Bog - a facility for people who use wheels.
During the last week I’ve been concentrating on lowering my personal environmental impact. I’ve been borrowing a bike & getting to work by muscle power. So far, so good. I’ve cycled 30 miles this week through areas of inner city Birmingham and not been mugged or run over (merely lost my mud guard dealt with the chain falling off).
In fact, it’s a beautiful start to the day as part of my route uses the network of wide green valleys which run unobtrusively through Birmingham. This morning there was blue sky and frost, and luckily the puddles were icy (no mudguard). My flatmate advised me that people in Holland don’t care what they look like to keep warm while cycling so my head was nicely wrapped up in a scarf (under my cycling helmet).
The organisation for which I am currently temping has a chronic staff car parking problem. Their set up to encourage cyclists is really great. There’s a section on the intranet and as soon as I asked a question, helpful people contacted me with information about lockable bike sheds & shower facilities. There is a cycle/walking map of Birmingham for planning routes that don’t involve spending time in heavy traffic. You’d have to be a really confident cyclist to go on the major routes around the city, but on the side streets (many routes are not available to cars & motorbikes) it’s actually quite pleasant.
The alternatives are a relatively quick car journey - ending with an almighty battle for a parking space, two busses (ie two lots of waiting & stacked traffice on the way home - which can take over an hour) or a taxi - in theory the fastest method, but £6 per journey and sometimes a half hour wait if they’re booked up. All of these forms of travel have a negative environmental impact as well.
Good cycling facilities also tackle the growing obesity problem. How many overweight cyclists do you see about? It’s been particularly pleasing to combine getting to work (a necessity) with exercise (a necessity that I ignore for spells) and saving money (appealing to my thrifty nature). The down side at the moment is that my current lack of fitness means that the ride takes me 45 mins and I arrive at work ‘glowing’ heavily - in fact it takes another 45 mins for me to go back to a normal colour. I’ve been told that your fitness levels increase quickly, so it should get better soon.
So, maybe organisations encouraging cycling would be a good test market for bog. Bog could easily be a deluxe bike shed, which included lockers and a shower facility - even providing towels so that people didn’t need to cart them about.
So, what is stopping people biking to work?