Search found 492 matches

by brooksby
13 Jun 2020, 3:00pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Use of cycle lanes / paths
Replies: 36
Views: 1871

Re: Use of cycle lanes / paths

Bmblbzzz wrote:
PH wrote:I haven't seen the article in cycle so can't comment on that. The point that most of the anti brigade miss is that if you build decent facilities there's no need for compulsion, most people will choose to use them, much like as in the example above where most people driving around Bristol choose to use the Motorway.

Well, no. The M32, M4, M5 exist and will take you from central Bristol to Portishead. But, although these are bigger, wider, smoother, faster roads, most people driving that journey will take the A369, because it's far more direct, therefore quicker, and also uses less fuel (though I don't think most people are really concerned about that). These four roads are actually four sides of a more-or-less rectangle.

And so it is with cycle paths. They need to be not only built to a decent standard, but built on or paralleling all the roads that need them, before they'll become the always default use. In the case of Bristol to Portishead there is the Pill Path, which runs along the River Avon and then connects to Portishead, but most of it is a narrow, gravelly - muddy if it's rained recently - path. Popular with runners and fine for a family day out on bikes, but not a great all-weather, every day, transport route.


In the case of the Pill Path, "rained recently" means "any time in the preceding fortnight" IMO
by brooksby
12 Jun 2020, 1:25pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Use of cycle lanes / paths
Replies: 36
Views: 1871

Re: Use of cycle lanes / paths

drossall wrote:There is no real basis in law for a requirement to use a particular highway, only for banning certain traffic from certain roads. What if it doesn't quite go where you are going, for example? What would it mean if motorists in Bristol were required to use the M5? For what journeys? And what if the cycle lane were blocked?


Exactly. Why should anyone use the A369 from Bristol to Portishead when they should be using M32 -> M4 -> M5. I mean, tax payers paid to build these roads especially for motor travellers to go places quickly and then they choose to use a pootling little A road instead.

(Sorry, I'm actually undecided on how sarcastic I'm being...).
by brooksby
11 Jun 2020, 1:15pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue
Replies: 607
Views: 16896

Re: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue

Cyril Haearn wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:The bequests of Colston and Rhodes should be used to benefit the descendants of those from whom they stole their wealth, and renamed accordingly.

The merchant venturers supports schools in Bristol. It does seem to be a very white organisation that has or has a lot of influence


That's a very unfair statement. They just appointed their first black member a few weeks ago. Admittedly, the society was established four hundred years ago, but still... :wink:
by brooksby
10 Jun 2020, 3:14pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Where were you in '73
Replies: 266
Views: 24229

Re: Where were you in '73

thirdcrank wrote:Just checking if anybody was reading :wink:

It was, of course, the University of Sussex and calling it Brighton was laxity on my part. It was in Brighton in those days and the only thing going for me when I went was that I had previously read Brighton Rock.

I must be mistaken about the name of the YHA although I'm mystified about how that might have happened. I used to covet the stamps in my YHA cards and they have often been a reminder of happy times (or misery, in the case of Glencoe.) Thanks for putting me right. :D

If a future thread resurrection involves 1966 I'll mention going to Barnard Castle YHA and driving round Bradford trying to sell ice cream when Ken W was uttering his famous "They think it's all over ......"

While I'm on, here's a picture of skaters on the frozen River Wharfe in 1963. The accompanying notes say that the Wetherby Silver Band played to accompany the skaters.
frozen river.jpg


Is that photo the river where it passes the Ings?

(1963 is before my time, I'm afraid - grew up in Boston Spa and Collingham in the seventies).
by brooksby
10 Jun 2020, 10:53am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue
Replies: 607
Views: 16896

Re: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue

mjr wrote:
mercalia wrote:Hiding them away in museums only hides the history and shame? When was the last time you visited a museum? ( often have to pay to enter)

The Museum of London has been free for years. It's a great place to visit nevertheless.

Bristol museum was free but I don't know if it still is.


Bristol museum is technically free, but has a big "Put in here what you can afford - we recommend £xx" sign as you walk in past the staff at the desk.
by brooksby
10 Jun 2020, 10:50am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue
Replies: 607
Views: 16896

Re: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue

mercalia wrote:
merseymouth wrote:https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/people-nation-empire/make-yourself-at-home/the-black-and-white-minstrel-show Nothing new in this world? Hope this works??? MM


url dont work


Bet it does now.
by brooksby
10 Jun 2020, 10:45am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Little Britain.
Replies: 47
Views: 1687

Re: Little Britain.

Lots of older stuff gets edited if it's no longer considered to be "appropriate".

If you google it, you can see how Disney has edited older films to make them more 'family friendly' (eg. CGI generation of longer hair to cover Daryl Hannah's bare bottom as she runs into into the sea in "Splash" *as a mermaid*).

I also hear that Warner Bros are making a load of new Looney Tunes and Elmer Fudd (you know: the hunter?) will no longer carry a gun.
by brooksby
9 Jun 2020, 10:26pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue
Replies: 607
Views: 16896

Re: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue

pwa wrote:
carpetcleaner wrote:
pwa wrote:You've got your Naz Shah file out again! :lol:


Why not?

Anyone appalled to learn that the Tories have a councillor like that in Bristol will surely be apoplectic with rage when they are told that Kier Starmer has chosen an MP with a history of racism as his spokesperson on community cohesion.

