Cycling UK Forum

dalifnei wrote:I always have my lights on, even during the day.

Isn't that a waste of energy and encouraging people not to look properly? In other words, the same drawbacks as Daytime Running Lights on cars.

After all, drivers are meant to be able to see an unlit pole that's fallen across the road...

cozumel wrote:<start rant>

I'm personally quite appalled at anyone who considers that rechargeable batteries having lost their charge is an acceptable reason to ride without lights. What if a pedestrian walks out in front of you? What if a car hits you from the rear? I honestly find that excuse quite pathetic.

Then it'll hurt.

What appalls me is that I have ONE light out of I-don't-know-how-many that actually has a warning light for imminent battery death. The rest of the time, I carry spare lights on anything but the shortest ride. Some of which are strictly of the "be seen emergency light" class. More blooming kit to carry around :-/

Is anyone keeping track of which councils have cycling officers? It's the sort of thing CTC and CycleNation could probably compile by pinging local groups.

SA_SA_SA wrote:If Toucans have no red cycle symbol (presumably to avoid giving cyclists a red lamp that is advisory) how come the newer Puffin-style Toucans have gained a red cycle symbol on the panel:

this is presumably still advisory?

I don't know but I hope so and I treat them as such. Fortunately, they're usually angled against traffic so that drivers can't see them, which reduces a few rants about "Red Light Jumping cyclists".

A few weeks ago, I timed a nearby sequence of recently-rebuilt crossings. If you wait for the green cycle symbol on every Toucan and Puffin-style Toucan, it takes 7 minutes to cover 700 metres, which would be 6km/h or 3.75mph. Of course, it's quicker to rejoin the road at the first opportunity and ride around it, taking the lanes and annoying other user by delaying them by a few seconds (speed limit is 40mph and I'm less than half that), but even jaywalking a straight line route across the middle of the roundabout and a nearby traffic island is probably quicker than using those crossings! Anyone able to undercut that Toucan low speed record for a similar distance?

Lovely rants about what's wrong and there's no obvious way forwards: what about some non-obvious ways?

bovlomov wrote:What do cyclists want? The most famous cyclists are saying that they want helmet legislation. We normal folk want separation, or integration; off road trails, fast routes for commuting , routes around their local area; this or that outlawing, this or that made compulsory.

The most famous drivers are famously bonkers too, at places like Silverstone or the salt flats of Nevada, but it doesn't see to stop things being built.

What do cyclists want? Basically, more routes, better routes, fewer obstacles. In detail:

• £10 per person per year spent on cycling (2013 pounds, sufficient given the proportion of journeys we want to see, funded from various budgets);
• Cycling provision in all new developments;
• Improved guidance to help planners include bicycles;
• Cycle routes along and across main roads;
• Cycle-friendly improvements on local streets;
• Regulations to enable things like bicycle traffic lights;
• 20mph in towns, 40mph on small country lanes, HGV limits at peak cycling times;
• Traffic laws enforced and offenders brought to justice;
• Cycle training at all schools, and affordable training for adults;
• Cycling to be promoted as safe and normal;
• A plan to be made - keep us updated;
• A National Cycling Champion;
• Targets like 10% by 2025;
• Officers and Ministers appointed to take the lead.

OK, it's fairly clear but it's not such a simple message - that reflects the rubbish point we're starting from. I suspect we've all got other things, but I hope everyone can support this call as a next step. Only another 30,000 signatures to get it back in parliament. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49196

So from the above contributions, my thinking is that I give up trying to get covered parking reinstated because it's difficult to argue for the benefits and we should accept secure parking with seat covers.

thirdcrank wrote:Unfortunately, I fear that most cyclists, including CTC members, share my feeling that this procedure has been pointless. I've no idea what the current CTC membership is, but 2,000 emails following a specific request to members averages out at around three per MP. Sending an email doesn't even involve a trip to a letterbox and the price of a stamp OTOH, If the figure is accurate, 5,000 LCC riders outside the Palace of Westminster is the sort of thing that might create a bit more of an impression.

So what should we do about it, then?

I don't know if it's general, but the local CTC branch have a few good eggs and a few distressingly off-message ones that still speak to the press, sometimes contradicting others. The bulk of local campaigning seems to come from the Bicycle User Group and that's even less coordinated than CTC.

Adam S wrote:Local papers do this a lot. I'm guessing it's publically available information so they're not breaching privacy. Can't say i'd be too chuffed about being named and shamed though

I think the accused confirms their name and address along with the plea, don't they? So it's part of the court session being reported. At least they didn't give the flat/house number

661-Pete wrote:Unless I'm going to be on the move all the time, on my visit to Brighton (i.e. not stopping anywhere), or somewhere where I can be sure of a secure place, I'll go by train or car instead. Sad, isn't it?!

Yep. What's the bike theft like in Brighton? I'm told that only 1 in 25 bikes stolen last January in our town were "adequately locked" I think the expression is.

