Notes from Swindon – home of the Magic Roundabout
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Earlier today I tweeted as follows:
And…it turns out, several people were intrigued. So I ought to explain myself in full.
Tags: advice, breastfeeding, classes, counsellors, cycle, local, mentors, nct
Not a great photo but it documents Sunday.
A few years ago I went to watch loads of friends run the Swindon Half Marathon. The next year I heard that they had cycle marshals that patrol the route between static marshalling points. I figured that, if I was going to stand and watch, I may as well do something useful.
The half marathon is now one of the highlights of my year. A fantastic day out, well organised, and with a great spirit!
If you’re in Swindon, why not volunteer?
Tags: Half-marathon, marshall, volunteering
A funny and trivial photo today. This isn’t about composition, lighting, effects, or depth of field. It’s all about taking coffee on your bike!
We went, with trepidation, to the National Childbirth Trust ‘nearly new’ sale today. I suggested not taking the car as parking would be a nightmare and it’s easy cycling and walking distance. I was hugely proud that my 32-week pregnant and very lovely wife agreed to walk. I took the bike in case we bought something big…I could dash home and pick up wife and shopping without having to park.
Why the coffee? Well, we were told that queuing was a large part of the event.
That my travel mug fits my bottle cage was serendipity of the finest kind!
So following on from the West Swindon Forum Posts, I’d like to get down to the real business of why I was there: The Local Sustainable Transport Fund Projects.
Tags: council, Cycling, fund, local, plan, sustainable, swift, Swindon, transport, travel
This is a brief addition to my West Swindon Forum thoughts.
There was so much talk of problems caused by cars:
I had a little jolly to London on Monday and, for once, I found myself with enough time to try out a Boris Bike. I’m sure a thousand and one people have written about Boris Bike experiences, but I think I have some useful insight after my first go on London’s newest mode of public transport, so I’m going to share anyway.
Tags: boris-bikes, cycle-hire, london
I’m being kept awake and was catching up on Facebook when I read this ridiculous article:
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9201293.___Cycle_on_the_roads_or_else/
The Facebook post asked for comments. I wrote this in response:
SO many things wrong with the comments from the police.
First of all I’m totally with Andy, cyclists should obey the law. There’s no excuse for illegally cycling on the pavement and scaring pedestrians. BUT…
We might want to ask WHY cyclists feel a need to do this. Is it because Cricklade Road is narrow and congested, but also a key link in the cycle routes from Stratton into town? Punishing cyclists is all well and good but what’s being done to make cycling on the roads safer? Are there plans to put an alternative cycle route in? Or to make a decent amount of space on Cricklade Road for cyclists?
We may also want to consider road safety again. The article says there have been no accidents involving bikes. The other day I read this:
“In Swindon between summer 2008 and summer 2011, 2,322 cars were in accidents resulting in 10 fatalities and 186 serious injuries.”
We might like to consider if it’s a good use of police time cracking down on the non-existent threat of cyclists and spending some time pulling over some of the shockingly bad motorists who pose a real threat to everyone. People who use mobiles while driving; people who speed; perhaps the guy who overtook me on Croft Road because I’d slowed down to give a cyclist room.
Finally get get the police to stop putting the burden of road safety on to vulnerable users. It’s all well and good telling cyclists to wear helmets and hi-viz (which MIGHT protect you somewhat in a collision with a vehicle), but who’s telling motorists to look out for cyclists, to give cyclists room, to drive carefully in residential areas.
Like so many articles about cycling, this one is ALL backwards, it both blames cyclists for being a threat and tells them that they’re vulnerable and need to protect themselves using every measure available.
Cycling is a safe, healthy, efficient and clean mode of transport. If you really want safer streets go tackle the real issue of motoring, and make cycling as easy as possible.
James Cracknell has created a video in which he makes a passionate plea for people to wear cycle helmets. But is the helmet-wearing issue as simple as he makes it out to be?
As a bit of a lurker in social media’s cycle campaigning circles, I’m aware that the case for helmet safety isn’t complete, and I’ve wanted to try and counter tweets and inform people sharing the video that there’s more to it than meets the eye.
While my thoughts are far from complete on the matter, I’ve just posted this as a comment on the blog of an acquaintance of mine…I thought it was worth re-posting here.
I will try to be brief1.
Today was the closing date for the consultation on Swindon’s Local Transport Plan 3 – I must correct my previously calling it the local “travel” plan, this is incorrect. I’ve written about this plan before here and, more recently, here.
I started to read the full LTP3 documentation a few weeks back but gave up as it’s a very long document and not particularly interesting reading – even for a budding local transport bore like me! But today, in order to put some kind of response together, I read the consultation paper (hopefully still online here) to get an overview – this is a much more readable document of just 6 pages that sums things up nicely.
I know that I am…I really really am turning into a transport nerd, but I DID reply and I wanted to say a little here about what I said. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: buses, Cycling, local, LTP3, Swindon, transport, travel, walking
