Is cycling middle class? « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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Is cycling middle class?

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Started 12 years ago by chdot
Latest reply from sallyhinch

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chdot
Admin

The answer seems to be largely self evident - especially in Edinburgh...

But the question, and the next bit 'why don't other people cycle as much' has come up quite often in conversations and events I've been involved in recently.

This is in today's new Herald blog -

"
Gone are the days when cycling was solely the territory of Lycra-clad wiry bods. On my daily commute I see trendy hipsters on fixed gear models, chicly dressed women gliding past on what the Dutch call "omafiet" – or "granny bike" – and workmen in steel-toed capped boots rumbling along on mountain bikes.

"
This presumably refers to Glasgow, but it's not known if the writer has seen one or many in those categories.

Last night at the transport event, the subject was brought up.

Someone in the audience said 'it's because in Edinburgh the middle class live in the centre and (generally) the working class live around the edge'.

Edinburgh is fairly unusual in UK terms in this respect.

She went on to say that 'it's harder for people in Wester Hailes to cycle to work'. This got a round of applause.

That of course is a bad example because of the canal (other routes are available) and assumes that 'everyone' works in the city centre.

There are several people on here who live in the city centre and work in The Gyle/EP, so, to some extent that disproves the 'distance' theory.

Some years ago in the run up to Edinburgh's Active Travel Action Plan I was at a meeting which discussed (among other things) priorities for spending money.

The consensus was 'city centre, because that's where most people cycle'. One women was a lone dissenting voice - 'more money should be spent in areas where fewer people cycle'. There was some sympathy for this view, but the conclusion was to spend money 'where it would be most effective' - ie encouraging even more people to cycle were they already did.

Apart from the fear of the 'usual complaints' about the point of 'cycle facilities where no-one cycles' was this a bad call if the aim is to get more people (from a wider demographic) to cycle?

Posted 12 years ago #
amir
Member

Ignoring the demographic, it is more beneficial to get people to cycle from the outskirts into the centre than just leaving it to short distances in the centre. I notice these days that there seem to be quite a few cycling in from Midlothian. The "facilities" are not great but hopefully the numbers are rising.

A regular 5-10 mile journey has a much greater impact on health than a slow 1 mile journey. I am not sure how aware the general public are that this length of journey can be achieved comfortably.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"I am not sure how aware the general public are that this length of journey can be achieved comfortably"

That is definitely true. Most non-cyclists seen to imagine that two miles is 'impossible' for them. Getting them started is difficult, but doing it - away from traffic - usually convinces them that they can do it - and it can be fun.

Getting them to try cycling on-road is a different challenge.

Posted 12 years ago #
Instography
Member

If it's true that cycling offers a solution to many of the health problems Scotland faces and then it's perverse to argue that you shouldn't invest to encourage the people who most experience those problems to cycle. Because they don't cycle.

Posted 12 years ago #
Min
Member

Ha. The problem being that in Edinburgh, there are already several nice off-road bike tracks coming in from the outskirts (Wester Hailes being a good case). And they all fizzle out when you get to the centre. The centre is the "missing link" that needs to be addressed. Otherwise I would agree that the outskirts should get more attention.

Posted 12 years ago #
minus six
Member

If the demographic in question is people living in peripheral schemes, then these are often people who may be living quite chaotic lives within a restrictive environment.

Holding onto, and maintaining a bike over time under these circumstances is typically less than straightforward.

Posted 12 years ago #
amir
Member

"The centre is the "missing link" that needs to be addressed."

You're certainly correct there - I consider myself lucky not to have to pass through it regularly and can avoid it like the plague.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"living quite chaotic lives within a restrictive environment"

I don't think that really sums up the majority of people who don't cycle.

Posted 12 years ago #
minus six
Member

I don't think that really sums up the majority of people who don't cycle.

In the scheme, you mean?

You might have a bike for a while, and then suddenly you don't.

That might repeat, but eventually you just don't.

Posted 12 years ago #
Two Tired
Member

Holding onto, and maintaining a bike over time under these circumstances is typically less than straightforward.

Holding on to a bike in Edinburgh full stop can be generally less than straightforward!

Posted 12 years ago #
Morningsider
Member

I think that people's perception of their status has a lot to do with this. Middle class people are happy to cycle as they are generally confident in their position, and many tend to also have nice cars and houses. Rightly or wrongly, cycling is seen as a healthy lifestyle choice.

