11 things we’ve learnt this week

@chrisonabike I could call it mamilism and get cheap bikes and lycra ;-)

As long as cars crossing the cycleway have to wait for bikes to pass rather than vice-versa,.I don't see a problem.

"This cycleway isn’t just a piece of infrastructure, it’s an invitation to thousands of people to leave the car at home and travel in a way that’s better for them and better for their community." Er no, a cycleway *is* just a piece of infrastructure. The idea that you need a dedicated cycleway in order to ride a bike is ludicrous and false, and gives succour to those who think that cyclists don't belong on a road.

I only get punishment passes when Im riding close to the gutter usually when there's a painted farcility!

I reckon you should go for some patriarchal system - you might grow to like it and I reckon it would be popular with lots of men who seem to feel hard-done by. Perhaps you could institute a holy sacrament which would allow you to circumvent local drugs legislation, or at least get some tax exemptions (coffee?). Anyway - we all love a good protected-characteristic-fight - today misogyny versus religious discrimination!

@This Wreckage I never realised it wasn't misogyny if it was based on religion, I wonder what else I will be able to get away with once I found my own religion!

"Landcross Road is now like a rat run, cars bomb through there. Surprised that there hasn’t been a smash there or somebody hasn’t been knocked down yet." Is that a vote for a modal filter there? Or - better - seeing how this could be fitted into a broader pattern of LTNs for residents? Or even starting a conversation on what they expect from travel locally / regionally and how could that be delivered. If the answer is - predictably - "like now but driving is more convenient" how much is that *really* going to cost / affect them going forward? Spoiler - they might well get lucky and have a few more years of "help for the hard- pressed motorist". (Particularly through the influence of Reform moving the conversation at a national level). But with more people here, more bills from people living longer (and all the other changes, the wars we're paying for...) the *real* costs of mass motoring may come back to bite pretty soon.

Scrapbook or it didn't happen?

This make me think of the early days of the bicycle - European countries which at the time still had prescriptive and quite restrictive views of female roles and appropriate behaviour and there were certainly outpouring of concern about the idea of women cycling. (Although I believe there was more acceptance of the zoo of "wheeled self-propelled contraptions" of the Victorian era). And ... maybe they were right in that perhaps this did lead (eventually) to some social liberalisation / young people mixing? Also thinking about an example the other way where NGOs working to help people have provided bicycles to eg. assist women bringing produce to market, only to find that these are all appropriated by men. (Perhaps a bit like "the man drives the car" which can still be seen to some extent in the UK). Of note is that Dutch women on average make more cycle trips than men. That's nothing to do with ebikes, but the efforts made (infra and built environment) to make driving not be the default for shorter trips. Plus women still do more of the admin / (child)care than men there.

Even better, there's a 4 hour rolling road block on this afternoon as the carnival parade travels through the town. Those on social media complaining about this work have known about it for months and despite what they may claim, they are not the silent majority but a vocal minority.