One quick caveat before I get going…….these are my personal views, they don’t necessarily reflect those of my colleagues and are heavily biased towards promoting cycling in any form (surprise, surprise). Right then <click of knuckles> here we go…..
Reading a tweet from Cardiff Cycle Chic is usually a very pleasant experience. Contained within its 160 characters will be a link taking you to a page with a decent picture of a chic cyclist or a nice bit of video with an equally upbeat message; Cycling is practical, good for the heart and better for the soul. Sadly not today. The link takes you to an image of a South Wales Echo billboard: “Bike Hire Scheme to be scrapped”.
Add it to the endangered species list - The OY bike
OYbikes are (were?) Cardiff’s answer to the hugely successful Paris Velib, The Boris bike of London and equivalent schemes in Reading and Sheffield. For low cost you can hire a bike for a day, a week (or more) and learn all about accessing the city on two wheels. The potential to prove that cycling is possible, fun, healthier and quicker to visitors and residents not currently equipped with their own bicycle. Dotted around the city, their yellow frames and baskets made them obvious and accessible. It spoke volumes about the city that deployed them and the people who chose to use them. Recently I’ve noticed more and more people using OYbikes, often in groups of two’s and three’s. To hear that the rug is going to be pulled on them is both massively disappointing in the short term and downright worrying in the long term. With planned expansions of cycling lanes in the city and a promotion of cycling activities, the decisions sits at odds with the council’s own statements;
Cycling is a low cost and convenient way to travel. Increasing the number of journeys made by bike in Cardiff is an important part of developing a more sustainable transport system.
Cycling is good for the city and will help to reduce car use, congestion and air pollution, and improve accessibility, making Cardiff a safer and more pleasant place to live. The increase in physical activity through cycling will also improve people’s health.
Cardiff Council – I couldn’t have put it better myself. You can read this statement and more about the council’s policies here.
Cardiff is perfect and I mean PERFECT to be a model cycling city. Lots of green space. A vibrant city centre. Commuters pouring into the city in their 1000s and vying for limited and expensive parking. It’s flat (mostly). It has the Taff Trail. It has a cycling track. It’s the home of Tour De France star and Olympian Geraint Thomas and several up and coming riders. It has a multitude of active cycling clubs (including mine). It’s a city that professes to have ambition. On the strength of this decision however, it’s failing the motorists as much as it’s failing the cyclists. If you are a motorist, I’m sorry to have to tell you, but your commute won’t get any quicker with a further reduction in bikes. Bicycles take unnecessary vehicles off the road and leave space for people that genuinely need to use motor vehicles. With decisions like this, we’re all worse off. We might be Europe’s youngest capital, but in this department I’m not convinced of any youthful energy and I’m quite unconvinced by any vision. As a resident, I’d hoped for much more from the ‘Proud Capital’. In the age of austerity I can see how funding might be pulled from a project, I really can. I also fully recognise that finding a corporate sponsor will save the OYbike. However with community wide benefits that affect all of society, why should we be relying on the private sector? As a minimum we certainly shouldn’t be pulling funding early. Can you really imagine the scheme being deployed again in the future if removed? This is where the Council can really excel and have an opportunity to shine. Keep supporting it. Develop its own cycling Tsar (no blog piece like this is complete without saying ‘Tsar’). Show every visitor, resident and commuter that the city has plans. We should not lose sight of the bigger picture. Taking more cars off the road saves money in the long run, improves our environment (in the whole sense) and improves health.
If you feel strongly about this, add a tweet to the #saveOYbike hash tag and let Cardiff Council know how disappointing this decision really is. There’s still time for OYbike. Let’s help the scheme enjoy a little more.
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