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news
“What kind of society do we live in that criticises children cycling?” Community bike ride branded “insensitive” and “entitled”; Cycle lane plans “recipe for disaster” for reversing drivers; Claims bike lane made road “too narrow” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
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Community bike ride in new London LTN (Liveable Streatham Wells)21 November 2023, 09:07
“What kind of society do we live in that people would criticise children cycling?” Anti-LTN campaigners brand clip of community bike ride “most insensitive video ever” – as cyclists say motorists’ response is “embarrassing”
Have a quick look at the clip below. What do you see?
A group of families and residents, including lots of children, enjoying riding their bikes safely on their local roads, and having a good time with their friends and neighbours outside?
What a wonderful community ride on the safe streets of Streatham Wells.
Meeting neighbours and new friends for the first time.
This would have been impossible a month ago. pic.twitter.com/o5enFxMk54
— Liveable Streatham Wells (@LiveableWells) November 19, 2023
Well, not if you’re an anti-LTN activist, you don’t. You just see a bunch of “insensitive” and “entitled” people, apparently. Yep, even those smug, arrogant kids (‘the cheek of them, riding their bikes without fear of being hit by a distracted driver. The yoof of today, eh?’).
Yes, that’s right. This video of the community group ride – posted over the weekend by the Liveable Streatham Wells group, which campaigned for the introduction of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in the London ward, a trail of which was launched by Lambeth Council at the end of October – has attracted the ire of motorists, fuming at the sight of families on bikes.
According to the council, the new traffic restrictions within the Streatham Wells LTN will “turn traffic clogged roads into spaces where people can meet and socialise” and “lead to a significant improvement in road safety, air quality, and will allow more space for people to enjoy their neighbourhoods without worrying about traffic jams and exhaust fumes.”
However, the visible workings of that policy – the sight of lots of children and their parents riding bikes – have prompted more than a few angry comments on social media.
“This must rank as one of the most insensitive videos ever posted,” the anti-LTN group Social Environmental Justice wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“As this small group wave merrily to the cameras no thought given to the residents taking the overspill traffic, the shift worker stressed out as the bus is late, the carer or the plumber bogged down in traffic.”
Meanwhile, former Lambeth Conservative councillor Tim Briggs – who, it was revealed in 2016, failed to declare that he was the owner of a “tenant eviction specialist” firm which boasted that it had a “near 100 percent record” in repossessing homes for landlords – described the organisers of the group bike ride of having an “astonishing sense of entitlement at the expense of others”.
Others, meanwhile, relied upon the good old tropes of cycling bingo, such as the classic ‘Sure it’s easy to ride your bike when it’s lovely and sunny in, errrr, the middle of November’:
How often will people be cycling with your weather?
The average yearly rainfall in Streatham Wells is approximately 650 mm. As for the number of days with temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius, on average, Streatham Wells experiences around 75 days per year where the temperature…— Barry Sharp (@BarryESharp) November 20, 2023
While Liz said that she was “concerned to see cyclists as a community group not abiding by the rules of the road in this video”, and ‘jc’ described the cyclists – yes, even the children – as a “weird cult, all going nowhere in particular”.
Needless to say, the frothing response was ridiculed by cyclists far and wide.
“That this wonderful video (of children enjoying a cycle ride on a safe, low-traffic road) is the content that riles anti-LTNers says everything about their campaign. Well done, Liveable Streatham Wells, you've already won the argument.”
“Honestly, what kind of society do we live in that people would criticise children cycling? An utter disgrace,” a London-based 20mph speed limit campaigner added.
Meanwhile, the organisers of the group responded to Social Environmental Justice’s tweet by simply labelling it “embarrassing”.
While cycling lawyer Rory McCarron posted a video of an entirely different community activity – a demonstration organised by those opposed to the Streatham Wells LTN – showing one of the campaigners driving and using their horn… while holding a mobile phone in their hand.
Below is a anti-LTN Streatham Wells video…of someone driving, using their horn and holding their unlocked mobile phone in one hand. This confirms why some motorist simply cannot be trusted to “share the road”, especially near vulnerable road users. pic.twitter.com/pFUEID70aI
— Rory McCarron (@CyclingLawLDN) November 20, 2023
What was that about “entitlement”?
