Lord Winston wants cyclists … to raise money for his charity; Parkun runner pushes cyclist off bike on towpath; W Sussex cycle path perfect prep for ‘cross season but not much else; Boardman: advisory cycle lanes “money down the drain” + more on live blog

For a moment I thought the A264 cycle-path story was related to the photo immediately below it.  "I mean, that is a bad surface, but at on the plus side you can't see the A264 from it, and it's actually quite scenic, so it's not all bad"

@Brooksby this is interesting - https://www.move-lab.com/project/whatthestreet/berlin?bike=0.33&rail=0.3...

113/117 = 0.9658
0.9658 x 100 = 96.58%
100 - 96.58 = 3.42% reduction from 2008 to 2017
However these things are always open to manipulation. Pick your start and end dates to paint the picture you want to show. I suspect choosing a date other than 2002 would tell a different story.

regarding the e-bikes, in the period 2008-2017 in the European country with the biggest sales (Germany) cycling overall has gone down dramatically, coinciding with year on year increases in e-bike sales. The period 2002-2008 saw a 17% increase in cycling journeys, for the 02-17 period cycling journeys had gone up by only 13% which means a fall in journeys. Modal share of cycling has also not increased unsurprisingly. 

I can't figure out how to do the maths to work out the reduction for the 08-17 period but it's interesting that when you look at car sales for the 02-08 period they were down and the 08-17 period car sales in Germany were on the up (as has been e-bike sales)

The Netherlands also shows exactly the same problem, huge e-bike sales but overall cycling has not changed in modal share. So going by the bare facts e-bikes are not encouraging motorists out of their cars in the two leading European e-bike user countries, somewhat worrying for their proponents who state that they will create a revolustion in transport.

The A264 cycle path, being of mud and gravel will soon become overgrown with weeds, and even more useless.

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Another train operator...

I've just read through that tweeter thread.  Pretty awful response from Cross Country - "You'll need to find a way of hanging it up yourself, or get help" - and I've had a look through the link to their website.

As someone who (almost) never travels by train, and never have with a bike, is this standard operating procedure?

tl:dr translation: We have a train that can carry hundreds of people but only two bikes (maybe three, at a push).  You can reserve a space or just turn up, but our staff might decide there isn't room and turn you away.  Well, not you, but your bike, so you'll need to go and lock it up somewhere and then come back to the train before it leaves.  But the bike was important for your journey?  Not our problem, but we can offer you a link to a Brompton rental place...

Simple solution burtthebike, if it isn’t moving it isn’t using. Take away on street parking and make roads solely for people moving, there will be plenty of space. A parked car is an inanimate object with no rights, so it can’t feel hurt by being excluded.

The fact that Parkrun and cyclists are competing for the same space says one thing: we need more space.

Our community spaces, the roads, have been denied us by drivers who demand that we bow down before them and get out of their way.  If if wasn't for drivers, there would be plenty of safe space for cyclists and pedestrians to co-exist, but we are all denied that space by those with power and money.  XR are right; we don't need minor changes, we need a fundamental change, in this case, one where drivers are the ones with no rights, and pedestrians and cyclists have rights, not just whenever the jucicial system feels like we deserve them.

"Anti-cycling peer wants cyclists ... to raise money for his charity."

I'm pretty innured to the utter nastiness of the privatised "charity-fund-raising" business (where huge amounts go to the 'private-sector-events-organisers', and small change to the charity).  Utterly nasty.

But Winston's cynicism defies belief ... WTAF?

What happened on the towpath was an assault. A criminal offence. That is that really. You'll find most of the things outlined by various correspondents are against criminal law.
That they are a) not reported b) not dealt with by police does not make them any less criminal. 

I wear 3/4 length baggies for when winter properly hits, supplemented with water resistant thermal knee warmers when it gets really cold/wet.

On the towpath thing - whilst there can be conflict between users, and a little bit of common sense goes a long way, there does appear to be a pattern whereby Canal and Rivers Trust bang on about anti-social cyclists, but do bugger all about violence towards cyclists by other people who think they own the canal. Near us there have been regular threats by other towpath users towards cyclists, including some actual attacks on cyclists, and the Canal and Rivers Trust have done absolutely nothing about it, other than to victim-blame the cyclists. 

Park run is great - people are idiots.

Parkrun is a bit like a clubrun / groupride.  Operates in (usually public) spaces so should follow the rules of the road (or path).  Parkrun are very clear in all instructions to give way to other park users. Sadly there are people who think that they are more important that others - even to the point of violence.  

Practically the only thing Parkrun can do if they find who did it is to ban the person.  But they could set up a new account with different personal data.  Like Strava really.

I'd hope that other ParkRunners can come forward as witnesses and then the person can be charged via the correct route - via the Police (presumably for assault?). 

Bloody Parkrunners, coming to our parks, taking our trails. Send em all home! 

I parkrun sometimes and I think, in the main it's a real success for the country as a whole. I can't think of another scheme which has ever gotten so many people together on a Saturday morning for some exercise.  In the summer my local parkrun will get upto 650 runners of all sorts together. There is however 'always one' dog walker going in the opposite direction looking grumpy about it. It's all over by 09:45, I think you've got to be pretty grumpy to begrudge a parkrun. 

It's a shame that the cyclist felt she should avoid a public space on a Saturday.  Why can't we all just play nicely together?

So these running gangs basically just expect to take over shared used paths by force of numbers?

I hear complaints about cyclists going through red lights, blah, blah but what about the plague of runners, nearly all of which have music poured into their ears, so are paying zero attention, who also seem unable to even stop when they get to a crossing of any sort? They should have licence plates on their backs! Some of them won't even run on the pavement either!

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Kingston Parkrun says that a participant who pushed a cyclist off her bike on a towpath alongside the River Thames at the weekend will no be welcome at future events.

Ooo - well, that told 'em! 

Whilst white lining may be money poorly spent it's an effective way to direct motorists' and motoring groups' anger at poor highway infra at someone other than the councils.

Why moan at the council about potholed roads when you can moan about cyclists not using the (potholed) painted cycle lane?

Not only that, with the cyclist in the road you can take instant revenge as complaining to the council will only waste time.

Should also be banned due to reinforcing the perception that the minimum required passing distance is the thickness of a white line!

Although, in the defence of the ones with a solid white line, at least it gives me a clear run past all the nose-to-tail cars on my way to work - the rest of the time, I really don't want or need them.