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sunday 3 june - world bicycle day

the recently aired trailer for one of those european crime thrillers features a scene where one character expresses his having noticed a certain circumstantial coincidence during the course of their investigations. the hero of the tale turns to his colleague and roundly declares "there's no such thing as coincidences". of course, while that might make for some gritty dialogue, it's rather obviously untrue, otherwise why would there be a word to describe such serendipitous events in the first place?

earlier today, allegedly asking for a friend, one of those i follow on twitter, begged the question "does anyone know when it's world e-bike day?" a query to which i facetiously replied "february 31st". you can probably see why my legion of twitter followers has not increased much in recent times. though i thought it something of a standalone question at the time, i now realise it may have been engendered by the united nations declaring 3 june as 'world bicycle day', a fact i discovered only after the day's hard graft had ended.

a bit of a coincidence, don't you think?

on an island where the sunday morning peloton rarely exceeds nine in number and really only on days when there is a blue moon and a following wind, to make great play of this revealed fact in our local newspaper, is highly unlikely to gather much in the way of approbation. despite the local motoring club having advertised sunday 29 april as being 'drive-it day' (isn't every day, drive-it day?), i think it more than possible that the publication's readership would think exactly the same about world bicycle day, though i'll probably make a brief mention nonetheless.

recognition of the velocipedinal milieu, however, can only be considered in a positive light, for i'm sure that, at the present time, the united nations has more pressing matters to consider. from that point of view, the machinations and lobbying by the european cyclists' federation and the 'world cycling alliance' (despite my never having heard of either) are to be applauded; cycling deserves all the plaudits it can get. but ultimately, what does having a world day actually mean?

its adoption by a majority 193 member states, the declaration implores all states and the ubiquitous stakeholders to celebrate and promote awareness of the bicycle. which means precisely what, you may ask?

firstly, the resolution graciously acknowledges the "uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle", which i would think, ought to call into question the collective intelligence of those who discuss stuff at united nations meetings at having need of explaining themselves in the first place. we who ride bicycles and have done so for more years than we can truly recall, could have related this in a tweet, without going to the bother of flying at least 193 delegates to new york last week. anyone who still has a black and yellow raleigh banana ten-speed racer sitting in the bike shed could attest to the longevity of the machinery. and if you ride your carbon 'cross bike to work, the shops and bunny hop at weekends, 'versatile' would at worst, seem like an understatement.

but unique?

a bit like those grant-funded surveys carried out by university undergraduates, there is more than a fain whiff of tautology abut the whole affair. for instance "the bicycle... fosters creativity and social engagement and gives the user an immediate awareness of the local environment." after slogging into galeforce headwinds and driving rain, i'm pretty sure i could have told them that from the other side of the atlantic. and stressing that the bicycle is a 'symbol of sustainable transportation' and 'has a positive impact on climate' could be said to be stating the bleedin' obvious.

but once again, deja vu rears its ugly head. pretty much every year, for the last goodness knows how long, i have heaped criticism upon the organisers of the uk's national bike week, for designating a single day as bike to work day, an exercise that is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. (i have also e-mailed them regularly to point this out, just in case they're too busy to read). anyone could cycle to work for one day; in order to make a difference, we need at least a 'bike to work week', but preferably, 'bike to work month'. through the efforts of 'quebeka' and 'world bicycle relief', the bicycle is making a real difference in the world. much as i'd love to hope that sunday 3 june will do likewise, i seriously doubt it.

some folks are never satisfied.