21 November 2023, 09:48
“Our roads will be safer if we all look a bit more”: Cycle lane plans “a recipe for disaster,” say residents – because reversing motorists can’t see cyclists “aiming at you at 30”… due to parked cars on road
Plans to extend a popular cycle lane in Coventry have been described by some residents and councillors as a “recipe for disaster” – because motorists won’t be able to see cyclists using the lane while reversing out of their driveways.
Coventry City Council agreed last week that the final stretch of the six-kilometre Binley cycleway, linking the now e-bike-free city centre with the University Hospital, will be redesigned for a third time, after 600 residents called for the plans to re-evaluated and potentially moved.
(And yes, just in case you were wondering, that is indeed the segregated cycle lane infamously used back in July by an impatient, speeding Ford Puma driver.)
But, to the local councillors and residents anyway, it’s those pesky cyclists “aiming at you at 30mph” (yes, really) that are the real problem when it comes to building protected bike lanes.
“At the moment cars reverse on the pavement,” resident Dawn McCann told last week’s council meeting, Coventry Live reports.
“When you build the cycle lane, they will have to reverse across a footpath and a cycleway onto Clifford Bridge Road. Even if you reverse on Clifford Bridge Road [into the drive], between parked cars you don’t know if a bike’s coming.
“The visibility thing has been the main thing that the Clifford Bridge Road residents are worried about, I don’t know how you get round that,” she added. “If you're reversing out across [the cycle lane] with a bike aiming at you at 30, it doesn’t matter how many times you look, there are going to be collisions.”
> Latest city introduces anti-cycling rules as controversial e-bike ban brought in
Meanwhile, Labour councillor Robert Thay raised concerns about how the scheme would work at rush hour.
“They’re going to increase the amount of cyclists, you’re going to be trying to get out when cyclists will all be piling to the hospital, and you won’t be able to see them,” he said.
“So you will have to reverse back blindly, hoping that there’s not all of these cyclists who are apparently going to be using the cycle path onto Clifford Bridge Road.
“It’s a recipe for disaster between half seven and half eight in the morning and half four and half five in the evening, because they are the busiest times on that road.”
This video of the Binley Cycleway in #Coventry is mesmerising.
High-quality cycle lanes are direct and continuous. This reduces the need to stop and start, as you can see in the clip, making cycling a safe and convenient choice.
— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) May 18, 2023
However, West Midlands’ walking and cycling commissioner Adam Tranter was at least on hand to provide a simple solution for those “blindly” reversing motorists – show some extra caution.
“When we are reversing, when we do stuff, just that extra look or that extra bit of caution, even though it will feel uncomfortable could be beneficial,” he said.
Tranter also distinguished between “e-motorcycles” doing high speeds and “the average cyclist and a pedestrian”, who travel on a “human scale”.
“Often when cyclists and pedestrians are together there’s a bit of give and take with eye contact,” he added. “You can’t have that level of contact when you’re doing speeds in a car over 20-miles-an-hour, it’s been proven.
“So if you slow the speeds down, if you get people to look and visualise, it’s a bit of give and take and generally from the data it seems to work. The data seems to suggest that our roads will be safer if we all look a bit more.”
21 November 2023, 16:41
Tadej Pogačar “can’t say” he’ll ride the Giro d’Italia in 2024, as Slovenian targets the Tour, Olympics, and world championships
While Remco Evenepoel’s possible crack at a Giro-Tour double in 2024 remains up in the air, one superstar of the sport who almost certainly won’t be racing around the roads of Italy next May is Tadej Pogačar, as the UAE Team Emirates rider appeared to rule out a bid for the maglia rosa in favour of season centred around the Tour de France, Olympic Games, and a hilly world championships course in Zurich.
While there were murmurings a few weeks ago that the 25-year-old all-rounder was gearing up for a Giro debut, especially after RCS unveiled a route seemingly designed for the Slovenian, Pogačar instead looks to have set his sights on a maiden rainbow jersey in Zurich at the end of September.
