Lune Valley

Kids off school.  My other half is working two days this week.  I want to be good, force them to spend time outdoors, do some real exercise (not just Wii Sports Resort).  Cycling seems a good option - but where?  We are not a confident lot, my youngest is still on stabilisers (I don't like to force them...).  We've done Tatton Park to death - I want something a bit more interesting.  After some research I decide to try a bit of the Lune Valley.  Lancaster - Caton, a short section of the Way of the Roses.

It was a great success.  Granted, the weather was fantastic, but the route was great too.  And Lancaster was easy - to drive into, to park, to find a toilet, coffee and ice cream afterwards.  I hope to do it again.  Perhaps do the whole Way of the Roses one day?

Into Spring

The shorts are out, even if a good tan is not.  The rainjacket begins to feel superfluous, even when it does rain.  Woolen socks and fleecy gloves are no longer necessary.  And yes, there are more cyclists about - on roads, on pavements too. Groups of kids on BMX, novices on mountain bikes - like I was, only 6 years back.  Lycra-clad types, old codgers on touring bikes, the lot.  Yes, the numbers are up, though i suspect it's only noticeable to cyclists, the total figures still a very small fraction of traffic, a marginal form of transport.

Auntie Beeb gets it right!

It isn't often that I find such a well balanced article on cycling coming from the BBC - so here's one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13040607?postId=108037642#comment_108037642

It links to the proposal by MP Andrea Leadsom to change the law so as to enable the tiny number of cyclists who kill people on the roads to be jailed for doing so.  Fair enough that they should be if found guilty - but the article does well to remind us that the proportion of cyclists causing death of injury is microscopic when compared with injuries and fatalities caused by motorists.

I’ll keep riding vows cyclist, 73, attacked by yob in car in Bolton | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

One can only applaud the determination of this man from Bolton, pushed off his bike by some unbelievably stupid pillock - or rather, group of, since it must have taken at least one to drive the car, the other to stick out of the window and push:

I’ll keep riding vows cyclist, 73, attacked by yob in car in Bolton | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

So, get well soon, ride again and may these rejects of nature be caught before the cause somebody else injury or worse.

This house acknowledges...

Early day motion 1393 is a breath of fresh air - let's hope it succeeds.  It proposes to put the onus on motorists to prove their innocence in the event of a collision with a cyclist or pedestrian - a helpful measure!

Compare that with the (successful) efforts by Andrea Leadsom MP to introduce 'tougher penalties for cyclists   who kill" - even though the numbers of such unfortunate events are microscopic.  I entirely sympathise with the plight of the parents of the victims of the so-called "cyclist" in this case, and fully agree this individual should have gone to jail for what he did.

Ms Leadsom assures us that there was no political point-scoring in this.  Ms Leadsom is an honourable person.  However, as reported in the press this can seem like one of those campaigns aimed at the soft target of cyclists and cycling - who cause so few fatal incidents but are also a "hard to hear" minority, a fringe group against whom this legislation is easy to introduce.

The fact is, when it comes to fatalities on the road, injustice is visited on cyclists just like on any other group of road users.  The idea that somehow the law treats motorists more harshly is nonsense.  It would be far more helpful for people like Andrea Leadsom to look at good and bad road users than to attack the problem piecemeal, concentrating on a particular mode of transport (usually cyclists) first.

Which takes me back to Early day motion 1393.  Ms Leadsom has not signed it - I'll request that she does: let's see what happens.

No, it's Manchester

No, it's Manchester II a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

I must get better at photos: this was supposed to show (a) what a nice day today was; (b) the contrast of the modern Manchester buildings in the background and the solitary mill in the middle.

I cycled to Ikea - 24m round trip. No, I didn't buy a flatpacked bed - or anything else for the matter. Just a cooked breakfast and coffee for £1.65. Not a bad journey but for the roadworks to make room for the tram, and the ludicrously car-centric cycle lanes leading to the Ikea roundabout - in the end, I joined the road to avoid stopping at every traffic light.

Pilsworth Rd, again

21 March 2011: the workmen are gone and the tarmac, I assume, is being left to dry or set?  A yellow sign announces the re-opening of the road for 27 March: a few more days to enjoy the peace and quiet on this normally busy road.

