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Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 26 Apr 2013, 9:52pm
by brizgazelle
A fairly bitter condemnation. It's possible she might just have a point re those using it for competitive time trials - something I've witnessed on the Bristol/Bath path on a Sunday busy with many pedestrian families spilling across with dogs, prams, very young children on scooters or trikes, etc.

One trialer I saw was shouting out to these, politely but forcefully 'could you move out of the way please?' while belting along. I doubt he made many friends or did a great time that day. Thing is, I can see it's difficult for many big family groups to be rigorous in staying in a neat group containing itself within the pedestrian lane.

The point was also made in the Speccy about tarmac being unsightly and excluding horse riding. I'd say the grit used on some tracks and most towpaths is certainly nicer-looking than macadam, but doubtless it requires more maintenance.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/88%2096051/two-wheeled-tyranny/

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 26 Apr 2013, 10:41pm
by gaz
That link's in need of some maintenance: http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/889 ... d-tyranny/

FIFY

My experience of paths that require more maintenance is that they rarely get it. Even so I've no desire to see Strava style racing on such leisure routes.

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 26 Apr 2013, 11:32pm
by brizgazelle
Thanks for the link work. Route I was actually referring to was of course the Bristol/Pill path and, complimentary with the another point, the substantial part of which is surfaced with grit.

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 12:40am
by Mr. Viking
Tarmac does make it more useable for wheelchair users. I have never seen a wheelchair user on a similar path I have to admit, but I rarely see anyone in a wheelchair anyway, it doesn't mean they aren't there. As for horses not being able to canter, a horse cantering will be more of a disruption than a cyclist at any speed. It would also, in my experience, be under less control.

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 7:35am
by [XAP]Bob
I regularly see wheelchair users on the local path, not on the railway line 'cos that's almost impossible for them to access... except at one end (those anti cycle barriers don't only stop us)

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 7:50am
by chris_suffolk
Good to see such unbiased and balanced reportiing from our Media .......


.......guess (s)he's not a cyclist or walker or horse rider -

"why anybody would want to walk.... taking 2 hours.... when they can drive in 10 minutes"

Chris

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 7:56am
by eileithyia
Snotty B****, so she thinks wheelchair users will not use it, ok so they might not want to go the whole length, but why should they not have the same access to some countryside that she felt was so exclusivey hers as a child....

If cyclists are really using to race on then I cannot condone this, but these routes are great to get families and young children out cycling and horses, as said elsewhere, cantering are more of a menace...

Sounds like another example of the snooty county horse-brigade who were rude to relatives of mine years back when they were legitimately walking on a bridleway...

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 9:31am
by reohn2
eileithyia wrote:Snotty B****, so she thinks wheelchair users will not use it, ok so they might not want to go the whole length, but why should they not have the same access to some countryside that she felt was so exclusivey hers as a child....

If cyclists are really using to race on then I cannot condone this, but these routes are great to get families and young children out cycling and horses, as said elsewhere, cantering are more of a menace......

+1
It's more of the anticycling guff from another social climbing journo,who sees cycling as beneath them and a sign of being poor.
These morons are beneath contempt.

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 10:39am
by PaulCumbria
Great to see a range of intelligent responses to this article in the Comments section. Perhaps the media will eventually realise that a large chunk of the public are cyclists who have had enough of this sort of lazy rubbish.

Why doesn't she just write a piece slagging off black people, gay people, poor people - we know that's what she'd like to do if she could get away with it...

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 11:41am
by Ayesha
Melissa should have gone playing on the path when it was still a railway line.

She can thank Dr Beeching for converting it to a 'Green lane'.

She'll be more upset when someone shows her the route of HS2 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/h ... issue3.pdf

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 11:54am
by Ayesha
They paved paradise and buried a journo clot.
With pink flowery willies, a Barbour and cycle tyre mark across her bot.

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 12:14pm
by mrjemm
Ayesha wrote:They paved paradise and buried a journo clot.
With pink flowery willies, a Barbour and cycle tyre mark across her bot.


She's a big yellow hack, see?

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 2:49pm
by 661-Pete
Horses can’t be ridden on it, because you can’t canter on tarmac.
Well - I'm no way a horsey type, never having ridden a horse (actually I tell a lie - I was once - as a teenager - very nervously - mounted on the back of a very obliging grey mare for a few minutes - and there's 8mm movie footage to testify to this foolhardiness) - as I said, without a single equestrian skill, nonetheless I reckon I know a bit more about horses than the article's author does. After all, I meet horses - and their riders - on just about every weekend ride around these parts of Sussex. You can't help learning the ins and outs of horse sense, how to approach a horse without spooking it, what sort of approach puts a horse at ease, telling an old experienced horse from a young nervous one, etc. etc...

I could nominate a good half-a-dozen riding stables within a stone's throw (well, metaphorically) of my place, where this young lady would be well advised to enrol and assimilate a few riding skills, before she mouths off about being 'unable to canter'... There's a whole lot of riding manoeuvres you need to master, before you come anywhere near 'cantering'.

Moreover, if I were to find myself cycling on said path, I would naturally adapt my speed to that appropriate for the path's conditions - which might well, at busy times, mean slowing down to the speed of other users. Does one not have to do the same when driving one's car in heavy traffic (perhaps Her Ladyship does not...)?

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 8:28pm
by reohn2
PaulCumbria wrote:...........Why doesn't she just write a piece slagging off black people, gay people, poor people - we know that's what she'd like to do if she could get away with it...


Ah! well that would be against the law wouldn't it?

BTW,you missed out Gypsies :mrgreen:

Re: Kenilworth Greenway ripped up in the Spectator

Posted: 27 Apr 2013, 9:08pm
by Vorpal
Mr. Viking wrote:Tarmac does make it more useable for wheelchair users. I have never seen a wheelchair user on a similar path I have to admit, but I rarely see anyone in a wheelchair anyway, it doesn't mean they aren't there. As for horses not being able to canter, a horse cantering will be more of a disruption than a cyclist at any speed. It would also, in my experience, be under less control.


Wheelchair users, especially those with electric wheelchairs, often have difficulty with the barriers they put up on cyclepaths. :evil: