Cycling in Birmingham

I’ve been cycling for a little over six months now and feel somewhat inspired to write about it. Specifically about cycling in North Birmingham. When I bought my first bike last October and started cycling in a city for the first time in fifteen years I was a little cautious, especially in Birmingham which is the UK’s motor city. Everyone drives here, doubly so in the more industrial north. There are no real cycle lanes to speak of other than a few token gestures from the council which are of no use to anyone so I’m sharing the roads with cars, lorries and a shocking number of white vans. I figured I was going to more at risk than most so I plastered myself in hi-viz reflective clothing and put my life in their hands. Still, if I did die at least I’d saved a lot of bus fare money.

As it turns out I’ve had exactly one near miss and that was my fault for dawdling on a roundabout. More to the point, the van that “nearly missed” me merely slowed down and honked at me repeatedly. I wasn’t exactly in danger – just being an annoyance. Other than that, nothing. And it’s not like I’ve been avoiding the main roads. It’s just main roads up here. Not having anything to compare it to I figured I was just riding sensibly (I used to ride a motorbike and had defensive riding pummeled into me by other bikers) and being very visible.

I was therefore somewhat surprised when I read this post on Honeypears’ LJ where Heather reckons that her florescent jacket had made her more of a target in Glasgow, and double so when Jeremy commented that she wears a minimum of reflective clothing when cycling in Oxford. Glasgow I imagine is kinda like Birmingham though I don’t know for sure, but Oxford is cycling central. That said, I remembered Jeremy and Damian (another Oxford cyclist) telling me horror stories about biking around there, describing it as some kind of war zone. And cycling in London really is a war zone of mythic proportions. But north Birmingham is nothing like that. I wonder why?

The first theory is that there are quite a number of blokes around here who wear hi-viz jackets. Being an industrial area the hi-viz is pretty much the uniform for someone who has a physical, sometimes dangerous job. When you see a bright yellow jacket it’s likely to be on some hard-nut geezer who would twat you if you looked at him funny. And because these chaps tend to live in this area as well as work here, folk treat them with some respect. Not because they’re likely to twat them but because they do important jobs like refuse collection and roadworks and there’s an awareness here of what that involves. I get treated much better in shops when I’m wearing a hi-viz. I don’t think that’d happen in, say, Winchester.

The other theory is that there just aren’t any other cyclists around here. I tend to ride very fast and I’m always surprised when I overtake another rider. I can do a ten mile trip and not see another bike. If I’m not the only one locking up at Tescos it’s something of a shock. So when cars and trucks see me on the road it’s something they don’t see everyday so they take extra precautions. In a cycle-heavy city like Oxford all the drivers are used to bikes and have built up prejudices against them, but here they’ve got nothing to go on. Add this to the notion that I might well be a hard-nut and they keep out of my way, giving me some respect even.

It’ll be interesting to see whether this still applies in south Birmingham which is more studenty, less industrial and more libera-middle class, yet still has a lot of cars.

(Having thought about this for ages I was prompted to write it after reading Currybet’s piece on buying a bike which while not relevant does have a very funny Kraftwerk joke)