On yer bike!

Well life has been very exciting at ECUS these last few weeks. We are now fully installed in the Meadowhall office and are settling in nicely. As predicted we are missing the charity shops, the independent cafes and restaurants and Margaret, our wonderful cleaner for many years. There are those who think that Meadowhall is a suitable substitute and there seem to have been a few trips out to M&S and Greggs. Chris has even found a possible replacement for Vittles to provide lunches for the EMS Internal Auditor course that I’m running next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

One of the things that continues to be a topic of conversation for us in our new place is how we all get to work. Most of those who have always driven continue to do so, finding the easy access from the M1 is a boon. Those of us who walked to work are considering out options.

One of the main reasons I used to walk to work, other than the fact that I got rid of my car and First cancelled the bus, was that it gave me some exercise that didn’t involve treadmills, aircon and MTV. Catching two buses, one into town and the other out to Meadowhall on the other side, would do away with that. Also, it is expensive and takes a long time. My first solution has been to walk to the station, it takes about three quarters of an hour, hop onto the train to Bridlington at 8.41, get off again five minutes later at Meadowhall and walk along the Transpennine Trail to the back gate into the car park. This has turned out to be both quite pleasant and good exercise. Because I’ve hardly been in the office lately and one thing and another, I’ve done that trip to work several times but not the trip back. The trip that involves the long uphill drag home.

This morning I was all set to walk in again but, predictably, I ended up running late. Oops! Not to worry though. I had an alternative just waiting to be tried. I couple of weeks ago I went shopping. Now I’m not a woman who enjoys shopping. Shopping for clothes is always disappointing because I’m not a size 10 and shopping for food is boring. This was different though and I had a personal shopper and everything. A helpful young man called Tom. I went to the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative at Nether Edge in Sheffield. I told Tom what I wanted and within a matter of minutes I had a bike ordered and all the extra stuff you have to buy these days; pannier rack, lights, locks, helmet, mudguards (!) and cycle clips. Which I immediately misplaced but a couple of red Post Office elastic bands do very well. A week later I was in possession of a beautiful white Specialize Ariel bike, a girly bike (no cross bar). I love it.

So when I was already five minutes late I looked to Ariel to save me. I manoeuvred it onto the road and then walked it down the hill. It’s got good brakes but that hill is too scary to ride down. I doubt I’d be able to stop at the bottom. And then I rode it, via back roads and cycle-paths, to the station and loaded us both on the Brid train. A special reason for choosing that train is that it arrives on the platform allowing immediate ramped access to the Transpennine Trail. I arrived at work on time and happy.

Full of myself and my achievement I decided to cycle the entire route home. There was plenty of advice available, both on the internet and in the office. I was assured that the best route back was following the Five Weirs Walk. Unfortunately the map I printed off was too vague to be useful and anyway, it fell out of my pocket at some point. I didn’t worry though. This is such a high profile path that it would be bound to be well signposted. Or, as it turned out, not. And it was getting dark and I had to get home under my own steam as a bike that fits in a train doesn’t fit so well on a bus or in a taxi. The off-road sections of the route were wonderful. Some of the route was on-road though. I could have coped with the occasional on-road section if I hadn’t found that the red cycle paths petered out without a sign in sight to point to where to go next. Luckily, at one of these junctures, I recognized the 69 bus route that I had taken three days last week and followed that into town. I had been hoping to avoid bus routes but the drivers, perhaps recognizing an unconfident cyclist, gave me a wide berth. I finally arrived home with a great sense of triumph and a need for a soft cushion to sit on.

What I learned from this exercise in unprepared confidence was that really a bit of pre-planning would have been useful. We’ve produced some great travel plans over the years and have given lots of advice about how best to ensure people travel safely. We recommend that copies of the, often, free maps are obtained and kept at the office. We recommend all sorts of information and help, much of it available from the council or organizations like Pedal Ready and Sustrans and, again, much of it free or very reasonably priced. We’ve just been a bit busy sorting out what fixtures should be in the toilets (we women would like a mirror for example) and who brings in the milk, to do this important job. I think I might volunteer.