Bikes in the media

  • By idavid on at 12:00pm 30 Jun 2011
  • Posted in: General
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In yesterday's Evening Standard, bicycles were featured front and centre in ads for Sky, O2, Complete London, Saxo Bank, Dickens Yard and BUPA, as well as a piece on Rochester, Kent.

That’s seven bike/lifestyle images in a single issue. The range of major brands happy to associate with cycling to help them sell more products is a striking reminder of how mainstream it’s become.

Five years ago, this would have been unthinkable – Tom would struggle to plant a positive cycling story, then dread a screaming lycra lout riposte in the next issue.

So, whatever else is wrong in the country, Europe, wherever, it sure feels good to be riding the zeitgeist.

This post was edited by idavid at 06:16pm 20 Nov 2012.

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  • By informa at 05:20pm 30 Jun 2011

The Cover Story of Local Transport Today is:

Cycling comes full circle

Patrick Mcdonnell

"Cycling is back in fashion, it would seem. After many years of decline the bicycle seems to be undergoing a renaissance as a mode of transport. A growing number of people are deciding that their cycles are not just a weekend leisure accessory but a viable means of getting to and from work."

further on he comments:

"Cycling can often prove to be the quickest way to get to work, with a survey by the Chartered Management Institute finding that the most reliable way of getting to work is by bicycle."

Now the TfL draft network management strategy suggests that journey reliability is the most important measure for a transport system. They should be closing car lanes and giving them to cyclists.

Also in today's Evening Standard  an article on London's Bike Boom, cycling is up 150%, everyone's doing it and every journalist is writing about it.

  • By colin_p at 01:57pm 05 Aug 2011

And in the British Medical Journal:

Conclusions Public bicycle sharing initiatives such as Bicing in Barcelona have greater benefits than risks to health and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Nowadays, the chief news reporter for the Evening Standard is also a cyclist (Ross Lydall) and so is former reporter Andrew Neather. I'm not sure what his position is but he's an executive something nowadays. And of course Andrew Gilligan is a cyclist too.

It wasn't long ago that Koy Thomson, our former chief exec, was told pretty bluntly by a former editor that she didn't care for cyclists.

And fwiw, David Millward, motoring correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, is also a bike commuter.

No-one claims these papers extol cycling beyond all other means of transport, but it doesn't do any harm in getting more and fairer coverage.

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