Pilsworth Rd

Pilsworth Rd is closed East of the M66.  This must be a real nuissance to hauliers and drivers who have to access Heywood Distribution Park.

It is however bliss to me, since it means that for a few weeks my favourite run is even better - at least for a mile or so I have a traffic free route with a great variety of surfaces.  Perfect for preparing to go touring again.

Alas, it will not last.



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And we thought it was bad here...

KSF 026
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Drivers vs. Cyclists clashes do not get much worse than this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12604066

Interesting to hear the driver 'felt threatened' - yet there were children and young people among the cyclists, which he indiscriminately drove over. Sheer luck prevented fatalities.

News, in brief

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Three recent cycling-related news pieces from the BBC website: 

- Crown Prosecution Service cock up again: lorry driver does not even stand trial over killing a cyclist:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12338526

- More cyclists are using helmet cameras to capture bad driving  - prompting the usual anti-cycling comments from regular BBC news site readers, together with predictable calls to do something about the plague of 'lunatic cyclists' and suggesting that perhaps pedestrian who suffer oh so much because of them, should carry cameras too - and of course, cyclists should be licensed and 'pay road tax' and all that turgid, predictable nonsense:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12334486

- More cyclists are dying on the roads - that's the BBC's take on the stats, although deep in the news item they do acknowledge CTC's crucial, crucial point:  there are more cyclists than before!  The real measure of risk would be the proportion of deaths to journeys made... but that wouldn't be news, so why report it?: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12356618

And this place our forefathers made for man!

Milton Keynes
Originally uploaded by alexliivet

Milton Keynes... I don't know. Un-British, car-centric 1960s monstrosity, where glass meets steel and modernism meets lack of taste.

Suburbia's own Jerusalem, all this I survey from a bus - long story, a job interview as it happens. I have been through MK before, but it was in a taxi which stuck to the periphery as soon as we left the train station. It is different from the bus, as it weaves its way in and out of neighbourhoods - and here's the link to cycling: beneath the car-centric surface, MK may well be more cycle-friendly than most large British towns and cities. For a start, more bikes I saw parked outside the railway station than I've seen anywhere else bar the rather a-typical Oxford. Certainly many more than in any Manchester station, by a long chalk.

Second, the town seems criss-crossed with segregated bike lanes - and by 'segregated' I mean really segregated, not council-speak for lip-servicing green paint on the verges of main roads. The place reminded me of parts of the Netherlands. The only caveat was that, in the whole journey I saw many more cycles parked than being ridden. Indeed the paths over green and gently rolling terrain looked like the ideal setting for a Silent Witness opening sequence - eerie, but with easy access for the productiont team.

There was once a chicken and an egg...

This article will not surprise anyone, but it's not cheerful stuff either. In essence, Boris' cycling scheme has all the traits of the Curate's egg. Fittingly, everyone seems too polite to say so.

It is in the latter half that the article addresses the real problems cycling faces in London, and indeed pretty much anywhere in the UK: fear and infrastructure. The Economist is realistic (or pessimistic) as it fails to dig out the underlying causes of these two barriers - rather, it seems to conclude, with some cynicism, that they cannot be solved. Poor Yorick!

http://www.economist.com/node/17860075?story_id=17860075

First of 2011

The snow, the ice, the travelling to see family, the food, the booze: all these things conspired to keep me off cycling for the last three weeks - which felt like an eternity.  So yesterday I cycled into town and got refreshingly drenched, Manchester back to its usual winter self, grey, wet and grim - none of bright, sunny and dry, if freezing, weather.  No snow and ice covering our streets.

It was a freezing Friday morning

Last Friday was the last 'bike Friday' of 2010.  Forgive the accumulation of 'Fridays' - this used to be called 'Critical Commute' and is supposed to be a demonstration of the effectiveness of cycling for practical purposes (the younger generation, I believe, stage on the same day their 'Critical Mass', a demonstration of the ability of young people to be self-conscious on two wheels too).

