When we think about school bike sheds we think about the illicit cigarette, the first kiss, letting off fireworks, having a beer before the school disco; we all have our memories of the school bike sheds and few of those memories feature bikes! The school bike shed from my youth is a limp wooden structure with a concrete base, it is cold, there is a perennial collection of leaves in the corner, the floor is littered with fag ends and there is (at most) two bikes in there, one of them has been there since I enrolled at the school and I have it on good authority that it is still there today, 10 years later.
When we think about school bike sheds we think about the illicit cigarette, the first kiss, letting off fireworks, having a beer before the school disco; we all have our memories of the school bike sheds and few of those memories feature bikes!
The school bike shed from my youth is a limp wooden structure with a concrete base, it is cold, there is a perennial collection of leaves in the corner, the floor is littered with fag ends and there is (at most) two bikes in there, one of them has been there since I enrolled at the school and I have it on good authority that it is still there today, 10 years later.
The school bike shed had become a metaphor for delinquency until the millennium, in the last 10 years however more and more people are cycling and there is far more funding going into cycling infrastructure.
Twenty years ago it would have been unimaginable to have a bike shelters outside a place of work. Now we have bike sheds everywhere. But they are not the bike shelters of my youth. They are new steel and Perspex structures, they are attractive, they are modern and you struggle to find fag ends on the floor of them.
Cycling is actively encouraged by the government, local councils and employers and that encouragement has manifested itself in one of the world's most impressive cycling networks in the world. We see cycle lanes on most major roads, our high streets have lots of bike shelters as do major bus stations, train stations and park and rides.
I am proud to live in a country that puts emphasis on a greener way of travelling. I am also amazed when I think back to my own school days, only one generation ago, and what a school bike shed epitomised then, compared with what a bike shelter means today.
Conclusion
Bike shelters have changed unimaginably in a very short period. That change has come about because we have changed how we think about travelling by bicycle. It used to be the mode of transport for the under eighteens. Now it is the mode of transport for the healthy, the active and the environmentally conscious.
When we think about school bike sheds we think about the illicit cigarette, the first kiss, letting off fireworks, having a beer before the school disco; we all have our memories of the school bike sheds and few of those memories feature bikes!
The school bike shed from my youth is a limp wooden structure with a concrete base, it is cold, there is a perennial collection of leaves in the corner, the floor is littered with fag ends and there is (at most) two bikes in there, one of them has been there since I enrolled at the school and I have it on good authority that it is still there today, 10 years later.
The school bike shed had become a metaphor for delinquency until the millennium, in the last 10 years however more and more people are cycling and there is far more funding going into cycling infrastructure.
Twenty years ago it would have been unimaginable to have a bike shelters outside a place of work. Now we have bike sheds everywhere. But they are not the bike shelters of my youth. They are new steel and Perspex structures, they are attractive, they are modern and you struggle to find fag ends on the floor of them.
Cycling is actively encouraged by the government, local councils and employers and that encouragement has manifested itself in one of the world's most impressive cycling networks in the world. We see cycle lanes on most major roads, our high streets have lots of bike shelters as do major bus stations, train stations and park and rides.
I am proud to live in a country that puts emphasis on a greener way of travelling. I am also amazed when I think back to my own school days, only one generation ago, and what a school bike shed epitomised then, compared with what a bike shelter means today.
Conclusion
Bike shelters have changed unimaginably in a very short period. That change has come about because we have changed how we think about travelling by bicycle. It used to be the mode of transport for the under eighteens. Now it is the mode of transport for the healthy, the active and the environmentally conscious.
评论
发表评论