tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-568852931152106119.post604055193470614959..comments2024-03-17T18:53:05.139-07:00Comments on CycaLogical: Congestion - An Appealcrossriderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00896858165635612158noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-568852931152106119.post-24776546863553391122012-05-14T08:55:16.817-07:002012-05-14T08:55:16.817-07:00day time car congestion is almost entirely due to ...day time car congestion is almost entirely due to traffic light phasing… bizarre given the stress on "smoothing the flow" if you're on a bike you will find massive sections of empty road until a jam of cars come speeding past to wait at the next red light, filter through and repeat to next red light… anyway shepards bush to putney is bad at the best of times, it is awful now because of the hammersmith flyover being closed offDavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273859403782738268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-568852931152106119.post-1920081715443568782012-05-14T06:16:58.891-07:002012-05-14T06:16:58.891-07:00Boris IS a keen cyclist – that is a fact which I d...Boris IS a keen cyclist – that is a fact which I don’t think can be disputed. It is not like “Dave” who put on a show at the advice of his strategy guru Steve Hilton, to make him look more blokeish before the last election – we all know that he really prefers to ride met police horses. Boris has a reputation among his colleagues and staff for cycling to meetings a fair proportion of the time. He is also by all accounts not a particularly fast cyclist, but he is evidently a fairly fearless one!<br /><br />But in a way that is the point. There are two factors which explain his attitude to cycle infrastructure. One is his libertarian right-wing tory outlook, which says that everyone should have freedom of choice to travel as they wish – bike, car, bus, train or foot. I don’t know whether conservative politicians just don’t see, or wilfully ignore the fact that freedom is not indivisible, “choice” is often not a choice at all – a lion has the choice to eat a wildebeest, but a wildebeest doesn’t really have the choice of not being eaten by a lion. A school can choose pupils but pupils and their parents don’t really have a choice of schools. A motorist can choose whether to bully or intimidate a cyclist or pedestrian, but the cyclist doesn’t have a choice about being intimidated apart from not cycling.<br /><br />The other is a much more widespread malaise, shared by people of all political persuasions and none, and notably expressed in some cycling organisations’ approach to cycle infrastructure, which to be cynical can be summed up in the words from the old Peter Sellers film “I’m all right, Jack”. It is quite simply that many, though not all, current cyclists have overcome any fear they may have experienced in the beginning, and may well take a rational view that cycling is not really all that dangerous, compared with base-jumping or potholing or even horse-riding, so have got comfortable with conditions as they are. If you are comfortable with the status quo, you wouldn’t particularly want to change it, indeed you might fear that change in case it constrains your own choices, eg a cycle path leading to banning from the road.<br /><br />That general inertia/complacency, selfishness, even, needs to be overcome or circumvented to make the point that not everyone thinks that way, and those who don’t could have a material impact on our street scene by converting to cycling instead of driving.<br /><br />But we can’t confine this argument to cycling. Pedestrians have also been badly affected by Boris policies on smoothing traffic flow, and bus passengers may be affected as well. Secondary impacts, for example refusing to close off rat-runs, impose lower speed limits, prosecute offenders, etc because that might reduce traffic smoothness, affect other categories of people: residents; children, for whom personal freedom of movement is represented by the bicycle; parents who would like their children to be able to play outside on the streets, etc. Cycling bodies need to build broader alliances into a more general tame-the-streets movement. The Dutch built their campaign around the “Stop de kindermoort” movement, which I am sure was more to do with taming the car in general, than with cycling in particular. We need to build more of a sense of outrage about the damage done by some of us as motorists to all of us (including those some) as non-motorists. Perhaps even the Daily Mail could subscribe to that notion.Paul Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07929808238663838155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-568852931152106119.post-86305039045124593712012-05-14T01:47:51.275-07:002012-05-14T01:47:51.275-07:00Isn't it weird how Boris wants to build a mass...Isn't it weird how Boris wants to build a massive 4 runway airport in the Thames estuary, justifying it by claiming he doesn't want London to miss out on being a transport hub (not to mention draw a sh!t-ton of extra CO2, but when has that concerned him?) to it's European competitors but he'll happily sit back whilst our cycling infrastructure is somewhere in the dark ages?<br /><br />This coming from a supposed "keen" cyclist!<br />I class myself as a keen cyclist, I can also harp on about how great it is and how it's a much quicker way to get around town whilst avoiding the ever increasing fares on public transport. I can try and get my friends and colleagues on their bikes but they'll invariably refuse as they say it's too dangerous.<br />The difference between me and Boris though is that he's in a position where he could actually make a HUGE difference. He chooses not to, which I find incredibly sad.Mark Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03687296045166324440noreply@blogger.com