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Chris Boardman at the Get Britain Cycling InquirySolution to obesity, pollution, congestion and social issues is ‘glaringly, frighteningly simple’ says Boardman
“We have a long way to go,” says Chris Boardman in response to a British Cycling survey which found that 93% of its members have safety concerns when riding on the road. British Cycling’s policy advisor will appear at a national government conference in Bristol today to speak of a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ to change the country for the better through investing in cycling.
Boardman was responding to a survey of British Cycling’s 100,000 members which revealed that 93% have safety concerns when riding on the road. In calling for more investment, he points to the government’s own studies which confirmed that investing in cycling gives a 5:1 return. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that now is a once in a lifetime opportunity to change this country for the better for us and our children.”
Cycling is an obvious solution to many current issues, he says – but one which demands investment.
“Obesity is not only killing 37,000 people in the UK every year, when all the effects are factored in, it’s costing us almost one billion pounds every week. A large part of the solution to this problem – not to mention pollution, congestion and social issues – is glaringly, frighteningly simple.
“For these problems to be solved, the solution needs to be invisible, built into our everyday lives, unnoticed. The solution is in how we move. British Cycling’s member survey highlights that, in this present moment, even regular cyclists are concerned for their safety on our roads. We have a long way to go."
Cycling Minister Robert Goodwill recently revealed that the Department for Transport currently allocates just 0.7% of its total budget to cycling despite around 2% of all journeys in Britain being made by bike. However, this looks set to rise as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will today announce £214m in cycling funding. The money will be divided between the Highways agency and eight cities which have previously received Cycle City Ambition funding.
However, Sustrans chief executive, Malcolm Shepherd, contrasted the amount being given to cycling with the £24 billion the coalition has earmarked for spending on roads. Both Sustrans and CTC have backed the call for annual investment in cycling of at least £10 per person.
In the British Cycling survey, the top hazards listed were unsafe road surfaces and vehicles overtaking too closely. Vehicles travelling too quickly and cycle lanes that are too narrow or which stop suddenly were also considered common problems. The top priority for British Cycling members was mutual respect between all road users, closely followed by the need for protected space on main roads.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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If you want to know people's attitudes to healthy living would be if they HAD to pay for their own healthcare, look to the USA.
"The NHS should be a safety net, not something relied upon and the first port of call to resolve self inflicted problems"
Why? Who is going to decide what's self-inflicted? You're on a very slippery slope if you take that viewpoint. If you get your arse crushed by a truck while you're cycling, is that self-inflicted? You chose to ride, knowing that it has risks.
As much as I shudder at the thought of becoming a vegetarian... don't even get me started on veganism - I agree that it will answer so many of the worlds problems.
However, so would simply sticking the price for meat up. Tax the backside out of it, make it the luxury food source that it should be.
Interestingly, I was out on my bike on Tuesday night thinking about my safety. And I feel less safe on the roads at night now then I did say 5 years ago.
This is despite local roads not getting busier, local accident rates static, infrastructure improving if anything, as well personally utilising far better lights, and reflective equipment.
In summary, my growing safety fear is not rational.
Thinking about why I feel this way, some of it will be because I am now a father, have responsibilities etc, some of it will simply be because I am older, but really, its mainly because of the abundance of press coverage/material I read there telling me how dangerous it is out there.
Now I have 25 years experience to help me overcome these safety reservations... I can't see why anyone would start cycling based on the scaremongering that is left unchallenged in our press.
Absolutely agree with the above. The high carb, low fat diet has coincided with the explosion in obesity and diabetes that we see today. It's hardly a glowing endorsement.
Also, lack of fats in the diet is being increasingly linked to Alzheimer's.
There's a lot of good information in the 'Eat right for your type books'. http://www.dadamo.com/
Explains the differences in blood types and the different foods / lifestyle they each require.
I agree that the low carb diet is the way to go for many people but I'm not so sure about linking directly to blood type. There seems to be good evidence that, as the website claims, there is a large genetic component to an individuals susceptibility to T2 diabetes but I think it's more complex than just blood type.
Regarding Alzheimer's, from what I've read, it seems to be linked to excess insulin rather than lack of fats. The buildup of amyloid plaques (which is a key indicator of Alzheimer's) is thought to be caused by excess insulin using up the enzyme which is normally used to clear the amyloid proteins and stop them forming into plaques.
Early to mid stage T2 diabetes is characterised by elevated insulin levels and some researchers are now calling Alzheimer's T3 diabetes.
Try searching google for "alzheimer's insulin resistance"...
The Eat Right for Your blood Type diets don't stand up to scientific scrutiny:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/blood-type-diet-debunked/
Alzheimer's is linked to diets HIGH in animal fats ie. low carb diets that substitute healthy plant based carbs for toxic animal proteins and fats:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/alzheimers-disease-grain-brain-or-meathead/
I don't think the early comments about meat relate to the health impacts of eating it as such, it's more about the environmental cost of producing meat rather than plant-based foods.
I'm not a veggie, and this link is only the result of a Google, but you can see their point.
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/the-environmental-impact-of-a-mea...
Its not meat nor fat that's the problem its carbs i.e. grains and sugar. The scandies have woken up to this but the NHS hasn't. Just go onto any Type 2 diabetes forum and you will soon see what works. T2's that give up carbs reduce their need for medication and often loose their diabetes too (along with a load of weight if they are obese).
As a (never overweight) active T2 myself I was on the road to ever more diabetes and cholesterol medication even though I had an exemplary diet according to the dieticians. I stopped eating carbs (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, et) replaced them with fats and proteins and voila! I now have fantastic (non-diabetic) bloodsugar readings and super cholesterol figures.