And, considering he’ll likely aim to defend his Tour of Flanders title in April, Pogačar’s typical, year-round, crowded schedule leaves little room for three weeks in Italy.
Pogačar winning in Italy at last month’s Il Lombardia (LaPresse/RCS Sport)
“The principal goals are the Tour, the Olympics and the worlds. That’s in chronological order, not importance,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport at the weekend.
“Riding the Giro is one of my dreams but I can’t say if I’ll ride. I haven’t spoken to my coaches at UAE Team Emirates, we haven’t discussed the details of what I’ll do. I’ll decide my race programme in December. But I could have too many obligations to include the Giro.
“The Tour is a bit bigger,” the two-time winner of the Grande Boucle continued, explaining his decision. “If you want to have a chance of victory, you’ve got to focus on it. The Giro deserves respect and that’s why I have to understand if I can be at my best to ride it.
“I’ve ridden the Tour four times and won it twice. If we talk about grand tours, the Tour is the big goal each year.
“But I like riding my bike and I like racing. I don’t like to focus just on one race or one kind of race. Every race generates different emotions and needs different preparation. That’s why I like to make changes.”
21 November 2023, 16:16
Just when you thought your commute was getting cold
Madis Mihkels training in Estonia 🥶 pic.twitter.com/9HhFkelC14
— Intermarché-Circus-Wanty (@IntermarcheCW) November 21, 2023
Nice to see young Madis has also put away the phone, in favour of doing his best to stay upright…
21 November 2023, 15:56
Nottinghamshire Police discover 26 suspected stolen bikes in garage raid
Neighbourhood police in St Ann’s, Nottingham, have appealed for anyone who has had their bike stolen in the area to come forward after 26 suspected stolen steeds were found after a raid on two homes and garages last week.
According to the police, officers executed intelligence-based warrants at addresses in Luther Close and Jedburgh Walk, St Ann’s, as well as two garages in nearby Wadhurst Gardens – where the found an assortment of bike frames, mountain bikes, hybrids, and tandems.
“We are determined to return these bikes to their rightful owners,” Police Constable Emily Hart, of the St Ann’s neighbourhood policing team, said.
“If you have had your bike stolen recently in and around the St Ann’s area and you recognise it as any of the bikes pictured please contact us.
“We understand people rely on their bikes to get around so always take thefts of this nature very seriously.”
More photos of all the bikes can be viewed on Nottinghamshire Police’s website, while anyone who suspects their bike is part of the haul or has any more information should call 101, quoting incident number 23*645943.
21 November 2023, 15:33
Welcome to Black – errrr, Tuesday?
What? They’ve already started it? This is going to be a long week…
21 November 2023, 15:32
Over half of world championships funding for the Scottish Borders remains unspent, as groups urged to apply for grants to “encourage and inspire new and existing cyclists”
While some of us are still coming down off the high of this summer’s UCI mega world cycling championships in Scotland, it appears that the sheen has already worn off in some parts of the country, with more than half of the fund set aside to create a lasting cycling legacy in the Scottish Borders still currently unspent.
Despite the likes of Tom Pidcock leading the way at the mountain biking events in Glentress, £74,000 of the Scottish Borders Council’s £125,000 legacy fund has yet to be claimed, with the deadline for grant applications due at the end of January.
The fund, which allows organisations to apply for grants of between £3,000 and £15,000, was created to help deliver local cycling-related events and activities in areas that hosted the worlds in August.
Council leader Euan Jardine has now urged organisations and individuals to take advantage of the as-yet untapped funds.
“We really want to encourage and inspire new and existing cyclists, get more people cycling and especially encourage cycling within under-represented groups, including children and young people, girls, and women,” he said.
“Some funds are still available, so I’d encourage anyone with an idea for an event or activity that helps achieve these aims to get in touch.”
One of the events already supported by the fund is the We Are Innerleithen photography exhibition, organised by The Hub community interest company.
“We could not have staged the exhibition without the funding and support from the community cycling fund,” the group’s Carmel Scott said.
