Cycle campaigning

I keep finding myself coming back to using my (far too small to cycle currently) daughter to put forward cycling points.

In this case this one:

Segregated infrastructure will allow my daughter to ride in an environment where I feel that she will be safer. I don't feel that at the moment, I can see a point at which, when she is aged 6 or 7, I am going to be happy with her cycling on the roads as they are.

Does this mean that I wouldn't put her through cycle training if we did have the infrastructure? Hell no. Segregated infrastructure is just a part of what makes people on bikes safer. Training in how to ride safely is too.

Now I think that Bikeability is useful, but that as with any training it must learn to adapt itself to what is out there. There's no point in training people to ride in segregated infrastucture if they are never going to find it, but once it's there, then training people to use it is also important. We should also however recognise that we will likely always need to train people to ride without it, and that thus training will always be needed and helpful.