I would just like to add to my blog post, I am not entirely against Vehicular Cycling.
It is a good mechanism for coping with the conditions we are faced with.
But it is not a panacea.
It has not enabled the mass uptake of cycling.
It works for those people confident and dare I say, brave enough to share the road with motorised traffic.
But it shouldn't get in the way of demanding better.
Like car manufacturers shouldn't give up trying to make cars safer still, even though some clever so and so invented seat belts or air bags.
It has its place in helping the 2% who use our roads do so more safely. But this is not enough.
We shouldn't be asking people like me (or probably you) what we need to do to get people out on the road. We should be asking the 98% who aren't out there cycling.
If Vehicular Cycling was the solution, then in Trafford where I reside you wouldn't be able to move around secondary schools for the amount of bikes. All year 6 pupils before they leave primary, get Bikeability training. So why aren't they continuing to cycle?
Probably the same reasons friends of mine who are confident capable club cyclists gave.
Tuesday 26 February 2013
Monday 25 February 2013
Chris Thingy and the VC Mob
I thought it sounded like the title of a band or an album
Warning: This blog post requires a small pinch of salt
So a few days ago, this Chris Thingy bloke posts a video. You know, these bloody ninja cyclists that go everywhere with a camera strapped to their heads. Militant bunch they are. They go looking for trouble.
Well based on a few things my new bestest mate Maggie Richardson had to say, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell Chris Thingy that he is a shit cyclist.
I don't care who he thinks he is the jumped up flaming leftie.
Now, where do I start? According to my new mate Maggie, anyone who talks about cycle lanes is clearly a crap cyclist. I don't know who this guy is but I have to agree with her. Look at his positioning on the road. not once does he take the lane. And then like so many dreadful cyclists hopping on and off the pavement. you'd never see anyone from the CTC or British Cycling doing that.
There would be no need for a cycle path next to this roundabout if this Chris Thingy cycled according to the laws of Vehicular Cycling! What he should have done was position himself in the middle of the road and taken the lane, then proceeded to carry on as if he were a car across the roundabout. SIMPLE!
And without the need for any of this cycle lane nonsense.
BUT....
The problem is, he is only small compared to those large cars and even smaller still to a HGV driver.
Most collisions where cyclists are involved take place at junctions, where drivers simply do not see them. We can talk until the cows come home (which will be a long time as I do not own any cows) about better training for drivers, but the basic biology is that our eyesight has not evolved enough to see everything we 'think' we are seeing. Our eyesight is made up of where we are looking now and peripheral vision. When we scan a junction we do not look at each individual point we look back and forth and the scanned image is mainly made up of fuzzy peripheral shots and put together by our brain.
No amount of training is going to force us to evolve quicker.
Would you let your child cycle around this roundabout?
This has to be the litmus test for anywhere we expect people to use a bike.
Oh and Chris Thingy happens to be one of the best cyclists this country has ever produced.
PS I am not longer in touch with Maggie. ;-)
Warning: This blog post requires a small pinch of salt
So a few days ago, this Chris Thingy bloke posts a video. You know, these bloody ninja cyclists that go everywhere with a camera strapped to their heads. Militant bunch they are. They go looking for trouble.
Well based on a few things my new bestest mate Maggie Richardson had to say, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell Chris Thingy that he is a shit cyclist.
I don't care who he thinks he is the jumped up flaming leftie.
A short journey from British Cycling on Vimeo.
Now, where do I start? According to my new mate Maggie, anyone who talks about cycle lanes is clearly a crap cyclist. I don't know who this guy is but I have to agree with her. Look at his positioning on the road. not once does he take the lane. And then like so many dreadful cyclists hopping on and off the pavement. you'd never see anyone from the CTC or British Cycling doing that.
There would be no need for a cycle path next to this roundabout if this Chris Thingy cycled according to the laws of Vehicular Cycling! What he should have done was position himself in the middle of the road and taken the lane, then proceeded to carry on as if he were a car across the roundabout. SIMPLE!
And without the need for any of this cycle lane nonsense.
BUT....
The problem is, he is only small compared to those large cars and even smaller still to a HGV driver.
