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news
London cyclists (coyright britishcycling.org.uk).jpgLondon needs to shed its white, male, middle-class cyclist image, says Will Norman
Will Norman, London’s cycling and walking commissioner, says that efforts to get more women and people from ethnic minorities cycling need to be stepped up.
He told The Independent that white, middle class males represent the typical cyclist in the capital, and accepted that London’s Cycle Superhighways were viewed by many as a means of getting “middle-aged men cycling faster around the city.”
With people from ethnic minorities making up just 15 per cent of London cyclists, and women accounting for one in four bike riders in the city, Norman said he may introduce targets to promote diversity.
“There is a problem with cycling and the way it is perceived of getting middle-aged men cycling faster around the city, which is not the objective at all,” he said.
“It touches on something which is a real challenge for London cycling, which is diversity.
“Even when we have seen the growth in the number of cyclists, we haven’t seen that diversity.
“There are a number of reasons for that,” he continued.
“One is that safety is paramount for getting different people from different walks of life cycling: older people, younger people, those from different backgrounds.”
Norman also defended Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s record on cycling infrastructure in the face of criticism from campaigners and London Asssembly Members who have been disappointed at what they see as slow progress in delivering schemes.
Some, such as the proposed extension of the East-West Cycle Superhighway onto the Westway, scrapped altogether.
“We have done more in the first year-and-a-half of this administration than Boris [Johnson] did in his first six years,” Norman insisted.
“It seems odd that that is the way people are looking at it because it is not actually true when you look at the figures.”
He insisted that London is on target to double the number of people cycling by 2026, but acknowledged that more action is necessary, saying, “Is it ambitious enough in the longer term? I think we need a higher level of change.
“The target that we have set out in the mayor’s transport strategy is over that 25 years we want to shift to 80 per cent of journeys to be walking, cycling or by public transport.
“That is a much more ambitious target and really is fundamentally rethinking the way that we move around our city.”
Simon Munk, infrastructure campaigner at the London Cycling Campaign, said that the key to getting a more diverse mix of people riding bikes in the city lay in building safe cycle routes.
He said: “The mayor just needs to crack on with making sure that network is there and is high-quality.
”Each new main road cycle track and safe-feeling quiet route brings loads more people to cycling as one of the most convenient, healthy and safe ways to get around.”
Norman added that dockless hire bikes, now a common sight in Outer London boroughs such as Ealing and also present in the Inner London locations such as Islington and Hackney, could also encourage more people to take to two wheels.
“There is an ecosystem of bike hire that is working well,” he said. “I personally think they are great.
“If we can get more people cycling, particularly in some of the outer London boroughs where we don’t have some of the resources to grow the Santander scheme, that is fantastic.
“But it has to be done in a way that works for all Londoners, so having those cluttering up the pavements is really not what we want,” he added.
“If that is done in a responsible way with good numbers then I think that is a very positive thing.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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122 comments
Thanks, not living up there didn't realise that. Can't see why, apart from making cycling safer, the authorities need to act, surely it's a matter of choice? I've never understood why we don't see more black professional cyclists when they do so well in other athletic sports.
Cycling - the last bastion of white male power.......
I'm waiting for a gender neutral strava that applies an algorithm to all times so women's times properly compare with men.
Well my cycling club is about 50:50 BAME and white. But then it's in sarf London mate.
It's quite simple: make cycling safe, convenient, attractive and direct, and everybody will use it, not just the macho white middle class blokes. Deliver the infrastructure, police the roads to get the idiots out of their killing machines, spend the money on cycling not cars, and they will come.
I think you've nailed it here. As more or less everyone thinks roads are currently dangerous to cycle on, it takes a certain attitude to get out there and cycle on them. Maybe us entitled middle-class white blokes (lol) have that attitude. For anyone who might be hesitant about cycling it's perfectly understandable that roads full of snarling traffic look deeply unattractive. Your points about delivering the infrastructure etc are what is needed to be done. What is lacking is the political courage at every level to push through the changes because the backlash will be considerable.
