“My whole life’s going to be disrupted”: Residents upset over proposed cycle lane through suburb claiming they’re “too old” to cycle; Paul Seixas wants contract sorted and opens door to Giro d’Italia; Car-free Oxford Street latest + more on the live blog
You're never too old to cycle
Typically, when it comes to active travel infrastructure, county councils tend to be rather less ambitious than their borough or city equivalent. It’s not surprising, given it makes sense to prioritise infrastructure where most people are likely to benefit from it.
But when there’s so much talk of people being unable to imagine a car-free lifestyle, it’s suburban-rural areas which lack the network of cycle routes that can obstruct that vision. Credit is due then to Gloucestershire County Council, which is persisiting with a vision of uniting the major towns of the county through a “Cycle Spine” of cycle lanes, often protected and wider than you’d expect in sprawling cities. Although, as we’ve covered before, the width of the cycle lane has created its own problems:
As you can see, it’s very much a work in progress, with plans of connecting Stroud to Gloucester very much an ambition for the medium-long term. In fact the bit we’re focusing on today is just below the ‘l’ in Gloucester, connecting the city centre to the south of the city.
By our pig maths it’s roughly a kilometre of cycle lanes planned through the suburbs of Podsmead, Linden and Tuffley. But the residents aren’t happy.
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“My whole life’s going to be disrupted by this cycle lane”, an impassioned Gerry Haretin tells the BBC. She wants it rerouted to somewhere less densely populated and not “full of people too old to be riding bikes.”
Sophie is meanwhile frustrated that the cycle lane would go right past her grandparents’ house. I can’t quite understand her argument though. She says the route would move the car parking to right outside their house, but that this is terrible because her grandparents have food and medicine delivered to their home.
Our final man seems primarily annoyed by the lack of consultation, though presumably this vox pop was conducted immediately prior to the consultation which all the residents were attending.
What’s most striking about the above video though is the passion and anger the residents appear to have put onto this infrastructure. It’s all a little baffling to us. The council for their part told the BBC they are open to reviewing their proposals and modifying them depending on the community’s response.
Meanwhile the local Labour MP Alex McIntyre has said he wants to lobby the government to change their funding rules so active travel funding can be spent more flexibly – i.e. not on projects like this.
Fingers crossed they don’t learn anything from Devon County Council…
> “Jaw-dropping” £107,000 of active travel funding spent on planning removal of major car-free route
'Twas ever thus
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Protected cycle lane blocked by stranded lorry on day one
Sometimes you have to laugh…
> “Disaster” as lorry driver gets stuck in cycle lane planters… on first day of new ‘rain garden’
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The Gloucs Cycle Spine is an interesting project and worth reporting on. I don't know why this website has to look at it from the negative angle of a few people complaining about it. It seems to be editorial policy to write rage bait articles.
More of those selfish people who believe that because they will not use the cycle lanes, they are not needed.
@Gravel1-2 See also Trek, I think the Boone and Crockett are headed that way too. I suspect that what we'll see is that the s-works level will still be CX for the pros. Anything below that will be more gravel oriented.
Hope the local authority is compensated for the damage / cost of re-planting. Quicksand may be more effective than bollards....
You'd have to question anyone's right to hold a driver's license when they can't tell the difference between plants, soil and tarmac
@Barraob1 go back to your cave
@RayG "Demanding things should be free forever"≠"Saying that a firm being paid £10M for allowing taxpayers to pay £100M to have their event in their country for a few days should not be charging extortionate prices for said taxpayers to view a part of the event that has previously been free of charge."
@Rendel Harris A peculiar world view is demanding things should be free forever.
@RayG What a peculiar worldview you have where nothing can be exploitative unless it involves an essential of life. Exploitative means unfairly or cynically to extort excessive profit from others by charging more than a product or service is worth, nothing in the definition mandates that it can only apply to certain types of product or services. Example: if I go to a concert and find that a glass of wine at the interval costs four times what it costs in the pub next door, then the concert hall is exploiting the fact that it has a captive audience and therefore being exploitative; the fact that I could, if I wished, go without doesn't make it any less so.
2 thoughts on ““My whole life’s going to be disrupted”: Residents upset over proposed cycle lane through suburb claiming they’re “too old” to cycle; Paul Seixas wants contract sorted and opens door to Giro d’Italia; Car-free Oxford Street latest + more on the live blog”
More of those selfish people who believe that because they will not use the cycle lanes, they are not needed.
The Gloucs Cycle Spine is an interesting project and worth reporting on.
I don’t know why this website has to look at it from the negative angle of a few people complaining about it. It seems to be editorial policy to write rage bait articles.