Joe D » crap cycleways

AWWTM: Ceci n’est pas une piste de bicyclette

Joe — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:45:43 +0000

Sorry, I failed to post much because I’ve been on the road. And sometimes the Sustrans paths.

This is a forestry track, NCN 68, Kielder Forest, Northumberland.

I hesitate to criticise Sustrans because I know that they are good people, with an excellent idea — the National Cycle Network — and because they make delightful cycle routes when they are given sufficient money to do so. I don’t want to harm Sustrans, I want them to do more, and I want them to be able to do it properly, with proper funding.

But this isn’t helping:

Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…

AWWTM: Fast, direct, uninterrupted and comprehensive

Joe — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 23:37:50 +0000

Boris Johnson thinks that he can solve all of the barriers to cycling just by splashing some paint on one or two roads. As anybody who does not cycle could tell him, what is needed if we are to achieve mass cycling is infrastructure that is complete, conspicuously safe, enjoyable to use and which makes bicycle users fell welcome. Here is a satire on the mayor’s paint job.

AWWTM: Cycle superhighways: are they a joke?

Joe — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:21:50 +0000

That’s the most common question asked by people who responded to the GLA survey of London cyclists. Looking into the raw data I find out just how little the cycle superhighways have achieved, and the one thing that London cyclists say over and over again makes them such a joke: the fact that they’re full of cars. Read it here.

AWWTM: London: still not impressed with superhighways

Joe — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:14:48 +0000

Way back at the start of October we mentioned that the London Authority’s transport committee were seeking your views on the hire bikes and the two trial cycle superhighways. The results are in, and we must have had a massive influence because the results seem to match what we were saying. It is of course possible that everybody else independently came to same conclusions as us, but we prefer to think that it was AWWTM what won it.

Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…

AWWTM: If you build it they will come

Joe — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:13:36 +0000

On the London Cyclist thread “is there anything super about the Cycle Superhighways?,” we hear Chinese whispers on the reason why TfL decided against making real superhighways and instead came up with the overpriced and failed PR exercise that are the blue lines on the side of the road:

“TfL said the routes are simply not being used frequently enough to warrant separation of traffic.”

and,

Boris, when asked why the Superhighways are not segregated, always says “There is just not room on London’s roads”.

Whether Boris used one or both of these excuses, he is wrong. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist to find out why.

AWWTM: Crap cycling and walking in Beijing

Joe — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:11:59 +0000

Over at At War With The Motorist, I look at another of the obvious ill-effects of Beijing’s burgeoning car dependency — the plague of badly parked cars filling the pavements and cycle paths. You can read it here.

Also, try out our China traffic quiz: what’s wrong with this picture?

AWWTM: Catch up with recent posts

Joe — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:30:36 +0000

Last week, a quick dig at crap websites trying to promote discounts for the Rube Goldberg railfares system.

And a review of a crap cycle path through Southwark Park.

And from the weekend, an exclusive exposure of the leftist conspiracy behind the War On The Motorist, at Tolpuddle Festival in Dorset.

At War With The Motorist: Superhighways

Joe — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:45:53 +0000

On At War With The Motorist, a short review of the London “cycle superhighways”, after a quick go on “CS3″. They’re exactly what you’d expect from the sort of “super” infrastructure that can be installed for pennies within a couple of months of being announced: pointless. Read it here.