Cycling is the way forward
AS a 71-year-old grandad, on pension credits, and my younger brother suffering from dementia, how can I not support both the Extinction Rebellion and the Dementia Revolution?
One needs us to stop burning fossil fuel and both need us to become a more caring nation, plus find billions of pounds to fund the likes of air conditioning for care homes, flood barriers and the planting of millions of trees. We also have a congestion crisis: last year it cost the UK economy some £8bn and with Brexit and global warming, that cost will surely rise.
However, if we had a Transport Rebellion/ Revolution, we could easily ‘kill three birds with one stone’, ie significantly reduce burning fossil fuel, reduce road/air pollution deaths and find the £2.4bn which Barbara Windsor has appealed for to ‘cure’ the dementia care funding crisis.
When my brother – a junior football coach for some 30 years, who also taught computer skills to people with learning difficulties – had to go into a care home, it was only a couple of miles from where I lived, whereby I could use my bike to visit him.
Now, because of ‘bad’ care, he’s in one 30 miles away.
On pension credits, the only way I can afford a car is to do without both life and home insurance. And I don’t drink/smoke/have holidays. As a life-long cyclist, my hobby/holiday is cycling, indeed without it, life wouldn’t be worth living.
On a good day, I will ride 60 to 100 miles. Hence, the 60-mile round trip to visit my brother amounts to a ‘walk in the park’ – but not in adverse weather, and the need of a car.
But, as the police and most cyclists know, the UK has a significant number of drivers who have no respect for speed limits and the mobile phone ban, and even less for cyclists.
My appeal to ‘cure’ the dementia, climate, and congestion crisis, is: Please fit all bar emergency vehicles with speed limiters; make Bikeability (cycling proficiency for the 21st century) an integral part of the driving test (learn to cycle before you can drive); and for any driver who does break the law, sentence them to a week (12-hour shifts) helping care home staff to change soiled bedding etc.