Here's the before and after of a path in Nuneaton where some bollards have been replaced by the dreaded chicane barriers, one local cyclist saying the "disappointing" move "rather than being an improvement for walking, wheeling, and cycling, reduces accessibility and comfort".
The cut through comes, Bicycle Ben explains, near a National Cycle Network route and now reduces accessibility for riders on bikes, but particularly for those on cargo bikes or adapted cycles which may be wider than other bicycles and may struggle to get through the reduced width between the barriers.
We've reported on numerous cases such as this, the logic normally deployed by local authorities being that the barriers are there to prevent prohibited vehicles accessing the route, although as many point out this can come at the cost of preventing those who are meant to be able to use the path.
In March, a disabled cyclist won a battle to get Newcastle City Council to remove "discriminatory" barriers after the local authority agreed for an out-of-court settlement to modify the National Cycle Network path.
A month earlier, in February, Bolton Council admitted that no equality impact assessment was carried out prior to it installing similar chicane-style barriers on a cycling and walking route.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, Stockport Council backtracked on a plan to introduce more barriers to cycling and walking routes, a decision welcomed by campaigners who said the proposals would discriminate against disabled people who use non-standard cycles, wheelchairs, and mobility aids.
Perhaps most bizarrely was the case of the newly installed bollards on Milton Keynes' cycleways and shared-use routes. A delivery cyclist in the city, ultracycling legend Steve Abraham, told road.cc about the surreal situation whereby the bollards were too narrow for cargo bike trailers to get through. The punchline? The fact that said cargo bike trailers had been provided to couriers by... the same council that installed the bollards...
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Intersting article in The Spectator advocating drivers who have a dashcam to "snitch" on littering/flytipping by other drivers.
I assume the same writer (and the paper) is happy for drivers (and cyclists) to use video evidence against dangerous driving too...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/long-live-the-litter-lout-snitches/
Thank-you once again for highlighting the Nuneaton pissing-away-money-at-a-time-of-austerity barrier.
We need to continue talking about these.
This smells a little of pre-Election populism by the Nuneaton & Bedworth Tory Council, which is identified as one that might flip Labour.
I had been disappointed not to find Giro highlights on Quest, just seen an ad for it on DMax. Happy now.
Thank you.
Oh Nuneaton, you disappointing shithole. If family didn't live there I'd never go back.
More appropriate padding for the article is that Nuneaton Police recently asked the council to enact a PSPO banning bikes from the town centre to stop kids wheelying along the mostly abandoned market place.
For a little extra context, Nuneaton has staved off bankrupting itself by massively axing redevelopment plans to the town centre. Leaving only a large hotel next to 2 and a half derelict buildings and vast expanse of rubble that was approximately 1/4 of the commercial area of the town centre.
I think the change of bollard type is because they couldn't afford new concrete ones so raided the scrap pile for the 2 best shape metal railings, gave them a lick of hammerite and stuck them in the ground
I can imagine the throngs of tourists are booking up already.
The town council also has a disproportionately high Social Care bill to cover for a settlement of its size, so it would be rather surprising they've opted for a solution so incompatible with wheelchairs and mobility scooters, irrelevant of the cycling aspect. Surprising to a 3rd party with no knowledge of the incompetency of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council
Oh Nuneaton, you disappointing shithole
I feel it my duty to report that I was sat in central Nuneaton late in the evening in September 1970, on my way to college with nowhere obvious to stay. The police put me up in a cell and gave me breakfast. Thanks, folks, if any of you are still alive.
A delightfully tactful description of being arrested for vagrancy and loitering?
A delightfully tactful description of being arrested for vagrancy and loitering?
No. A friendly offer and an open cell door!
I'm loathe to make you feel any older than your age, but September 1970 was over half a century ago.
That date was closer to when Nuneaton was an industry powerhouse of masonry production and brickworks.
The character of the place has changed just a bit
*Puts hands over ears* Ner ner ner, I can't hear you, can't hear you, can't hear you...
Given the information you share (very occasionally!) about another police force, I commend you for this balance!
Tooled up for campus
"Columbia University public safety sells these exact bike chain locks to its students to help prevent bike thefts."
"This is literally called a New York bike lock."
Are they implying that anyone carrying a heavy chain lock - of the sort people use to make sure that their bike is still there when they return to it - is now "carrying a weapon"?
They have no idea about bikes so claimed chains = professionalism = outside forces.
The cognitive dissonance in Americans is astounding.
Carrying a bicycle chain is an "offensive weapon"
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people" ~21,000 murders involving firearms in 2021 + ~26,300 suicides by firearms in the US in 2021.
"Cars are an essential symbol of American freedom" ~43,000 motor vehicle fatalities in the US in 2021
More war on motorists !
Saturation flow, that's what you need to refer to. Get the mayor to call TfL traffic engineers and ask what it means. He'll have his tiny mind blown.
Single lane c/way - approx 1800pcu/hr. Car=1pcu, bicycle=0.2pcu
https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/dictionary/passenger-car-unit
Could you explain what you're getting at? The website you referenced isn't very helpful. "Different vehicles are assigned different values, according to the space they take up."? Pretty meaningless without number of people in each vehicle, speed at which it is travelling, etc.
Saturation flow talks about the maximum volume that can pass a stopline in one hour if the light was green for the whole time and there was a constant flow of vehicles. A single lane in an urban environment has been calculated to have 1800pcu/hr.
A pcu is a 'passenger car unit', which is on about the road space it takes up. So, theoretically, 1800 car/hr. By this metric, one bicycle takes up 1/5th of this, so 5 bikes can pass in the same time/space as one motor car. So sat flow if it's a cycle lane is 9000 bikes, which is a min of 9000 people. Along with that, you need less infrastructure, you have lowered emissions, noise, and wider disruption.
Its a fairly out-dated metric but it's how traffic engineers will determine the amount of green time a signal needs to cater for the flow. The average number of people inside a car is actually between 1 and 2, so the point I was making is that bicycles are unbelievably efficient at moving large numbers of people.
Looks like it's not just cyclists getting bullied in Bristol: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/e-scooter-rider-feels-risking-9256414
Yeah, right…
They've just borrowed that from the police maybe?
Like any organisation a major concern (after reputation) is avoiding outside interference. What can't simply be denied gets moved to "internal investigation". If that won't make it disappear just drag that out until the employee has died / retired / left - then "regrettably no further action can be taken".
I was curious about that phrasing - I reckon the driver chucked in their job, possibly for some other reason or maybe because they found driving a bus on the roads to be infuriating.
I love the way the Post front page headline puts the focus on the bus driver losing his job rather than the scooter rider almost dying.