This blog post stems in part from a chat I had with Cllr Ed Hodson the Cabinet member for transport in my neck of the woods, which has already on been described in Karl McCracken's blog.  Although Cllr Hodson was probably not a natural political proponent of cycling, he did at least know what a set of panniers was.

I'd put Cllr Hodson's age as mid to late 60's, which means that he would have been born in the late1940's and grown up in a Britain where bicycle modal share although in decline was still very significant.  On Tyneside cycling at this time was so important that in 1951 they built a cycle tunnel under the Tyne, still operational today.  At its peak 20,000 people per day rode or walked under the river.
 
Looking back on Lord Tebbit's famous 1981 exhortation to the unemployed to "get on your bike" it was clearly a comment from someone who knew that in Britain before and immediately after WW2 the normal way for working men to experience employment mobility was via bicycle.
 
I can't help contrasting Tebbit or Hodson with the key decision makers in UK Transport today. Phillip Hammond MP Minister for Transport born in1955 & Mike Penning MP Minister for Roads born in1957.  Both Hammond & Penning spent their formative years in 1970's Essex where the car was king.

 
To a great extent the guard has already changed in national and local politics.  Hodson is an exception in being active at cabinet level, most of his colleagues seem to be more of Hammond & Penning's generation.  Lord Tebbit is an occasional voice in the house of lords but otherwise long gone from British politics.
 
My point?  Well locally we are quite lucky in finding ourselves dealing with someone who at has at least experienced life in a Britain where bikes were an important form of Transport.  Nationally those days are gone, and it shows.
 
There will always be exceptions, some MPs hold strong environmental convictions, some are from areas where cycling is strong, and some have done a stint cycle commuting in central London.  But even with a few enthusiastic voices here and there its going to be more difficult now to revive large scale utility cycling than it would have been in an era when most people remembered seeing it in operation.  For the average politician in his/her mid 50's the roads are for cars and the bicycle is a childrens toy and its always been that way (well as long as they can remember).