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Downsides of Cycling Outweigh the Upsides

(21 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from crowriver

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I had a moment of epiphany listening to the radio yesterday, a realisation of the fundamental difference of the view of cycling between those who cycle or want to cycle and those who don't.

    Jeremy Vine's show doesn't normally give such insights into the psyche of the human race, but this was a moment of clarity.

    There was a doctor on, and they were talking about running and the health benefits but also things like how to avoid damage to your knees. Someone emailed in saying avoid damage to your knees by cycling. The doc agreed, and followed up by confirming that she did her rounds by bike. Hurrah!

    Cue Vine [rough quote]: "So with cycling you don't get the same associated problems with your knees, your joints are protected. Of course there is the downside that you might get hit by a truck."

    Doc then explains that you need road sense and she wears a hi-viz tabard and a helmet. You could hear that she was defending cycling, but it did kinda confirm there was a danger.

    But this is what I took from it (and the reason for this thread). For the cyclist, yes, we have to admit, there is a chance (no matter how small) that we will be squished by a lorry. But for the better fitness and consequential better health; that sense of well-being; the stress relief; not to mention getting to and from work more quickly and cheaply; it's worth taking that chance.

    For the non-cyclist, possibly because they don't have the tangible benefits staring them in the face of that better fitness and so on, that chance seems a daft one to take. And why? Possibly because it's a view peddled on national radio without any real counterpoint showing just how teeny that chance is.

    Danger and difficulty of cycling are in the sub-conscious thought of the majority. And we have precisely no-one on mainstream television or radio telling them that this is not the case. Until we do, for the non-cyclist, I reckon the downsides will always outweigh the upsides. More than that, I think paint on the roads; and people dressed in 'normal' clothes, is truly missing the point. Neither will counter that sub-conscious thought.

    We need a telerevolution! *holds fist in the air*

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. wingpig
    Member

    If you were paying attention in GCSE science rather than staring out of the window daydreaming about contract law you might remember the concept of 'activation energy' in reactions, as in the thing effectively 'lowered' by a suitable catalyst. Similar to the thing with friction whereby a force greater than that required to maintain motion against dynamic friction is required to initiate the motion against static friction. We need to work out what the socio-economic equivalent of a catalyst or traction is.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Stepdoh
    Member

    Cash and sex are the universal catalysts, no?

    So no petrol and tight clothing mean cycling should be on to a winner.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. wingpig
    Member

    We know what the benefits are and know of the various things we experience which we consider the rewards of what we're doing - the wind in the face, the 'whoosh' effect, the feeling of the tyre biting the ground through the wheel through the chain through the crank through the sole of the feet up to the muscles of the leg, but we need a way of packaging these and selling them to the noncycling public. Some are jaded through the faster (though not necessarily greater) 'whoosh' of the cornering car, or don't walk enough to be able to appreciate how much faster cycling is than walking (instead only seeing it as slower and sweatier than driving). Loss of human-scale perceptions through the overuse of cars might mean that the own-effort-input-reward feelings (not available through normal driving) need to be emphasized. They might perceive sweat as entirely unpleasant and smelly and uncomfortable rather than something to appreciate as it evaporates, coolingly.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. custard
    Member

    suppose this can be supported by my coworkers reaction
    I was in dropping off my sick line (my ever caring work were hassling me 1 week after my OP) at work.
    couple of collegues came up to me and the comments were "you will be back to the car","giving up on the bike"
    now had I been knocked donw on foot or had a car crash. would they have been saying was I giving up walking or driving?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. Stepdoh
    Member

    Kinda like:

    http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2011-02-09

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. wingpig
    Member

    Somewhere along the way "get back on the horse which has thrown you" must have become "stay off the horse foreverafter and use it to make glue to stick the dials into the dashboard of the car you get to replace it".

    If I hear of a friend or colleague having a car-scrape I pointedly refrain from asking if they'll be refraining from practising the obviously-proven-dangerous car-driving in the future in case they didn't trigger that I'd be doing it pointedly in response to the sort of thing Custard mentions. Because insurance makes it so relatively easy (and in some cases effectively compulsory when the write-off threshold is breached) for owners to fix/replace dinged cars it's effectively encouragement to keep driving despite mis-hap.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. LaidBack
    Member

    ]In cars minor accidents are 'bumps' or 'shunts' - this term often used on road reports. Some people die in these of course but the main focus is on the inconvenience to others... Car use is so common and democratic that the swarm doesn't worry about individuals that much;-)
    Non-comformist road users such as motorbikers, cyclists and (God forbid) triek users are 'not to be encouraged'.

    Have a look at this total belief in how safe cars are http://www.naden.de/blog/bbvideo-bbpress-video-plugin -->

    [+] Embed the video | SmartCar versus concrete barrier at 70mph
    " target="_blank">Video Download    		Get the Flash Video
    I think no-one could have survived this but somehow it is presented as positive!

    This video and the reassuring presenter analysing it is so different from cycling. As Anth says there is no equiivalent rational look at road use from anywhere else. Even BBC Alba has got a Gaelic version of TopGear! Air An Rathad

    When I cycle today I'll be perceived as being at risk. I am of course at risk by some people in cars too busy believing the 'safety' hype to pay attention.

    In machines we trust.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. Uberuce
    Member

    I was encouraged by my lady friend, but my catalyst was riding halfway to work the evening before I actually rode to work, and finding that laughably easy.

    One proviso here is that I'm able to run along the Union towpath almost all the way to the office, then nip down that deserted road at the back of Hermiston Gait and onto the cycle lane there. I no longer do that since I'm not feart of cycling in traffic any more, but I certainly was at the time.

