London Assembly Transport Committee's review of cycle schemes

[ozzage]

Ozzage, next time you're in the Holborn peleton, quit worrying and just enjoy it. Look around you at the fixie gladiators, the Chelsea girls on Pashleys, the massed ranks of Borisers and Bromptoneers. Do we look worried about being clipped by cabs or bonked by buses?

No! Because it very rarely happens.

I have no desire to be part of any peleton. I just want to ride along, enjoying myself and get from A to B without feeling like I'm doing some kind of fitness training or sport. In the mix there I automatically speed up to match the traffic (when it's moving!), my head swivels continually left and right, I'm looking for gaps and continually judging "will I fit" and accelerating/decelerating. Sure, I can ride like that and it can even be exciting, but it's NOT particularly enjoyable unless you are the type of person who likes the adrenalin rush from it (that's not at all a judgement, but those who DO like it have to realise that not everybody does)

It's as if every commute in your car was like doing laps of a racetrack. A certain portion of the population would LOVE that, but most would find it too much hard work and stress when they just want to get somewhere.

FWIW I don't see many Pashley princesses riding sedately down High Holborn if I'm there (usually just after 6pm although I avoid it these days). Plenty of Boris Bikers to be sure though but they're a mixed bunch!

 

[ozzage]

just false. Show us the drawing

Do you think I misrepresented your position? That would be rude of me wouldn't it.

A bit like people stating that my "strategy" is to reduce bus use, or that I said that a 40% modal share was a "realistic proposition", or that I think that "all bus passenger" can be converted to cycling, none of which were ever a position of mine but in a flurry of frantic straw-clutching were all held up as straw-men and argued against.

 

[srw]

I have no desire to be part of any peleton. I just want to ride along, enjoying myself and get from A to B without feeling like I'm doing some kind of fitness training or sport.

I'm exactly the same. "Peleton" was used as a metaphor.

The thing about Holborn is that there are plenty of bus lanes. And not enough buses to clog them up.

 

[dellzeqq]

I could be wrong, but maybe the reliance on motor transport in Britain is partly a consequence of our love of suburbs rather than city centres as places to live. I suppose it's a bit chicken and egg.

you could be wrong, or, then again, you could be 110% right. I blame that b*****d William Morris.

 

[dellzeqq]

Do you think I misrepresented your position? That would be rude of me wouldn't it.

it would. Show us the drawing.

Tell you what, we'll meet up, cycle along the route of your choice, and I'll do the drawing. Can't say fairer than that, can I?

 

[As Easy As Riding A Bike]

Do bus lanes implicitly create a "non-cyclists lane" out of whatever road is left?

 

[dellzeqq]

yup.

I see that WalthamForestCrapCycleLanes has stepped over the mark again... https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1Wme_0ZrCQCpZP_heoHUI-oWLKlxux4kQBPT4XG9lk/edit?hl=en&pli=1#

 

[Dan B]

Do bus lanes implicitly create a "non-cyclists lane" out of whatever road is left?

An interesting question and not one I know the answer to. But anecdotally I've been told many times to "get in the cycle lane" and can't ever remember getting grief for not being in the bus lane

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I could be wrong, but maybe the reliance on motor transport in Britain is partly a consequence of our love of suburbs rather than city centres as places to live. I suppose it's a bit chicken and egg.

I blame the Nazis

 

[GrumpyGregry]

yup.

I see that WalthamForestCrapCycleLanes has stepped over the mark again... https://docs.google....dit?hl=en&pli=1#

That statement from cyclenation capture my thoughts and feelings spot on.

 

[StuartG]

I see that WalthamForestCrapCycleLanes has stepped over the mark again... https://docs.google....dit?hl=en&pli=1#

And in other news Clyclenation hissed over the mark (again): http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/search?q=cyclenation

Tandems at dawn?

 

[dellzeqq]

blimey. Makes P+L look safe. Mind you, I'm still cheesed off that he's cut and pasted my stuff without acknowledgement and out of context.

 

[As Easy As Riding A Bike]

It is rather odd that Cyclenation saw fit to draw up an official statement correcting CWF's assertions about Cyclenation, when the blog in question had barely even mentioned Cyclenation in the first place.

 

[dellzeqq]

I tend to side with CrapCycleLanes on this.

Cyclenation is a nice little club that specialises in mutual back-slapping.

You may think that, but it consists of most of the independent cycle campaigning organisations in the country, and (touches imaginary forelock) Jenny Jones. And, as you and I have both heard Roger Geffen effectively fold up the last eight years of CTC's campaigning strategy without actually having the wherewithal to put something in its place, for all its faults, it's what we've got. And there's not a lot else on the horizon.

And WalthamForestCrapBlog did have a go at CCN. But, then again, he had a go at CTC, using cut and paste from something that I wrote, changing the meaning and context. So, it's fair to say that he's not my favourite.

 

[slowmotion]

you could be wrong, or, then again, you could be 110% right. I blame that b*****d William Morris.

I think the root cause goes even further back than William Morris. Britain industrialised earlier than a lot of larger countries. The net result was urban overcrowding, and slums. People saw the ideas of Morris and Ebenezer Howard as a highly desirable alternative. The garden city movement morphed into the suburbs. At the same time, wider car ownership in the Thirties made the suburbs more viable. Net result...car culture.

This could be a load of old cobblers...