Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
There’s not a lot to do in Bristol in the evening.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmmj2k3n3no
A man who has written a 150 page report into a controversial bus gate has said the traffic measure is “unlawful” and “defective”.
“This one is not normal. There is something wrong with the design.”
umm
Sounds like he’s found a lot of technical issues with the signage. On the one hand, I think signs and road designs should be consistent between various councils and areas, but on the other hand, Cumberland Rd is much nicer without having a long queue of traffic all the time. As the Chocolate Path was closed/collapsed, then Cumberland Road is the alternative route, though personally I usually go the other side of the river (Coronation Road with the famously bad shared usage that has massive trees blocking the cycle side) and tangle with traffic.
Where I am it is very rarely congested traffic, if ever. Equally I never do any filtering. I still get passed at 60mph and less than a metre very occasionally, not too often though thankfully. By and large I cause little hold up and I don’t break rules of the road.I hear people say though how much they dislike cyclists and when I ask why I get told about: how it isn’t safe to cycle, how we hold people up, how we jump red lights, how we are there for no good reason, how entitled we are. Most of these know I cycle a fair bit, they all know I drive cars. They too are seldom in traffic except if they go to a biggish town when you expect it to happen.
I do see in Cambridge some people driving and cycling that is just frankly dangerous. I will relate one anecdote from when I worked in Cambridge which perhaps illustrates the entitled bit.
Three cyclists were travelling abreast up a motoring cul de sac which had another road the otherwise of some bollards that you could cycle through to access that road.
There was a dustcart parked in the middle of the road while the chaps fetched bins and fed the back of it.
The three cyclists were talking with each other. The two on the outsides split to go round the truck. Their friend in the middle never looked forward he did not deviate nor slow down but sailed straight into the back of the truck. Everyone looked aghast.
He jumps up looks at his bike hurls it at the ground in fury and then proceeds to berate the driver and the entire dustcart crew for being in the way, blaming them wholly and squarely. The chaps on the receiving end looked at one another and tried to stop laughing. Is that an entitled cyclist, I think perhaps it is.
Well, if someone doesn’t spot a whole dustcart and crew in the road, then maybe even a bike is too much speed for them, though I suppose he probably learnt an important lesson that day.
I’m fairly often cycling
I’m fairly often cycling around the Temple Meads area and the infrastructure is bad enough that I prefer using the roads as it’s so much quicker and more convenient.
As an example, there’s the separated infrastructure along Clarence Rd (A370): https://maps.app.goo.gl/s8FYV6nXbRGBVmXD7
It’s only on one side of the road (the wrong side for most of my journeys) and it stops before reaching the Temple Meads roundabout – just presumably dumping people out into the busy traffic along there. Of course, people will just ignore that the infrastructure is insufficient and then cycle/scoot along the pavement to reach the roundabout. It’s so not joined up that it’s a joke.
Last night this white Audi plunged into the wall of N13 Dental Clinic [??] Severe damage to property & items. Practice forced to close.Looks like that’ll need a filling or two
I have occasionally seen people express the view that a bicycle is essentially a child’s toy (much like a space hopper or pogo stick) and that no adult should use one. I don’t think this view is particularly widespread though. There’s no shortage of anger towards Deliveroo cyclists who are clearly cycling for work.There was an article a while back on the BBC suggesting that cyclists are perceived as free-loading – not paying road tax, jumping queues, etc.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130212-why-you-really-hate-cyclists
That doesn’t make sense to me as why would an adult want to punish children? If an adult is seen playing with a “child’s toy”, then one logical deduction would be that maybe the adult has developmental difficulties and so drivers should take extra care around them – it certainly wouldn’t be an appropriate response to shout at and scare such an individual.
Anyhow, there’s plenty of toys that are popular with children and adults, so who makes them the arbiter of what age is appropriate for the toy? I mean I once completed a jigsaw that said 3-5 years on the box, but I’m pretty cool as it only took me a few hours.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/22/uk-drivers-warned-to-watch-out-for-crash-for-cash-claimsMotorists have been warned to be vigilant after a 60-fold increase in “crash for cash” fraud claims involving motorbike and scooter riders staging accidents so they can blame innocent drivers.The insurer Allianz said its data showed that claims relating to this scam increased by 6,000% between January and December 2023 – a significant jump from the 50% increase the year before.
This type of insurance fraud typically involves an “induced accident”, in which a rider attempts to deliberately get hit by a vehicle in order to make a claim.
Criminals often target drivers as they park their cars – for example, they will ride past just as the driver opens the car door so that it hits the motorbike or scooter, with the aim being to make it appear the motorist’s fault.
