Cycle Census
There used to be nine-million bicycles in Beijing. But how many in your town right now?
In 2021 the UK has it’s XXXth census. You can read the full history of censuses on the UK government’s website, but in a nutshell their purpose has always been to udnerstand the state of the nation in order to provide adepquate services for the population. The old adage, you can’t manage what you can’t measure.
In the most recent census I was particular draw to the question which asked how many cars and vans your household had access to. You can see the results here. However, as someone who doesn’t own either a bike or a van, I opt to own a bicycle for nearly all my transport needs. And there is now significant understand why we might try to encourage more people to opt for this mode of transport where possible. Bicycles tick multiple outome boxes, from zero carbon emission, to public health and saving space in cities. They are aspirational element of many national, urban and rural development strategies. So I find it strange that we aren’t seeking out the data to design for them, in the same way that we do for cars and vans.
Let’s count bicycles too
So I am proposing a Cycle Census. I think it would be really useful to know more about both the number and types of bicycles that people have in order to design them into our future low-carbon visions for our in our towns, cities and villages. I think we’ll do a better job of it if we know what we’re dealing with.
But it’s not just the numbers
As I wrote about in a recent blog, to make good decisions, we need both quantitive numbers (the size of the challenge) and qualitative data (the nature of the challenge). So I am proposing a slightly different style of data collection. I invite people to do a bit more than tick a box on a survey. I’m inviting people to submit their bicycle story ... #CycleCensus