I was getting back to my roots earlier this week, which gave me the opportunity to revel in the cycling culture of the Silver City.
At home from work time, which is 17h01 for oilies, the streets were thronged with squads of fully cycle-kitted commuters on lovely bikes. So much so normal, but certainly in the leafy west end there was a crucial difference to what you would see in Edinburgh. I was gobstruck to see adult after adult confidently pedaling along the pavements. Helmets, lycra, nice MTB all-weather gear, carbon road bikes, you name it, all streaming home along the footpath.
This seemed to be a response to two environmental cues;
1) The roads were fair stappit wi muckle 4x4s
2) There didn't appear to be any actual pedestrians
I was forced to ask myself what I'd do if I lived there. Some of the advisory cycle lanes were death-traps, placed where the drivers of speeding cars had no option but to enter them (though they clearly had the option to slow down or take the bus).
Having got back to Edinburgh it feels like Christiana by comparison. It put me in mind of speciation, the process where a population of one organism splits into two new ones if a barrier arises that prevents migration and interbreeding. It feels like Edinburgh and Aberdeen are going in very, very different directions. I take my polystyrene bicycle hat off to those grizzled campaigners who have kept the roads of Edinburgh cyclable. Anyone who thinks they haven't achieved much should trundle north to see where we might now be but for their efforts.
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