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CYCLING TRAINING
There ought to be a word for the fear of cycling in cities. Most of the research into why people don't cycle has found the reason is simple: they are scared. A 2007 report by the Department for Transport, found that 47% of adults "strongly agree that the idea of cycling on busy roads frightens me'".
I am one of these people. When I am forced to think about why I have avoided cycling in cities, I have to admit I am scared. I had the traversing of a city on two wheels marked off as an extreme sport. This is not because I have had some awful bike experience.
It is simply because I am chicken.
I have pretended that this is not the case. I have proclaimed that I just like walking. Or said that I don't have a bike. I tried that excuse when I was asked if I would try out one of the Essential Cycling skills training sessions run by Cycling Scotland.
So, I borrowed a bike. Level one of my training took place in the Meadows, Edinburgh, on - to my horror - grass. There were small plastic cones on the ground. Seeing the cones, I wanted to protest that I could ride a bike, without stabilisers, and that my problem was
just fear of roundabouts and junctions and roads where drivers, Hke myself, acted like maniacs. But this is where we start, going round in tight wobbly circles, trying to clap hands with other riders or, later, riding in straight lines and being told to turn as we cycle and look backwards and count the fingers my instructor is holdng up. Being safe on the road, I am told, is about being comfortable on your bike. "The biggest barrier holding people back is the
perception of danger," says Matthew MacDonald of Cycling Scotland. "The training we deliver addresses a lot of the barriers that people face."
One of my problems with city cycling is that I've never known the rules, beyond a few hand signals I was taught by a policeman at school. And this is why cycle training is the solution; the truth is I'm only scared because I don't know what I'm doing.
On this first, adapted session, they do, finally, let me out on to the road, and the real eye-opener is positioning. I am told to imagine two tracks on the road and the first, the main one, is in the left hand wheel line of the car. This rule is a revelation since my instinct would have been to hug the gutter. Even knowing this increases my confidence. I find myself wanting a bike, annoyed that I never had one. I imagine I might get over my fears and become that brave urban warrior, the cyclist.
VICKY ALLAN
Cycling Scotland runs the Essential Cycling Skills course through Edinburgh Bike Co-op, and is launching the courses in Glasgow on November 30 at Glasgow Bike Station. See http://www.cyclingscotland.org
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