on your bike

I was watching an interesting report about Utrecht on the ITV4 Tour de France review.

It made me think a bit more about these cool bike parking stands outside our flats. They have never been used in the three years that I have lived here. (well maybe a couple of times by a student friend of my son - maybe he is from Utrecht!).

I bet it was part of a council planning condition that the bike stands were incorporated into the build. Condition met ... but intention never achieved!

It was amazing to see how cycling was just part of life for everyone in Utrecht... and not cycling in the sense that I or, from what I see, most people in the UK experience. Cycling isn't necessarily just a leisure pursuit, it is simple a means of getting from A to B.. it is just second nature to travel by bike there and everyone seems to do it.

Cycleways, cycle priority over cars, cycle parks rather than car parks... it is quite amazing what they have achieved.

Could it happen here?