Another 'green' suggestion - cycle!

Hi! I'm Graham Hankins, a regular cyclist and secretary of 'Push Bikes' the Birmingham Area Cycling Campaign. Howard Boyd is one of our chairmen, which is how I got to meet Esther!

Now, personal transport in Birmingham is dominated by the car and sometimes I am one of them. Yet I agree that I shouldn't use my car for every short journey, and driving into Birmingham centre is beset with traffic congestion and limited parking! Walking is an obvious alternative - definitely 'green' and good exercise too, but I find that this takes too long to get not very far at all. So for many trips I get on my bicycle - much quicker than walking, still 'green', good exercise and always somewhere to 'park'!

So why aren't more of us doing the same thing and going some places by bike? Oxford, Cambridge, and increasingly London have many people cycling but Birmingham most certainly does not; at the moment, there are too few cyclists in the city to be reliably measured as a percentage of those travelling!

So why did I start to cycle? I used to drive three miles to work; parking was possible but usually tight, I was getting no exercise and any holdups created stress because I might be late. Then someone mentioned buying a bicycle! Did they still make bikes? Indeed yes, but my first visit to a cycle dealer left me amazed - so many types, how many gears did I want? What size did I need?

Anyway, the suggestion was made on a Thursday, so having decided to do this I bought my first bike on the Saturday; by the Monday morning I had 'got used to it' and rode to work using the roads I usually drove. Straight into the old but always empty cycle shed, conveniently outside my office door, on time or a bit early actually, feeling great! So that was that - decision made, cycle to work! Quick, door to door and always space to park because I was the only one who cycled! Ok, if it rained I leaped into the car (still do!) but I discovered how often it not rain. I don't wear 'Tour de France' clothing either but a Hi-Visibility band is useful plus paying as much and more attention to traffic as I try to do when driving.

So, can I persuade YOU to cycle a few trips occasionally? Doesn't matter how short your first rides are, you will soon begin to pedal further. And let me assure you I am not super-fit, far from it - I am simply a bloke who often cycles instead of driving. If you've never bought a bike but would like to ride some of the shorter distances to start with, in tomorrow's blog I will give the basics of buying a bike, before you go into a cycle shop for the first time!