncomfortable journeys back on the bike and a lot of questions about why riding a bike in Manchester feels like a risk not worth taking. Maybe I should move jobs so I don’t have to put myself through the trauma of the commute again? Should I just drive my car in a city that says it wants to become the ‘European Capital of Cycling’ in 2024? 

The fact remains that whether you’re riding a bicycle, using a wheelchair, pushing a pram or trying to safely manoevre the streets around here in any manner, you are not a priority. You are not a priority when cars park on a kerb or right up to the edge of where two roads meet. You’re not a priority when vehicles park across a cycle path, when you have to weave in and out of cycle lanes to avoid obstacles or when you’re intimidated or blocked in a cycle zone at a traffic light. You’re not a priority when in order to safely get around, you need to use unlit, unsafe ‘designated’ cycle routes which take you far from your destination. 

Now, I get it. People will say that cyclists need to be accountable too. You’re right. There’s some lunatic cyclists out there. More and more with the use of electric bikes it seems. You’re also right that there is some investment in cycle infrastructure but let’s be honest, it’s entirely unreliable and varied depending on where you are. You’re also right to use your car if that’s what you want to do.

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This week, as part of our school’s UNICEF OutRight campaign on International Children’s Day, I asked my class’s Year 4 pupils how they get to school. Encouragingly, most said they walked. I asked how many of them cycled. None. Then I asked who would like to cycle to school, most put their hands up enthusiastically. I then asked one child why they don’t cycle if they want to. They simply said, “It’s not safe. My parents won’t let me.”

I will eventually get back to full health and hopefully feel happier back on the bike again, but what is harder to accept, is how our future generations may never get that chance. It is challenging to teach students the virtues and aspirations of an environmental future, when they wait for minutes to cross a road or they are too scared to get on two wheels.

All of this is not to say I expect things to dramatically change for cyclists. Politicians will talk, some will say I should do something more, and others will just disagree with me but, for now, putting these feelings into words has been at least therapeutic, and perhaps it will resonate with some of you, cyclists, teachers, environmentalists or otherwise. I’ll leave you with some simple but marvellous visions of what my students value in their local areas in the hope that we might think and listen a little.