Official, Cyclists Kill Communities

Save Our Shops, Save Our Community, Say No to the [Cycle] Track.

When you're a cyclist you get used to people hating you for ingrained reasons that betray utter hypocrisy (they hate you for reasons that apply equally to motorists who they don't hate, which also means they hate me when I'm on my bike but not in my car, weird); but I always find it odd when people who would benefit from more cycling weigh into matters.

There's a plan in a bit of Edinburgh to improve cycling and pedestrian routes, and consequently safety. It's so long overdue. But there's a counter-movement, lead by shopkeepers displaying signs like this all along the route. There seems to be this odd belief that more people on bikes and less space for cars means that sales will go down, and the shops will close, and the community will therefore be lost. You want reasons this is nonsense?

1. Local economies improve when the environment is improved for cycling and walking

It has been proven time and again, the world over. Don't believe me? Well here are 12 examples (including Dublin, which is about as close a comparison with Edinburgh as you're likely to get). Put simply, shop owners thinking that sales will plummet to levels that mean they'll close down are... wrong. So wrong, in fact, as for the truth to be the exact opposite. Their sales will go up. They will take in more money. They will be busier. Can I make this any clearer?

2. There is virtually no parking along this route

Sales in these shops aren't coming from drivers. Tonight, as I filtered past an angry queue of traffic, it was clear that on this very main road there was no parking, and in the side streets there are resident permit areas, and even then pretty much all of those are taken. People cannot park to visit these shops. So who is visiting the shops? Well this leads onto....

3. If the shops are for the community then surely people are walking?

Save our community eh? Community, to me, suggests a locality, and if people are local, well the grand majority, if not all given the lack of parking, will be walking to these shops. So by campaigning against the changes you're actually saying that you don't want the grand majority of your customers to be able to get there more safely. How many of the shops have carried out research into how their customers get there? I suspect they'd get some interesting results...

4. One of the businesses displaying the posters is a pub

Yes, a pub. Within which people imbibe alcohol. And then can't drive. Do I need to say more?

5. There's just sooooo much misinformation

Whether it's deliberate, or just through ignorance, I just don't know. But some people have been suggesting that having traffic lit pedestrian crossings that allow pedestrians to cross the entire road in one go are more dangerous than split crossings where people are herded into a little fenced off island. Yes, that's right, it's more dangerous to cross completely than to be trapped in the middle of two moving lanes of traffic. Of course. Barmy.

I'm moving to Copenhagen.