Around 50-60 cyclists, including children, cycle hire users and cargo bike riders, enjoyed the traffic-free climb — one participant reported the “workers at the barrier were really nice and friendly”
Twitter) (Image Credit: Image credit: Harry Gray/Twitter)
An estimated 60-strong group of cyclists took part in Saturday’s Snake Pass protest, dubbed the Snake Trespass.
After the A57, one of the area’s busiest roads, connecting Manchester and Sheffield via Glossop, was shut for urgent maintenance due to landslides caused by storms Eunice and Franklin, the scenic Peak District climb was described as a cyclists’ paradise.
Despite calls from FDJ-Groupama pro rider Jake Stewart to reconsider the ‘Trespass’, a group of around 50-60 riders amassed in Glossop before riding the route to the top, unchallenged by workers.
Amongst the group were families, a cargo bike rider, and a cyclist using a Beryl hire bike. Walkers were also spotted enjoying the empty roads and scenic views.
On Friday, national cycling charity Cycling UK appeared set to challenge the council’s decision to close the road to cyclists and walkers, before saying the route is not closed to cyclists:
Cycling UK is writing to Derbyshire County Council regarding the reasons for closing parts of the A57 Snake Pass to cyclists. Pending their response, there has however been confusion regarding which stretch of the pass cyclists are unable to access.
For clarity, the emergency temporary road closure made on 22 February, which lasts until 22 March, only permits closure on the section of the map attached. There is however an alternative off-road route connecting the two farms and bypassing the stretch of the road subject to the closure order.
Cyclists are not banned from the entirety of the Snake Pass and can bridge the gap over the closed section of road if they are willing and able to take an off-road diversion.
Snake Pass map (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
Great ride up #snakepass with about 50 or 60 others. Lovely blue sky and some sunshine. The workers at the barrier were really nice and friendly pic.twitter.com/1XSNilrKxW
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he’s not working you’ll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he’ll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he’s a bit strange like that.
11 Comments
11 thoughts on “Snake Pass protest: Cyclists reclaim car-free route”
There were some pictures on
There were some pictures on Twitter of someone in cycling kit, claiming to be of Jake Stewart and stating he’d been pushed off his bike and had some messy cuts and grazes.
Anyone else seen it? Assuming genuine, is this before or his call for us all to be nice to drivers?
Looks like folk have had a nice afternoon out in the Snake today. We should do it more often.
Yes, this happened yesterday in New Mills, right where I live. We’re gathering CCTV evidence – we know the number plate and car model, but there’s no footage of the actual assault yet.
Jake has tweeted about it asking for any footage to be sent to him.
The “closed” section is just after the Shirebrook roundabout in Glossop to just before the turnoff to Derwent Valley. The actual road damage is in the really scenic bit where the road runs closest to the Snake River.
@Astralstroll The Hierarchy of Road Users, announced with great fanfares in 2022, has been rendered into complete fiction by the attitude of the police: there is this hierarchy/ priority list but we don't take it seriously and if drivers ignore it we don't care! The same applies to the ludicrous notice of close-passing - No KSI'd cyclist = No Offence
ttps://upride.cc/incident/lwa190_minicooper_hierarchy/
Hope Barcelona keep the transport improvements (they've been making for a while) coming! Better streets, more infra to help active travel where necessary.
And while it's a major investment (though can be lower operating cost than busses) maybe more trams where they can. That may be more effective in making places active travel friendly and replacing taxis than mass public bike hire. They've a good start with 6 lines already.
I think this is a positive story. They're not getting rid of public hire bikes - they're expanding their in-house one. They're merely kicking out cowboys who've shown they've a lack of interest in the game they claim to be playing.
It seems logical that companies whose business model is to extract (venture capital) money by invading public space are even less likely to make the efforts to keep things in order than a local "in house" scheme. (After all the "bikes and riding" part of these schemes always *costs* money, they don't generate it.) So not surprising their experience shows those firms are not particularly motivated to follow the rules - especially when scrapping for "market share".
It's nice the European Cyclists’ Federation is thinking about tourists also (i hesitate to say "follow the money...") - as they note, where it's safe to cycle locals will largely get their own bikes. Tourists aren't going to stop coming because lack of public bike share - I think this is mostly a "nice to have" ("hey - why don't we go on one of those bikes there? ").
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times.
Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen.
The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now.
Other than that it's great :/
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge
Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge.
https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions??
If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count".
"Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country)
Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel
Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys.
As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends).
(The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
11 thoughts on “Snake Pass protest: Cyclists reclaim car-free route”
There were some pictures on
There were some pictures on Twitter of someone in cycling kit, claiming to be of Jake Stewart and stating he’d been pushed off his bike and had some messy cuts and grazes.
Anyone else seen it? Assuming genuine, is this before or his call for us all to be nice to drivers?
Looks like folk have had a nice afternoon out in the Snake today. We should do it more often.
Yes, this happened yesterday
Yes, this happened yesterday in New Mills, right where I live. We’re gathering CCTV evidence – we know the number plate and car model, but there’s no footage of the actual assault yet.
Jake has tweeted about it asking for any footage to be sent to him.
Quote:
Is that a typo, or are people really calling it that (with two double ‘s’es)?
Cos that doesn’t really work, does it?
Yess, it doess! ?
Yess, it doess! ?
(I’m guessing that emoji might look a bit wrong for some.)
I think if you were going for
I think if you were going for that it ought to be two triple ‘s’eses though.
I see it’s been amended now, so it looks like it was just a fat finger moment anyway.
Maybe the title should be
Maybe the title should be changed to clarify that the road isn’t closed (with a short detour)?
Could anyone provide a link
Could anyone provide a link to the map of the emergency road closure?
The “closed” section is just
The “closed” section is just after the Shirebrook roundabout in Glossop to just before the turnoff to Derwent Valley. The actual road damage is in the really scenic bit where the road runs closest to the Snake River.
https://mobile.twitter.com
https://mobile.twitter.com/WeAreCyclingUK/status/1502321385934401543
Thank you!
Thank you!
Well done, Trespassers!
Well done, Trespassers!