{"id":4338,"date":"2014-06-16T16:15:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T16:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blogs\/slip-slide-and-cycle-2\/"},"modified":"2017-07-25T10:20:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T14:20:56","slug":"slip-slide-and-cycle-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/slip-slide-and-cycle-2\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Slip &amp; Slide&#8221;&#8230;and cycle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"color: #666666;\">Photograph: Matt Cardy\/Getty Images<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last month almost 100,000 people registered to &#8216;Slip and Slide&#8217; down Park Street in Bristol, UK. The 90-metre water slide \u2013 the brain child of living arts artist Luke Jerram \u2013 was part of Bristol\u2019s &#8216;Making Sundays Special&#8217; program. 65,000 people headed to Park Street to watch thrill-seeking ticket holders literally slide head-first downhill, as part of Jerram\u2019s plan to ask people to take a &#8220;fresh look at the potential of their city and the possibilities for transformation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Then, last week, the bicycle \u2018rock stars\u2019 Janette Sadik-Khan and Mikael Colville-Anderson and more than 500 international cycling professionals and advocates descended on Australia for the Velo-City conference. The key messages from the four-day conference were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>more cycling = less obesity\/congestion\/emissions<\/li>\n<li>poor infrastructure = biggest hurdle to more cycling<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Robert Kretschmer @URBLR tweeted \u201cSomething I&#8217;ve taken from #vcg14: there are no &#8216;cyclists&#8217;, just people who cycle\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m asking\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>Can playful initiatives like \u2018Slip &amp; Slide&#8217; make cycling fun?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I think they can.<\/p>\n<p>Cycling\u2019s image in countries like Australia, New Zealand, the USA and UK doesn\u2019t do it any favours. The majority of the population in these \u2018want to get more people cycling\u2019 countries think there are only two types of cyclist:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Extreme athletes \u2013 The people who get up before dawn, dress in Lycra, buy expensive bikes, cycle 200km before breakfast and shout abuse at car drivers<\/li>\n<li>Long-distance environmentalists \u2013 we all have one of these in our office. They cycle at least 30 kilometres to and from work every day, wear khaki cargo pants and preach the health and environmental virtues to anyone who will listen.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I like a lot of people in both of these groups. I admire their dedication and determination. The problem is that the vast majority \u2013 the 70 percent of our population who drive to work alone every single day \u2013 just don\u2019t get it and that\u2019s where fun things like &#8216;slip and slide&#8217; come in, because they attract so many participants and spectators.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s consider creating a new image for cycling in 3 very different ways:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Let\u2019s make cycling stylish<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago my mate Jon Giles created \u2018Style Over Speed\u2019. Two or three times a year on a Friday night, 100 or so people get dressed up &#8211; think fine dresses and dinner suits &#8211; and cycle around Brisbane. You don\u2019t have to wear gym gear to ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Let\u2019s make cycling fun<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Chocolate Ride\u2019 in Sydney is an almost calorie-neutral bike tour of chocolatiers, gelato manufacturers and patisseries. The half-day tour encourages people to ride bicycles, shop locally and have fun. Riding a bicycle doesn\u2019t have to be serious.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Let\u2019s invite everyone<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 2 million people participate in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.streetfilms.org\/ciclovia\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bogota\u2019s Ciclovia<\/a>\u00a0each Sunday. 120km of Bogota\u2019s roads are closed for the exclusive use of cyclists and pedestrians. Young people, old people, families and friends take to the streets and everyone is invited. Riding a bicycle should be fun for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>For years, we&#8217;ve entrusted our cycling culture to a small group of policy experts and advocacy groups. The sight of unused cycling lanes and row after row of empty bike parking racks suggests they&#8217;ve failed. It&#8217;s high time we called on some fresh thinking, and maybe playful events like Slip and Slide, Style Over Speed, Chocolate Rides and Cyclovia are just the thing we need.<\/p>\n<p>Where do these ideas fit in with what you are doing?<\/p>\n<p>What inspires you?<\/p>\n<p>What excellent cycling events have you seen?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Rachel_Smith_89x100-8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-528\" src=\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Rachel_Smith_89x100-8.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel_Smith_89x100\" width=\"89\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><em>Rachel Smith (rachel.smith@aecom.com) is an internationally-recognized\u00a0urban planner and commentator, and principal transport planner with AECOM\u2019s Brisbane office. Connect with her on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/au.linkedin.com\/pub\/rachel-smith\/32\/349\/b68\">LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CyclingRSmith\/\">Twitter<\/a>, or follow her blog\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cyclingrachelsmith.com\/\">here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photograph: Matt Cardy\/Getty Images Last month almost 100,000 people registered to &#8216;Slip and Slide&#8217; down Park Street in Bristol, UK. The 90-metre water slide \u2013 the brain child of living arts artist Luke Jerram \u2013 was part of Bristol\u2019s &#8216;Making Sundays Special&#8217; program. 65,000 people headed to Park Street to watch thrill-seeking ticket holders literally [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":4339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255],"tags":[301,302,191,238],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infrastructure","tag-bogota","tag-bristol","tag-connected-cities","tag-cycling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}