Page 69 - Phonebox Magazine November 2014

With very mixed feelings I nowadays watch people cycling around. Firstly comes the jealousy that I no longer have the muscle to be there with
them closely followed by a sadness that they no longer have the wide liberty which was mine as a youth between 1945 and 1960.
In those years for most people it was difficult to imagine life without a bicycle just as today many of us would be severely flummoxed without a motor car. I recall holidays cycling around Britain from youth hostel to hostel covering most of five hundred miles per week. Most of those miles were by way of our great trunk roads. We enjoyed looking around and seeing the countryside whilst sitting bolt upright on the saddle only returning our hands to the handlebar to deal with the occasional motorcar or lorry. We were able to really see the countryside around us, and seeing it we learned to love it. We also quickly became proficient map readers (Far more informative than Satnav). Today’s traveller, even in a car, does not enjoy the old freedom to gaze around while today’s cyclist would be near suicidal if trying to ride as we did. By 1920 the bicycle had far surpassed the horse as a means of personal mobility. With the unstoppable advance of austerity it surely makes sense to restore its freedoms as far as practicable. There are things which might well be done. The clowns of planet London speak of earmarking immense sums on HS2 to no one’s advantage outside of their own imaginations; if that money were invested in modest road widening to provide dedicated cycle tracks, especially on our major trunk roads then many people especially youngsters would be encouraged to get out and meet the whole beauty that is England. Healthier, cheaper and far happier than rushing off to the bleak concrete which comes with the sunshine of coastal Spain.
The advent of austerity may well prove beneficial to millions of us. Bicycle usage is clearly on the up and the cost of running a motor can only go the same way, motor fuel is already close to £8.00 a gallon and we’ll soon be paying £10. Such things stand to alter the way we approach our work. Around 1960 most people worked within 10 miles of home (comfortable cycle range) while tens of thousands commute 25 miles or more to reach their employment; working closer to home may pay rather less by way of salary but the difference in travel cost suggests the bicycle may clinch the deal. I don’t think I’m saying anything very original but I truly believe that austere thinking will alter the work-to-home view of many people; this in itself will reduce the number of motors on the road during commuting hours thus making the cyclists travel a little safer. Just writing these lines has fetched back a thousand wonderful memories so I’m feeling the pull of the open road. Maybe Halfords can find a machine with gears low enough to give my legs a chance. Mind you I will not take to wearing one of those silly helmets, I must have come off my bike a couple of hundred times, sometimes scraping elbows or legs, but I never landed on my head and I’ve never seen anyone else do so either.
Geoff Bacchus
Oh for the Open Road
Phonebox Magazine 69