However, people in more deprived areas have none of these luxuries and cycling is generally considered the mode of transport of last resort. What does it say about you when you can't afford a car, the nice house etc. and are forced to cycle when people are bombarded with images of cars/houses/cash = success. We might think of cycling as a positive thing - but to many people it has negative connotations of poverty and lack of social status.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

@morningsider

A lot of truth in that.

I suppose one the key 'issues' is dealing with the second part of the last sentence.

Posted 12 years ago #
minus six
Member

Middle class people are happy to cycle

That's not really true though, is it?

Its a subset of a subset who are happy enough to cycle on an ongoing basis.

Or is getting the bike out of the shed once every few months on a sunny sunday afternoon, enough evidence of being happy to cycle?

Posted 12 years ago #
sallyhinch
Member

I wonder if this is mainly an Edinburgh (or big city) phenomenon? In Dumfries cycling does seem to cut across the demographics (assuming that the chaps in Celtic tops and tracky bottoms smoking cigarettes riding their full suspension mountain bikes along the pavement are not particularly middle class - I may be wrong) - and the school with the highest cycling rate locally is in the middle of the most deprived area of town. What is middle class is going out for a nice ride on Sunday or joining a cycling campaign (in my experience anyway). Or spending much time posting on a cycling forum...

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"I wonder if this is mainly an Edinburgh (or big city) phenomenon?"

Definitely Ed and Lon - Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle?

"the school with the highest cycling rate locally is in the middle of the most deprived area of town"

Has it always been like that or has the school (with or without outside help) done anything?

Posted 12 years ago #
crowriver
Member

I would say these stereotypes only hold true for cycling as transport. After all cars (and maybe the odd train/bus) are for transport in this country, or so the vast majority seem to assume. If you use a bike for transport, you are either poor and desperate, banned from driving, or a middle class eccentric/fashionista/eco-warrior.

Sport cycling seems exempt from these class distinctions in many ways, though one can argue having a 'bling' bike (whether road race, MTB, BMX, etc.) exclusively for sports use is a symbol of status/success. So cycling in that sense can be seen as 'aspiratonal' and this might help to explain why, in the class obsessed UK, 'sport' bikes (often used for leisure/utility) are the norm nowadays, whereas elsewhere in Europe city/utility bikes are the norm.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

@0_o I think Morningsider's point was more that middle class people are happy to cycle in comparison to 'working classes', which does effectively tie in with what you said about everyone in the schemes having their bikes nicked so they stop doing it. Ergo they are less happy to cycle because it's a pain in the proverbial, whereas middle classes are happy to cycle because they don't have that fear.

I think there's a lot in the 'social stigma' aspect of cycling. I grew up on a council estate, as the Tories were creating those aspirational 80s, which continued into the 90s. I used a bike or bus to get everywhere. I passed my driving test at 17, but didn't get a car till I was 20 (while friends at uni were bought cars by their parents, and debated getting a student loan that mum and dad would repay to buy a new stereo system). I think now there would be more pressure, as the aspirational legacy is now well-established, to have motorised conveyance.

Whereas the middle classes (of which I am now grudgingly one in terms of profession and disposable income, if not ever quite in my head - working in a law firm not having gone to private school and not playing golf and not having a German car is interesting) actually carry on the aspirational stuff because they can spend money on a 'fancy' bike, and they can tell their friends about the carbon fibre and the number of gears, and they have a set of friends and acquaintances who know they are well off, so wheeling out on a bike is not saying 'I can't afford a car', it's saying 'I'm wealthy enough to buy a car that I leave on the driveway'.

(I have once had a driver, near me (big red BMW) tell me I should get a car, implying heavily that I couldn't afford one).

Posted 12 years ago #
sallyhinch
Member

@chdot - re the school, I don't know. They've certainly had some investment (big bike racks and a rather random cycle path) but I don't think you get those levels overnight. I cycled past it in the depths of winter on a grim day and there were easily 20 bikes in the racks - now it's summer they're completely crammed.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"now it's summer they're completely crammed"

Think you need to 'investigate'.

Recently came across Ian Aitken (Cycling Scotland boss) with someone from Sciennes.

He seemed unmoved by criticism of Government policy of delivery of Bikeability by volunteers. Got more excited when told that much of the cycling stuff at Sciennes was due to enthusiasm of a staff member (and supportive Head Teachers).

'We need more Champions in schools."

Would be worth doing some research on 'champions' - how they are 'created' and look at some of the things they do.