Its the modern industrial diet wot is to blame!
Me too... switched to a low-carb high-fat diet and the excess weight fell off, 5 stone in six months along with 8 inches off my waist... and my HbA1C figures are now in the normal range and my fasting blood glucose is back in the pre-diabetic range...
The trouble is whenever a government department proposes something and backs it up with expected returns on investment figures (5 to 1), it then goes to the Treasury who calculate the revenue extraction its implementation will result in.
So all those 3 mile urban drives at 25mpg means missing alot of fuel tax revenue. Then they turn round and tell the DoT where to put their cycling scheme.
Actually too much meat is a bad thing but, agreed. Again though, lack of exercise is the biggest problem. If there was only an easy activity that the general populus could take part in????
Surely there must be something? Oh hang on a minute...... Nah, cant think of anything
It's not meat that's the problem with the general diet of the population; it's processed food with high sugar and saturated fat content.
meanwhile on R4 this morning NICE are advocating surgery to help reduce weight loss. That type 2 Diabetes costs the NHS 10% of the budget (the figure was confirmed after the interviewer queried it) - which is 10% of £97Bn (as far as I can tell) ie £9.7bn a year.
Now I know that politicians like things they can control and set targets for, and you could build cycle paths and no one use them...but surely a slice of the £9.7bn pa (£160 per person) is worth a shot.
Society can be summed up by the guy who passes us a lot. He drives a Range Rover and is so fat that the steering wheel is pressed into his monstrous belly and his head is essentially a pair of eyes, ears and a nose. I have NEVER seen anyone as big as him driving a car – and there are a lot of fat ba$tards on four wheels out there! He makes Jabba The Hut look like a runway model. He drives through the countryside in his tank giving us little space as he overtakes (I’m using the word overtake very lightly here). I despair .
It's a frighteningly simple solution to a huge range of problems - pollution, congestion, obesity, the economy...
Build proper infrastructure - not 200m stretches of shared pavement stuff that stops at a junction, not a dash of blue paint down a gutter but proper Dutch/Danish style bike lanes. New York managed to do this in the space of about 3 years thanks to some inspired political leadership.
The result is that more people cycle - this reduces traffic on the roads so that the people who still need to drive (deliveries, emergency services, public transport, essential journeys) can get through more quickly.
This is turn reduces pollution and the time wasted sitting in traffic jams, makes the city a more pleasant place to live and work.
People get more exercise, it's built into their life, they're healthier, they cost the NHS less (and there are fewer accidents/collisions due to the good quality segregation so again, less drain on resources and the NHS).
It's already proven that people spend more at shops when there are fewer cars so the economy benefits, people do more shopping locally so town centres thrive.
It's blindingly simple and compared to building yet more roads or HS2 it's incredibly cheap.
People are lazy, fat, and ignorant- and that's become socially acceptable - that's the problem.
The solutions to all the problems on the whole planet can be solved if we just went vegan and rode our bikes more.
Its an all too inconvenient a truth for most to swallow. But it IS the truth.
" The momentum for not only cycling but veganism and vegetarianism is building, and we need to seize it and push for change. The synergy between the two is there: they offer two unique solutions to big problems across the planet.'
Couldn't have put it better myself. Physical fitness and prowess are no longer things that are openly (or perhaps even secretly) aspired to by most people. As somebody who makes a lot of effort to watch what I eat and keep myself fit, I'm much more likely to receive light mocking for being out in the rain than encouragement for my efforts. It's "cool" to be lazy nowadays, simply because the majority of people can't be arsed to get out there, but still want to self identify positively.
Two things:
Firstly not just cycling but walking. Yes, people are lazy espcially with the winter weather but councils dont help either. Poorly maintained roads/pathways mixed with the new fad of inadequate lighting. In my area, some roads are no longer lit, others seem to be on sensor that only switch on when you are directly underneath it and the rest have the new LED light that provide insufficent lighting anyway.
Secondly, i dont think we need to switch to veganism or vegetarianism but what do we need to do is stop seeing meat as the primary part of our food. In short, more veg, pulses, grain and much, much less meat and fish.
Of course, neither both need a massive seed change!
Actually I think that's not actually the problem because all the evidence shows that fat people are seen as being socially acceptable. The problem is that people are now very guarded bout what they say. There is a culture about which has been growing noticeably in the last 15 years that you mustn't judge people and if you do you mustn't say so.
No longer are most fat people fat because they are lazy or greedy an woe betide you if you say that they are. This is the real problem.
People really do underestimate the powerful motivating effect of shame (or rather the avoidance thereof) in getting people to take make the right choices.
Very true. But, it's possible to be a fat vegan - a junk food vegan. A plant powered lifestyle is what we really need to strive towards. For anybody out there who doubts this or has been programmed by the protein from meat dogma, please spend 10 minutes Googling Rich Roll to see what is possible on a plant-based lifestyle (5 Ironman triathlons on 5 consecutive days or an Ultraman - a DOUBLE Iron distance triathlon) or Janette and Alan Murry who, despite being in their 60's, ran 366 consecutive marathons - one every day during 2013 powered exclusively by raw plants. These two examples alone will blow your mind and there are so many more examples.
Im a bit of an evangelist with this book but its so glaringly obvious, you have to wonder what really are the true motives of those who can make a difference but wont.
The Energy Glut - Dr Ian Roberts & Phil Edwards
Theres a presentation on the book by the author thats 30 minutes long that explains the crux of the argument but if you dont have that long, then heres it explained in 6 minutes!
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