    Another proviso is that I was lucky enough to have an elder sister who could bully my parents into buying her a reasonable bike and then not ride it very much.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. Smudge
    Member

    @laidback, nasty yes, but imho survivable for a relatively normal healthy individual (wearing their seatbelt). Were I the first aider running towards that wreckage I'd be expecting (probably severe) leg injuries, maybe concussion, some other bumps and scrapes and possible breaks depending what their arms hit inside the cabin, but certainly I'd not expect a dead person unless they had some pre-exisiting medical problem.

    That said, the difference in attitude is indeed frustrating and unhelpful :-/

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. Roibeard
    Member

    @Smudge - I think the deceleration of the internal organs might be the main problem. Internal bleeding is a major issue for survivability of high speed collisions, and isn't that easy to protect against. Whilst the cabin remained intact, I'd be expecting beautiful corpses...

    Mind you, I'm not a (para)medic, just a first aider!

    Robert

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. Instography
    Member

    I can see what you're saying but I actually think people's perceptions of cycling as probably difficult and potentially dangerous are not unreasonable. My experience of recently getting started again was that the first three weeks were pretty miserable. But I knew that's what it would be like - I'd been there before - and just needed to be gotten over until the basic cardiovascular and muscular toning had been done. For any new exercise, if you're putting in a reasonable effort, you're going to be sweaty and experience some soreness in the bits that are unaccustomed to being used. It's pretty unavoidable. Like the pain of childbirth, most cyclists tend to forget those first weeks soon after they've gotten past them. Or maybe they've been cycling continuously since childhood and have never needed to get restarted. Whatever it is, cycling's easy because you're already a cyclist.

    Given the number of reports here of near misses and not misses, it's reasonable for people to think that cycling is potentially dangerous. It is. OK, it might be very unlikely that you'll be squished by a bus but if you're not sold on cycling why would you even take what little risk there is? It's risk easily avoided.

    That's the downsides but the benefits are all jam tomorrow. The downsides are ever-present and tangible and staring you in the face (you can get squished any day). The benefits only accrue after some time, some discomfort and some facing of the risks. Some of those benefits - the additional years of life - are theoretical or at least epidemiological.

    I don't think people in the media proselytising that cycling is easy and safe will counter that. It's not true. I think the issue is more to discover the various motivations that will over-ride those concerns and get people to at least try cycling for long enough to begin to appreciate it. But when you say it like that you can see that it's a pretty hard sell.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. Morningsider
    Member

    On a day like today it's easy to see why people choose not to cycle - wet, windy, cold, dark. Add in perceptions of danger and many people conclude that cycling isn't for them.

    I would go further than Insto though and suggest that most people never think of cycling, ever. It's not that they have thought about it as an option and disregarded it. I doubt that most people even get that far.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Smudge
    Member

    @Roibeard, like you just a first aider (though I have friends "in the trade"! must ask them..), but a long term casual motorsports watcher (as well as reformedish petrol-head). Watch motorsports and you'll see that humans are capable of surviving huge deceleration, if the safety cell does its job and the restraint system (seatbelt) is up to the job.
    That's how a formula driver can hit a concrete barrier at speeds which knock him out yet suffer no other significant injury. Grand Prix has had a number of these incidents. If however the seatbelt has slack or the cage/cell collapses then all bets are off :-/

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. LaidBack
    Member

    ....would expect bad whiplash at 70mph even if cage did its job?

    Anyway... about normalising cycling. I watched the Killing II a Danish drama set in the cycling heaven aka Copenhagen. The body count was high. The bike count was low!

    I immediately switched off (just joking!)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. chdot
    Admin

    “50 Ways the new bike can change your life”

    http://www.velorution.biz/2012/01/on-bicycles-edited-by-amy-walker

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. Uberuce
    Member

    Instography makes a good point. We can't say that cycling is good exercise and say it's easy and comfortable in the same breath. That's just not the way exercise and fitness work.

    Until I read his post I had conveniently forgotten that after my first week my nethers felt like I'd attacked them with a power sander. Perhaps I could have avoided that with a gel saddle and padded shorts, but I wasn't going(and still am too cheap) to shell out for them.
    A lumberjack could probably use my hinteryarble to sharpen his axe these days.

    I suspect that the underlying cause is that like erring, to laze is human. When you can't be bothered to do something, the excuse to take the harder route can be exceptionally flimsy, while the flaws of the easier one can be glossed over with a very slinky brush.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. crowriver
    Member

    When you can't be bothered to do something, the excuse to take the harder route can be exceptionally flimsy, while the flaws of the easier one can be glossed over with a very slinky brush.

    Sums up most of my car addicted friends and relatives to a T!

    What I find illogical though is that they are prepared to work longer hours, take two jobs (eg. if a couple), etc. in order to afford this 'convenience'. I think it's a lifestyle thing: look at my 4 bed detached, look at my expensive car, look at my mahoosive flat screen TV (© Anth 2011): I'm a success!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. Uberuce
    Member

    I'm missing a negative there, oops. Ought to be 'excuse not to take the harder route'.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. Uberuce
    Member

    Shaun Keaveny's show on Friday had a gentle dig at Jeremy Vine's cautionary line; he'd say how he planned a safe outdoors activity like picking fruit, then dub in Vine's clip, and then reconsider.

    No idea whether it's pure whimsy on Keaveny's part, or whether he's a cyclist and disagrees with Vine's point. Amusing to me, either way.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. crowriver
    Member

    Yes, that was hilarious! Heard it while fixing breakfast and lots of threads connected.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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