In 2015, Yvette Caster wrote a Metro article declaiming cyclists as a menace, and cycling as something that shouldn’t be taking place on the roads, which she saw as the domain of drivers. By 2023, however, she had changed her position entirely, given up her car and written for The Guardian about how it happened.
She said: “When I wrote the piece, nowhere I had ever lived, which included cities across the country, seemed suited to cycling, and I, like my friends, viewed cyclists as eccentrics.”
Lockdown changed that view - when the rural roads where she lives were suddenly free of traffic and she realised she could walk to the shops instead of driving.
She’s not alone: according to the National Travel Survey, 22% of English households do not have access to a car. That figure is similar in Wales, but higher in Scotland at 27%.
Yvette's 2015 Metro piece: https://metro.co.uk/2015/11/05/cyclists-are-a-menace-and-should-be-banned-from-the-roads-5482050/
Yvette's 2023 piece in the Guardian, following her road to Damascus moment: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/27/why-i-quit-complaining-about-cyclists-men-in-lycra
Yvette's podcast, Late in the Gay: https://castro.fm/podcast/d7d126ce-fe48-4dff-b62a-d4b7782fde6c
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