magnanimity in victory

There’s too much bicycle-centred miserablism published these days. Not that people who try and travel by bike in London, England, the UK, Europe, the World, the Solar system, the Galaxy, the Universe, haven’t got stuff to moan about but we are winning

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There’s too much bicycle-centred miserablism published these days. Not that people who try and travel by bike in London, England, the UK, Europe, the World, the Solar system, the Galaxy, the Universe, haven’t got stuff to moan about but we are winning.

Never forget that the primary victims of motor-dependence(MDVs) are the bicycle-deficient losers who actually have to struggle to move all those almost-empty mobile-front-rooms around. They may sometimes drag us down toward their own tragic level but the main people who suffer from their lack of imagination are their sorry selves.

Irrational, you-people-are-all-the-same antipathy towards we who travel by bike is based partly on envy. In current conditions people who don’t ride often see those on bikes as winners, and there are few things less attractive than an ungracious, whingeing winner. ‘Not only do they act like they own the road but all they ever do is moan’.

Don’t just moan. That’s what everybody else does. That’s what’s expected.

Last week I was complaining about an unfortunate lack of permeability for cycle-traffic at the junction of Hermitage Road, St. Annes Road and North Grove, London N15. I did offer an alternative practical example but, in the interests of positivity, would like to add this excellent item of street photography, endorsing the concept of filtered permeability. Shot just over the hill in N4, it’s the work of noted bicycle-educator and cricket fanatic David Dansky.

So much more elegant than the speed hump and they can get out of the way if an ambulance needs to pass.