Related to the other poll.
Rather than what you might choose having been habituated cycling, maybe it would be interesting to see how cyclists got about before hopping on their beloved bikes.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
How did you travel before you cycled?
(12 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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Although I use all those modes of transport, I only ticked 'bus' because that's the one I have largely replaced by the bike. Once you've tasted the freedom of using a bike, going back to the bus feels like a definite retrograde step. All the other modes still have their uses
Posted 11 years ago # -
@sallyhinch, I agree. I prefer to walk rather than get the bus if cycling's ruled out for whatever reason.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I suppose (while you're in the polling mood) another interesting question is which mode of transport does the bike replace? A lot of the public benefits that are supposed to come from increasing cycling are based on the assumption that people are increasing their activity levels (better health), switching from the private car (reduced congestion, pollution) or switching from an overcrowded form of public transport (in London, some of the assumed 'revenue' from the Boris bikes is calculated in terms of tube journeys avoided, which means less spending by TfL on upgrading lines, running more trains etc). So me switching from the village bus (1.5 miles walk away) probably is a net cost to society as I was often the only passenger and almost always the only person who ever actually paid for a bus ticket, everyone else being a pensioner or a schoolchild.
Not that you'd get me back onto the bus, even for the greater good of the village, unless I'd broken my arm or something.
Posted 11 years ago # -
For me a bike replaces a car.
I don't have a Aldi/Morrisons etc in easy walking distance and even less easy walking back with a bag of stuff.
In school a bike replaced walking. The school was a couple of miles away but the bus went into Ayr and then back out so walking was faster than the bus and cycling was faster still. I could go home for lunch if I felt like it… or if I'd forgotten my homework.
If they question means how did I get around on my own before I used a bike then it would be walking as I was far too young to drive, busses weren't that much faster for getting into Ayr town centre and I couldn't afford them anyway.
If I wasn't getting around under my own steam then it was a car. We used to live on the B730 a mile from the bus route on the A70 just east of Coalhall. If we were going outwith Ayrshire then it was Saltcoats or Glasgow to see relatives and we used the car. The first time I cycled from Ayr to Glasgow I'd have been 14. I'd done Ayr - Saltcoats for a couple of years before that.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was bus before bike.
Posted 11 years ago # -
A ridiculous poll, cycling isn't a religion, you don't 'convert' to cycling from something else. I've always had a bike since my earliest childhood memories and my childhood enjoyment of cycling developed into a heartfelt passion that has stayed with me my whole life. But that doesn't stop me from driving or using public transport or walking when it suits me.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Charterhall, I don't think it was mentioned that cycling would be the sole mode of transport. That wasn't the focus of the question at all. However if you do cycle at least part of the time, it stands to reason it replaced at least part of another mode.
So we'll put you in the 'pram / buggy' category then? (Just a bit of fun all this anyway). I didn't learn to cycle until I was 13. The main mode it partly replaced was walking, and some bus trips.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Depends where I lived or was working. When I were a lad living in Gorgie and working in town, and when I was older and in town, it displaced a bus journey, usually a city sprinter! When I lived up Drum Brae and worked in Gorgie, it replaced the car since the bus to work was somewhat unreliable (the 1).
Now I work at the gyle a short distance from my house it saves me a walk, which I was looking forward too when I changed jobs but turns out 15 minutes at walking speed is a rubbish way to get around.
Posted 11 years ago # -
60 miles a day on the A14. Now cycle half that on the N75.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"However if you do cycle at least part of the time, it stands to reason it replaced at least part of another mode."
Not if you previously didn't do the journeys you now do by bike. So that meant I had to vote for the "didn't get about the place much" option which makes me feel a little sad.
Posted 11 years ago # -
+1, as they say. I rode a bike as soon as I was old enough, and my main transport has been a bicycle ever since, interspersed but not replaced wholesale with periods of car and motorbike ownership.
Posted 11 years ago #
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