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Thursday, January 06, 2011
Vehicular cycling
I found it amusing to be recently described on another blog as a "a vehicular cycling campaigner,(who) has become desensitised both to perceptions of danger and to infrastructure and road conditions which are threatening and potentially lethal." I found that a comforting thought as I inched my way down Eccie Rd this morning, scared stiff of wet roads, black ice and motorists who were likely to pull into my path without looking at any point.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Crap Cycling in Waltham Forest
Crap Cycling (CCWF) of Waltham Forest has decided to have a go at me - see
http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/2010/12/cycle-alienation.html
CCWF doesn't allow comments on his blog, so it is not possible to correct any of the misrepresentations of other people's views (of which there are innumerable) so I'm making a few comments here. Firstly I have a great deal of respect for the views of other bloggers such as Chris( sevenleagueboots) as I hope they do for mine. It's faintly ironic that CCWF attacks me as a proponent of vehicular cycling, when actually I am a big fan of Sustrans and other off-road routes as long as they are properly designed. I just think the bicycle is an amazingly flexible vehicle and can be used on and off-road according to the preference of the rider. With regard to his comments about Sheffield being a failed cycling city, we have actually seen cycling increase by 85% over ten years, one of the highest growth rates in the country. We are not complacent about this however, and want to see cycling increase further.
Segregation works in some continental countries, but is part of other measures that create a cycle-friendly environment - Cyclenation has listed these here. We have suggested that CCWF comes to a cyclenation conference to discuss his views in an open forum and eagerly await his response. Also with respect to CCWF's suggestion that we should hold a conference in a continental location - most of our groups have difficulty sending a delegate to a conference in the UK if it's a long way away, which is why we are planning regional conferences in 2011. We do send delegates to the velo-city conferences though - the 2010 one was in Copenhagen and the 2011 one is in Seville.
http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/2010/12/cycle-alienation.html
CCWF doesn't allow comments on his blog, so it is not possible to correct any of the misrepresentations of other people's views (of which there are innumerable) so I'm making a few comments here. Firstly I have a great deal of respect for the views of other bloggers such as Chris( sevenleagueboots) as I hope they do for mine. It's faintly ironic that CCWF attacks me as a proponent of vehicular cycling, when actually I am a big fan of Sustrans and other off-road routes as long as they are properly designed. I just think the bicycle is an amazingly flexible vehicle and can be used on and off-road according to the preference of the rider. With regard to his comments about Sheffield being a failed cycling city, we have actually seen cycling increase by 85% over ten years, one of the highest growth rates in the country. We are not complacent about this however, and want to see cycling increase further.
Segregation works in some continental countries, but is part of other measures that create a cycle-friendly environment - Cyclenation has listed these here. We have suggested that CCWF comes to a cyclenation conference to discuss his views in an open forum and eagerly await his response. Also with respect to CCWF's suggestion that we should hold a conference in a continental location - most of our groups have difficulty sending a delegate to a conference in the UK if it's a long way away, which is why we are planning regional conferences in 2011. We do send delegates to the velo-city conferences though - the 2010 one was in Copenhagen and the 2011 one is in Seville.
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