"Amongst the 56 million residents in England and Wales, 86% were White, 8% were Asian/Asian British and 3% were Black/African/Caribbean/Black British.18 Jun 2015"
So it seems the 15% is what you would expect from the figures, so where's the problem?
I'm not sure why you're quoting those figures. 40% of London's population is non-white.
There is something that needs to be explained and dealt with if people who are not like me (white, middle-class, middle-aged, Guardian-reading, work on the edge of the City, etc) are under-represented, because if this is not dealt with then, social justice aside, the 80% target cannot be achieved. Cycling is not the only part of UK life where we see this or similar levels of exclusion, so something is wrong.
As for the target, assuming we achieve at least 80%, there will be a lot of cycling-specific infrastructure now being built that is no longer needed as the roads will be clear of more or less all non-bus vehicles.
My view has always been that roads are all the cycle infrastructure we need - nothing more needs to be built, really, and what is should be seen as temporary. We should be concentrating our efforts on removing cars etc from non-strategic roads and reducing the need for them on strategic roads.
I hope there is a better understandign of the issue than the quotes show. If the people using bikes for transport look like the same kind of people cycling for sport, then maybe that would suggest that not enough has been done to make using bikes for transport an attractive option for people who don't already cycle for sport?
It is a shame to see someone of Norman's authority using the tired même of 'diversity' to distract from the serious and immediate problems facing cyclists in London.
There may be very real social and cultural reasons why more folk from minorities aren't cycling. People of Chinese or Indian descent may associate bicycles with a poor man's mode of transport and be determined to drive the Merc everywhere to impress their family and friends. Followers of Islam aren't going to be promoting an independent, cheap means of getting around to their womenfolk, are they? And so on.
I hill walk and there has been the same lefty hand wringing about the low level of participation of ethnic minorities there as well. No-one seems to have considered that, maybe, they don't actually WANT to go walking in the country. Instead, as so often, the go-to assumption is that evil (male) Whitey must be the reason why there is less participation from different demographics and that Something Must Be Done.
We know that the reason more women don't cycle is because of the perceived danger of it. So the obvious solution is better, safer infrastructure and actually doing something about the drivers that endanger, injure and kill cyclists with impunity, not to mention stopping the endless propaganda about hi-viz and helmets that promote cycling as a high risk pursuit.
I've long concluded that the only thing you should do in terms of 'diversity' is to ensure there are no barriers to entry in whatever it is you're promoting and to prevent discrimination against people once they've joined whatever it is you're promoting. There is quite clearly neither of these two factors in cycling; cheap, safe bikes are readily available, running costs are effectively zero, the roads and paths are free to all users, regardless of sex or race and you don't even have the costs of training or insurance. It doesn't get much more egalitarian than this.
I agree with some of what you posted but not so much this sweeping assertion.
While there surely are some Muslim women confined to the home or to within their immediate neighbourhood, there seem to be plenty who make it into central London by public transport (just like almost everyone else). That seems fairly independent to me.
Women are hugely under-represented among London cyclists, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Even among white women it seems to be almost only younger adults who cycle - I rarely see middle-aged or older women on two wheels.
Interesting that you are able to single out Chinese and Indian people for wanting to drive a merc. Do you suppose that there's larger numbers of them trying to impress family and friends by driving Mercs than non Chinese or Indian people? Very interesting.
Your blanket views on 'Followers of Islam' are quite interesting too. You seem like you must have done a lot of research into these minorities and I applaud you for it.
You raise a good point about hill walking too. I wonder why no one seems to have considered that only white people want to go walking in the country. Perhaps 'other races' have a cultural aversion to nature or the outside? It would be interesting if an expert in minorities like yourself could 'chime in' with some 'opinions' (no need to rigorously assess anything, please go with your 'gut feeling')
I did have one query about your comment. I wondered what the basis for the 'go-to assumption is that the evil (male) Whitey has done something' was? I didn't see anything in the above article (or even the comments) suggesting that Evil Male Whitey was to blame for the lack of uptake in cycling. I can understand the feeling of persecution you may feel if you are an Evil Male Whitey, given the extremely downtrodden position Evil Male Whitey's find themselves in today, but rest assured, no one is blaming you for this!
