#BikeIsBest Advocacy Digest - Edition No. 117
Is anyone else bored of the culture wars?
Is anyone else bored of the culture wars? If you believe what you read, contrary to any facts, cyclists are apparently a major cause of injury and death on the roads. Perhaps a general election might calm things down…
WILL ANYONE THINK OF THE DATA?
It seems to be hard to find a well-informed position on transport among some spheres of national policy, while sensible spokespeople like Chris Boardman try to widen the very narrow focus on one very limited source of road danger, in which cyclists have somehow become the villain. Again. We do also have some positive stories, promise.
BIG STORIES FOR CYCLING ADVOCACY
WANTED: WELL-ROUNDED ROAD SAFETY STORY. Here’s one, anyway. Esther Addley’s piece in the Guardian late last week was one rational spot in a hysterical week for road safety news. Addley reports that, while some cyclists ride too fast, most are just trying to get around, or get exercise.
AND WELL-ROUNDED OPINIONS. Peter Walker followed up this week with a characteristically thoughtful comment piece about why the new dangerous cycling law will fail to tackle the main causes of road danger. According to Carlton Reid in Forbes, the new law might not even go through anyway, because of the impending general election in the UK.
LET’S DITCH THE CULTURE WARS. “I encourage every candidate standing at the next election to include walking or cycling on their leaflets,” says former Conservative transport minister Trudy Harrison MP in Politics Home ahead of the general election. Amen to that.
SQUARING THE SOMERSET CIRCLE. This inspiring story of community action in delivering a cycle route is a ray of light in a slightly daft week. The Somerset Circle is a growing network of routes which, when complete, will form a 76-mile loop around the county. Parts of it already make for a great day out, by the sounds of it.
OTHER HEADLINES
ECONOMICS OF CYCLING. Many of you already know cycling is great value for money, and a great way to invest public funds. This handy piece in Bloomberg’s CityLab spells out just some of those headline benefits, in numbers, in the UK context.
CYCLING CHANGES LIVES. A nice reminder about the transformative impact of cycling. This month, an 82-year-old woman from south London, Anne Jones, cycled up Mont Ventoux to raise money for Gaza. And as a bonus bit of inspiration from a few weeks back, one 64-year-old woman took up cycling and has never looked back.
INTERESTING GRAPH(IC) OF THE WEEK:
Cyclops junctions are being delivered across Greater Manchester. Here’s a nice picture of one, and a short video on how they work, here.
ACTIVE TRAVEL WORD OF THE WEEK:
Cyclops junctions. In the crossing pictured above, cyclists use the green bits, pedestrians the red crossings – and they both get green signals at once, on all arms. That means no lengthy, two-stage crossings, hopefully. What makes them even more attractive to planners is the fact they can often be installed without reducing motor traffic capacity.
Until next time,
Adam
Adam Tranter
#BikeIsBest
 | A guest post by
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With regard to the aerial picture of the cyclops junction, why are there cycle waiting areas in advance of the motor vehicle stop line? Do the envisage some cyclists want to use the "road" part of the junction, rather than the nicer green loop? Or are there some rules to using it I'm not aware of?
I came to make a comment, and found that Jon Knight had already said it.
It remains a mystery as to why the two highway engineers were filmed standing on a crossing that doesn't match their words, that cyclists and people on foot are separated from vehicles.
Is the explanation that the cycle 'roundabout' is one-directional, clockwise, and that the duration of the traffic light phases makes it impossible to turn right without being halted intermediately, so the option of using the green box and advanced stop line to make a right turn among vehicle traffic is that this avoids making cycling much slower?
JM