Most collisions where cyclists are involved take place at junctions, where drivers simply do not see them. We can talk until the cows come home (which will be a long time as I do not own any cows) about better training for drivers, but the basic biology is that our eyesight has not evolved enough to see everything we 'think' we are seeing. Our eyesight is made up of where we are looking now and peripheral vision. When we scan a junction we do not look at each individual point we look back and forth and the scanned image is mainly made up of fuzzy peripheral shots and put together by our brain.
No amount of training is going to force us to evolve quicker.
Would you let your child cycle around this roundabout?
This has to be the litmus test for anywhere we expect people to use a bike.
Oh and Chris Thingy happens to be one of the best cyclists this country has ever produced.
PS I am not longer in touch with Maggie. ;-)
Thursday 7 February 2013
Dear Highstreet,
Dear Highstreet,
I read recently that the boss of Tesco has said a few mean
things about you, like calling you medieval. But my mum always taught me not to
call people names.
Actually that’s not
true.
She was a Scouser with a vicious tongue and wit to match, so if she’d
have thought it was funny, you’d have been called much worse than medival.
I wanted to give you my humble opinion.
I am not as important as the big boss of Tesco, but I hope
you will take the time to listen to the people you are calling on in your
valiant campaign to get people to #shoplocal.
You are probably quite intelligent and have realised that I
cycle a bit. The clue, after all is in
the blog title. But I also drive. I used to drive in the T.A. and have a love
of Landrovers and big trucks. Now I
drive two (albeit not at the same time) 4x4’s.
Often I have to ‘fire up the Quattro’ just to nip to the
shops.
When I get there it’s a flipping pain in the arse. Finding somewhere to park, often having to
get change for the parking. And the
Quattro is ruddy enormous, I often drive round and round trying to find a big
enough space.
To be honest, once I am in the car, I may as well go
somewhere that is free to park and has a big multi-storey carpark.
Does this sound like somewhere familiar? You see, the moment I utter the words ‘FIREUP THE QUATTRO!’ you have lost me.
The
money it will cost me in petrol, insurance, parking, etc etc I may as well go a
bit further afield and get a few more things.
Shopping that I know will probably go off and be thrown away before I
eat it, but hey, I was there, it was on special offer……..
As for clothes shopping….I mean… you've seen the Trafford
Centre right? And if my kids wanted to
spend the day shopping, would I let them go on the bus into town? Hell no! I
would escort them directly to the door of <insert local indoor massive
shopping mall> and arrange to pick them up later. They are dry, safe, etc
etc.
But I don’t want to do that.
I want to go to my local Butcher and buy tonight’s tea. Not
£150 of over manufactured crap. I want a steak, or some sausages. I want to go
to a proper Greengrocer for the veg. I
would like to go on my bike, not have to worry about parking or change. I just
want a nice trip to the local shops.
I would like it to be a nice place to go. I don’t want to
have to cross roads and negotiate busy junctions. A town centre choked to death
by cars is not a pleasant place to be (there aren't any cars in the Trafford
Centre right? Well OK one, but that’s a Bond car and it’s not going to run my
kids over)
Don’t believe me huh? Mad Manc Bike Mummy you’re thinking?
In the voice of Through the Keyholes Loyd
Grossman "Lets look at the evidence".
A study by the New York City Department of Transportation
found that small businesses near protected bike lanes installed in 2007 saw
sales grow much more sharply than the borough average. Another study by
Portland State University found that people in Portland who drove to local
businesses spent more money per visit than bicyclists, but cyclists visited the
same businesses more often and spent more overall.
ok yep *nods*
A study by the Frontier Group think tank last year found that
annual miles travelled by car among 16- to 34-year-olds dropped 23% from 2001 to
2009.
It also found that people in that age group took 24% more bike trips in
the same period. A 2011 study by researchers at the University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute found that the percentage of young drivers
with licenses is declining.
So young people aren't driving as much. So they must then chose to live somewhere that makes non car ownership easier.
"I
think a lot of cities have found that bike infrastructure helps you keep your
highly educated young people in the city after they graduate."
Keeping highly educated people. That sounds like a good plan. They've got dosh right?
But you
still want to focus on more parking and cheaper parking do you??? OK we can continue……
Jobs.
Who doesn't want to create more jobs?
Overall we find that bicycling infrastructure creates the
most jobs for a given level of spending: For each $1 million, the cycling
projects in this study create a total of 11.4 jobs within the state where the
project is located.
