Meant to bank this astonishing piece, from the Pedestrian Crossings debate, 26 July 1951. Sir Austin Hudson (Lewisham North)… I happened to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport just after the pedestrian crossings???the Belisha b…
Cycling questions, 28 Nov 1958. Vice-Admiral John Hughes Hallett (Croydon, North-East)Again, there is the mistaken fear that cycling is unduly dangerous. In point of fact???anyhow, in point of statistical fact???one’s chances of being involved in an a…
Hansard, 5 July 1939, in full, without comment. Mr William Leach (Bradford Central)I would add my congratulations to those which other hon. Members have addressed to the Minister on his accession to his present office. He starts with very consider…
nice feature on the Avon Longitudinal Study in today’s Nature. In 2007, however, data from ALSPAC and several other large human biobanks were used to scour the human genome for single-letter variants associated with obesity. The work turned up a g…
On many roads, Department for Transport press releases announcing the annual funding for cycling training that they’ve been funding for decades now outnumber actual cyclists.
in case you thought current and recent governments were bad, look at what you get when you go back to the days of futuristic New Towns and Highways In The Sky… Cycling debate, Hansard 10 Dec 1976. Mr John Horam (Gateshead West)The hon. Member ha…
I should have banked this one, too, from that May 1978 Highways Bill debate. Sir George Young (Ealing Acton)As chairman of the all-party Friends of Cycling Group I welcome New Clause No. 1….I welcome the clause for two reasons. First, it puts th…
From the brief discussion on 17 May 1978 of “cycle tracks” — shared pavements — in the Transport Bill debate. This became the 1980 Transport Act, which enabled both proper cycle tracks and crappy pavement conversions. John Horam had a junior pos…
31 tonne Timber Wagon at Taynuilt on the Oban branch of the West Highland Line, 30 Aug 1987. Marra Man says: The wagon seen here at Taynuilt would have been working between loading terminals on the West Highland line and Workington Goods Yard in C…
final bits of marginalia from Chris Mosey’s Car Wars before it gets filed away in the Embassy library. However, when they [1950s London trolleybuses] were phased out a decade later, a spokesman for London Transport said, “The public never really t…
Looking back at exactly what was said about Cycle Superhighways when they were first proposed, and how the message and emphasis has changed between then and now…The press release: The Mayor said: ???I’m not kidding when I say that I’m militant abo…
from BikeRadar, Jul 2, 2011: Has cycling ever been more popular in the UK? From the elite level right down to the casual commuter, there???s a feeling we???re entering, or perhaps even in, a golden age of riding. oh I am definitely using that one. (gr…
need to bank this CCW WF line about the “3 feet please” thing for future reference. This provoked a response from David Love in the Comments, who among things writes: Sure, segregation would be great but in London at least there’s no room and no m…
must have opened this when looking up the Traffic Reduction Acts. Ian Roberts worth quoting as ever. Why, for example, is the death of a child following abuse taken as clear evidence of the failure of our collective efforts to protect children, wh…
might refer to this, from The Cycling Lawyer. … I moved on to ???total tolerance??? which is how I see enforcement of advanced stop lines. The statistics on Simon???s computer did not break down how may traffic light offences were advanced stop line (…
no idea how or why this came to be in my backlog, but it answers a common claim or two…Potter, Stephen; Enoch, Marcus; Rye, Tom; Black, Colin and Ubbels, Barry (2006). Tax treatment of employer commuting support: an international review. Transpo…
meant to bank these two from Hansard for future reference, too. Statements on what central government wanted local authorities to spend money on for cycling in the early ’80s — that is, “better and safer routes”. From 10 Feb 1982: Mr Jack Dormand…
this comment was about different tumour genome work, but it could apply just as well to the Gerlinger article… Jim Woodgett said:Are these findings surprising given the well understood nature of the instability of tumour genetic integrity? Once …
found in John Whitelegg’s slides.
just putting this quote from John Franklin’s “Principles of cycle planning” (PDF) in the bank for possible reference on shared pavements… Cyclists and pedestrians are often considered together. Both are vulnerable road users, but that is as far …
Someone just reminded the BCC list of Give Cycling a Push: PRESTO Cycling Policy Guide Infrastructure (PDF). It’s definitely not the best of the documents available on the topic. Flicking through again, I noticed this passage, referenced to the CR…
I’ve had Dave Horton’s Who is cycling for? sat saved in google reader for further thought and filing. This particularly stands out, given this, this, this, this, this, this and this: there are two clear and present problems which bedevil UK cyclin…
Bristol City Council have an excellent set of documents, produced by a chap from their Public Health department, Adrian Davis, reviewing the literature on walking and cycling. He makes one-page summaries that even councillors can understand. His r…
note to self, incase I forget why I put this in Mendeley: people keep using the word “induce” in tumour evolution stories, when one event tends to follow another, and I’m not entirely convinced that it’s being used correctly. But I need to think a…
flicking through old copies of Nature to the pages with the corner turned down, before chucking them out. Dunno quite what to think about this gushing feature article. I can’t help thinking “yay, we can now rape the rainforest gently,” but, really…