Let's face it, for a city the size of Manchester, Bike Friday is a fairly low key affair.  I used to be a regular, and numbers for the North Manchester lot (departing from Prestwich) hovered between 3 and 11 - with 5, I would say, being the more likely number.  Since I stopped working in the city centre (or anywhere else for the matter - for the time being) I had stopped joining this event, so I thought I'd come along this time, for old times' sake, because with it being so cold we are all feeling in the Xmas mood, and to support some sort of petition to the GMPTE which seemed to make this ride special - something to do with bikes being allowed on trams (tricky, I'd say - but visionary:  while trams may only carry 5% of public transport traffic at present, in 50 years I'm sure the network will have expanded enough to compete with buses).

Well, a good time was had by all.  I saw some friendly familiar faces and met some people I had wanted to meet but so far hadn't managed to, photos were taken in front of GMPTE's rather secluded offices opposite Piccadilly station, and - taking advantage of my current freedom - I even joined in the post-ride coffee in Piccadilly Gardens.  OK, waiting 15' or so for the photographer and the tame GMPTE notable to arrive (he confessed, his tram was delayed!) it was bloody freezing, and while I had a couple of fleeces to put on, I didn't want to spoil the yellow & reflective look of the group.  Then at the cafe (well, Pret-a-Mongrel, neither fish nor fowl when it comes to defining it) staff refused to close the door, quoting some company or building policy (never mind their customers turning blue) - still, it was warmer than outside, in the same way the fridge is warmer than the freezer. 

Will this 'campaigning' achieve anything?  It might - just to have a senior GMTPE official on board is a positive thing.  The trouble for me is, the people cycling needs 'on side' are Joe & Josephine Public, the people who give us dirty looks when they overtake us, having been delayed by 0.1 second because we had to negotiate a delivery van parked on a double yellow line going up a slope.  Congregating 40-odd cyclists in a public but almost invisible place one frosty November morning is unlikely to achieve this.

European style city cycling, attempt 1

I had an event to go to yesterday - something at Salford University.  Options were to fight the traffic and probable shortage of parking spaces, take the tram to Victoria then walk a mile, or do what would take me door to door most easily: to cycle.

I settled for the latter.  I thought I'd try to be more European - do away with the lycra and wear civy clothes, so as to arrive ready for the event.

The experiment was a qualified success.  I settled for a hybrid combination of casual cords, cycling shoes and tops, with a fleece to put on top on arrival so as not to get cold.  Mostly it worked fine, and I achieved the overall goal.  I found however that to cycle so slowly that I would not break a sweat was just not practical, so I picked up the pace and sweat I did, profusely.  Despite refreshing myself on arrival in the university gents, once in the meeting room I realised the idea of wearing a fleece was not good, at least at first, since I was still overheated and needed to cool down.

After the meeting and some lunch kindly provided by the friend through whom I heard of the event, I cycled to Prestwich on another errand.  My friend suggested I followed NCN Route 6 instead of going on the road.  I did try, but gave up after a couple of miles.  It wasn't that it was so lonely as such, but the errand was important, time was tight and, should I had had, say, a flat tyre, I would have needed a plan B, eg. access to public transport (leaving the bike behind).  On the isolated bike trail I would have had no such alternative.  And although in theory the path follows the river so getting lost should be impossible, in practice it crosses the rivers and briefly detours in and out of estates, and there I found the limited signposting the route required to be incomplete or confusing.

Will I try again?  Sure, yes.  But you will not see me cycling to a job interview wearing a suit.

Winter's back

Today, at least, felt like winter - though the official start of that season is not until the 20-something of December.    Out on my bike it felt really cold - the summer mitts gave way to fleece gloves, the layers got added and I wore a buff round my neck.


In a last attempt to resist the change of seasons I stuck to shorts this time - it was manageable, although my legs were rash-red by the time I got home.  And despite the woollen socks my toes were pretty numb by then.


At least it was very dry and sunny.  I hope I can keep my resolve when the truly wet and dark days of early January make staying at home or going to the gym a tempting possibility.

The river glideth at his own sweet will

papaOct10 117
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday. We both have been to London in the last two weeks. We both have noticed the new Londo n... sorry: Barclay's cycle hire scheme. They are everywhere. They look great. My friend was there during the tube strike - so the bikes were flying off the racks, so to speak.