Pedestrian-only projects create an average of about 10 jobs
per $1 million and multi-use trails create nearly as many, at 9.6 jobs per $1
million.
Infrastructure that combines road construction with pedestrian and
bicycle facilities creates slightly fewer jobs for the same amount of spending,
and road-only projects create the least, with a total of 7.8 jobs per $1
million.
On average, the 58 projects we studied create about 9 jobs per $1
million within their own states. University of Massachusetts
Create more jobs, shop
local! They go hand in hand!
Evidence shows that for
every £10 spent in an independent shop £25 is generated for the local economy
compared to £14 spent in multinationals.
Getting to local shops
easily is especially important for elderly, vulnerable and those without
transport. Keeping your shops open by buying locally helps the whole community.
This is my favourite one so far…..
Research in
Leicester has found that as motorised traffic flow increases so does the
proportion of vacant shops along that particular street.
“Leicester Environment City
Trust, 1993 Streets, traffic and trade: A survey of vacant shops sites in
Leicester City Centre. Leicester: Leicester Environment City Trust.”
Yet here is Mary Portas
completely ignoring the evidence and saying the opposite.
“changing planning rules to allow councils to
provide more parking spaces in town centres so they can compete with
out-of-town supermarkets”
She goes on to say about her project “ensuring its sustainability". How do you do that if you are increasing the use of cars?
Still
unsure?
How about a good old fashioned case study? Everyone likes a case study.
Valencia Street, Mission District, San Francisco
Traffic lanes in this street
were slimmed to slow down cars and accommodate other users. Merchants reported
that street changes enhanced the area. Nearly 40 per cent of merchants reported
increased sales, and 60 per cent reported more area residents shopping locally
due to reduced travel time and convenience.
Overall, two-thirds of respondents
described how the increased levels of pedestrian and cycling activity and other
street changes improved business and sales. A network of complete streets
appears to be more safe and appealing to residents and visitors, which is also
good for retail and commercial development.
Source: http://www.completestreets.org
What's even better, they close some of the roads for a couple of Sundays in the Year.
If you wouldn't want this happening outside your shop, restaurant or bar, on a Sunday, maybe retail isn't for you!
What a wonderful sense of community, but Hightstreet you probably don't care about that, just look at the HUGE FOOTFALL!
I shall continue.....
A German study showed that:
·
Motorists
are not better customers than cyclists, pedestrians, or public transport users.
·
Because
they buy smaller quantities, cyclists shop more frequently (11 times a month on
average, as opposed to seven times a month for motorists).
·
Approximately
75 per cent of motorists purchase two or less bags of goods, and so could carry
their goods by foot or bicycle.
·
Most
shopping trips involve distances that could be walked or cycled
MORE MORE!!!
Give us more case studies!
Changing car parking to bicycle
parking in Lygon Street, Melbourne, Australia
Lygon Street,
Carlton, is a popular cycling route near Melbourne University. It is a mixed
use mainstreet – groceries, cinema, comparison goods, cafes, etc.
It has few
bicycle parking spaces. Surveys have
shown that the average cyclist’s expenditure is 73 per cent of a car user’s,
but space required to park a bike is only 12 per cent of the space required to
park a car. Cyclists spend more on comparison goods, such as clothing and
eating out, and less on groceries/cinema per visit.
In Lygon
Street:
• Each m² of space allocated to cars
generates $6 per hour.
• Each m² of space allocated to
bicycles generates $31 per hour.
Put another
way, the researcher estimated that:
• 1 car space produced $27/hr retail
spend, but
• 6 bike spaces replacing the car
space would produce $97/hr in retail spend.
The report
concludes that incrementally replacing car parking with bike parking would
therefore make economic sense
So, to cut to
the chase my lovely dear highstreet, we all want you to survive and do
well.
You make where we live individual
and a nice place to be. I don’t want to
live in A.N Other copycat town. I want you to be special.
We should be joining forces. The people asking for better cycling provision and the #shoplocal brigade. WE ARE ON THE SAME SIDE!
We should be joining forces. The people asking for better cycling provision and the #shoplocal brigade. WE ARE ON THE SAME SIDE!
But it’s a two way street.
You must listen and evolve.
You must listen and evolve.
You must stop competing for more motorised
traffic.
Because therein lies your ruin.
Some references and just good old bedtime reading
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