Holiday Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

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Shares his story of becoming a cyclist

I write a weekly blog about the antics of a local councillor, but this is a one-off blog about becoming a cyclist. It’s a personal story and I will try and steer clear of the politics of cycling. I just want to share a bit of my own journey. I’m very happy to have come to cycling at a late age, and I’d like to tell others about it, and I hope to inspire a few to try it.

I was brought up in a family which was all about cars and motorcycles. My father raced motorcycles before the war, did his time as a motorcycle mechanic and eventually bought the business off his boss on the never never. The boss, Vic Horsman, had been quite a well-known racer at Brooklands in the 1920s and 1930s.

As I grew up, my father was competing (and winning prizes) in the Monte Carlo Rally.

He ran a motorcycle dealer and a couple of car showrooms in and around Liverpool and a driving school, and made amateur films (and won awards). The only film I can now find is here:

The real star makes his cinematic debut around 18 minutes in and I helped with making some of the later films.

My father also wrote several books about road safety and started a nationwide club called the Car and Motorcycle Drivers Association to improve driving standards. My mother also took part in some rallies: one of my sisters took part in autocross and the other was a serious national rally driver and winner. She eventually married a British rally champion, and my other sister married a man who worked as a car service manager. My family home had a large garage and yard, and there were always several cars and motorbikes around the place. We attended all the car and motorcycle races at our local circuit, Oulton Park, plus some at Aintree, go kart tracks, autocrosses, rallies etc. Petrol is completely embedded in my blood!

I got a motorcycle on my 16th birthday (near enough) and passed my car test a couple of months after my 17th, and I’ve never been without a car since. Except for a few weeks when I worked in the city, I drove to work every day of my working life until, nearing 60 and working just off The Strand, I worked out that it was a bit daft not to get the train from Chiswick or Brentford to Waterloo.

When I became a councillor, I found that it was sometimes more convenient to use a bike around the ward, and I started to ride to the old Civic Centre from time to time, and occasionally further afield. It gradually dawned on me that even an overweight pensioner like me could often travel in London as fast by bike as by car or public transport – I have compared journeys to the city, City Hall, etc on Google maps and usually all three modes are within a few minutes of each other, with no consistent winner. But on a bike I get fitter, don’t get frustrated, am carbon free, don’t cause any pollution, am practically incapable of  killing or seriously injuring anybody and am probably breathing better air than I would be in a car or bus (don’t know about trains). Oh, and it’s entirely free, other than the odd repair. And there’s camaraderie amongst cyclists a bit like my dad talks about among motorcyclists, in his film. And NO parking tickets or charges. People say it’s dangerous, and of course it is, in a city designed primarily for cars and with cycle infrastructure which is, to be polite, patchy. However, to add a different perspective, if you cycle for a billion miles, you are likely to be killed 29.5 times: if you walk the same distance you’ll die 35.4 times. Yet I never heard anybody say they don’t walk because it’s too dangerous.

This short film from former cycling star Chris Boardman really inspired me. I suppose that the fact that he was born in Hoylake – same as me – may have helped, but I was most inspired by what he found in Utrecht. He finishes by saying “I’ve spent a couple of days now, riding around the streets of Utrecht and I’ve seen tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of bikes, but I haven’t seen a single cyclist.

I’ve just seen normal people, in normal clothes, doing normal things, dressed for their destination, not the journey”.  

No Lycra or helmet to be seen!

He made an even shorter film about Copenhagen, which has an identical message.

Ah I spot an errant green helmet.

Of course, London is bigger than Utrecht (or Copenhagen) and if the weather is unfavourable or you’re doing a long commute, you might want to dress for the journey. I now have a locker at Hounslow House with a suit and the trimmings which have relocated there, plus a towel etc so I can take a shower.

This year I’ve taken it on a stage. I can make sufficient capacity to carry most of my shopping by bike. On dry days I often just go for a ride – on the river or canal bank, or maybe in a park or in interesting back streets you’d never go to in a car (this is in Richmond):

I can do an hour down to Hampton Court and back through Kingston and Richmond, or an hour or more into town, round Dukes Meadows and along the river bank (mostly) to Putney or sometimes Westminster. I get a suntan, lose weight, feel physically great and see lots of interesting things – nature, boats, people, architecture. The council have helped by making Hounslow House car free. I think I’ve only visited it by car 3 times; twice because it was too hot for me to arrive in a respectable condition, once because I was out of town in the car and running late for the Planning Committee. At least one other councillor – Candice Atterton – has made the same change and Kath Dunne and Ron Mushiso have always cycled. Today (Sunday 4 August) I did 60Km of cycling – 18 Km down to Sandown Park for the start of Ride London 19 mile course; 19 miles into central London; about 12Km home again. Tired, pleased with myself, with the first medal I’ve ever won (as far as I remember) and with £300 raised for a local charity – Our Barn - which would otherwise likely have got nothing from me (thanks so much, generous sponsors). Yesterday it was about 40 Km around central London – lots of fun and colour.

I’m not against cars - I still have mine and would be most reluctant to part with it – but aside from pollution, expense and danger, they crowd the street scene and mess up the view. These are Flanders Road Chiswick – couldn’t find decent old pics of residential roads in Brentford:

You tell me – which is nicer?

Anyway, think. We have a pollution crisis, a carbon crisis and an obesity crisis. Parking has become a right royal pain. Getting around is horribly congested. Riding a bike can really help with all these, plus they save a lot of money and you feel good. You’ve probably got an old bike in the shed. Pump up the tyres and go for a ride along the river or in Gunnersbury Park. Or go to Hounslow or Chiswick to do a bit of shopping or have a meal out. You can even have a drink without worrying (assuming you can stay upright on a bike). If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it again, but if you’re anything like me you’ll find it beats the alternatives hands down.

Cllr Guy Lambert

August 8, 2019