"A car hit me..." I tell people as my girlfriend rolls her eyes, she has heard my wounded soldier impression before. It's not even really even true. Technically I hit the car after it pulled out of a line of traffic in front of me. We've all done it, manoeuvre; signal; mirror; but unfortunately for this rushing commuter I was in the cycle lane.
Luckily I came away with nothing more than minor scratches and stars in my eyes, my helmet taking the brunt of my unexpected meeting with the road. Sadly my bike was not so lucky and so I am forced to wave goodbye to a now broken an old steed that has carried me for many miles. Looking at people's concerned expressions as I recant my tale of mid-commute collision I worry that I am doing cycling a injustice. People already seem to view cycling on London's roads as a quick way to a pair of crutches and perhaps I am doing little to change their mind. Personally though I think this is a misconception, if you break down my cycling history it actually makes encouraging reading. My only accident has come after three years of commuting East Dulwich to West London, let's say an average of 75 miles and 4.5 hours a week in the saddle. Multiply that up and it works out as one accident every 11,925 miles or 715.5 hours of constant cycling. Hopefully a more reassuring read.
Besides developing an Ebay addiction in the search for a new bike this month I have been marvelling at the advances in technology helping to clean up our cars. I spent four long days testing the new Kia Rio which, so claim it's manufacturers, can go almost 800 miles on one tank of fuel. This doughnut fuelled journey (me not the car) took me from Belfast to London via Edinburgh, Blackpool, the Lake District and Cardiff providing a new found respect for long-distance lorry drivers and a car with only three cylinders under the bonnet.
Audi are also making waves with a system so brilliantly simple that it stirred in me feelings for a that I haven't felt since mine hit the scrap heap last year. Their e-gas idea takes clean energy from wind turbines and uses it create to create methane actually absorbing carbon dioxide along the way. This is the very same gas that cooks our chickens on a Sunday afternoon meaning this clean fuel supply can be piggy-backed into any country with a gas network. By 2013 we will literally be able to fill up our new carbon neutral car from our hob...sort of.