We both also noted that many users of this scheme don't seem, well, that at home with cycling in a busy city.  Or maybe the city is not at home with them - the latter, I think, is the underlaying problem, and it applies to the whole of the UK, but nowhere more so than in London, where cycling has exploded thanks to congestion charging and the fact that it is probably the country's most compact city (ie. people actually live in it, and do so in high density).

This isn't just a "cyclists vs. rest of the city" problem.  The mistrust and misunderstanding between different groups of road users is total - pedestrians, motorists and cyclists all have grievances against the other groups and against the state.  Just try crossing the road from Euston station on foot - it takes ages, mainly because the traffic system is designed to keep motorists going.  But motorists will then complain that pedestrians jump the lights anyway.  And cyclists... well, they'll complain about that too, when a driver isn't cutting them off, or they are not cycling counterflow - a neat idea which some people back, but while it remains illegal can be inconvenient - ask a pedestrian who nearly got run over because he or she wasn't looking that way, since it was a one way street!).

So, my message to Boris is this: cycle hire schemes are great, but you have to do better than that.  And where London goes, the rest of the UK may follow.

This house notes...

Cool and normal, baby

My RSS feed from the Hansard has just brought to my attention an early day motion that notes "with dismay" that, when refurbishing Birmingham New Street, they have only catered for a handful of bikes, while in Amsterdam they do it for thousands.

I have no idea of what an "early day motion" is, but I suspect it means "a weeny-teeny idea that may never go anywhere".  

On another front, the Guardian yesterday quotes as-yet-unpublished research (by the Univ. of the West of England) that says that people, on the whole, like cyclists.  Or at least, don't mind them.  The actual headline goes "Cyclists! The public thinks you're cool and normal".   Yes, just like labradoodles, but not as hairy.  I reckon the research must have been limited in its goals or hypothesis.  The real issue is one of value.  To put it bluntly, the interesting research question would be how much of a scarce resource (eg. road space) are people prepared to share with those who cycle.  This lies at the heart of both behaviour (what motorists are prepared to do when they see a cyclist) and policy choices (what politicians believe the public to want or to be willing to tolerate regarding cycling).

What is a cyclist, Part III

021
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

CTC publish a summary of research by market intelligence company MINTEL - there seems to be no punchy headline, as the situation is a bit mixed and there is no real change.  OK, for MINTEL customers - those who sell us the bikes - small percentage shifts in bikes bought and kinds preferred will be important, as will the data that enable them to 'segment' the market (by age, gender, supermarket of choice - seems to be Waitrose, though I for one have never been there!).

The overall picture, however, is that cycling in the UK remains marginal, a sideshow, and that - Meester Hembrow, brace yourself - "39% of all adults think “It is too dangerous to ride a bicycle on the road”, rising to almost 50% among those with a household income of under £25,000".

It is also interesting (to me, anyway) that the "main motivation for cycling, or being interested in cycling, is fitness (41%)".  Great for those trading in lycra, but it pigeon-holes cycling into 'leisure' and leisure is something politicians can always pay lip service to without much harm - do up the local playground, photo; organise a marathon, photo; put  some green paint next to the kerb, photo - of a cycle lane, no less.  You know the kind - the one that runs 200yds then says "cyclists dismount".

See also:  http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=479870&set_access_filter=unl-ZDE&about=full

Skyride 2010

Jul09b 016
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

This morning I lined up the 'fleet' to inspect and prep up for this Sunday's 2010 Manchester Skyride - it is 'go' for us as all units were serviceable, save some topping up of tyres and adjusting of saddles. Which sadly shows we should cycle more as a family.

The reason we don't - and why we like Skyride so much - is that, while I'm confident riding in the Manchester traffic alone, I'm not when it comes to taking kids on the street. I've stopped feeling guilty about it. Even in the quiet-ish streets away from the main roads around us, there is always a speeding eejit, perhaps lighting up a fag or texting - why not?.

And while I'm an 'all weather' cyclist, my family are not. Yes, in the Netherlands everyone cycles in all weathers and I admire them for it. But meanwhile, back in Blighty, I have only this family and I have to live with them. So, Skyride here we go - I hope that the fun of that one day helps us instill the joy of cycling until the time when it becomes self-sustaining. Or perhaps I should do more.