Less Car More Go: Birth of an American Cargo Bike

This is a great short documentary about how cargo bikes came to be in America.  Very inspiring story and worth watching because it as much about community and social change as it is about technology

Film Review BICYCLE and thoughts on money for cycling infrastructure

The Ride

A bunch of us cycled from Corsham to Bradford-on-Avon last Saturday night to see the film Bicycle which was being shown as part of the Bath film festival. The ride was great with no rain and plenty of lights to illuminate our way.  We had an early evening meal in the Lock Inn which was very appropriate before trotting off to the newly refurbished St Margarets Hall to see the film. It was a good thing Edgar was there as none of us knew where the venue was situated.

The Film

On to the film which is a documentary on 3 aspects of cycling, the history including the technical development and social implications, the resurgence of cycling since the 1970s  that includes how the sporting success was achieved in the Olympics and Tour de France and where cycling goes from here in the UK.  The film was really well done being interspersed with short animations, brief portraits of ordinary cyclists, an in depth focus on the development of the Lotus Superbike (Chris Baordman) and the story of Dannielle Khan who won the sprint and 500m TT events at the Juniors world championships in 2013, as well as the silver medal in the Keirin.
The film contains some facts that I was not aware of

1. It was Ernest Marples, Harold Macmillan’s minister of transport, a businessman who came from the roads construction industry who hired Dr Beeching to 'look at the Rail industry'.  His report closed 2363 stations (including Corsham) and scrapped a third of the track.  It also paved the way for more road, cars and the congestion mess that we are in today.
2. The people who founded Sustrans UK (Cycle Bag) leased the recently decommissioned track between Bristol and Bath for £1 a year to build the first dedicated cycle track in the country.
3. £70+ per head of population is spent on the roads each year in this country. Just £2 is spent on cycling.  The Dutch spend £20 a head and the Danes spend £30 a head on cycling provision.

The Question

The real question that the film poses is what happens to cycling here in the UK, does it continue to develop or does it get wiped by the weight of traffic.  The are scenes of cycling in Holland and Denmark which had the same levels of cycling as the UK in the 1970's however they made a conscience choice to invest and to continue to invest in cycling.  The Film asks for £10 per head of population to be spent in the UK year on Year.

After the film there was a question and answer session with reps from Aardman Animations, Sustrans and Moulton Bikes which was chaired by John of John's Bikes in Bath.  There was a point raised from a local councillor who said that Wiltshire council budgets will be reduced by £30M year on year and the cycling budget comes from the 'discretionary fund'  that can be spend on anything so its really important to hassle local councillors to spend the money on cycling infrastructure.

Car Park Tax

This got me thinking about imaginative ways of raising money for cycling infrastructure.  How about a car parking tax that would especially target large car parks which are ugly and only encourage large volumes of cars to clog up the streets?  Then I did some calculations:
  Lets assume that a parking space at for example Sainsburys is used 8 times a day for 300 days a year where each individual using that space spends about £30 which is £72,000 a year for that space.  The profit on that (7%) is about £5,000 a year.  How about imposing a tax of £1000 a year for each parking space above 100 spaces.  So for Sainsburys in Chippenham which has 580 standard parking spaces, 50 disabled and 20 parent and child spaces, lets be really generous and exclude the disabled and parent and child, leaving 480 spaces to be taxed giving £2.4 million a year.  Just think of all those big car parks in Wiltshire, big companies, supermarkets, big chain stores.  A cycling infrastructure in waiting.
The scheme would have other advantages:

1. Wiltshire currently charge for the use of their car parks that are usually near to high street shops.  The Tax would help put local shops on a level playing field with the big supermarkets.
2. It would not hit small and medium sized companies.
3. It could be brought in gradually so that for the first year its applicable to car parks with more than 300 spaces. then reduce over time given companies time to adapt. 
4. Its really a tax on space so a company like Sainsburys could elect to change the use of their current parking spaces and do something more imaginative with them, perhaps more community based.
5. They could provide better bus services to bring people in or do more on-line.  One big van/bus driving around is better that 30+ cars.
6. They could offer a store discount to those who do not come by car.
7. They could charge for a parking space or put their prices up to compensate.

