The results are in

Firsty, a huge thank you to all those that took part. Here are the results from the cyclist research.

Overall conclusions

Non Cyclists
-Cycling is perceived as being dangerous by non-cyclists, despite 75% of cyclists surveyed feeling safe. Perception of safety is a key part of getting non cylists cycling as once they begin cycling and build confidence they feel safer.
-Fear of getting a bike stolen is a factor for both cyclists and non cyclists
-93% of non cyclists in London live within 10 miles of their commuting destination
-80% know someone who cycles, often they are told about the benefits but also that you do have to be careful
- Over half of non cyclists surveyed will consider cycling when the superhighways are introduced. Safety, bike parking and crime are still major set backs however.
-Cycling has to be perceived a being safer in order to get more people cycling.

Cyclists

-Cyclists have a love hate relationship with cycling. Many enjoy the benefits but find it frustrating
-Shockingly 61% of the cyclists surveyed had been involved in an accident (89% of them cycle everyday). The biggest cause of accidents are collisions with cars, interestingly, this was followed with collisions with pedestrians.
-The majority keep their bike in their house
-85% encourage friends to cycle
-The biggest downsides are theft, being sweaty and lack of cycle parking

-It was generally viewed that the best way to improve cycling in London is to educate and train cyclists as well as other road users
-Cycle lanes were generally critisised for having poor road surface or being poorly designed. Some even wanted cycle lanes removed altogether, believing that cyclists are better off sharing the road.
-Many suggested a change to traffic lights, with a green cycle light to allow bikes to set off a few seconds before the rest of the traffic.

A key quote that stood out:
"riding regularly its not a question of if but when you will be involved in an accident. all you can do is minimise risk as much as possible."

I have included both survey results here:

Survey Results - Non Cyclists in London

View more presentations from Lee Washington.

Survey Results - London Cyclists

View more presentations from Lee Washington.

Thanks for your comments

A quick note to say thanks for your comments so far - it's really good to get feedback, particularly when I start posting up the initial ideas.

Thanks also to those that filled out the survey.

I would still love some more responses from the non cyclist - so if you live in London, but do not cycle, please take a couple of minutes to fill it out here

Housemate in accident

This week my housemate was knocked off his bike and sustained a head injury requiring nine stitches. He wasn't wearing a helmet. There's a full account on 22GL

As my project progresses I am focusing more and more on the safety elements of cycling and how this can be improved.

Week two

Large goods vehicles are the main cause of death of cyclists in London, and this is an area that I am examining. I conducted an interview with a very helpful driver called Ray who let me sit in the cabin and experience the view of the road. Visibility of cyclists was is huge problem, especially when the LGV turns left and the trailer moves.

Bike Tree

Slightly cheesy production values but an excellent solution of storing bikes out of the reach of criminals. I would however imagine that this is prohibitively expensive and would require maintenance - all things that would prevent an employer or council installing it.

Nike Plus

Nike plus represents the commercialisation of a sporting activity with a series of products that are designed to encourage running and increase the enjoyment of running.

They may have asked themselves the question “How do we get more people running” just as I am asking “How do we get more people cycling?”

How they did it:
-Integration with ipod and iphone
-Create a community, the world’s largest running club
-Provides tools to help you improve your running
-saving your runs
-Rewarding you by telling you how many collories you have burnt
-Allowing people to be competitive
-Making it fun
-The more you run the higher your level
-Integration with social networks

Perhaps something similar could be developed for cycling? A way of recording your journeys, how much money you've saved (in my five years of cycling I've probably saved about two and a half thousand pounds. That's the first time I've thought about that)

iphone Arider

Personally I see a lot of problems with this design. Firstly you lose vision in one eye due to the eyepiece, or at least you'll struggle to focus between that and the road. Then you have the iphone on your head scenario - it will be annoying if you need to change where you're heading to, having to unclip it and then replace it each time. Not to mention, that it's easy pickings for an opportunistic thief to grab it out of the helmet. A bit too much overdesign in my opinion.

Light Lane

Whilst offering no more protection, the light lane does at least show the overtaking vehicle how much space to give the cyclist.

London to New York

LONDON TO PARIS from Amazing Grace on Vimeo.

Week One

A good start to the project, currently researching.

I visited Sustrans and spoke to them about their efforts to get more people cycling and what discourages people from cycling.

I spoke to the London Cycling Campaign about HGV vehicles - the biggest killer of cyclists on London's roads.

I did surveys at bus stops, asking people what were their reasons for not cycling - most replied to say that it was too dangerous and their were no showers at their work.

I've spent a great deal of time photographing cyclists behaviour and looking for design opportunities here.

I met a HGV driver and learnt about what it is like from their perspective, even getting the chance to sit in the cab and see the road from their point of view. Despite the mirrors their are still blind spots and when turning left, when the cab moves independently of the trailer, they lose a lot of rear vision. Plenty of opportunities here.

Design + Cycling

I have returned to university for my final year. My self initiated project is looking at ways in which design can encourage more people to cycle in London. Over the next five months the blog will be devoted to my findings in thsi area.

It would be great if you could get involved as much as possible.
Please join theFacebook group
Follow the project on twitter

If you cycle in London, please take a couple of minutes to fill out this survey

If you don't cycle in London, I'd like to know why! Please fill out this survey

Thanks,

Lee

Dyson's Air multiplier in video

I thought I'd find a video to share of the fan, mostly as my initial reaction was "I bet it's noisy". I'm not a fan of his airblade hand purely for that reason.

So here's a video, the first thing is that it's a lot larger than I was expecting (from the images it looks like it's a small desk fan.) Secondly it doesn't seem as noisy as I was expecting, particularly on lower levels. What is particularly nice is the way you can just pick it up and carry it around - the fan is the handle.

advertising on the blog

I have finally decided to take the plunge and add some google advertising to this blog. I will try and keep it as non intrusive as possible. At the moment it's just a trial run - the main purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts and ideas but at the same time, if I can make enough money to buy a beer each week, then why not have a bit of advertising?

And if it pays a little more, then I'll be incentivised to get out there and find even more stuff to write about and share!

cheers

Lee

Piano stairs

Nice video - the power of fun to change mundane activities and daily routines



Also worth noting that youtube is now serving 1 billion view per day. That's an insane amount of content, a lot of people falling off things and pandas sneezing, but also, above all, a lot of ideas being shared. The name of the logo file is logo_holy_crap_1bn_a_day Nice to see that even the folks at youtube are surprised.