This morning I had to pick up my Son from a sleepover the other side of the City in another town. It's a good ride, about 45mins, through the city and out the other side. The weather this morning was glorious. Autumn at it's best, blue skies, temperature in the mid teens, the trees going yellow, red and orange, people milling about on foot and by bike mostly, the many markets, the church bells, the city is slowly getting going in the late morning sunshine.
Firstly I imagined a film treatment - my bike ride through the city, it was so perfect, the streets quietly getting going with mainly people on foot or by bike, very little motor traffic. The city is full of trees, coming into Autumn, the buildings beautiful. But where am I going? why am I cycling? it's not a bike ride - I get frustrated by the UK preoccupation with cycling as a sport and leisure activity. Utility cycling is where it's at. So this wonderful morning bike ride was not just a random bike ride, I was picking up my son, most of the people I saw on bikes were going somewhere for a reason. Cyclists on roadbikes did come up on the route too, in lycra, doing the sport and leisure thing, but the majority were on utility cycling bikes, off somewhere for some reason.
I thought about how you could film some of these journeys. A case for utility cycling. To illustrate to other countries how utility cycling works with the right infrastructure; how by enabling over half the population in a big city go go about their daily life safely and easily by bike, how the quality of life rises. It's healthy, almost free, fast, effective and fun.
If I had been living in the UK, going to pick up my 9 year old son from a sleep over in another town would have to involve a car or public transport. I have a transport rack on the front of my bike, my son loves to sit on the front, it's relatively easy, the paths are good and it's safe. It's safe because should something happen, he simply jumps off. I can't live in the UK like I can in the Netherlands, the biggest difference is the bike infrastructure and it makes the experience of life in a city completely different to my experience in the UK.
So today's half baked idea was to make films of the short rides people make accross the country while going about their lives. Utility rides - journeys that pretty much all would need to be done by car in the UK. To collate these films by people and use them to educate town planners and road designers as well as politicians and the public in general how it actually works - that life is way better that way - it's healthy, fast, fun, nearly free and good for the running of the city, it's economy and it's general health as a whole.
Then I remembered that I am already incredibly busy and I often have good ideas like this while riding around, doing stuff and then I carry on with my life. I'm not the only one, maybe I need somewhere to dump all my half baked ideas, save them for later. Most of them never get off the ground because I lack the time, money, resources and skills to do anything with the ideas. Their viability is irrelevant.
So a place to dump all these ideas, to get into the habit of writing them down, banking them for later.
Now back to the rest of life, time to take the kids to scouts (by bike) and off to the shops (by bike). Who knows what wonderful things might pop into my head...
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