See here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -look-like At first glance, my reaction is, this is a load of arrant nonsense. (I would have used a stronger word than "nonsense", but this forum has rules... ). Designing a city to be 'cyclist-friendly' is all very well, but results have to be achievable. And people have to believe in them. These proposals fall short on both counts.
What do others think?
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity. Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments... --- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
The weak spots are, as ever, how we get from where places are now to that vision; and how it interacts with the car-dominated rest of the area.
I'm also not convinced it's a cycling idea. The idea of car parks and hire points around the edge seems basically 1970s Radburn-style path-fronted development ("town for the motor age") on a city-scale and it would probably prove unpopular for the same reasons: the modal switch would be seen as a penalty on every trip outside the area, the car parks would be seen as havens for antisocial behaviour and the dense path network would be criticised for offering too many routes for escaping the police.
So not quite nonsense but I don't think it moves thinking forwards much.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Park and pedal is available in a few places already. Boston, Oxford and Cambridge come to mind. In fact in London the fastest way to travel in the last 5 miles is by bike beating all other modes. I expect as cities grow, cycling will become the prevalent mode. It sounds sensible to plan for this. Different park and pedal schemes exist. I don't think the bike hire schemes work well as there are none left when the demand rises (eg. rush hour). The best idea is to take your own. Transitions need to be fast, so I would recommend investing in a good rack.
craigbroadbent wrote: In fact in London the fastest way to travel in the last 5 miles is by bike beating all other modes.
For short journeys in many places cycling is the fastest mode of travel - certainly if you take parking and all its problems into account as well. I'm baffled why the Dutch model isn't used here in towns and cities; seems to approach velotopia from what I can see.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
). Designing a city to be 'cyclist-friendly' is all very well, but results have to be achievable. And people have to believe in them. These proposals fall short on both counts.
