Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
MY MP on a bike in high-heeled leather boots
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Your support makes all the difference.Her main qualification is that she has been cycling in London since she was 15, and now cycles daily to the House of Commons. Her husband is a keen cyclist, too, and a room of their house in Islington is, she says, given over entirely to bikes and parts. Islington is, she says, the cycle-theft capital of Britain, and most of her conversations with the borough police commander are about bike theft and prostitution. I'm not surprised, having had two bicycles stolen in Islington. I have no information about prostitution.
The House, it turns out, is an unusually cycle-friendly workplace. After muffins and cappuccinos in the canteen at Portcullis House, Chris Peck, the APPCG's part-time secretary, showed me the bike racks, well-filled even on a chilly day with flurries of snow. But more could be done to help cyclists looking for democratic access; the nearest public racks are up the other end of Whitehall. Bikes chained to railings or lampposts in the vicinity are swiftly removed by police.
After a recruiting drive, the APPCG has about 40 members (though in the past it has done better). Boris Johnson, probably the best-known cycling MP, isn't a member; David Cameron is. There are no cycling ministers; admittedly, it must be hard to cram those red boxes into panniers. I've read that Sir George Young, "the bicycling Baronet", had to give up cycling as Tory transport minister because of this. Emily heard that he would cycle as a ministerial car carried his boxes behind. Sir George is now patron of the APPCG.
The important question is: what can these cycling MPs do for us? Emily has put down an early day motion demanding better facilities for cyclists at railway stations and on trains; so far 111 MPs have signed up; e-mail your MP about it via the Cyclists' Touring Club (www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4092). And there may be cycle-friendly clauses in the Road Safety Bill. It's a start, I guess.
I wonder where Emily stands on the toe-clips or cleats issue? She proudly shows off her high-heeled black leather boots. "It's important that you don't wear helmets or funny shoes." She hopes her helmetless, high-heeled stance tells people: "I'm an ordinary middle-aged woman. Anyone can do it."
When I ask what bike she rides, the best she can come up with is "a blue one", maybe a Ridgeback. On another issue, we part company. Emily likes cycle lanes: "They mark our presence, raise our profile, make us feel more confident." More important, she thinks that "by sheer weight of numbers, we're getting legitimacy".
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