London cycle 'superhighway'

[ncutler]

Interesting article in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... en-or-hell

[gaz]

Thanks for the link.

[mercalia]

As London’s network of cycle lanes takes shape, The Observer asks whether Boris Johnson’s transport revolution was blue-lane thinking or a convoluted mistake

the hell case is voiced by lord Lawson

"Lord Lawson of Blaby (Con): My Lords, we all know the Mayor of London’s addiction to cycling, but is my noble friend Lord Higgins not absolutely right that what is happening now has done more damage, and is doing more damage, to London than almost anything since the Blitz? Is it not also hugely age discriminatory? There is a huge section of the population of a certain age, well represented in this House—I declare an interest—for whom cycling is not a practical option."


for heaven -

"For the cyclist, the east-west superhighway is the most impressive part of a system that can be ramshackle in parts. It is broad and stately, under the embankment’s plane trees, well separated from fuming drivers alongside. It feels safe. When complete, it will run alongside St James’s Park, through Hyde Park and onwards, making it possible to ride 18 miles from Barking in east London to Acton in the west, and be separated from traffic almost the whole time. It was announced last week that it will be joined by a route north from Oxford Circus, through Regent’s Park to Swiss Cottage, after the new mayor, Sadiq Khan, approved it."

now that will be an interesting ride?

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/07/london-cycle-superhighways-heaven-or-hell?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=185094&subid=7646217&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

[Audax67]

It's not age-discriminatory, it's fitness-discriminatory. Robert Marchand did his world record hour at the age of 100 (video in French of Etape du Tour).

Nige's lifestyle is his own affair. Plenty of folk are dead well before his age, and a depressing number of the cyclists among them died in traffic accidents.

[mjr]

It's not very fitness-discriminatory. E-bikes and trikes are allowed on it.

London's "new superhighways" are not perfect but they're a step forwards from the junk we were getting. It's just a shame that the likes of Leeds-Bradford have already sullied the name by apparently building the same old junk and calling it a "superhighway" - some of the bits seen so far are even worse than the early superhighways (painted bus lanes) in London.

[Richard D]

I rode most of 110 miles yesterday in the company of a club ate who is 76. But in the end, I gave up trying to hold his wheel and finished 15 minutes behind him.

Perhaps if Lord Lawson had eaten fewer pies in his 30s and 40s and had taken up cycling instead, he wouldn't feel the need to make such silly ageist remarks nowadays.

[gaz]

Edit: Threads now merged, link removed.

[TrevA]

Lord Lawson's comment shows how unrepresentative the House of Lords actually is. Full of older people, mostly white and mostly male.

[Tom Richardson]

I suspect that it's not true that cycling isn't a practical option for Lawson. More that he doesn't want to cycle - or maybe doesn't want to be seen cycling.

[Pete Owens]

the hell case is voiced by lord Lawson

"Lord Lawson of Blaby (Con): My Lords, we all know the Mayor of London’s addiction to cycling, but is my noble friend Lord Higgins not absolutely right that what is happening now has done more damage, and is doing more damage, to London than almost anything since the Blitz? Is it not also hugely age discriminatory? There is a huge section of the population of a certain age, well represented in this House—I declare an interest—for whom cycling is not a practical option."

With the likes of Nigel Lawson in opposition it is almost enough to make a sceptic such as myself start supporting segregation.