Three wishes for 2017

Bicycle Network CEO, Craig Richards, shares his three wishes to help make 2017 the year of bikes.

2017 will be the 10th year I’ve had the privilege of being part of the __bike movement. It’s whizzed past in a heartbeat. I’ll be forever grateful for the unbelievably rewarding experience – and for being much healthier because I ride to work!

Over the break I’ve been thinking about how I feel about another year striving to turn Australia into a nation of __bike riders. The answer is excited, but restless. Excited by the progress we’re going to make but restless because the same old road blocks will slow the speed of progress.

So I thought I’d start 2017 by dreaming that a genie granted me 3 wishes that would help make 2017 the year Australia really got bikes moving.

Wish 1: People who love pedalling come together

The bike movement is filled with smart and passionate people. We should be unstoppable. But unfortunately, there’s more focus on the handful of things we disagree with than the bucketful we agree with.

At the core we all believe riding is wonderful and more of us should get on a bike. We also agree that in Australia we’ve only just scratched the surface and there are millions more ready to hop on a bike.

But our wonderful movement is held back by people fighting for their slice of the pie rather than trying to grow the pie. It’s also riddled with deep seeded resentment about things that happened when I was at primary school.

I’ve heard some of you tell me that, "holding hands and singing Kumbaya won’t work." What I actually wish for is that bike people, like the African proverb, recognise that if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

Wish 2: People put sympathy number one 

When any bike rider is hurt it's terrible. By far this is the worst part of my job. It sends shock waves through our community which everyone copes with in their own way. Some get angry. Some blame someone. Some postulate wisely. Some launch into action. All perfectly natural reactions.

But before we react I wish we thought about those hurting the most. We need to ask ourselves, ‘could we cause the rider and their loved ones more pain?’ They’re often struggling to cope, bewildered and desperately seeking clarity where none exists.

It’s why we need to be so careful about making irrelevant statements about what the rider was or wasn’t wearing. It’s why we need to be so cautious about the timing of pushing for perfectly sensible reforms that wouldn’t have helped that particular rider.

In 2016 I saw more pain up close than in any of my previous eight years. I certainly learnt a lot. It reinforced just why in 2017 I wish that when the terrible happens our starting point is sympathy, compassion and helping people cope.

Wish 3: People to celebrate the joy of bike riding

I get it: happiness doesn’t attract the same attention as misery. I think it’s because deep down when we hear about a bad thing we feel good it didn’t happen to us. On the other hand, deep down when we hear about a good thing we feel bad it didn’t happen to us.

It’s why people love whipping up an imaginary war on the roads when the reality is the war is with humans resisting our primitive aggressive instincts in all aspects of our lives. It’s why bike injuries get huge media attention and bikes saving people from insidious diseases gets none.

Wish number 3 is going to be the hardest. It needs a fundamental shift in human nature. But what better place to start than with bike riding.

So to all in the bike movement here’s to a fantastic 2017. A year where millions more join the bike movement and no-one gets hurt.

Craig Richards
Chief Executive Officer
Bicycle Network

For regular updates from Craig follow him on twitter at @richobicycle.