I want Drive to Work day to be inclusive of those who don’t have cars.  If like me you don’t have a car, why not ‘pretend’ to be driving a ‘little car’ whilst cycling?  Join the movement! 

Unlike drivers, I am unfortunate enough not to have the luxury of being forced to spend all my hard-earned cash on a car.  It’s silly of me to save money that I then fritter away on other useless things such as having a life.  So I’ll be cycling as usual on drive to work day, but:

– I will not filter through the motor traffic, but will wait in the queue, taking up the same amount of space as a small car.  Drivers expect me to queue up like them, so I will, even if it takes me an hour to get through the next set of lights.  After all, it’s unfair that we cyclists have all the advantages and almost none of the costs when using the road.  We should be good people and take our places in the queue. 

– I will go at the same speed as the motors around me (that’s easy!)  No driver will have to undergo the harrowing, skills-stretching experience of needing to overtake me, because they won’t be able to.  We should be good people and not challenge drivers to need to go round us again and again. 

If, like me, you are also denied the luxury of being able to drive, will you join me on Drive-to-work day by being super-considerate of the wishes of our driving friends in the way I’ve described?  If you’re not brave enough to maintain your place in the carriageway all on your own for an extended period, why not cycle to work in a ‘vehicular’ manner with a group of friends: in this way there could be lots of ‘critical masses’ of friendly groups of people cycling to work all over London.  Make sure you wave a friendly greeting to drivers to show that we’re all in this together. 

By pretending to be ‘little cars’ for a day, we will understand what drivers go through every day, and we will feel like we are part of the movement.  Shall we each even donate a year’s cycling “tax” to our local council so that they can spend it on space for driving to work, because we know how valuable cars are to the economy, regeneration and convenience?  That should be quite cheap, actually, because since car tax is linked to emissions and, unlike the Toyota Prius, our vehicles don’t emit any, we probably won’t need to get our wallets out at all! 

If only all cyclers behaved like you and took up the same space as one person in a car.  Waited patiently and took their turn at junctions it would be great.  I really hope you choose to ride one of the low down recumbing bicycles to hoover up our low down pollution