The world of organisational cycling is famously fractious, riven with splits, some of them with amazingly ancient roots. Trying to get bicycle organisations to agree on something, on anything, is like herding proverbial cats.
Which makes a meeting last November all the more amazing: twenty three cycle organisations agreed on something.
In 2012, these organisations will go into a digital huddle to promote the Summer of Cycling. Details for exactly what this promotion will entail are still being worked out, but to get such a consensus is big news. And, unlike previous attempts at joint promotions, all the major organisations were present.
Among those present were executives from British Cycling, CTC, Sustrans, London Cycling Campaign, Cycling Scotland, the Bicycle Association, Bike Week, Transport for London, the Association of Cycle Traders, Halfords, the Tour of Britain and Cyclenation. Chairing the meeting was Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat MP and co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, a cross-party bunch of bicycling MPs and peers.
The group has no axe to grind, it's neutral. It could therefore bang heads together – gently – to call for the meeting to discuss a joint promotion for the Olympic year. What was anticipated to be a heated meeting, with cycling factions splitting along the usual party lines, turned out to being a session of nodding heads. Instead of objections, there were offers of help, and from all quarters.
It helped that the promotion won't be location-based: Cycling Scotland could flag-wave for the Summer of Cycling just as easily as Transport for London could for the Olympics. The promotion is cheap, it requires the organisations to submit their events to a database and then link to this central database via their own websites. Link farming, but for a good cause.
By linking together, cycling becomes bigger and stronger. This would pique the interest of ministers, said Huppert. He added it would also be a good hook for the media. With sport cycling expected to do well at the Olympics – with a potential gold medal winner at the Games' opening event, Mark Cavendish in the road race – 2012 could be the year when cycling goes "top of mind", said Huppert.
Phillip Darnton, executive director of the Bicycle Association, agreed:
"2012 ought to be year we sell more bikes than ever before. It ought to be the year more kids get cycle trained than ever before. More children should be cycling to school than ever before. And after the Olympics, more people than ever before should be lining the roads to watch the Tour of Britain."
The execs from the wide variety of cycling groups agreed to agree that the Summer of Cycling had great potential, and importantly, didn't conflict with any existing or planned promotions.
In March, Sustrans' Big Pedal will aim to get children in 1,000 schools cycling for one million bike-to-school miles. This would be the curtain-raiser for the Summer of Cycling, with summer being a loose term.
The idea that most galvanised the meeting was the +1 concept: those taking part in events would be encouraged to bring one other person along. A proselytising pledge campaign could get new people to try cycling to work for the first time, or riding the wooden banks of a velodrome for the first time, or taking part in a long-distance challenge ride for the first time.
So feel free to join in. And bring a friend.
• Carlton Reid is the executive editor of BikeBiz.com and the editor of levy website BikeHub.co.uk
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9 January 2012 3:56PM
Great news, but can anything meaningful really be organised by this summer?
9 January 2012 4:01PM
COOL
Inflation on price of tyres. Ha ha ha..
9 January 2012 4:03PM
Sounds good so I have signed up to get information through the Summer Of cycling Link you provide.
9 January 2012 4:11PM
Hi, I work for the Active Travel Champion programme for Sustrans in London. We are looking for volunteer champions who can help people be more active through walking or cycling more for their everyday journeys. This role is part of an Olympic Inspire marked volunteering project as active travel is being heavily promoted by the games and is playing a key role an making the games a sustainable event.
If you are interested in becoming a champion or would like to find out more then please visit: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/support-sustrans/get-involved/volunteering-with-sustrans/active-travel-champions
I'll be posting our training calendar (for London) in the next couple of days on this page:https://champions.sustrans.org.uk/training
Thanks!
Kate
9 January 2012 4:38PM
Someone tell the car lobby that the cyclists are marshalling their forces. Be afraid!
9 January 2012 4:44PM
Great. A summer of jumping of red-lights and cycling on the pavements.
</tediously_predictable_car_driver> ;)
9 January 2012 4:50PM
@gazzag makes a change from jumping red lights, driving and parking on the pavement and killing 8 people a day.
9 January 2012 5:00PM
@wildnorthlands - I think you missed this off your response:
<tediously_predictable outrage from cyclist> ;-)
9 January 2012 5:02PM
@rogerleeds, yes we think there's time to get some things organised. Normally we only start thinking about the summer's cycling activities at this time of year.
9 January 2012 5:28PM
For Londoners, the mayoral election in May will be the biggest chance to influence politicians this year... and there are already rumours of a massive protest ride taking place the weekend before the election
what better chance to show Boris and Ken (and Dave & Ed) that there really is widespread popular support for cycling in London/UK?
I'm keeping Sat 28 April free in my diary ;-)
9 January 2012 5:29PM
Oh and don't forget, on 9th June in London a large crowd will be cycling naked on world naked bike ride!
9 January 2012 5:31PM
We could have organised communal cycling in the Zil Lanes of London, from which all but the panjandrums of the IOC will be banned. Popular and environmentally sensitive community action!
9 January 2012 5:35PM
And of not paying the mythical road tax.
9 January 2012 6:31PM
What's Transport for London doing in that list of worthy organisations promoting better facilities for cyclists? As I write this, there's a demonstration going on at King's Cross to protest their appalling non-provision of safe cycling routes in London.
