I have bought a bike

Presumed published on 10th April, 2012. I've bought a bike. Not my idea, but my partner has got interested and decided she'd like company. Of course, you never forget how to ride a bike. You just forget how to ride it very well. So I'm giving myself time to learn again about setting off safely. And the gears are so different from a Strumey-Archer 1-2-3; no I have 3 times 8 and I just don't know what to do with the all - yet. The bike is quite different from the Raleigh Hercules of the early seventies. Strangest change of all is having to wear a helmet. Turns out the purchasing of bikes has leapt in the run-up to the introduction of the Workplace Parking Levy in Nottingham, making the city only the second after London to introduce a major congestion charging system. Introduced with the new tax year, it's also come in at the same time as school holidays so it's way too early to announce on the success of the scheme or otherwise. (I remember how traffic engineers wanted 3 years to evaluate the impact of average speed cameras on the Nottingham ring road in 2000 (check) when it was obvious within 3 days.) It seems some of the purchasers of new bikes have started the shop conversation with "I'm not paying that" and ended it with "Work's only 2 miles away, I should have been cycling all, along." An imperative to pay for the extension of the tram system has obscured the deep down aspiration of such radical transport policies - to encourage walking, cycling and mass transport both for the environment and to boost the resilience of a society that might otherwise might be too reliant on oil. We always wanted modal shift. Other myths - so far - is the notion that cycle ways are not kept clean. Being a ward Councillor means you develop certain traits - such as always checking the roadway / pathway for litter. Cleaning is pretty good in Nottingham. So far, 2 instances of broken glass in 20 miles. Still for users of smart phones, there is an application for them to report problem in situ.