Laziness? That old trope. Really, so places were people don’t cycle, we accord that to them being ‘lazy’? That’s patronising and nonsensical. Are the Dutch somehow less lazy? Does some strange lethargy strike the people of Nottingham, while those of London buzz and fizz with unstoppable energy?
People will, of course, take the path of convenience. That’s not laziness. We’ve gradually let our environments mould themselves around the car, becomes products of a freely motorised lifestyle, to the point where we feel it may collapse if the car is removed. Pedestrians and cyclists have been deprioritised, public transport stripped back, distances extended as businesses flee to the concrete excrescences blistering the edge of our towns, we abandon local schools to decrepitude for the promise of a better education on the other side of town. Driving is cheap and convenient. Pavements have become places to park, roads have become infrastructure for cars, people are tolerated only as an inconvenience to traffic flow. Parking must be defended at all costs. The traffic warden becomes some kind of suburban ISIS, threatening our inalienable right to drive and park wherever and whenever it is convenient. Drivers have been convinced of their absolute entitlement. Who dares to tell them otherwise? They get to dress up as the victim. The war is against them. It’s never clear who’s on the other side of this war and quite what weapons they might be using. Somewhere around 1700 people will die on the roads this year. Tens of thousands more will be seriously injured. It’s not just the car that’s left wrecked and managed on the roadside, it’s lives. Somewhere around 30,000 people will have their death hastened by pollution, possibly hundreds of thousands other will have their activities curtailed and abbreviated. Millions of hours are lost in traffic jams, kids are locked away in their home away from traffic so they can instead get fat and sick, and people queue forlornly for the permission of the green man to cross. It's not about cycling, it's about the way we live.
Is it any wonder people don’t walk and cycle. Go look outside. The streets have become a hostile environment for anyone not in a car. We have a population who only drive. They have little empathy with those outside their own car, they've no need for it.
I’m sure it’s great for some cyclist to want to be an out-group. But seriously, that’s just selfish towards those from whom that choice has been stolen.