Besides my work with language and text, I have another field of interest that has been a hobby, a focus of voluntary activism and, more recently, of some paid professional work. I have been an enthusiastic cyclist in the city and out in the countryside, was for many years a campaigner for cycling as an everyday mode of mobility, for a couple of years now I have been a cycling teacher … and the newest development (since September 2024) is that I am in training as a driving instructor (for Class B, i.e. ordinary cars).
How we manage to get around in road traffic safely, and ideally peacefully, fascinates me. The competences we have to develop in order to do that – handling a vehicle; watching and analyzing traffic situations as they develop before our eyes; how we can develop a level of frustration tolerance that allows us to deal with irritating and sometimes dangerous moves by other road users; and finally, the question of whether we develop and ability to reflect on our own behaviour so as to see what we still need to learn – these things are a never-ending process for me, and I really enjoy helping (young) people who are setting out to learn all this for themselves.
Cycling
Riding a bike is for me one of the most brilliant things in life. In cities like Utrecht and Amsterdam I love how the streets can be so busy and so quiet at the same time. In my opinion, the high model share of cycling in these cities is a suitable model for many European cities. And the fact that the Netherlands regularly comes out near the top of the world for driver satisfaction might be a hint that driving is more enjoyable when we use cars for the functions they are really suited to.
Apart from cycling as way of doing everyday trips in the city, I also find the best relaxation of mind and body is also to be had on two wheels, somewhere way out in the. That’s actually how my cycling life began: While I was at school and college, my everyday mobility was commuting on buses and trains – but in my free time, I explored just about all the roads that I could get to by bike in one or two days from home (in a suburb to the north of Dublin).
Blog
My personal blog, which is mostly about my leisure cycling and my (old) bikes is here: twobiscuits.at.
Campaigner
From 2002–2012 I was a voluntary campaigner for the organization ARGUS (now Radlobby) for the cause of cycling as an everyday mode of mobility. Representing the association locally in Graz, regionally via the government of Styria, then at the national (federal) level in the infrastructure ministry. Via the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) I also got to know colleagues from many other countries and learned a bit about the situation of cycling in the different regions of Europe. I have drawn a line under my voluntary engagement. But of course my interest in the subject remains.
Aktion Licht und Technik
The project in Graz that is now known as Aktion Licht + Technik (project on light and mechanical equipment) was started by me in 2007 (?) with the support of the then regional minister for transport, and then also from the city of Graz, in cooperation with the police and Bicycle (a social enterprise that runs a bike workshop operation). On several evenings in spring and autumn the project pops up at different locations on the streets in Graz and checks bikes to see if they are properly equipped. There are small rewards for people whose bikes are in perfect condition and free or cheap spares and repairs for any issues that don’t need a full workshop.
StVO guide
In 2013, after the StVO, the Austrian rules of the road, had gone through a couple of amendments, I developed a new guide to the rules for cycling for the Radlobby. The concept, text, graphics and layout were all done by me. It was a fun and fascinating exercise in organizing the rather complicated subject matter into a form that would represent the rules accurately, but in an understandable and accessible way. I still think the general level of information about cycling has room for improvement. After the cycling test of 10-year-old children, the next things that come along are maybe the moped training and then driving school. There isn’t really a strategic effort to consolidate and complete ordinary people’s cycling competence or their knowledge of the cycling-specific rules.
Bike teacher
In 2022 I discovered a lovely way to do something for cycling again, as a side job: I qualified as a klima aktiv mobil Radfahrlehrer (that’s a certificate issued by the federal climate/infrastructure ministry) and now work seasonally in the project radfahrtraining.at at primary schools in Graz.
As a teaching activity this work is fascinating, demanding and multifaceted. I love the work with the children. But working in the team is just as great: we always work in pairs, help each other out and complement each other, learn a lot from each other, communicate on the fly about what we’re doing and reflect on a lot of details together. We have very different backgrounds and all contribute something to the shared style in the project. Safety and an efficient training cycle depend a lot on exact local knowledge of the streets around each school, so love of the city and its neighbourhoods is a feature. Not least, the work has a social dimension: we experience children from well-off backgrounds, for whom cycling on the streets as an everyday way of getting around is completely normal, but also children who are less privileged and have less of a connection to everyday cycling, often don’t have access to a streetworthy bike or can’t ride a bike at all – but who make huge progress in the (too few) hours we have with them. All in all, this is the most fantastic change from desk work.
Driving instructor
A few years ago I helped a young neighbour learn to drive as an “L” learner (an unusual form of training here, where most people take the regulation driving school package). I enjoyed working out how to help her develop the individual skills that make up the activity of driving a car, and then increasingly becoming a spectator as she integrated them to form her own all-round driving intelligence.
After some experience as a cycling teacher I thought, why not try the other side? Cyclists and drivers are constantly, in the most clichéd ways, being cast as each other’s natural enemies. I find that tedious. Moving in traffic with an awareness of what is going on around you, anticipating other road users’ movements and taking care of them, are skills everyone needs and that should be expected of everyone; and apart from the specifics of handling the different types of vehicle, the learning process has a lot in common.
Not least, working in a driving school gives me a chance to be involved in traffic training year-round, and to get out of the house, away from my desk, and deal with (all kinds of) people.
Technical communication in many dimensions
For me, the language of road traffic is a fascinating example of a technical subject in which the same content is used and spoken about differently in a range of different contexts. The law at the centre of it, the StVO, is a text that firstly has to function in different legal roles: it is the basis of procedures in administrative law, the law of administrative offences, in civil law and criminal law; at the same time it addresses instructions for everyday behaviour to ordinary people who have to learn the rules and apply them in their everyday use of the roads. Different groups of people, for example the legislative drafters in central government, jurists in local roads authorities, road engineers, people involved in vehicle technology and its policing, schools, us bike teachers, driving school theory teachers and driving instructors all have their own perspectives, filter the content in their own ways and communicate about it in jargon developed for their own purposes. Quite fascinating!
Services?
At the moment I don’t have concrete intentions to market services in this field as a freelancer. But if you think my combination of traffic-related competences could be useful, I’m open to queries! Translation and editing projects related to road traffic are an obvious possibility.