“Safer, less polluted, easier to cross”: Campaigners call for blanket 20mph speeds divides city residents; Tour de France Femmes Ventoux preview + more on the live blog

When the media reports a 20mph ‘blanket ban’ it’s often misleading, presuming that even the A-roads are now forced to limit you to a more pedestrian-friendly pace. That’s never been quite true, although for campaigners within the city limits of Bath, that’s the goal.

We met campaigner Guy Hodgson at our last ride out, and he last month launched a petition to make Bath a fully 20mph city, highlighting the remaining 8 miles of city roads that have a 30 limit, and their proximity to various schools and student halls.

> Reducing speed limits to 20mph protects cyclists and doesn’t delay traffic, new research finds

He estimates the cost of creating a ‘blanket’ 20mph limit would be around £15,000 and that the policy represents, excellent value for money. 30mph where people live, work and play is akin to indoor smoking. When it is no more, we will look back and wonder how we tolerated such a harmful situation for so long.”

Transport academic Pete Dyson, supports the proposals, noting, “Bath has been fortunate to maintain a largely traditional street design and there is just one mile of dual carriageway. We have already seen 20mph works well for people on places like London Road, which is now safer, less polluted and easier to cross. We need to roll out those benefits to all communities.”

Hodgson also has the tentative support of the city’s council’s cabinet member for sustainable transport delivery. Lucy Hodge said, “We are committed to putting in 20mph speed limits where they are requested by residents, recognising how much safer they make our streets for school children.”

The challenge, however, might be convincing residents to request it. Since launching the petition he has attracted, at the time of writing, 321 signatures. Had he not launched the campaign during the Tour de France we may have given it a little more attention – Bath is after all home to road.cc HQ.

But a write-up of his efforts by the Local Democracy Reporter on Somerset Live seemed to quickly attract hundreds of critical comments.

“258 people signed the petition. If there was a petition to not have 20 mph limits, I am sure that would garner much more support.”

“And the war against the car gathers pace…”

“How about this for an idea: instead of listening to the ‘campaigners’, who are often very vocal, but only represent a small minority of the community, invite every resident of Bath to vote on whether they actually want this. I suspect that the result would end this pointless little drama pretty quickly.”

> Cyclist casualties down 28% and 900 fewer road injuries since 20mph limit introduced in Wales – but driving instructor still brands change a “total disaster”

“I’m sure I’m not the first to say that if the traffic seldom moves faster than 20 you don’t need a mandatory 20 limit. Unless, of course, you want to get lots of lovely income from speeding fines.”

Some residents were also worried about the possible increase in emissions from cars driving slower for longer, although those studies tend to test cars driven on ‘steady-state’ rolling roads and not in the open when cars repeatedly accelerate and decelerate.

> “Bold” bike lanes and ultra-low emission zones help London slash air pollution by over 20% since 2010, new report finds – as capital aims to double cycle network and deliver “greener, safer streets”

Altogether, it seems like this campaign might be facing an uphill battle to win over residents’ approval…

As you might expect, yesterday we were pre-occupied with what the Accell group’s insolvency proceedings meant for Raleigh, the iconic British bike brand.

> Raleigh faces administration after parent company starts insolvency proceedings

But as reported, Raleigh aren’t the only brand affected. And Lapierre, who provide bikes for WorldTour Team Picnic-PostNL, aren’t happy with the way things are panning out.

In a statement posted on Instagram, the French brand say “At Lapierre we believe in being transparent with our community. Today, we want to share an important update: Lapierre has initiated legal proceedings to enter judicial reorganisation following the cessation of activities of Accell Group, the parent company we were previously part of.

“Our teams are here, continuing to design build and support the bikes that bring people together on every road, trail and climb.

“Every great ride includes challenging peaks. We know the road ahead will require determination, but we are ready to keep moving and to write the next chapter of the Lapierre story together.”

Of course what isn’t clear from that statement is how they intend to keep running, or whether they have a buyer of their brand lining up to take over. If we hear any similar statement from Raleigh we’ll let you know.

People of Eastbourne and the surrounding vicinity! If you have Sunday plans reschedule them, unless of course you plan on attending the Penny Farthing hill climb world championships…

 

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4.7km, a whopping 150m of elevation gain. Be there or be square. Sadly our VecchioJo, he of 59 Flandrien bergs fame, failed to snap up an entry this time.

 

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You wonder what went through Specialized’s heads to come up with this. Thankfully Mat will have a more thorough explanation in our Tech of the Week.

This story has been a little all-consuming for Ryan at times over the past couple of weeks, which is all the more remarkable considering he’s been chasing it whilst at the biggest bike races in the world. Kudos to him…

> “There are bigger issues to tackle than people on e-bikes”: How a bike shop turned detectives to track down a cargo bike wrongly seized and destroyed by the police