Erm – but if they open their door without looking and hit someone, even a crook, then it is their fault.
Isn’t it?
I can imagine some kind of stand-off (sit-off?) where the driver is waiting to open their door whilst the scammer is waiting to ride past at just the same time. The driver could start to open their door, but then pull it closed as the rider starts to move and then the rider would scoot back a bit to get in the right position.
I don’t think the angry
I don’t think the angry drivers really think much beyond “cyclist in my way” even though their journey is mainly being delayed by all the other drivers.
I suspect that a lot of drivers feel very frustrated from driving in congested traffic and then see cyclists filtering past them, seemingly without a care in the world (I personally enjoy overtaking/filtering past drivers stuck in long queues). The lack of responsibility and expenses for cycling is also a likely antagoniser.
Sydney Road in Bath – locals
Sydney Road in Bath – locals claim that it’s a rat run and like the LTN, yet South Coast Travel claim that it’s not a rat run and want the LTN removed (maybe because their coach had trouble turning round in the road as they tried to use it as a rat run):
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/coach-gets-stuck-road-closed-9295714
Imma leave this here
Imma leave this here
Robert Hardy wrote:
Currently Nottingham too, an acceptable compromise, electric cars may not pay fuel tax, but those of us who live in terraced properties currently typically pay between 50 and 80 pence a kWh to charge our cars at charging stations, whether local authority or commercially provided, a cost very similar or greater to the price we would pay if we were running an internal combustion engined vehicle (my Zoe does between 3.8 and 4.2 miles per kW hour depending on ambient temperature, my previous diesel averaged 11.5 miles per litre). As a cyclist I would much prefer to share my road space with modest electric vehicles, most adult cyclists also drive a car so making it easier for people to make the switch is a compromise worth putting up with a little pavement inconvenience. I rarely charge from home, I think 3 times in the six months I have owned the car, but the protector I use 15mm upstand and 90 mm wide makes the cable both obvious and considerably less a trip hazard. We live in a crowded country where a measure of tolerance for the less than perfectly personally convenient is the necessary grease for a happy life.As a non-driving cyclist, I also much prefer electric vehicles, even the car-shaped ones and don’t mind a bit of compromise to get people to switch.
However, putting obstructions over the pavements isn’t a very workable system if we have a sizable percentage of people doing so. Where I live, there’s a lot of old mining terraced housing, so the pavements would presumably have a lot of cables draped across them, though I expect that a lot of people don’t get to park near their house anyway. I don’t mind stepping over cable protectors, but the issue is with older folk that may be partially sited or less steady on their feet and of course there’s people using wheelchairs or pushing their kids around in prams etc.
I think we should be making an effort to keep pavements clear of obstructions, but I would also consider that parking on pavements should also be prohibited.
I suspect that the eventual “solution” would be that big shops pay for and install charging stations as that almost guarantees extra footfall as drivers wait for their car to be charged up.
It does seem that good
It does seem that good visibility is key to being popular for commuting in traffic. That would explain why the sit-up-and-beg style commuter bikes are popular amongst the filthy casual commuters.
I like the idea of recumbents
I like the idea of recumbents, but they do strike me as less convenient (though much faster) than a traditional safety bicycle. There’s also the problem with not feeling safe in traffic.
But then how do service providers maintain the footway?We run servcies such as gas, water, electricity everywhere.
Never mind the back street angle-grinder wielders cutting trenches through all our paving slabs.
I might ask BicycleDutch if he can do a survey of this. I doubt that anyone has this sorted.
I can anticipate issues with water getting into the channels and freezing which will mean that they won’t last very long. That also raises the question of safety issues if/when the electric cable gets damaged.
The only decent solution is to have the cables properly sunken and sealed under the pavement i.e. proper kerbside charging infrastructure.
That doesn’t seem workable to
That doesn’t seem workable to me. If you do trip over it, how do you contact the owner – surely there should be some contact information if the council is claiming that it’s not responsible for it? Also, what happens if you damage it? (Oops, I dropped the rubber handled axe that I was carrying straight onto the cable coming out of it)
If people are allowed to keep a cable and protector on the pavement, then does that mean that people are also allowed to remove them if they are becoming a nuisance?
A positive news story regarding 20mph limits. Child survives being hit by car in 20mph zone.Apologies if this has been on before.
Transport Secretary Ken Skates – that sounds like nominative determinism to me.
Meanwhile on Anglesey the greys are invading: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cnl4nrl5qlro