“We had these amazing images and we were able to add to the images and then curate the exhibition, which was a great success. We have plans to develop this for the future too.”
21 November 2023, 14:07
Proportion of staff and students riding bikes to university falls by almost 60 percent in a decade, thanks to “hostile environment” – despite overall cycling numbers in the city rising over the same period
Ah, those last students, too busy watching daytime television and eating last night’s pizza to write their essays or ride their bikes to class…
Well, according to a recent report in the Irish Times, that particularly unflattering portrayal of university life appears to hold true – or at least the bike riding part does, at one particular university.
A survey conduced by Trinity College Dublin has found that the proportion of students and staff cycling to the university’s posh, leafy city-centre environs has plummeted by almost 60 percent in just over a decade, with fewer than one in ten respondents saying they cycled in 2023, compared to 22 percent in 2011.
The Healthy Trinity Smarter Travel research found one-third of students and staff in 2023 used the bus to get to the university, one-fifth arrived by train, 13 percent travelled by tram, one-fifth walked, and nine percent cycled. Car usage, meanwhile, ranked lowest on the list, at just three percent.
Notably, the dramatic drop in the number of people cycling to TCD stands in stark contrast to the general picture in Dublin, where the number of commuter cyclists has risen by over 45 percent during the same period.
However, the proportion of TCD-going cyclists is still higher (as you would expect from the student population, especially those attending a university smack bang in the middle of a busy city) than the general public, with 5.4 percent of Dubliners commuting to work by bike.
Prof Brian Caulfield, professor in transportation at the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, said the reduction in cycling numbers could be associated with the lowered cost of public transport for students in recent years, as well as “the further distances travelled to get to our campus due to the affordability of accommodation”.
Meanwhile, Martina Mullin, who leads the Healthy Trinity group, noted that staff and students had reported fears of cycling in Dublin, arguing that “a city centre environment that’s hostile to walking and cycling means many of our community are forced to take less healthy transport”.
She continued: “It’s important to realise that 69 percent of our students still travel less than 10km. But we know from previous surveys they feel the city isn’t safe enough for cycling in particular, largely because there still isn’t continuity of safe segregated cycle routes.”
So, maybe the students aren’t just being lazy then…
21 November 2023, 13:23
End of an era: Controversial wiggly cycle lane with “Mickey Mouse” layout recommended to be ripped out following independent review
A council leader has apologised for a much-ridiculed £1.3 million seafront redesign which saw a cycle lane and wiggly markings installed, attracting criticism from a campaign group who said the “Mickey Mouse” road layout had made them the “laughing stock of the nation”, with an independent review now recommending major changes to the design.
The council had originally suggested the scheme would improve safety, encourage active travel, and reduce unwanted parking – however, the local authority’s leader Mike Bell has now apologised and said it was a “big mistake” and that “we got it wrong”.
So, does that mean next week’s conga line is cancelled?
21 November 2023, 12:44
“It’s all change in the team now, I guess”: Geraint Thomas “gutted” about Rod Ellingworth’s departure from the Ineos Grenadiers, and says he heard about the news on social media
Geraint Thomas has become the first Ineos Grenadiers rider to speak publicly about deputy team principal Rod Ellingworth’s shock departure from the British squad last week, with the 2018 Tour de France revealing that he first heard about the “gutting” news through social media.
Thomas, who rose through the ranks of the famed British Cycling Academy founded by Ellingworth and spent 13 of his 14 seasons at Sky/Ineos under the 51-year-old’s tutelage, told his Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast that, despite keeping in touch with his team manager last week, the reports came as both a surprise and a disappointment.
“I say disappointing but it was gutting really to see Rod step down or leave, or however you want to phrase it,” the 2023 Giro d’Italia runner up said.
“I spoke to him and he’s sad to be leaving, but family stuff and whatever, and I don’t want to go into all the details, but from my side, and having known him for so long – a good twenty years now – on a personal level I know him well and we get on.
“I feel like he was good and great for the team. But things change and people move on. It was quite surprising as well. It was all over Twitter and he sent me a message saying he was leaving but it was leaked, which isn’t a surprise really.”
