British Summertime / Subvertisement

British Summertime has arrived, although the very first day of it saw me cycling to the train station in pitch darkness and dense fog, at a temperature of 3°C.

 

Things have gradually become more cloudy (and slightly less cold) through the week, and  today is the sort of grey drizzly day that has you closing the blinds in the office, and opening them a few minutes later, in the hope that the rain has buggered off, to be replaced by the sort of cheery yellow sun that adorns children's pictures of landscapes.

 

Which is all by the by, as the real purpose of this post is to share a bit of subvertisement from Crewe.

This is an ad for some sort of car, enhanced by a local wag/activist/irresponsible vandal with a cut out of a superhero like character exhorting the viewer to buy a bike.  Good advice, if you've ever seen, or been a part of the jams on the road adjacent to the poster, and a lot cheaper than even this (allegedly modestly priced) motor vehicle.

Here's a detail;

I guess the hero wins Copenhagenize points for being on a piece of segregated infrastructure[1] (the shared path up to the station) and not wearing an h*lm*t, but loses them for his lycra garb. Whether this makes him a traitor to the cause or not, wiser heads than mine will need to say.  And then argue incessantly with each other over.

[1] Albeit a typically British piece of infrastructure - just next to the poster, you rejoin traffic with the typical 300° angle of view required to observe traffic entering the road you turn into and the path ahead.  Maybe it's designed for cycling owls?

For all the moaning about the weather and the design of local bike paths, I'm still riding, and beginning to feel the effects of my short commute winter less and less.  The truth for a lot of us is that despite the shortcomings of infrastructure, fellow road users, and the local weather, cycling is still more fun than getting to work/the shops/Auntie Mavis' house any other way.  It has to rain VERY hard for me to wish I was elsewhere.

Anyhoo, don't forget that 30 Days of Biking starts tomorrow.  If you're undecided as to whether or not to participate, maybe I can persuade you?

Posted via email from monkeyphoto's posterous