9 January 2012 7:17PM
I agree with the article - it's great to see so many cycling groups getting together like this and I really hope they can continue to find common ground and instigate change.
But the SoL website seems pretty thin on content. Could we have a list of the groups involved for starters? Could we have some idea how this applies to those of us outside the capital - sorry to trot out another old BikeBlog issue but I'm genuinely curious? And I don't use Twitter, but I can't see any sign of a facebook page, or even a feed I can subscribe to in case there is any actual news, apart from "we got a mention on the Guardian Bike Blog!"...
I'm hopeful but I feel this article is a bit premature.
9 January 2012 7:33PM
Kate,
The pages you point to send me in circles. When I try to email the address given (Kate Meakin) I get an out of office saying someone (Kate?) will be back on the 24th of August? Not a good first impression...
9 January 2012 7:51PM
This is fabulous news. I dont get understand why our routes allow cars but not provision for cyclists, ubiquitous cycling routes throughout the UK would be g8, this is a small start.
9 January 2012 7:55PM
The article doesn't give us much idea of what was talked about, apart from the Sustrans proposal. Did they all agree on anything more specific? Is it all so wishy-washy at this stage? I reckon they'll have to get a move on if this is to come to anything. I had a look at a couple of the links but there was almost nothing there.
9 January 2012 7:56PM
In Nov last year I created an epetition aimed at creating a cycling summit, I started sending these emails in Oct 2011 to sustrans/ctc/british cycling/dft/transport for london/mayor of london/rospa/roadpeace/annette brooke/mike penning/yvette cooper/european cycling federation/meps a number of mps and on a number of facebook pages and I have to say that the response from any of the above never appeared, I even joked about me applying for the chair/president I really do think its a good idea as presently too many organisations are getting nothing done while making a living out of it, Im gutted that somebody has stolen my idea though although im sure im not the only person to think about it????
I also asked the DfT if we could have a media campaign for cycling after all we have had fatigue/seatbelts/mobilephones/speed kills/drug driving/motorcycles however the response from the DfT was that we cannot afford a National media campaign, Cycling will continue to grow at Cavendish like pace with the Olympics coming we spew more and more money in to British cycling £23Million and counting to generate more interest in cycling including skyride, and yes i know its also about developing stars of the future I happen to know a few of them myself, but we cannot create more and more cyclist without improving and developing along with the increase, we create a trial for a longer lorry without even having a safety plan for the current length of lorry, we allow bills in parliament (Road safety bill to be moved to 20/1/2012 protective headgear for childrens bill , to lapse and I cannot get any response from Annette Brooke MP as to why, we continue to ignore call after call for fellow cyclist in london to look at infrastructures
Thanks Mark Preval (Facebook the importance of wearing a helmet)
9 January 2012 7:57PM
janewk
Your inadvertent typo is typical of cycling facilities. Cycling infrastructure is all too often littered with obstacles, including narrowings that are too narrow for bicycles, steps and gates.
9 January 2012 8:13PM
Good luck with, but I'm already tired of this summer and what it will bring.
9 January 2012 8:13PM
Good idea , I was going to say I hope the militant cycle lobby keeps its nose out and resit the opportunity to attack 'evil cars' and lets hope they don't waste the effort by making enemies of people that should be allies , but its to bloody late for that.
9 January 2012 9:40PM
Then in 2013 may we have a summer of nothing being promoted, and just let people get on with what they're doing without being patronised by billboards and leaflets and quangos and logos and schemes and thinktanks telling us how to live? Ta.
9 January 2012 10:01PM
There's not a lot on the website yet because it's new. Facebook page is coming. Twitter feed - which I'm doing - will liven up when things start happening.
As this is a group effort we can't go at warp-speed from the off. There have been two meetings to date. The second one was on Friday. Things will move quicker as we agree on first principles and then get to the first event, in March.
9 January 2012 10:16PM
I think the Guardian need to do an article on best buys for bikes.
9 January 2012 10:23PM
Over the last week, as I've cycled to and from work, I've been AMAZED at the humungous increase of cyclists on London's streets. Santa Claus has been very, very busy. We're in the Winter of Cycling, right here right now.
9 January 2012 10:40PM
Intriguing news. Does this mean all the holes are filled in and us cyclists can watch the traffic not the road surface ?
Chin up ayleshamlad !
9 January 2012 10:54PM
Halfords and Transport for london - sums it up really.
But hopefully some long term good will come out of it, however the real power lies in the hands of the government and we know how green they are.
9 January 2012 10:58PM
You say: "There have been two meetings to date. The second one was on Friday. Things will move quicker as we agree on first principles and then get to the first event, in March."
You mean to say you've had two meetings and have yet to agree on "first principles"? What's going on?
9 January 2012 11:46PM
Hi @serac, it's like pedalling slowly uphill - takes a while but we'll get there!
10 January 2012 1:41AM
Hi Carlton,
My comment really wasn't a criticism of the initiative or the site. I appreciate everything has to start somewhere.
As I said, this article just seems a bit premature. I feel like this is a slight waste of great publicity since there isn't much to report yet.
I've got my feed reader to grudgingly subscribe to your tweets - twitter have annoyingly abandoned the useful RSS format - and I look forward to equally well publicised and nationally relevant future developments.