Thanks for that O. And I thought I'd set you a challenge.
My take on the CSs (and Boris Bikes) is that they're important more in terms of what they represent than what they physically provide. As facilities they're often compromised, occasionally silly and suffer all the disadvantages of any painted segregation. As symbols of an aspiration they're very effective. I think the choice of colour was no accident. The unusual and bold blue (at least initially) makes them stand out from the mass of other road markings and places drivers on the defensive. Good or bad, they're getting
noticed.
Sweeping across the entire facilities/cycling numbers debate, I believe that people cycle because they see other people cycling. More specifically, more people will cycle if they see people like them cycling. The shear concentration of cycle traffic along these high-profile routes may be sufficient to break down people's social prejudices against getting on a bike themselves. In this sense, I'm sure there's a virtuous circle between the number of cyclists and the quantity and (hopefully) quality of provision, but I'd take a lot of convincing that facilities are a 'first cause' for any increase.
Pseud's corner is this way, right? ----->
