I’ve heard a lot of talk about the 4 categories of cyclist;
- No way no how
- Interested but concerned
- Enthused and confident
- Strong and fearless
I’ve sometimes struggled with these definitions, as I don’t feel like I neatly fall into any of them.
But I did recently meet someone who was the very definition of “interested but concerned”.
I won’t name her, but she’s a 30-something year old professional, lives in an innerish suburb (4 kms from the CBD), is fit and active, enjoys going for recreational bike rides, but who travels just about everywhere by car. We were watching a movie and in it a person biking along the road gets smashed by someone else opening a car door in front of them.
My friend groaned in discomfort, then said “that’s why I don’t bike anywhere”.
I thought – this is the sort of person Geller was meaning when he coined the “interested but concerned” category. She enjoys biking and would like to do it as a mode of travel, but feels that it’s not an option because it’s too unsafe.
The research suggests she isn’t the only one who thinks like this – around 60% of the population have a similar mindset towards cycling. This is the crowd that the major cycleways are trying to provide for. Here’s hoping that the infrastructure might make more and more people like this feel safe enough to once again consider cycling as a genuine travel option.
TALKING TRANSPORT 