Your conclusions about 'diversity' are spot on too. Cheap, safe bikes are extremely straight forward to find and don't require a specialist press or website reviewing them or providing knowledge about what type of bike to buy (hybrid/city/mountain/road/gravel etc) what components are worth it, what is overpriced or knowledge about locks, lights, what route planner can guide you down quiet streets, etc. And it's quite true, the roads and paths are free to all users, regardless of sex or race (provided they have a bike, a place to store it securely, commute a distance that is cycleable along quiet roads, don't need to transport multiple children in a short timescale, are comfortable getting buzzed by traffic, don't worry about getting into arguments with other road users, are physicall strong and athletic enough to keep your balance when falling could result in getting your torso crushed). And with thoughtful champions of inclusivity like yourself on the roads, indeed, why would anyone not want to share them with you?
Eton Rifle was simply suggesting that there may be more culturally as to why non-whites are less likely to cycle on London's streets. I don't think for one second he was stating as fact any of his suggestions but it's not unreasonable to suggest Asians moving to Britain for economic advancement would prefer to drive a Mercedes than ride a bike given the status this implies among family and community.
Well, it makes a lot more sense than suggesting 'whitey' is the reason non-whites don't ride in the capital.
Some people missing the point. Stop focusing on PC tokenism and focus on improving infrastructure for all.
This country is so fixated on using cars that we need every excuse we can get our hands on to justify spending money to get infrastructure for everyone (despite the return-on-investment of cycling being such great value).
Dagnammit! I could have sworn that I raised a forum post about this earlier on, but now there's an article and my forum post has disappeared. Maybe I need to cut back on the breakfast cider.
Edit: I looked again and found it, so I deleted it.
The only reason i cycle is to appear middle class.
SK is a fraud and a liar as are his minions like Norman, he's done feck all for London.
How 'many' is many who decree the patheticly lame cycling infra in London is simply a way to get middle class white men to work quicker? What a disgusting thing to say, you could apply the self same thing to motorways, trunk roads and other through roads around the country, typical anti cycling twat talk!
As for the getting more ethnic minorities in to cycling, oh dear, is he in fact accusing minority race groups, women and the 'poor' of being fat, lazy, anti environmentally friendly motons? I mean surely given the bollocks he's already spouted that's precisely what he's said isn't it?
And as for the double cycling by 2026, that would mean outstripping the maximum capacity of daily journeys on crossrail by a considerable margin, £30Billion was spent on crossrail, just think you could have spent 25% of that in London alone, quadrupled cycling as well as reducing pollution massively not to mention making the capital massively safer too, oh and of course got non white so called middle class men cycling to get across London.
Norman/Khan you're a bunch of fucktards
No. Off to Breitbart news where you belong please.
You don't get it, I was twisting what was said to impart a different way of looking at things, just as Norman and SK and pretty much every politican has. What was said by Norman could in fact be interpreated that way if you think about it but I only used it as an example of politic speak, just as Norman has done here, basically a load of BS.
Yes, a gammony, racist, tedious spin you could get from any half witted pub bore. So get a life and find something better to do.
IRONY KLAXON
You're calling me a racist and a gammon, do tell me how you came to that conclusion?
I'd be offended ordinarily if it came from a couple of others who frequent this forum but you, nope, you're so laughably insane as to not be worth the trouble,
Give your head a knock (sans helmet), you've totally lost the plot!
It wasn't. Half that.
In 2014 the costs were already well over your £15B figure, that doesn't even take into account the cost of disruption and pollution building it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30228899
my point was however that a shit ton of money was spent on getting Londoners from A-B that has a lower maximum capacity than the total number of London cycle commuter journeys as of circa 2015/16.