661-Pete wrote:Maybe he's thinking of wider, faster roads, than the narrow twisty lanes which are such a feature of my part of Sussex, and are a real pleasure to ride upon. Perhaps Mr Bellingham ought to be invited down to my part of the world and try these lanes for himself. As far as speed limits are concerned, most of the lanes are self-regulating: you physically can't tear along such lanes in a car at 60mph, you'd end up in the hedge!

Mr Bellingham is my MP and has offered to meet me. I'll remind him that we do have some nice quiet lanes too, but he's MP for North West Norfolk and some of the marsh and fen "lanes" are fairly straight two-lane dragstrips which take gravel lorries and other large traffic, while others have drivers who feel that if the limit is 60mph, then they should get as close to it as possible - Emma Way was probably not an isolated case, sadly. Lowering rural lanes to 40mph by default as he suggests is probably a good idea, even if he expressed it clumsily.

thirdcrank wrote:Did nobody watch the debate, or is everybody still too full of excitement to comment?

I think you mean full of anger... lots of warm words but basically the response had already been published http://road.cc/content/news/91513-gover ... m-spend-no and the answer was "no".

http://road.cc/content/news/92382-get-b ... se-commons was their take, including comment from CTC and BC.

I think I agree with Jack Thurston @thebikeshow "Way more back-slapping in this Commons debate than the reality of cycling in Britain deserves."

snibgo wrote:It does work -- the problem was that I didn't have javascript enabled. And, of course, the dumb website didn't tell me.

So I'd need to tell people to go to that website, reconfigure the web browser to allow Google to run random programs on your browser (hi PRISM!), then pick from a list which seems to include loads of dead/irrelevant links.

I tried four for Norfolk: one was in Manchester, one was a "Website coming soon", one was a page about Artificial Grass (might be domain squatter?) and one was in Cambridge and doesn't seem to offer courses in Norfolk at all, neither adult or school.

Then I got annoyed and did a full click through of providers: the first one had no website, British Cycling seems to have no courses, Bungay Cycle School seems to have no adult courses (bit far for me anyway), Cycle Confident seems London-based (difficult as I think First Capital Connect have peak-time bike bans into London) and requires registration to look at course details, Cycle Divas is the artificial grass website, Cycle Experience only has courses in Hounslow and Harrow, Cycle-Life MTB Coaching seem to have no courses, Falcon CIC was the website coming soon, Freewheel Cycle Training is under construction, Lincs Cycle Coaching seems to be a "contact us", Outspoken Training is the Cambridge-based one above (First Capital Connect bike ban strikes again), Smart Cycle Training seems to be a "contact us" and prices are dated 2011, Tri-A-Sport Cycle Training is a misinstalled wordpress, http://www.cyclinginstructor.com offers lessons in London and North East Somerset.

Sorry but if that's how it's supposed to be done, it does seem pretty difficult to find training. At best, it's time-consuming, clicking through and reading some wordy pages to find the few possibles (why are most of the above even listed for Norfolk?), then contacting them and waiting.

If instructors would like to promote cycle training, a national courses directory with places and dates offered would be better than the rather poor-quality listing of providers by council area on the Bikeability site.

I carry a basic puncture kit (always spanner, levers, self-adhesive patches, pump - plus a spare tube on longer rides) but I also carry a can of http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/product ... lant-spray for those times where completing the ride slowly is better than stopping for a tube change, like when it's too cold for my fingers.

Mark1978 wrote:My main concern for 'training' is getting it targeted in the correct places. I mean if you want to ride on the road and you want training, then finding and getting training isn't difficult.

How? I followed some links to get to http://www.ctc.org.uk/courses-and-training/bikeability which lists courses in only MK and Reading. That's a bit of a ride from here. Where did I go wrong?

Other than that, I can find stuff for schools and stuff for training a whole workplace easily, but not open courses. I'm aware of a local Norfolk County Council scheme for adults, but I'm also aware that NCC use their own training manuals that discourage taking the primary position and other dubious decisions, so I'd prefer to point people to something else. I just don't know how to find it.

TonyR wrote:Quite often a motorist drives into a pedestrian, even on the pavement, but I'm not aware of anyone having a fear of walking on the pavement.

I'm sorry you're not aware of me I check over my shoulder nervously while walking on the pavement... the one along my road is littered with skid marks from the HGVs that thunder past 24x7 mounting it when they lose control during an emergency stop. I like to have some idea whether I'm going to need to dive in the ditch before I hear the screech!

But I still walk on the pavement. I also ride a bike on it, because it's shared use and the road is a 40mph single-carriageway infested with aforesaid HGVs. I do sometimes ride along it at quiet times, but usually my 17mph typical fastest speed results in a queue of frustrated traffic including some real idiots, so I grudgingly accept the speed penalty of riding on the pavement and only doing 11-12mph because the surface is utter rubbish... and each bounce on my bum reminds me why I do some campaigning.

Richard Fairhurst wrote:I've sat in meetings about this (as the volunteer Sustrans representative) and been berated by locals for not funding the compromised path. You can't win...

Personally, I wish I'd seen more in Sustrans that were like you...