How come a place with the pretensions of the Mailbox in Birmingham can decide to do something so passė as to charge for people who visit their shops and restaurants on bicycles? There follows a list of the names of cyclists in vogue.
"Since it opened in December 2000, The Mailbox has given Birmingham a whole new social scene" Quote from Mailbox website 16 Oct 2005
"I work at a company based at the Mailbox. Just to inform you that as of November 1st, the Mailbox management will be charging for people to park both motorcycles and cycles in the bike park. Currently the plan is to charge members of the general public." E-mail from Mailbox employee 13 October 2005
I am a regular visitor to and customer of the different shops and eating places at the Mailbox plus the BBC, but I'm vexed at the news that Mailbox Management are deciding to charge for parking bicycles there. It seems a retrograde step and not one with which a place of the Mailbox’s prestige cycling is increasingly in vogue.
In London many ministers, academics, barristers, surgeons, senior civil servants and other establishment figures are navigating the city by bicycle, visiting clubs and restaurants and shops and not only not being charged for the presence of their bicycles but welcomed - yet Mailbox plans, from Nov 1, to charge cyclists for using a bike park.
Jeremy Paxman says cycling "... is easily the quickest way around, faster than bus, tube or taxi. You can predict precisely how long every journey will take, regardless of traffic jams, tube strikes or leaves on the line. It provides excellent exercise. It does not pollute the atmosphere. It does not clog up the streets." Vivienne Westwood regularly bicycles through the streets of London wearing a mad-looking pair of shoes from Balenciaga and Gilles Tapie's recent book of photographs of the dancer Sylvie Guillem shows she’s an urban cyclist. Eric Clapton collects and rides Italian road bikes while Bea Campbell wrote recently "In the context of debates about identity politics - are you gay or straight, nationalist or republican, British or English and so on - I would ask, 'Do you ride a bike?'" - yet the Mailbox wants to charge for bicycles.
Jeff Banks and Paul Smith are avid cyclists and Smith's business has sponsored cycle teams. We may yet see them design proper day clothes for cycling in the city. Sheryl Crow, Lance Armstrong's girlfriend, rode close to 70 miles at the recent Ride for the Roses and speaks of writing a song about cycling. Jon Bon Jovi is a mountain biker sponsoring an MTB team.
Alexei Sayle may write about cars but he commutes by bicycle and, with Jon Snow, is a customer of Condor Cycles along with Adam Woodyatt, Jill Halfpenny, Mick Jagger, and Chris Tarrant and wife who've bought a tandem. Treasury mandarin Sir Steve Robson always rode to work and still gets off road in the Sussex Downs sometimes - but the Birmingham Mailbox wants to charge for bicycles.
Boris Johnson MP cycles to and from Parliament and his office at the Spectator. The Prime Minister of Belgium, is a cyclist and a fan of cycle-sport. He said: "In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn't enough of those things" - especially at the Mailbox
Lee Iacocca ("when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life") former boss at Ford and then GM, invented the SUV, repented and is now into electric bikes and rides his company's products. He said: "After 50 years in the auto business, I'm bringing you the future of transportation - and it's electric!" but the Mailbox wants to charge for bicycles.
Kraftwerk's 1980s Tour de France album is a classic and they do other bicycle things though they are a bit reclusive, which brings me back to my original point - isn't it a bit naff of the Mailbox to start charging for bicycles in the year 2005?
Finally I guess that Mailbox architect Ken Shuttleworth, with his strong environmental credentials and a member of the Commission for the Built Environment will take a disappointed view of Mailbox managers making life difficult for cyclists instead of welcoming them.
"I work at a company based at the Mailbox. Just to inform you that as of November 1st, the Mailbox management will be charging for people to park both motorcycles and cycles in the bike park. Currently the plan is to charge members of the general public." E-mail from Mailbox employee 13 October 2005
I am a regular visitor to and customer of the different shops and eating places at the Mailbox plus the BBC, but I'm vexed at the news that Mailbox Management are deciding to charge for parking bicycles there. It seems a retrograde step and not one with which a place of the Mailbox’s prestige cycling is increasingly in vogue.
In London many ministers, academics, barristers, surgeons, senior civil servants and other establishment figures are navigating the city by bicycle, visiting clubs and restaurants and shops and not only not being charged for the presence of their bicycles but welcomed - yet Mailbox plans, from Nov 1, to charge cyclists for using a bike park.
