It's Been a Year!

I just realized that the first anniversary of Cycalogical is here!

I've been a cyclist in London for many years now, and a year ago I realized that very little had changed for cycling this millenium. There seemed to be more cyclists on the road, but conditions were as lousy as they'd ever been barring a few spot improvements. Meanwhile we were ten years nearer irreversible climate change. The existing cycling organizations were failing to get their message across and in some respects campaigning for the wrong things. Inspired by a few excellent cycling blogs, I hoped I might be able to add something to the debate by starting my own.

This blog would be rather pointless without you, the audience. Thank you all for reading, thanks especially if you've left comments, and thank you even more if you blog and have linked to this one.

We certainly have lived in interesting times this year. We've had a change of national and local government. We've had the first CSHs and the London Cycle Hire scheme. Cycling has been increasing in London. I've also detected a change in the perception of cycling. A year ago, I was seeing quite a few anti-cycling stories in the media particularly from the likes of the Telegraph and Daily Mail. In contrast, recently the Mail did a sympathetic piece on Catriona Patel, and last weekend's Telegraph had three or four cycling stories in the Motoring section. Maybe they've figure out that their readership demographic is a pretty good match with cycling? In addition, the Standard (now under new ownership) has a progressive attitude. Of course, cycling conditions on the blacktop still haven't changed much, and the Coalition have disappointed with almost complete silence on cycling and a transport minister who doesn't know one end of bike from the other.
But my belief is that first we need to create the right conditions for change. Cycling needs to be seen in a positive light by the public and the media, and politicians need to realize there's votes in it. The only way to do this is by making a lot of noise, being evangelical and getting more people cycling!