Cycle Maps … Thanks But No Thanks

The recently announced cycle map of Beverley and the surrounding area has been paid out of funding the East Riding (i.e. our not very) Integrated Local Transport Plan.

Thanks … but no thanks. We don't need cycle maps of routes that the majority of people don’t use because they wouldn't feel safe cycling on them.

We need high quality cycle infrastructure so that people who want to ride a bicycle aren't forced to ride on busy streets and roads congested with heavy or fast moving traffic, or in cycle lanes that mean nothing because they are blocked or dominated by cars and lorries; or “ on shared use” cycle paths that can cause conflict between the people walking and cycling on them because they are not wide enough for both, and aren't convenient to get to the  places the people who would otherwise cycle on them would want to go to. We need segregated cycle lanes and paths where our kids and other people riding bicycles are segregated from car bumpers and lorry wheels.

Our towns and cities need cycle lanes and cycle paths where kids (and their parents) , and people of all ages, feel safe and want to cycle on. Cycle lanes and paths that are convenient for the people using them to get to work, go shopping, to see family and friends, and the million other things we want to get around for. Cycle lanes and paths so that people can live and work in towns and cities that aren't congested with motor traffic and choked with fumes. Where people can walk and cycle without the fear of being knocked off, and can live and work, and cross the road without fear of being run over.

This isn't anti-cars or about just “getting more cycle paths for cyclists.” High quality cycling infrastructure isn't just better for people riding bicycles. In towns and cites where they have they have been introduced it has been shown to be more beneficial for local economies and communities (i.e. better quality environments to live in and work in, and more sustainable local economies), than where motor traffic is dominant. They can even make roads better for motorists …

Cycle lanes and paths that people want to ride in and help make our towns and communities more pleasant places to live and work in. We don't just need roads and maps for cyclists wearing lycra to try to emulate Bradley Wiggins, but cycle lanes and cycle paths where our children and all ordinary, everyday people, can feel safe doing something “as simple as riding a bike”. Give people the option of using high quality segregated cycle lanes and paths to get around on, they will want to use them. That will be better for everyone.

 

 

Thought For The Day …

I have just been re-reading Ken MacMahon's excellent little book “Beverley” in the Old Towns and Cities series.

“In 1965 the Council for British Archaeology considered that Beverley was one of the forty British towns “so splendid and precious that the ultimate responsibility for them should be a national concern”. Despite the town's proximity to much-blitzed Hull, the Hitler war left Beverley virtually unscathed but the increasing volume of road traffic, without the taking of speedy measures to counter its worst effects, may well do in a decade what the wear of centuries has failed to bring about. It has been said officially, as far as Beverley is concerned, that the needs of traffic must take priority over history and that “History … cannot rate very high in the list of priorities”.”

Quote from Ken MacMahon's Beverley. Dalesman Books 1973.

How things haven’t changed. To “history” I would add people, community, quality of life, to the list of things that “..cannot rate very high in the list of priorities” that “the needs of traffic must take priority over” as far as our politicians are concerned.

These Are Real Bikes!

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Sheldon Brown

I think this says it all. Except they're more comfortable than any other type of bike I've ridden. Oh! and they're a lot of fun too ...