There was a bit of a monkey fight over the nascent Cycling Embassy of Great Britain recently thanks to an article by Carlton Reid on Road.cc (since rebutted by Jim). Given that the organisation in question has only had a preliminary meeting and has not even launched yet, I don’t […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in november 2007. The main driving force for creationists is not science, but ethics. Their trump card is that “evolution is immoral”: they cite “might makes right” and eugenics, quote Darwin’s supposedly racist terminology in The Origin and Voyage, […]
I’ve been working on organising monthly pub gatherings for people who are interested in the past, present and most importantly, future of London’s transport, streets, built environment and public spaces. It’s basically a rip-off of the Skeptics In The Pub format for cycling and street design nerds. The first one […]
A young smartly dressed woman gets on, concentrating on her phone call. The bus pulls out before she has time to mount the stairs, and the motion throws her to the side, her bag swinging and bashing the passenger behind her. Fifty. Nine. To. Streatham Hill. She climbs slowly, letting […]
This is another archival repost originally written for my old blog a few years ago. I caught the last couple of minutes of Extreme Pilgrim (BBC 2, Friday 9pm) and was intrigued, so fired up the iPlayer to watch the whole thing. It’s Vicar of Dibley meets Ray Mears’ Extreme […]
At Christmas it snowed in Dorset. It’s rare that it snows in Dorset, and I’ve not previously photographed the area in the snow. So here’s a quick photo essay of the Blackmore Vale at Christmas.
It’s another frequently raised fact in comment threads and pub agreements. Everybody knows it’s true. If it wasn’t true, why would everybody know it and repeat it all the time? They can’t all be wrong. You would think though that such a fact, with all of the resources of the […]
“End to the war on the motorists? No, driving’s never cost more,” declares Mark King, Money Editor, in The Observer today. To be fair to King, he doesn’t actually say anything as absurd as that driving has “never cost more” in his article — but newspaper headline writers have never […]
Apparently Steve Coogan is a huge fan of Top Gear. I’m told by many that, whatever you think of the presenters’ contributions to xenophobia and misogyny, you have to admit that the show is funny and entertaining. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…
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 […]
So much of our understanding of the city — its areas and their relationships and divisions — have been determined by the traditional motorist’s road map. (London is luckier than many cities because its river and tube lines also help define its structure in people’s minds.) Continue reading at At […]
Boris Johnson is “doing an awful lot to try to encourage cycling“. He’s doing Skyrides. Did he mention that he’s doing Skyrides? He is, you know. He’s doing Skyrides. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…
The Mayor of London is “doing an awful lot to try to encourage people to cycle”: telling us that there is a cycling revolution going on and all he needs us to do is get on out on the lovely London streets to be a part of it. Meanwhile, York […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in march 2007. Shockingly, it’s a new article on the blog. Even more shocking: there will be several more following over the next few weeks. “All those people who feel that denial of ID is heresy are missing the […]
“The great highway will never look empty again.” When they opened, the first motorways were the sparsely populated playgrounds of the privileged few — the few who could afford a car. They could drive as fast as they liked and would never meet a jam. But perhaps they could see […]
Central government have decided to roll back their red tape and give power back to the people! In reality, this is power going to the county and borough councilors (who don’t have the budgets needed to do anything productive with their new powers), or in some cases it could amount […]
It was Transport Question Time at City Hall this week: the 25 London Assembly members’ monthly-ish check up on the chair and the commissioner of Transport for London — Boris Johnson and Peter Hendy respectively. If you’re as big a loser as me, you’ll want to watch it here. Alternatively, […]
I stopped off at Ludgate Hill one morning in October, after reading this on Cyclists in the City: …most of the elected politicians [in the square mile] don’t seem to care about cycling or walking. What they do care about is this zebra crossing opposite St Paul’s on Ludgate Hill. […]
Henry Ford is often quoted as saying: If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said “a faster horse”. VAT and fuel duty have just risen, while petrol prices continue to rise as it becomes increasingly difficult and dangerous to source at the same time that global demand […]
On Sunday I took a look at Glasgow, a town I have previously only passed through without stopping. Here’s my commentary: a mix of cameraphone and proper camera photos; some of the commentary comes from the live tweets that accompanied the cameraphone pictures. Continue reading at At War With The […]
The Lake District is generally agreed to be England’s finest national park. Unlike last week’s Scottish Highlands suggestion, though, during spring and summer in the Lakes you won’t be alone in the wilderness: you’ll meet hundreds of others out enjoying the countryside. Which is great, except that most of the […]
I’ve not had a moment to write anything this week. Instead, here are some more videos, from monday morning between 8 and 8:15. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…
It’s hard to define what you mean when you ask whether something helps — whether it is helpful to do something. What I mean is, whose lives will be better when HS2 is running? That question isn’t really any less ambiguous, is it? What positive effect might HS2 have on […]
I’ve just been scrolling through Google Reader clearing a couple of months worth of posts with videos that got saved-for-later when using a mobile connection. Peter at Pedestrian Liberation asks whether we are winning, citing London Bridge as evidence that maybe we are. Continue reading at At War With The […]
“Pickles and Hammond to end the war on motorists.” The Department for Communities and Local Government put these words in a press release and today 221 national and local newspaper journalists* copypasted them into their newspapers, noticing nothing nonsensical in their conjunction. Great job, The Media. Continue reading at At […]