Music and Cycling

It's been nine years since I wrote about music, choosing at that time to compare the inferior music to which I was subjected in my (then) local pub to the regrettable rise in an unsustainable method of getting people from place to place. Now I'm using music for a different comparison.

I live in the country now. Two days ago I visited my local town hall to see a live and talented musician play with such lyrical intensity that I struggled to hold back the tears. My husband was no better, when the set was over he rushed forward to shake the guy's hand (local gigs are cosy and intimate affairs) and we both walked home in silence, aware of how lucky we are to enjoy the privilege of experiences such as this.

I have other privileges. There are things I don't see here, and some of them are severely unpleasant realities with which people must cope every single day. Social deprivation, unemployment, poverty, and mental health issues are but a few. These things are not confined to cities, but they are more widespread there.

Nevertheless, good things are happening in cities in the field of transport. I believe we are finally waking up to the insanity of mass car transport, and I see the beginnings of change in some of the things I am reading. With the population only set to grow, we can't hope for 100% car ownership, and we can't build enough roads for such theoretical expansion. If we are to move to electric vehicles, we can't generate enough power either.

The answer must be shared transport. Electric cars in a pool, bikes and electric bikes as individual short-distance private transport. At the present time, 11% of short car journeys are under one mile 29% are from one to under two miles, and 60% are from two to five miles. These are distances which, excepting those with severe disabilities, could easily be cycled by anyone riding a bike or an electric bike. Mass driving of such short distances turns many roads into moving car parks and contributes to an epidemic of immobility which has for some time been estimated to be a as severe a risk to health as smoking.

Opportunities for encouraging activity are being recognised in the cities. I can see that people in power with good vision are daring to think the unthinkable, that initiatives are beginning which may, in the long run, revolutionise city life, bringing benefits to some of the worst problems of urban living in the process, including those I mentioned above.

I move in circles where these things are invisible, and that's something I sometimes regret. But I get to enjoy lyrical music, and that gives me hope that a thin seam of the very best will always survive, and be ready to flourish when the time is right.