cycle BOOM

Design for lifelong health and wellbeing

  • .
  • About
    • Objectives
    • Scope
    • Methods
    • Case study areas
    • National importance
    • Our supporters
  • Final Report & Outputs
    • Summary Report
    • Briefing Notes
    • Videos
    • Policy Review
    • cB Events
    • Newsletters
    • Presentations
    • Publications
    • Publicity materials
  • Meet the team
    • Tim Jones
    • Nick Beale
    • Kiron Chatterjee
    • Carl Mann
    • Heather Jones
    • Louise Leyland
    • Ben Spencer
    • Justin Spinney
    • Emma Street
    • Carien van Reekum
    • Shaun Williams
  • Media mentions
  • Blog
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Cycling Life Histories / A life of cycling in Oxford

A life of cycling in Oxford

August 22, 2014 By Ben Spencer 1 Comment Filed Under: Cycling Life Histories

Pin It
by Kathryn Johnson, cycle BOOM participant.
Having cycled from a very young age (see photo below), I wanted to join the cycle BOOM project as it sounded  a worthwhile  way of encouraging other people to cycle – whatever their age.
first trike

Photo of me aged about 10 months on my first tricycle

Cycling has been a way of life since childhood – commuting to school, Brownies, Guides, Duke of Edinburgh Award evening classes and eventually to work every day. During the summer holidays in Oxford my brothers and I would travel along the local lane to the park – without any adults – and zoom up and down the mud dips never coming to any harm.  Today children would usually be accompanied on such trips as there is more media coverage of  “dangers” and more traffic than in my younger days.
new bike

Me on my new bike in 1989, the photo was taken for insurance purposes – but I am still riding the same bike

I am now in my fifties.  My husband in his 60s also cycles daily. We live on a cycle route into Oxford and often ride in to restaurants and the theatre in our leisure time.
Cycling is my favourite mode of transport as I am control of my own destiny – I have freedom and independence – I keep fit and healthy – body and mind, I enjoy the lanes and by-ways – I arrive on time – I don’t wait for buses.  The only downside is the weather – but on goes the cagoule and plastic leggings and off I go!
I do have a car. It has regular use at weekends as it is time-consuming to bike everywhere and doing the weekly shop would make cycling impossible unless we got trailers to carry the load. We also use it to transport other people or to go on holiday, again carrying heavy loads; or on visits to isolated National Trust country houses when we have to use the car for convenience.
My enthusiasm for cycling was passed on to my daughter who cycled to school. She now works a long commute away, so does not use a bike much.
Me and granddaughter Mumbles 2014

Photo of me and my granddaughter  cycling in Wales, August 2014

However as part of my latest bike adventure – a fold up bike – I have taken my granddaughter on her first seaside ride from Mumbles to Swansea enjoying the Welsh sea air (see photo above).

Tweet


Comments

  1. rideage.com says

    July 2, 2015 at 10:04 pm

    Thank you very much for sharing this post to us waiting for more nice post.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read our blog Follow our Tweets

From our blog

Update post cycle BOOM

February 13, 2017 By Tim Jones Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the cycle BOOM blog. After a busy crescendo to the project, with our conferences in … [Read More...]

Recent Tweets

Tweets by cycle_BOOM
cycle BOOM - Design for Lifelong Health and Wellbeing - logo
  • Follow our Tweets
  • Like our Facebook page
  • Share your pics
  • Read our blog
  • Watch our videos
  • RSS feed
cycle BOOM - Design for Lifelong Health and Wellbeing - logo
EPSRC [Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council] Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Oxford Brookes University Cardiff University University of Reading University of the West of England
Sitemap | Privacy | Cookies
Copyright © 2017
Funded by the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing cross-council programme. Grant No. EP/K037242/1