As BBC East Midlands TV’s politics correspondent, John Hess is a familiar face to thousands of viewers. Although based in Nottingham he often broadcasts from Westminster and, in what he calls his ‘Westminster weeks’, his commutes can see him travelling over 500 miles in five days. What’s thankfully shorter is his daily commute to the BBC office from his home in West Bridgford, ridden on a Trek Navigator he was pedalling at this month’s Space4Cycling ride.
“I bought it a couple of years ago and it’s the ideal commuting bike for me,” says John, who’s just turned sixty. “While it’s not a particularly fast bike, it gets me from A to B safely. It stays in one or two gears all the way and all I’ve added is a basket on the back. I’ve got four bikes at home, including an old Amsterdam street bike. It’s fixed wheel with 28” tyres and I sometimes use that. It’s slow to get going, but once it does it’s like warp factor six.”
Despite his experience as a cyclist, you won’t see John commuting along London Road. Instead he takes the pavement or the canal path, as he considers Trent Bridge and London Road too dangerous for cyclists. “London Road is a killer. There needs to be a much safer way of crossing Trent Bridge, it’s horrendous. While this [West Bridgford] is a main suburban area, I think cyclists are pretty poorly served.”
He adds: “Nottingham’s city council leader, Jon Collins, is a cyclist and must be acutely aware of the need to improve the cycling offer. Everything about cycling provision in this city is piecemeal, with the Boots Island site as a classic example – they built new roads for new business to set up with a cycle track next to them, but the cycle track just ends!”
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