I would construct the legislation so that it did not matter who owned the car park.  If a reasonable person would judge that the parking space was for the use of adjacent company then the Tax would be payable.

Then I found this news item on Nottingham council that levied a tax on employee parking space.  This shows that it is possible but why not hit the big retail outlets and why put the threshold so low that it hits smaller companies?  Over to you...

Bike Film: One Mile Above

"One Mile Above" is a Chinese Film with English subtitles about a young Taiwanese man called Shuhao who decides to fulfil his brother's plans to cycle to Lhasa in Tibet after he is killed in an accident.  His journey includes learning to ride a bike, enduring the hardships of cold, altitude, snow, steep terrain, wild animals and through the experience come to terms with loss.
I watched this film yesterday and its was brilliant with the story being unpredictable and thoroughly engaging.  The cinematography is superb providing a sense of movement to the cycling scenes that I've not come across before in other bike related films.  Some of the cutting techniques used are reminiscent of European films such as "The Name of the Rose". There is also real sense of journey coupled with believable characters and convincing acting.  The result is a portrayal of the emotions that an epic journey can bring and the connections that can be made with strangers.
There is fantastic Tibetan scenery and it's sympathetic to Tibetan culture.  The only negatives are the overly dramatic depiction riding up one of the long 5000m passes, done for effect but are definitely preposterous,  and the speed of the subtitles.
A recommend this film and you can watch it here on YouTube in poor quality.  I've ordered the DVD and I'm looking forward to seeing it projected onto a screen. 

It's all lies!

We were at Sheldon School in Chippenham this week where we did a Dr Bike.  The weather was cold sunny and dry which brought out Sheldon's cyclist and we had a full day of brakes and gear fixing.

Nick servicing a Bike a Sheldon School

No sign of Josh's wooden bike which he is keeping under wraps.

With this event came the news that our tenure at the Community Centre will be terminated on the 14th May.  To be comfortable we need to be out two weeks prior to that date at the start of May giving us 6 weeks to find a new place and move.
There is not much to go on however, we have made some more connections and the word is getting out.  We have embarked on bike selling programme hoping to clear the decks before the deadline.  There are three on ebay at the moment.  We seen to sell at least 5 a week to clear all bikes.  We will keep the best frames and all the components however most of the wheels will have to go.

Saturday was a good day with a steady throughput of customers.  At and end Ken came in to show us his latest build, a Reynolds 931 stainless steel bike which he has just built.  It oozes quality fitted with main Campag, Planet X and SRAM kit having given up on the dream of it being all British.  Hay even the Hope bearings are made in Japan.  Ken will be riding it up Mt Ventoux on it this year so lookout for him.

Ken's latest Build - Reynolds 931 Stainless

The was also a chap from Trowbridge to told us that Campag 9 STis work with 8 speed shimano cassette and he was riding a bike that had the arrangement to prove it.  He has been in the trade and he knew what he was talking about.  We will try this soon.

I went to see 'The Armstrong Lie' at the Pound on Saturday along with most of Chippenham Wheelers.  It was a sell out.  It's a documentary about Lance Armstrong who won and then was stripped of 7 Tour De France wins.  It reminded me of 'Breaking Bad' series where a Chemistry teacher who is hitting 50, has to supplement his lack lustre career by working at a car wash, is then diagnosed with incurable cancer and so decides to 'cook' Crystal Meth to supplement his income without telling his family including his brother-in-law policemen.
The story becomes tail of control, power and manipulation, not about money, where 'Walt' the main character, takes on a new persona as a driven gangster prepared to kill and control people in order to keep the truth from getting out.  This is also Lance's story, albeit without the guns, where in order to keep the performance enhancing drug taking a secret, he manipulates, bullies, threatens and does everything in his considerable power to exert control.  Old Friends and colleagues become the victims as it gets increasing more difficult to control events.
The film is compelling and well worth seeing,  I'll certainly see it again.