So for the first time in my life I was unable to cycle to my place of work for the last few months. It was on the M9 at the outskirts of Stirling and as I live in the outer reaches of Edinburgh the automobile was the only practical means of arriving at 09h00 every day. I could have bought a second bike to leave at Stirling station and bike-train-biked it, but it would have taken twice as long at least to reach my desk, and also been logistically tricky kit-wise.
The practical upshot is that at the end of the project I've rarely felt so weak, fat, sad and short of fresh air. It was nice to have Radio 4 on there and back, but otherwise there really is nothing to be said for commuting by car, whether you're stuck on the bypass or sleep-driving at motorway speeds. And in the mad world of UK taxes, the cost of my motoring was of course deductible, so the citizens got to chip in to the cost of me fouling their air and rattling their windows.
So what of active travel culture in Stirling? It was a big office - about 3,000 employees I think. Huge car parking facilities, its own bus station, plenty of showers, but only six bike spaces and no changing room. Three of the bike spaces were occupied by fossil mountain bikes in various states of preservation. There seemed to be a small forest of other non-moving clunkers tied to odd posts.
The office actually can't be reached by foot from Stirling - there is no pedestrian entrance. I'll repeat that; there is no pedestrian entrance. I did try it once just for the LOLZ, but it reminded me of the part in Alasdair Gray's Lanark where the title character goes against the flow in The Institute.
The Stirling cycle paths stop just short of the office, tipping pedalistas onto a large high speed roundabout without any cycle space. There didn't seem to be more than a handful of brave souls willing to make the journey by bike - a few roadies seemed to be coming in from the busless tracts of the Trossachs.
Summary - I think I'll try to work in cycle range in future. I had lovely colleagues, but driving is noisy, boring, expensive and physically and mentally wearing. My last office meant a daily twenty mile round trip and left me fit and happy despite some tricky colleagues. The comparison is I think revealing.
posts