Anyway, I must go now. I'm writing to my MP again to demand that he campaigns for the immediate demolition of all Roman and Norman structures still standing in the UK. The Tower of London and Windsor Castle should be the first to be dynamited. They are symbols of colonialism and offend me. I'll add Stonehenge too as we can't be sure it wasn't built by oppressors.

Then I will write to the makers of my favourite tea demanding to know why they haven't come out to support BLM like Yorkshire Tea and PG Tips. If they won't do so I'll simply have to assume the company is infested with racists and I'll have to take my custom elsewhere.

That's what I like to see: a lovely bit of sarcasm. :lol:

You do know, don't you, that most statues are relatively potable things that can be relocated when enough people find them upsetting or insulting? No demolition or destruction needed, just a few operatives with lifting gear and a lorry.


"Potable"? Well, maybe if you grind them down very fine and add them to orange juice or something... :wink:
by brooksby
9 Jun 2020, 3:03pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue
Replies: 607
Views: 16896

Re: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue

On the Bristol Post local news site this afternoon:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ol-4205516

A senior Tory city councillor in Bristol has described slave trader Edward Colston as a 'hero', and the toppling of his statue as 'frenzied thug violence'.

Cllr Richard Eddy said he has received more mail in the past 24 hours over this one issue than he has over anything else in his 28 years as a councillor in Bristol - and it was a 'stream of outraged responses'.

The politician, who has served as the Conservative leader on Bristol City Council and is still the local councillor for Bishopsworth in the south of the city, said he was 'horrified and appalled' by the scenes in the city centre on Sunday afternoon, in which a group of people pulled down the statue and then it was rolled to the Floating Harbour and tipped over the edge.

Cllr Eddy, who two years ago said vandalising or stealing a proposed second plaque on the Colston Statue which told of his slave trade links 'may be justified' described the people who pulled down the statue on Sunday as a 'criminal mob'.

by brooksby
9 Jun 2020, 12:26pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Fix your bike voucher
Replies: 49
Views: 5884

Re: £50 for bike repair

De Sisti wrote:Has anyone been to make use of the £50 that the government announced a few weeks ago?


Oh, right - you thought that because they announced it then that meant they were actually going to do it? Silly boy.
by brooksby
9 Jun 2020, 9:44am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Secondary schools reopening or not
Replies: 2
Views: 149

Secondary schools reopening or not

So the schools were all closed to stop the spread of the virus.

Now that lockdown is being eased off, my village is of an evening full of groups of teenagers hanging around together. Smoking, drinking, laughing gas, basically being teenagers.

If they can all hang around together non socially distancing on their own time, might they just as well be back in school?

Discuss :wink:
by brooksby
8 Jun 2020, 1:49pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue
Replies: 607
Views: 16896

Re: George Floyd death: Protesters tear down slave trader statue

As I understand it, the council wanted to change the plaque but the Merchant Venturers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_o ... _Venturers - kept making changes, stonewalling it so nothing got done.

Now that the council has been sidelined over this, and the statue submerged (apparently it'll probably end up in a museum now, which is probably where it ought to have been for some time IMO), does this mean that all the Colston references in Bristol will now get removed? Colston Street, Colston's School, et al?

Like it or not, he and his estate threw quite a lot of money at the city for philanthropic purposes (however, unfortunately, he only 'phil'-ed a particular subset of 'anthro').
by brooksby
8 Jun 2020, 1:30pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Richard Ballantine
Replies: 24
Views: 1677

Re: Richard Ballantine

I've got a copy of his 'City Cycling' - it was the first cycling book I read when I started cycle commuting a few years ago. The woman in my LBS recommended it.
by brooksby
5 Jun 2020, 10:35pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Face Coverings now Compulsory
Replies: 99
Views: 2908

Re: Face Coverings now Compulsory

Yup - Britain's moving forward, shops opening, back to business as usual.

Oh, except please download this app to book your visit to each individual shop or be prepared to queue all day.

Except wear a face mask at all times : not a buff but a three layer WHO recommended mask that you can *obviously* make at home (?)

Except don't touch anything, or get close to any other person.

Except you can't use public transport unless you want to die (you don't want to die, do you?)

Except any possible social or recreational aspect of being out of your house has ceased to exist and won't be coming back any time soon.

Hey, but its OK because Britain's open for business again!
by brooksby
4 Jun 2020, 8:38am
Forum: On the road
Topic: Back to normal
Replies: 4
Views: 680

Re: Back to normal

On my six miles into work this morning:

(1) Nearly taken out by a woman driving a Golf who thought that the best place to overtake a bike was obviously on a narrow residential road with a bend toward the right and with large trees and shrubbery completely blocking the view of any oncoming traffic; when she met the Range Rover coming the other way, the driver of which slammed on their brakes, she 'automatically' swerved back toward her side of the road, 'forgetting' that I was between her and the kerb;

(2) On the narrow (-ish) shared-use cycle path I later use, I met a portly middle-aged* gentleman (*that means he was older than me, and I'm pushing fifty) riding an undersized MTB toward me and with a spaniel running beside him on an extending lead THAT HE WAS HOLDING ONTO ( :evil: );

(3) On the final approach into the city, a jogger suddenly leapt sideways into the road about a metre ahead of me as she noticed another jogger approaching (whom I hadn't seen, I think they'd come out of a gate, otherwise I would have taken a bit more care and given her a wider berth) - she didn't look before leaping...

Yes - I think we are back to 'normal' (and then some...).