A few years ago a couple of projects I was working on were "commended" at a Cycling Scotland conference. But I never got a call asking for more info or if I thought they could be 'replicated elsewhere'.

Posted 12 years ago #
sallyhinch
Member

@chdot - I shall do. I know the local iBike officer but she's only been in post less than a year. It *might* have been down to the GoSmart project in Dumfries but I doubt it because I don't think they concentrated much on schools. I will attempt to find out

Posted 12 years ago #
neddie
Member

@WC not having a German car

Ahem. The "BMW concept Mini"...

Definitely German in my book! ;)

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

Didn't have it while I worked in private practice - aha!

Posted 12 years ago #
Bhachgen
Member

Down here in Lancashire it seems to cut across demographics pretty well. Within my cycling club there are certainly members from a range of different backgrounds.

I see plenty of the "work boots, non-bike-specific high-viz, aging mountain bike, saddle too low" types on their way to work.

Working in schools it's always hard to gauge in advance of visiting the school what the cycling levels will be like. Sometimes I go to a school in a relatively deprived area of Manchester with virtually no nearby cycle infrastructure save a bit of paint on the road and find the bike racks full to bursting. Other days I'll be at a school in a smart-ish area of Warrington (north Cheshire town with decent off-road network which appears to have a relatively high modal share) and find the only bikes on the premises are those belonging to the kids doing bikeability that day.

Leaving aside class, background, employment status etc., it does seem to be a fairly "white" activity. That's more noticeable here where the ethnic make-up of the population is much more diverse than Edinburgh.

Posted 12 years ago #
fimm
Member

As a fully-paid-up member of the middle class myself... I think the answer is yes...

I think the point Willmington's Cow makes about being weathly enough to own a car and not use it is a good one. Or indeed, confident enough to say that owning a car isn't an essential requirement.

crowriver's point about cycling as transport vs cycling as leisure activity is a good one too.

(Is there anything to be made of the fact that two towns with high numbers cycling are Oxford and Cambridge? Possibly not - I think that the situation in Cambridge in particular is unusual because students aren't allowed to own cars (or something like that) because there simply isn't anywhere to park them.)

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"it does seem to be a fairly "white" activity"

Lot of truth in that too.

A lot being done to deal with that in London (particularly for women).

In Edinburgh a high proportion of the children who can't cycle seem to be from 'ethnic minorities' of various sorts - now including Poles.

I suspect in most cases it's because parents never learned to cycle (for whatever reason), but I've come across examples where the attitude seems to be 'only poor people cycle'.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"Is there anything to be made of the fact that two towns with high numbers cycling are Oxford and Cambridge?"

Yes.

Edinburgh (notably around The Meadows) is a 'university town' too!

Staff as well as students cycle.

Cambridge is also pretty flat so encourages cycling in that sense too.

Posted 12 years ago #
Instography
Member

If cycling being more prevalent among the least deprived quintile than the most deprived by a ratio of 2:1 makes cycling middle class then nationally, cycling is middle class. But in Edinburgh (with the caveat that the sample size is quite small) the difference is not so great - only 1.26:1.

The truth is we don't know why some people are more likely to cycle than others, especially within social groups. Even among the middle classes cycling is a fringe activity. Only 14% of the least deprived quintile cycle at all so 'class' has almost no explanatory power.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"But in Edinburgh (with the caveat that the sample size is quite small) the difference is not so great - only 1.26:1."

So, based on a small sample, Edinburgh has a more 'even' distribution - of the minority who do?

Are there stats over a number of years showing how (if) the ratio has changed?

Posted 12 years ago #
Morningsider
Member

Insto - interesting stats, I'm assuming they are from the National Travel Survey and/or the Scottish Household Survey.

I know SHS stats prove that higher earning households are far more likely to own bike(s) than lower earning ones - 66% of households earning over £40,000 have a bike when only 17% of households on less than £10,000 do. Which means that many middle class types at least have the option of cycling, whether they choose to do so or not.

I would also argue that the fact the least deprived fifth of the population are twice as likely to cycle as the most deprived is at least worth looking into - although it may well mean nothing.

Posted 12 years ago #
Dave
Member

Combining the two statistics in the worst possible lunch hour fashion, it seems that 66% of the best off have a bike but just 14% of them ride it (21% take up, relative to opportunity), whereas 11% of the most deprived cycle, despite only 17% owning bikes (65% take up)...

Posted 12 years ago #

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