If the powers that be had spent a fraction of that on cycling infra or simply just removing motors from an East to West highway it could have increased cycling by far more than the 'doubling' mentioned but also reduced pollution, increased safety and importantly set the tone for the rest of the worlds big cities from so many angles. Crossrail is shortsighted and a very low benefit ratio, less than 2:1 and that was on the basis of the project costing £15.8B, which it hasn't so the CBR is actually nearer 1:1 which is pathetic, again even taking some very stretched accounting into the equation and that being best case scenario/max capacity.
Crossrail was poorly thought out, an economic disaster that fails to deliver any economic benefit not to mention will max out capacity wise by 2025/6 when they could have conduited x2/3 more by bike for a shit ton of money less!
You notice the headline at that link says "Crossrail 2" (my bold).
Crossrail 2 hasn't been built. It hasn't even been approved. It doesn't exist as a physical thing.
The Crossrail (Crossrail 1, if you like) which is almost finished now will cost about £15bn.
You're making a big deal about something that isn't really the point, Crossrail as a whole project, it still won't have the capacity that increasing cycling by double will have so my point is still relevant.
You can argue the toss about £15Bn or £30Bn, it simply wasn't/isn't good value for money, doesn't have a good value rating for cost benefit ratio and spending a fraction of the amount in London would have had a massively bigger impact on reducing congestion/active travel/obesity/pollution and so on which was the sole point o my argument
“We have done more in the first year-and-a-half of this administration than Boris [Johnson] did in his first six years,” Norman insisted.
“It seems odd that that is the way people are looking at it because it is not actually true when you look at the figures.”
Excuse me? The figures for incrase in cycling have nothing to do with anything Sadiq Khan has done. All the infrastructure (pretty much) taht has got peopke cycling was put in by Boris Johnson. Doesn't matter which way you look at it/
CS6 and CS3 weres uspposed to be completed some time ago. Even the CS6 extension still wasn't fully open when I came down it his morning.
What happened to CS3 to Acton? Cancelled despite it being an easy win - AND other routes could have been found in ADDITION to this.
CS11 ..................? ? ?
Quietways...? They're not realy 'q u i e t' are they!
Do we have to get every local group fighting a ten year battle against the local neighbourhood pro-motor-to-the-supermarket-forum for a consultation on a few metres of cycle lane, or one or two filtering measures (if that)?
It's Will's job (on nearly 100k a year) to get this stuff presented, case ready, take some of the heat from all the volunteer campaigners no...?
Get cracking with TfL on a capital wide cycle network with cell-based filtered areas across te board - 'Except Cyclists' signs to start with on the majority of One Way streets.
I mean....just CLOSE all the side streets, peaks and residential areas to through traffic ....
Or is there time to prevaricate and...it's not as if we haven't got multiple health crises (all of which can be alleviated by getting people cycling) stacking up or anything is it.....! ?
Look. I'm doing Will's job again. I'm saying the same stuf that he is only more so.
But it's not my job to do this. Will is meant to get out there and make stuff happen.
No I'm still missing something. Must be.
I don't care about him 'disrespecting' my demographic, because I'm not one of those white guys who imagines they are a poor put-upon victim of racism (the US seems to be full of that type, and it's depressing to see them here as well).
But it would be better if this corporate, upper-middle-class white guy (straight out of the Guardian corporate-liberal think-tank demographic, it appears to me) would instead actually start doing something to achieve this 'wider demographic' instead of just talking about it.
The good news is, as the LCC guy says, in the first instance at least, that involves doing the same thing that a good number of middle-class white cyclists would like as well - making cycling less stressful and safer and less of an extreme sport.
It seems pretty clear from the evidence that that is the first and simplest way to expand the cycling demographic, so will he please stop talking and get on with it?
The fact that he carefully chooses the first 6 years of Tory Boris's time, as if the progress of the last couple of years never happened suggests he's more interested in striking PC postures than in actually doing anything . Which seems fairly standard for a certain kind of Guardian liberal (which is what I suspect he is, given his work history).
I'm sure there's all sorts of complex reasons that minority ethnicity groups cycle less than white people, but why does the government feel this is a problem it needs to 'fix'?
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