Change

It can be very frustrating being a cycle campaigner. The evidence is clearer every year how beneficial cycling is on so many levels. Other cities have cycling levels an order of magnitude greater than London's. Yet nothing seems to change. The officials in charge - even the ones that 'get it' - achieve little, the politicians are too cowardly to take on the parochial forces and vested interests that conspire against change.

I would suggest that we should not lose heart. Change actually happens very quickly. What takes time is creating the right conditions for change. Every person who starts cycling is part of that process. Every person you convince about cycling, every sympathetic newspaper article, every person who notices that more of their friends or colleagues are cycling is part of that process. That's why the Cycle Hire and Cycle Superhighways are important. They are far from perfect, but they do get cycling into people's conciousness as a normal, legitimate mode of transport. So although it may appear that nothing is changing, the conditions for change may slowly be being achieved.