Jeremy Paxman says cycling "... is easily the quickest way around, faster than bus, tube or taxi. You can predict precisely how long every journey will take, regardless of traffic jams, tube strikes or leaves on the line. It provides excellent exercise. It does not pollute the atmosphere. It does not clog up the streets." Vivienne Westwood regularly bicycles through the streets of London wearing a mad-looking pair of shoes from Balenciaga and Gilles Tapie's recent book of photographs of the dancer Sylvie Guillem shows she’s an urban cyclist. Eric Clapton collects and rides Italian road bikes while Bea Campbell wrote recently "In the context of debates about identity politics - are you gay or straight, nationalist or republican, British or English and so on - I would ask, 'Do you ride a bike?'" - yet the Mailbox wants to charge for bicycles.
Jeff Banks and Paul Smith are avid cyclists and Smith's business has sponsored cycle teams. We may yet see them design proper day clothes for cycling in the city. Sheryl Crow, Lance Armstrong's girlfriend, rode close to 70 miles at the recent Ride for the Roses and speaks of writing a song about cycling. Jon Bon Jovi is a mountain biker sponsoring an MTB team.
Alexei Sayle may write about cars but he commutes by bicycle and, with Jon Snow, is a customer of Condor Cycles along with Adam Woodyatt, Jill Halfpenny, Mick Jagger, and Chris Tarrant and wife who've bought a tandem. Treasury mandarin Sir Steve Robson always rode to work and still gets off road in the Sussex Downs sometimes - but the Birmingham Mailbox wants to charge for bicycles.
Boris Johnson MP cycles to and from Parliament and his office at the Spectator. The Prime Minister of Belgium, is a cyclist and a fan of cycle-sport. He said: "In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn't enough of those things" - especially at the Mailbox
Lee Iacocca ("when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life") former boss at Ford and then GM, invented the SUV, repented and is now into electric bikes and rides his company's products. He said: "After 50 years in the auto business, I'm bringing you the future of transportation - and it's electric!" but the Mailbox wants to charge for bicycles.
Kraftwerk's 1980s Tour de France album is a classic and they do other bicycle things though they are a bit reclusive, which brings me back to my original point - isn't it a bit naff of the Mailbox to start charging for bicycles in the year 2005?
Finally I guess that Mailbox architect Ken Shuttleworth, with his strong environmental credentials and a member of the Commission for the Built Environment will take a disappointed view of Mailbox managers making life difficult for cyclists instead of welcoming them.
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We should lobby & protest, as usual.
16.10.2005 22:09
The website at
Birmingham IS a motor city, despite the ruin of the local car industry. The 'cycle' routes are a joke, e.g. the Bristol Road southbound which has trees, bus stops and a very uneven surface on the designated cycle lane of the footpath. The numerous signs - 'cyclists dismount' say it all. The Council takes credit for 'cycle paths' on the canals, actually, we campaigned to use towpaths for many years, the council had nothing to do with that. There is a gradual improvement with some cycle paths being made in green fingers in some parts of the suburbs, and the Sustrans National Route 5 is great through Cannon Hill. Road users have little or no consideration for cycle areas and lanes on the highway.
It amazes me that someone thought up the idea of directing the most vulnerable road user (the cyclist) to share lanes with the largest of vehicles (buses). These lanes suffer from heavy use too, so are often a dangerous surface upon which to cycle. Can we imagine this proposal to charge happening if there was bicycle shop in the Mailbox?
Thanks for this posting, I only hope we can scupper this proposal and encourage all to lobby against this obsurd proposal to charge. Write to the cycling unit of the Council, write to the BBC, The Mailbox, etc. But the best way to tackle this is to organise protests, as always.
John Wesley Barker
Interesting stuff
16.10.2005 22:11
It's interesting that in a city like Birmingham which badly needs a good cycling image is so keen to make it so hard for cyclists to move round the city. (there is still a serious lack of cycle routes elsewhere- and what is available is usually taken up by cars anyway)
I recently attended a short course at the 'O-tic' centre (which ironically stands for 'innovation'!!) at Millenium Point- there's a massive car park there- but that's it- a car park. The only provision for cycles is a long walk along the back end of the building with spaces for about 6 bikes. Okay, you don't have to pay but why let cars have priority access and not bikes?
If the Mailbox wants us to pay- fine. Let's boycott the place :)
Tom Fenn