Non cyclists need recalibrating

[Drago]

Strangely. I never felt hard done by walking 4 miles each way to school every day. Soon there people won't be able to take a dump without driving to the loo. I'm beginning to think the film Wall:E is a documentary.

 

[gbb]

I live in a 70s ex council house (1st time buyer, needs must) and the pedestrian infrastructure is great, a maze of footpaths and subways. Developers today are too worried about squeezing another property in to care about getting from A-B!

To be fair I live in a similar sounding estate myself and while we moan about several things, the rabbit warren style particually...theres no denying the Development Corparation at the time, late 1960s, got it nearly bang on.
Yes some houses overlook each other far too closely but the grassed areas, trees, meandering paths and cycleways, availability of shops (although a good few have gone now), doctors, dentists, etc make it so almost everything you need for a day to day existence is within walking distance. And to boot, house prices are quite affordable. There are negatives of course and a good few of them but even so.

 

[Slick]

I live in an out of town new build within an existing small village where the closest shop is almost 4 miles away but it was a deliberate choice as whilst it feels like I'm in the middle of nowhere, I could cycle to the centre of Glasgow in under an hour. Mrs Slick often cycles to the shops and loves her new panniers.

 

[snorri]

The obvious question to me is - if you want to live near shops, why buy a house a long way away from them?

Because the houses are cheaper, and after buying a car running it is considered inexpensive by many?

 

[kynikos]

Yusuf, the first guy in the article, works in Birmingham but chooses to buy a house in Leicester from where he has a one and a half hour commute and then complains about how far away the nearest shop is and how, with the cost of fuel rising, this is adding to his cost of living!

 

[Alan O]

Because the houses are cheaper, and after buying a car running it is considered inexpensive by many?

If they'd built more amenities like shops near the houses, they presumably wouldn't be as cheap.

 

[NorthernDave]

There is a mounting problem near us with regard to lack of services.
Where I live is on the edge of the city - I can just, if I lean at the right angle, see fields from the upstairs windows at the back of the house - but not for much longer. A new link / relief road is planned which will fill the green gap between here and a couple of villages as plans include development to fill in either side of the new road.
I fully agree that we need more affordable housing, but a GP surgery nearby closed recently and our GP practice have just closed their books to new patients. The NHS dentists that are left aren't taking on new patients and I'm told the schools are also at capacity.
The plans, which include 1,000s of new houses don't appear to include any of those facilities and there appears to be no real plan to integrate any sort of public transport into the new developments, or even practical links into the much vaunted Cycle Super Highway.

 

[DCBassman]

Strangely. I never felt hard done by walking 4 miles each way to school every day. Soon there people won't be able to take a dump without driving to the loo. I'm beginning to think the film Wall:E is a documentary.

It's certainly a tad prophetic, if nothing else...

 

[Slick]

They won't get planning permission if there is insufficient infrastructure to support any proposed new development unless it includes said infrastructure.

 

[Drago]

And Chris Grayling, The Cyclists Friend, wants to build a super conurbation from Oxford to Cambridge, encompassing MK and Northampton in the middle. All his talk is of major roads, and more motor vehicle capacity, and when asked about how this is reconciled against the recent urgent warnings about climate change he dodged the question and talked about 'growth' instead. I wonder how much the growth will help when that part of the country is underwater by the end of the century?

 

[pjd57]

March this year was the only time I've seen most of my neighbours walk out of our street.
Beast from the east closed the only road in and out for several days.
Only option was on foot. Most seemed to manage to get their boots on and make it to Asda, about 15-20 minutes away.

But they can't make it without a car when the sun is shining.

 

[tom73]

There is a mounting problem near us with regard to lack of services.
Where I live is on the edge of the city - I can just, if I lean at the right angle, see fields from the upstairs windows at the back of the house - but not for much longer. A new link / relief road is planned which will fill the green gap between here and a couple of villages as plans include development to fill in either side of the new road.
I fully agree that we need more affordable housing, but a GP surgery nearby closed recently and our GP practice have just closed their books to new patients. The NHS dentists that are left aren't taking on new patients and I'm told the schools are also at capacity.
The plans, which include 1,000s of new houses don't appear to include any of those facilities and there appears to be no real plan to integrate any sort of public transport into the new developments, or even practical links into the much vaunted Cycle Super Highway.

We too live on the edge of town and had the same thing at the back of us two large fields been after the land for years the two farmers sold up and the planned 112 homes has now via extra planning up to 350. Taking to the lads doing the roads and services they have been told to make it fit for 450. The promise of play area and leaving the bottom of the site open green space for walking and wildlife long forgotten. We have no services either all the near by GP's and dentist's don' t have open lists and the two local primary school's no placer's. I and other's raised the point with planning officer about no infrastructure to support the application. His reply was "they will have to find some" So I said how the services have no money to open any more reply " they will have to" Over the years around me we have had 14 fields large and small go to housing 12 in the last 10 years. No extra services for them either.

The whole thing was one big game to the builders they asked for advice from planning then put in an application they knew would be turned down. Then summited a new one which got passed. Knowing if they said no they could show they had summited a plan in keeping with advice given so they'd win any appeal.

The best bit is the very fields once home to wildlife have gone and they go and name the roads( Barn owl close, kestrel lane to name two) after the very
animals they made move out.

Yes we need homes but if we can't plan them better and provided services to support them and above all affordable , with a good mix of social housing along side. Then It's just going to get worse.

 

[pawl]

So true and you'd think they'd look into this stuff. Saying that the info re the new ones near me tell's buyers the closest train station is the one that closed under Beeching.

Does no body check out the area where they are considering moving to.Not a lot of use moving then moaning about lack of amenities.As for pedestrians not all i hasteyto add prey we could have a new law Of using a mobile phone in a dangerous manner, eg ot looking where you are going
n

 

[Drago]

It's like these chumps that buy a house, and then realise the day they move in they have to dump their car in the street and inflict it on the rest of us.

 

[ColinJ]

A new Lidl store has just opened about a mile from my house. I don't drive so ALL of my local shopping trips are on foot or by bike.

I cycled over to check it out the day it opened and discovered that there is about 50% more car parking than the old store had. There is also a fast recharging station for electric vehicles. What there does NOT appear to be is ANY official provision for cyclists! I rode round all of the car parking bays and could not see anywhere set aside for bikes...

One trusting cyclist just leaned his bike against the wall and left it there while he shopped.

Another option would be to lock a bike to the handrail on the steps up from the pavement below the car park, but I bet people would rightly soon complain about that.

All of the lampposts for the car park lighting have large metal guard hoops either side of them to protect them from careless parkers. I discovered that my massive D-lock is JUST big enough to lock my bike to one of them, so that is what I will do until my forthcoming campaign for Lidl to fit bike stands is successful! (I'm going to start the campaign by emailing Lidl UK HQ with a photograph of the bike stands next to the entrance of the Morrisons store round the corner! )