- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Rowing cycle lane protest, Holmston Road, Ayr, ScotlandMan protests bike lane...by rowing on it
A man has protested the building of a cycle lane…by rowing in it.
Angry about the installation of a bike route on Holmston Road, in Ayr, Scotland, Andrew Russell set up a static rowing machine, dressed up in workout gear and a sailor’s hat, and commenced his rowing protest.
The blue painted, 600m kerb protected cycle route, installed in August, has caused public outcry and claims traffic will grind to a halt. While some figures show 600 people are cycling on the route per week, local councillors are nonetheless threatening to join forces to “rip it out” because they fear it will cause congestion and "accidents".
Cyclists wear something red and protest for better cycling in Sheffield
In a perfect piece of video irony, Russell tells the Daily Record: “I’m here because I think the whole thing was a white elephant, because if you look across the road they had a perfectly good cycle lane before, which they’ve now scrubbed out,” the moment a lorry towing a flatbed van thunders past on the road, beeping its horn.
The former painted cycle lane he gestured to would have placed those on bikes between fast moving traffic and a stone wall, with only a narrow pavement as a buffer, should they need to evade close passing vehicles.
Russell says he saw eight cyclists during an hour of his rowing protest, before adding he enjoyed the “peace and quiet” of the kerb protected cycle route.
Russell’s exercise protest is perhaps more ironic given the burgeoning health crisis in Scotland, with 31% of Scotland’s children overweight or obese. In 15 years, if current trends continue, 40 per cent of Scotland’s population will be obese. The problem has been called this generation’s tobacco crisis in terms of public health risk. Smoking is now banned in public places in Scotland.
Local papers reflect the somewhat hysterical local mood, stirred up following the bike route’s installation, variously describing the bi-directional, kerb-protected cycle track as a “giant” cycle lane, which will see a road “torn apart” potentially causing “traffic chaos”.
The Daily Record reports one councillor dubbed it an “accident waiting to happen”, though it’s not clear how protecting people on bikes from motor traffic would cause injury, unless someone weren’t looking where they were driving and blindly ploughed into the new kerb, injuring someone cycling on it.
Plans are afoot to extend the route, but community council chair, John McGuire was quoted by the Record as saying “I think we can all be agreed that won’t be happening.”
Latest Comments
- bensynnock 29 min 7 sec ago
Here in Southampton we just get long lines of cars queuing for cruise ships. ...
- hawkinspeter 53 min 4 sec ago
Whilst EV cars are an improvement over ICE cars, I think they're a distraction from the possibilities of e-bikes, e-scooters and e-cargo-bikes etc....
- David9694 2 hours 59 min ago
I like how drivers make the case for making monitoring covert, not overt.
- andystow 3 hours 12 min ago
She seemed a bit upset about a minor misjudgement that could have killed someone and is going to cause months of stress and inconvenience.
- Backladder 3 hours 17 min ago
No we don't agree, personally I would take primary, even if only for a short period although I can understand why some riders might not want to...
- brooksby 3 hours 39 min ago
And which looks very like the bag produced by indy bag manufacturer Wizard Works…...
- HoarseMann 3 hours 50 min ago
If it was a 'no vehicles' sign (all white circle centre), it would mean cyclists could ride in the hours that HGVs and disabled drivers are allowed...
- stonojnr 5 hours 20 min ago
The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.
- JOHN5880 5 hours 20 min ago
Hey, you 4 execs helped run a company into the ground and have no jobs anymore... Come work for us because you have great experience in the...
- Oakhambike 6 hours 5 min ago
£11.5k for a bike weighing over 8kg that's 2 fingers to customers let alone UCI
Add new comment
41 comments
What I don't understand about the cycle lane, is why it is on one side of the road? Surely you build two protected cycle lanes either side of the road?
Cyclists coming towards the camera should really be in a different lane on the other side of the road. And you should have a full length protective barrier, rather than blocks with gaps between to catch your wheel on.
Maybe he should set the machine up on the road next time, just to compare and contrast whether more congestion and accidents are caused
Fried Mars bar and double dipped chips with cheesey sauce pls.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/fears-over-free-protest-par...
Pondscum at the Daily Record trying to incite their barely-able to readership to block the cycleway. Typical bilge from them.
So thick people live in Scotland as well as in
England. Is there no escape?
More likely rum?
This is part of the #bearsway meme
"I don't understand cycling -why not just drive to the gym for a spinning class?"
Insidious 'logic'.
I'm not a fan of cycle paths at all - we should just get the cars and lorries off the roads - and this one looks particularly shit:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/road-bosses-admit-carried-o...
I'd be inclined to encourage the drivers to park in it, thus keeping them off the road, and forcing the cyclists back onto the road where they belong, obstructing decent folk.
I'm rather intrigued by the logic of some of the people quoted in the newspaper. On the one hand the cycle lane is going to cause congestion; on the other hand it has taken away the places where visitors could previously leave their cars. How does that work?
Did see this being constructed as I drove along in Ayr but haven't had chance to cycle on it yet.
Saw the end of it from Hillfoot Road - easy to see the bright blue colour!
Good reason to take bike down to Ayr!
Haven't tried Milngavie, but it does seem to extend further than Holmston Road. The lanes themselves seem a decent enough idea (although not fully convinced by Homston Road lanes petering out), but they all end where it gets too complicated for road infrastructure and tend to dump us out at the most incovenient and unsafe point.
Centre of Glasgow lanes are OK but pedestrians don't seem to understand them at all. Then again, with the widely observed 20 mph speed limit, cycling should be idylic in Glasgow... (must admit I completely forgot when driving in centre at the weekend - nobody else is anywhere near 20 so hard to remember).
Those lanes are a bit better than the on/off pavement lines used in Hamilton, but Holmston Road actually had two reasonably wide pavements that I'd have thought ideal for shared use. (Edit well at least before reaching the cemetary - narrows on that side)
The Kyle Academy drop off will be quite an issue as housing has been built up all round it so few opportunies to stop a car (regardless of the right and wrongs of that).
It's a pity that an attempt to put some cycling infrastructure in place has generated so much negative coverage when that will just reinforce more of the predjudice some have and add hype to the media stirring things up.
In California they eliminated a fairly well used bike lane because all the yellow street directional and dividing lines were "confusing" and plain unsightly to some of the locals.
Since Captain Bly's rowing is stationary, shouldn't he be ticketed for obstructing traffic? Or is it okay because it's bikes and not cars? So much for "all must obey the same traffic laws".
In California they eliminated a fairly well used bike lane because all the yellow street directional and dividing lines were "confusing" and plain unsightly to some of the locals.
Since Captain Bly's rowing is stationary, shouldn't he be ticketed for obstructing traffic? Or is it okay because it's bikes and not cars? So much for "all must obey the same traffic laws".
Pages