infrastructure


Politicians need to own their choices for our street space 2

The transport and streetscape proposals coming from Bristol’s councils and councillors reveal their priorities and choices. So why are they so reluctant to take ownership of them? Bristol is once again making the news for the poor quality of the cycling and walking infrastructure that it’s building and proposing. First […]


AWWTM: Ceci n’est pas une piste de bicyclette

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 — […]


AWWTM: State intervention

In reviewing the Radio 4 documentary Bristol: Cycling City (I didn’t hear it and was too slow on the iPlayer), the Guardian‘s radio critic Elisabeth Mahoney once again revealed the bizarrely muddled thinking of a nation so thoroughly addicted to its car culture.  The Cycling City project, in which a […]


AWWTM: Fast, direct, uninterrupted and comprehensive

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 […]


AWWTM: Crap cycling and walking in car sick Glasgow

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 […]


AWWTM: Overcomplicating things

In the 1960s, people were convinced that there was a huge and growing problem with transport.  The then Ministry of Transport commissioned engineers and economists to look at those problems and suggest solutions.  The Beeching Report recommended closing all except the very core main lines of the railway network.  The […]


AWWTM: London: still not impressed with superhighways

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 […]


AWWTM: Being realistic

So I mentioned that Carlton Reid and I both like the idea of mass bicycle use, and that we agree that high volumes of fast moving motor vehicles are a barrier to it.  But while I have drawn the conclusion that high-quality conspicuously safe dedicated cycling infrastructure is a pressing […]


AWWTM: Surrogates and segregation

The bicycle blogosphere has been buzzing about bike paths lately.  It’s an old argument in the UK, where nine out of ten bike paths are so badly designed that bicycle users conclude that they would always be better off on the road.  Many have taken to actively campaigning against them, […]


AWWTM: I was a Cyclist

I rode a bike before that.  It was just a convenient way to make the short journeys I needed to make.  Initially to the university in Bristol, where helmets didn’t really seem to be the style.  Then around the sidestreets and sidewalks to the lab when I worked in Cincinnati.  […]


AWWTM: Fear of cycling

In last week’s the week before the week before last’s post, if you build it they will come, I described why we should expect that building proper cycle superhighways — fast, capacious, direct and sensible routes that are segregated from high volumes of fast moving motor vehicles — should unleash […]


AWWTM: If you build it they will come

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 […]


At War With The Motorist: Superhighways

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.