Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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al_yrpal
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

Post by al_yrpal »

From my observations the boom is over but cycling is still on the increase albeit slowly. In Taunton provision for cycling is impressive. But, car use seems the norm, few use the many cycle paths and one encounters few cyclists out in the hinterland.

Al
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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Importer/wholesaler Moore Large have gone into administration

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/d ... ke-8257927
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mjr
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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al_yrpal wrote: 28 Mar 2023, 5:49pm From my observations the boom is over but cycling is still on the increase albeit slowly. In Taunton provision for cycling is impressive. But, car use seems the norm, few use the many cycle paths and one encounters few cyclists out in the hinterland.
What provision in Taunton is impressive? I've not been in a few years, but it was the usual mix of gravel towpaths, park routes and Cycleway Resembling A Pavements of many English towns, with most approaches to junctions with motorised roads being tight and non-perpendicular, often with no or adverse cambers. At most destinations, there was very little cycle parking, but they build multistorey car temples. There were some horrendous "dual network" bloopers like the Toneway / Bridgwater Road junction where both on-road and roadside options were rubbish.
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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They just spent millions on making the Toneway more ped and cycle friendly. Next job is to get a Taunton to Wellington cycleway. Never come across an unsurfaced cycleway ? Compared with anywhere I have lived the ped and cycle provision here is great and constantly improving.

Al
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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al_yrpal wrote: 29 Mar 2023, 7:59am They just spent millions on making the Toneway more ped and cycle friendly. Next job is to get a Taunton to Wellington cycleway. Never come across an unsurfaced cycleway ? Compared with anywhere I have lived the ped and cycle provision here is great and constantly improving.
If they've fixed that terrible Toneway junction then that's great.

Maps still show, for example, the route between the Tone and the railway from NCN 3 to Heron Way as unsurfaced. Have they hard-surfaced it? What about any of the routes from Silk Mills to French Weir? Almost no-one wants to see all path parks tarmacked, but equally no-one wants to walk around work or shops looking like they've waded through wet porridge in winter so having one route in hard woodcrete or similar is desirable.

You must have lived in some awful places for walking and cycling if Taunton is comparatively great. It's far from the worst, but "great"? Unless it's changed, North Street in the town centre has literal gutter lanes, Corporation Street has a paint lane too narrow for a painted bike symbol and Fore Street / East Street / East Reach has nothing at all because cyclists are expected to use parallel back streets and not go to shops and offices on there. Loads of cycleways just terminate abruptly and loads more are unsigned. Several streets have wide carriageways marked and allow in motorists to load/unload, but cycling is still banned (High Street, Paul Street, Castle Green). Further out, some of the newer bits have LTN 2/08 spec stuff, but older areas like Sherford and Wellsprings still have three parts naff-all, not even 20mph, and the routes to the hospital are an unsigned and barely-coherent mess.

I'm not sure a cycleway to Wellington should be the next job. Certainly, PCT.Bike seems to suggest that Taunton-Silk Mills-Norton Fitzwarren is a better next move, but I guess the bit to Silk Mills could easily connect to Netherclay and off towards Wellington too. I'd drop the back roads to 40mph and maybe three-quarter-gate a few, rather than spend money on a cycleway next to the A38, for now.

I'm glad to hear it's improving, but there was lots of room for improvement before it reaches a Bristol or an Oxford, let alone an MK or a Cambridge. However, unlike MK, driving in Taunton is pretty awkward, so it could probably achieve more cycling more quickly with modest investment.
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

Post by PH »

Another company suffering from the downturn, whether that's in cycling or more generally the economy isn't clear. Insync, owned by major Indian bike brand Hero, £4 million loss last year and restructuring, a huge contrast to the ambitious expansion plans in the news last year.
https://ukdaily.news/manchester/the-man ... 94030.html