(SWpix.com/Zac Williams)
Ellingworth’s exit, which was confirmed by Ineos in a brief statement on Friday after reports first emerged in the Daily Telegraph, marks the latest in a raft of changes to hit the British squad in recent months, both on the rider and managerial side, with sports directors Matteo Tosatto and Roger Hammond leaving the squad, along with key riders Tao Geoghegan Hart, Dani Martínez, Pavel Sivakov, Ben Tulett, and Luke Plapp.
Thomas, whose Tour and Giro podiums in the last two seasons represent Ineos’ best results at grand tours during that period, added: “It will be sad to see him leave but he’ll still be around. He’ll still be following and he wants to be involved in the sport because that’s what he does and loves. Good luck to him.
“It’s all change in the team now, I guess. A top bloke and he’ll definitely be missed.”
21 November 2023, 12:19
“No-one should wait years to park their bike securely and affordably near their home”: Former Green Party leader urges Sadiq Khan to use budget to end “outrageous” cycle hangar delays
After recent analysis by the Clean Cities Campaign found that around 60,000 Londoners are still waiting to secure a safe bike parking spot – prompting a call from activists and victims of bike theft to install more cycle hangars across the city – former Green Party leader Siân Berry has urged mayor Sadiq Khan to use his budget to cut this increasing backlog.
Speaking in the London Assembly last week, the Green parliamentary candidate said: “No-one should wait years to park their bike securely and affordably near their home. It is outrageous that Londoners are stuck in indefinite queues for a bike hangar.
“The wait for a new cycle parking space should be a matter of days or weeks – the same as for a car parking permit. And the cost to park that bike cannot be more than the cost of parking a car.”
She continued: “London started to see these cycle hangars a decade ago, but the current pace and cost of delivery is simply unacceptable. We had a positive exchange today and I am hopeful of good news in the budget.
“We already know the environmental, health, and social benefits of cycling. The Mayor must recognise this urgent need and use his budget to close the bike hangar gap.”
21 November 2023, 11:51
“There’s always money to make life harder for cyclists”
As we reported on yesterday’s blog, West Midlands cycling and walking guru Adam Tranter (he’s popping up quite a bit lately, isn’t he?) calmed suggestions that Birmingham City Council’s dire financial position would negatively impact road safety initiatives, describing them as the “bare minimum we should expect” from the local authority.
But it turns out, apparently, that non-cargo bike friendly gates on popular cycling routes, preventing families and disabled people from accessing the infrastructure and forcing them onto the road, also falls in that “bare minimum” category…
21 November 2023, 11:23
Oh Remco, you tease…
After a few short and chilly rides at home in Belgium, it seems that Remco Evenepoel’s winter training is now well and truly underway, as the world time trial champion took advantage of his first spin around the altogether more clement climes of Calpe to drop some hints on Strava about his plans for 2024 – and his potential, long-awaited debut at a certain bike race in France that takes place in July…
While his not-so-cryptic allusion to the Grande Boucle won’t see him joining Only Connect’s team of question setters just yet, the use of both the Italian and French flags has set tongues wagging that Remco could have successfully talked his Soudal-Quick Step team into backing an admittedly ambitious Giro-Tour double attempt next season.
Or maybe he’s just referencing the 2024 Tour’s Florence Grand Départ? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough…
21 November 2023, 10:58
Council refutes “unfounded social media speculation” that new “wide” cycle lane has made road too narrow for motorists
More cycle lane-related hysteria now, as Gloucestershire County Council has been forced to refute claims made on social media that a new section of cycleway between Gloucester and Cheltenham has been built “too wide” and will need to be dug up.
The council’s response comes after several comments were made online that part of the Churchdown stretch of the planned 26-mile cycle “spine” – a key component of proposals to create a “greener Gloucestershire” by promoting sustainable transport – has made the adjacent road too narrow and unsafe for motorists, Gloucestershire Live reports.
However, the local authority says the claims are merely “unfounded social media speculation” which are “completely untrue”.
