Talking and reading about cycling and provision for cycling can be the most will-sapping way to spend your time. Cycling blogs and forums, newspaper stories and comments about traffic are often filled with frustration and anger, bitterness and sad tales of injuries and deaths. YouTube is a huge repository of videos where motorists shave past cyclists and cyclists and motorists engage in angry encounters at traffic lights.
It's not always like that. So, let's step back for a minute and enjoy a pleasant ride from Edinburgh's city centre to my unofficial park and ride spot in Barnton. As I rode back, camera running, I realised just how quiet and pleasant it was to ride for 27 minutes, in the rush hour (starting at 5.10pm) and spend hardly any time interacting with traffic. From the film, I selected out all the footage containing a car on or joining my side of the road. I ignored cars heading in the opposite direction. True, they could unexpectedly swerve across the road but if it wasn't at a junction where it could turn in front of me I ignored it. I was left with just four minutes of footage. Four minutes out of 27 and most of that just travelling or waiting behind a car. I'm not saying it's perfect but this is how it is almost all the time. How it should be.
Let's hear it for the good routes. Don't worry if you can't be bothered watching it. Nothing happens. No one crashes and no angry words are exchanged with anyone. There is no bitterness or recriminations about the hopeless provision for cycling. I was in Edinburgh. The sun was shining and I had to stop to take my jacket off.
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