I've just been browsing the SJS website and noticing some of the price increases particularly of their own products :shock:
Must be a tough time to be in the bike trade, well probably many trades, having to increase prices by 20%+ at the same time as knowing your customers are trying to economise. I'm glad I had a bit of a bike rationalisation over the last couple of years, I'm not expecting to need any large purchases for the next few, if ever!
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al_yrpal
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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MRJ Silk Mills has an excellent cycleway to NFitz. In the areas that flood they havent tarmaced. Lived for 44 years rurally so I am not an expert on cycleways. Looking forward to a quicker less muddy cycle route to Wellington's Spoons! Like many places with Victorian and Edwardian streets its quite difficult to provide cycleways. However to me it all looks good.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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Some years ago, Toytown (Taunton) had a useful bike park near the cricket ground. It cost 15 pence to leave your bike in a secure compound. The local corporation spent a fortune on upgrading it, adding a building which had a workshop with a bike mechanic, showers and changing facilities. Shortly after doing this, the corporation flogged it off to a local doctor's surgery leaving no provisions whatsoever save for a crop of Sheffield stands around the town. Total waste of money and the loss of a useful resource - even though it was a bit of a hike from there to the shops.
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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al_yrpal wrote: 29 Mar 2023, 3:40pm MRJ Silk Mills has an excellent cycleway to NFitz.
Where? The only one I see on the map is a big Z bend which takes 2.5km to travel 1.3km as the crow flies. Maybe not the worst deflection ever, but disproportionate for the size and soon adds up to someone deciding to drive instead.
In the areas that flood they havent tarmaced.
They do for motorists. Why not us? Heck, they even hard-surface (usually concrete) fords for motorists, the ultimate in areas that flood.
Lived for 44 years rurally so I am not an expert on cycleways. Looking forward to a quicker less muddy cycle route to Wellington's Spoons! Like many places with Victorian and Edwardian streets its quite difficult to provide cycleways. However to me it all looks good.
You'd probably get a quicker and nicer route sooner and cheaper if they hard-surfaced (not necessarily tarmack) Taunton-Silk Mills and then get the mud cleaned off the small rural roads through Hele and Bradford on Tone and signed it well.

In places with Victorian and Edwardian streets, modal filters (bollards, or camera-checked restrictions with "except 🚲" plates) are often better than cycleways for the money and space, but it needs to be nearly all of them, like in London or Cambridge, not Taunton's token handful.
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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diapason wrote: 29 Mar 2023, 4:05pm Some years ago, Toytown (Taunton) had a useful bike park near the cricket ground. It cost 15 pence to leave your bike in a secure compound. The local corporation spent a fortune on upgrading it, adding a building which had a workshop with a bike mechanic, showers and changing facilities. Shortly after doing this, the corporation flogged it off to a local doctor's surgery leaving no provisions whatsoever save for a crop of Sheffield stands around the town. Total waste of money and the loss of a useful resource - even though it was a bit of a hike from there to the shops.
I remember it well, in Coal Orchard (the street not the rubbish chain pub), complete with buddleia growing among the parking stands while they stood unused and fenced off behind a locked gate.

It now appears to be an empty gravel area fenced off, if it was where I think it was.

Very poor disjointed actions.
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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Living in Bishops Hull I sometimes cycle to NFitz on the Silk Mills road cycleway. Sorry, you are out of date. Out of date on the Coal Orchard too. I have a nice route off main roads to Wellington Sustrans 3 runs within 50 metres of my house.

Silk Mills Rd
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZagMGVyZ5UGLXaz37

Al
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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al_yrpal wrote: 30 Mar 2023, 1:32pm Living in Bishops Hull I sometimes cycle to NFitz on the Silk Mills road cycleway. Sorry, you are out of date. Out of date on the Coal Orchard too.
How am I out of date? Is there now a direct link from the Silk Mills Rd cycleway to NFitz centre? Has the Coal Orchard cycle parking reopened?
I have a nice route off main roads to Wellington Sustrans 3 runs within 50 metres of my house.

Silk Mills Rd
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZagMGVyZ5UGLXaz37
It's a Cycleway Resembling A Pavement! The 1990s called and want their cycleway back. The reverse angle is a bit better, but across the road seems to be a "no cycling" A barrier across the entrance to what I thought was a gravel track we're allowed to use.

Call that a cycleway? This is what a road with modern cycleways looks like: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.217995, ... 384!8i8192

And here's one from 10 years ago, which is worse but still better than Silk Mills Rd: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4182438 ... 384!8i8192
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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Cycleway - the one with the van parked in it? :lol: No chance of that on Silk Mills theres a steep kerb which stops stones and grit being thrown onto the path too. No need for one opposite, there are ramps and crossings. Plenty of other cycleways and pedways leading off it too. We use them to walk to the town centre.

Occasionally I use the Silk Mills cycleway to slip over to NFitz Coop. That cycleway is quite heavily used.

In the vinciinty of the Coal Orchard there is ongoing work going on to make it a more useful outdoor space. (No longer a Spoons)

Plenty of lock up points for bikes in the town centre.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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The Bike Park was the site near Coal Orchard. Corp. flogged it off to a local doctor's surgery who wanted the building. Great shame after so much ratepayers money was spent on it. I agree there are plenty of Sheffield stands around the town, but I wouldn't trust a decent bike left there. The Main Street has marked cycling lanes (narrow) on each side, but, at the top of the street they dump cyclists onto a vile cobbled area on a busy roundabout. Not very well planned.
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Re: Looks Like The Cycling Boom Is Over.

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Protests have taken place concerning that roundabout. Have you ever cycled in France?

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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