And, as if to underline the point, the local Green Party’s lorry-driving chairperson went for a spin down the road in question, just to check:
Re. recent rumours: I'm a lorry driver and I've got 18 tonners safely down the road next to the new cycle path. It isn't too wide!
- Adam Shearing, Chairperson pic.twitter.com/pYejtfoFmF— Gloucester Green Party (@GlosGreenParty) November 21, 2023
21 November 2023, 10:41
Extravagant cycling gifts? Don’t mind if I do…
Just in case you were thinking of buying your favourite cycling live blogger something for Christmas… (and no, I don’t mean Dan!)
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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Stick it in the road.
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If you can't see a %^$&ing large tractor what ^%$£"!*ing hope is there that you will see a cyclist ?...
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Well if you *can* interview the original riders at all surely they worked, at least?...
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Live: Car plunges over wall and lands on beach rocks...
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Looks like yet another bike share service that's going to fold because of selfish idiots.
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Fair point - I was restricting myself to pedal bikes. As I've never spent that kind of money on anything though (mortgage doesn't count), it's kind...
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And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
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Another book suggestion - I can highly recommend "Lost Summers and Half-Forgotten Afternoons: A Mint Sauce collection" - a beautifully presented...
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70 comments
I'm pretty sure that's frowned upon, Mr Thay…
Motorists always seem to be very quick off the mark to accuse other road users of being "entitled"…
I seem to recall that reversing on to a major road from an access point was an offence.
When did that change?
Was it when the Tories decided to ignore the rule of law?
That's very unfair - after all, they only ignored the rule of law in very specific and limited ways
Well, they seem to want to repeat it by ignoring the Supreme Court's Rwanda judgement…
"Of course Rwanda is safe! We've passed a law saying that it is safe!
And by the way, we're going to pass another law defining pi as 3.2 and another saying that cats are really a kind of dog."
It was Indiana that almost legislated for π to be 3.2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill)
However, π can be thought of as one of a series of values depending on what metric you use and strangely we have the lowest possible value for various p-norms
https://azeemba.com/posts/pi-in-other-universes.html
What's the value of pi? When and where are you asking?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_computation_of_%CF%80
I know, Peter: I read that recently in a comment piece about the Rwanda law. It just served the purposes of my attempt at humour…
It isnt an offence but the (very sensible) advice is to reverse in/forward out where possible. In an ideal world driving in and turning round would be the best bet but who has the room for that.
Reversing from a side road is a 'do not'.
It's a do not so not an offence. If a collision occurs the individual reversing would possibly be charged. It just become lazy and acceptable driving. In the same way you should only use sidelights in the urban environment unless there's no streetlighting and the default setting has now become headlights. I've found that headlights actually camouflage pedestrians and cyclists due to the dazzle especially with LED lights that are retrofitted or are on SUVs. When driving I've had people flash me while I'm on sides even though I can see perfectly where I'm going. Headlights only come on when I get to the motorway or NSL.
How is reversing out across a cycle lane any more dangerous than reversing out into a busy road (especially as re erasing out is contrary to the HWC, anyway)?
Next time the wild horses drag me back to Coventry, I'm tempted to go and have a look, as it does seem like good infrastructure.
Just constant excuses from car, van, lorry drivers as to why they can't just drive without crashing into people. And you're right the highway code recommends reversing into your driveway if you live on a busy road so you can emerge facing forwards.
Something to make us in the Celtic isles cry - NL is having an election, and pretty much every party's election manifesto features cycling and their promises on how they'll make daily cycling (even) better in NL. Wielerflits has an overview (dutch): https://www.indeleiderstrui.nl/wielrennen/verkiezingen-op-komst-wat-will...
To give you a flavour, D66 are campaigning on cycle routes in "woon wijken" (liveable communities) just not being enough - they say there should also be mountainbike trails!
"De middenpartij heeft het als enige van de zes grootst ingeschatte partijen ook nog specifiek over de mountainbike, wanneer het ontwerpen van een woonwijk ter sprake komt. 'Met alleen maar parkeerplaatsen en bushaltes? Of juist met fietspaden, wandelroutes en skeeler- en mountainbikeroutes? Wij kiezen voor het laatste.'"
