Thread by @laura_laker

It’s less than a week until my book about the National Cycle Network launches! It’s been quite the journey. In a country where two thirds of Britons say they want to cycle more, and where most trips are short, I set out to find out how far we are from making this dream a reality.

In 2022 I set off around Britain on a sporadic tour of its cycle routes. There were highs! There were lows! And, yes, there was some slapstick. I carried a shrub across Cornwall, and an enormous teapot up some Welsh hills. The pink e-bike did a sterling job, I'm pleased to note.

I tried, along the way, to make sense of this amazing hodge-podge of cycle routes we call the National Cycle Network. There are bad bits – you may be familiar. There are amazing bits. But there’s so much more to its story.

Its history is more incredible than I knew. Started by volunteers in the 1980s, with almost no funding or support, these early environmentalists saw the need for alternatives to car travel. Councils and the government weren’t thinking in this way (sound familiar?)

Within two decades they had brought hundreds of organisations and local authorities together, raised millions of pounds and developed thousands of miles of routes, with a national scope. Since then the NCN has seen sporadic improvements, but it’s nowhere near finished

Culture wars players would have you believe cycle campaigners are well-resourced and powerful, but my journey and the people I met underline just how far from the truth this is. Richard (l) has fought for 2 decades to build just 3 miles of cycle route – and stayed cheerful

Potholes and Pavements is something I’m immensely proud of. It's a state of the nation story about cycling in the UK – but it’s also a book about how amazing cycling is. And there’s a manifesto for how we get where we need to be! You can preorder now: linktr.ee/lauralakerpoth…