"The middle party is the only one of the six largest parties with specific goals about the mountain bike, when the design of a residential area is discussed. 'With just parking lots and bus stops? Or with cycle paths, hiking trails and inline and mountain bike trails? We choose the latter.""
Would those manifestos count as a real "war on motorists"?
The VVD - the dutch conservatives - want to ensure there are super-cycle-highways between all public transport hubs, and of course conservatives are better at maintaining stuff
:
"Daarbij komt ook dat de VVD graag 'supersnelle fietspaden' tussen grote ov-knooppunten wil bouwen. 'Bestaande fietspaden onderhouden we beter', zo valt te lezen. 'Een gezond, sportief en fit Nederland' is een belangrijke pijler binnen het programma.
"In addition, the VVD would like to build 'supersfast cycle paths' between large public transport junctions. ' We maintain existing cycle path s better ' , we read . 'A healthy, sporty and fit Netherlands' is an important pillar of the programme."
It's not all roses in NL though, the PVV - Geert Wilders nationalist party - has _no_ words about cycling!
Ah - the Nationalists are showing how extreme they are!
What I find telling is that in the UK, if we think cycling it's almost all "recreation"*. A nice to have, if we can afford it - which we probably can't. Even if it's only a muddy track somewhere through wasteland which people tip their rubbish in. Outside of that? Probably their are some oddballs who commute (MAMILs).
In NL cycling is just a normal mode of transport (for all), for all purposes of course - BUT they don't forget the joy!
Cycling to - and through - museums [1] [2].
Tunnels improved with art or poetry.
Tracks for cycling in the countryside certainly exist of course, and there are even some specific "cycling attractions" (Belgium this time) [3] [4].
Somewhere in NL even built a hill for cycling!
* Of course - in the UK we know better - driving cars is serious business, the engine that drives the economy ... except that a large percentage of trips are actually categorised as "leisure". (This category looks to have disappeared in the 2022 survey though?)
With regards to the anti-LTN folk, I can only say that Envy is their Sin.
The anti-LTN folk of Streatham seem to forget that Streatham High Rd and Green Lane have been jammed with traffic at peak periods for years. I should know. I stopped driving to training in the car that way years ago. I use two wheels instead.
Absolutely, back in the days when we had a car, even twenty years ago, long before LTNs were a glint in a tofu-eating wokerati's eye, we would happily take a five-mile detour rather than go down Streatham High Road at rush hour, it was a guaranteed one hour to get two miles nightmare.
I'm sorry, but after the reaction to ULEZ (where people are being asked to comply with emissions standards that 90% of cars already meet in order to stop poisoning children) and the Welsh 20mph zones (where drivers are being asked to lift the pedal in their motorised armchairs a few mm, in areas where you'd struggle to do 30mph anyway) British drivers have completely lost the right to call anyone else "entitled".
Not that they had much basis for makign that statement in the first place, mind you...
Why are they reversing out of their driveways? I thought it was common sense to reverse into driveways as you have better visibility to reverse safely and better visibility when you drive back out. It always strikes me as really dumb when I see drivers reversing into a main road.
I came here to say exactly this.
It frustrates me when I see my neighbours cars parked nose first in their driveway. I know some of them don't even bother parking in their driveway, because it is so difficult to see when reversing out onto the road. Means their driveway is empty and their car is on the road making it difficult to see for everyone else...
I'd love to be able to reverse on to my drive. Unfortunately my opposite neighbour always leaves one of their three vehicles parked directly opposite my drive making it very difficult to get in. One of the first things they did when they moved in was to convert their garage into a utility room. Winds me up no end.
Doesn't that cause a problem when reversing out as well though?
It does, I find it easier reversing out though but I have to park my car at an angle to do it.
Sounds like you need a turntable in your driveway
This frustrates me as well. Also when I stop and put the car into reverse to get into a parking bay/driveway or to parallel park the following driver closes the gap to the point I've to either drive round the block or find another parking space. Makes me grateful that my preferred mode of transport is two wheels as motorists are so intolerable to each other as well as to cyclists.
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