Small Solar System

We took a family trip to a Sustrans route near York today. Its a cycle route that has a scale model of the solar system built in by its sides, it was one of their first routes in the 1980's when they bought the old railway line for a quid.  We started at Bishopthorpe near York. It was fantastic, It was a long way from Jupiter to Mars and then the other planets come up pretty fast. We only rode maybe 2 miles either way but the whole thing is just over 6 miles starting at York college and heading toward Selby.

There was a bit of BMX ramp at the end and a scale model of the sun. It was our four year old's first proper bike trip and he struggled to get going but after the best part of an hour and a few shoves he was definitely a cyclist and he had a grin a mile wide. It was nice to be on a decent car free route for a change a it took me back to riding the C2C route in 2000 and made me appreciate the good work that Sustrans do. A grand day out recommended.

Big Brother loves you

So according to the Woman From the Council the full 70 or so metres of cycleway will have been painted on the ground on Knaresborough Rd last night and will be drying even as I write. We will go and have a look at it when we have nothing better to do.  As we are heading over to Selby on the bikes this morning to use a Sustrans route  based around the solar system which looks great, we do have something better to do, it might be a while before we can report back.

Oh and just found this quote on the web on NYCC's website. Having dealt with them over Knaresborough Road we would argue that this is not true or as George Orwell would put it Doublethink.

"The County Council is committed to promoting cycling as an alternative mode of travel to the car for short trips or as part of longer journeys."

Ever feel you've been cheated?

Donna Hodgson who is the "Woman From the Council" got in touch after a deal of prompting from myself and others local cycling advocates on Friday. She wrote a long email justifying her decision to basically do very little in the way of cycleway provision on  Knaresborough Rd. After I had calmed down I tried to work out why I had thought we were justified to expect rather more. The last time I was in touch with Donna prior to Friday was an email on the 2nd of July in which she said the following:

...the outcome of this discussion was that we would undertake further detailed design to try to accommodate cycle lanes in both directions on the sections of the A59 where the remedial works are due to be undertaken in the next few months.  The costs of these works can therefore be accommodated to a greater extent within the remedial works costs.

I did explain to the Group that we were not able to remove or alter the existing pedestrian refuges for road safety reasons but the Group felt that even short sections of advisory cycle lane between the refuges / right turn lanes would be a significant improvement on the current position.

I will be meeting with the design engineer in the next few days and I hope to get a detailed drawing of the cycle lanes in the next few weeks.  I would be happy to send you and the Cycle Group a copy of the drawings once completed so that you can see the extent of what we can deliver.

From this I assumed we were going to get some cycle lanes on Knaresborough Road which would stop and start again at the pedestrian crossings and would run the length of the road from the railway crossing to the hospital this is what we asked for originally and what our petition was about. Donna alas never did get back with those design drawings despite us chasing her on a few occasions. In fact when she did get back to us work had already started and is still underway on Knaresborough Road.  So what do we get? We get some cycle lane less than 100m long on the downhill side as it runs down to the railway crossing. Perhaps the most useless section and hardly worth having at all. The sort of shabby provision that makes those "look at this useless cycle lane" photos on the web.

Do I feel Donna and North Yorkshire County Council have acted in bad faith over this? Well yes I do. I suppose her decision if she had communicated it a few weeks ago, whilst we would have disagreed with it would have been presented fairly and she would have done what she had said she would do. We would have opportunity to discuss and perhaps amend some of the details. Donna's decision to withhold details of what would happen until after work has started seems hard to view as anything other than a cynical ploy to do the absolute minimum and fail to negotiate with both us and the Harrogate Cycle Group, something she had already said she would do.

Some I'm sure will say that we should be happy that we got anything done at all. But I for one won't celebrate piecemeal provision which seems to be thrown like scraps to a dog, begrudgingly and with much tutting at our impudence for daring to ask. I think Harrogate's cyclists deserve better. I want my kids to cycle up that road and at the moment it would be tantamount to letting them play unsupervised with my circular saw.

Based on this outcome I think Cycle Harrogate looks set to have more effect on cycle provision if we adopt an adversarial approach rather than one of partnership toward NYCC. I think that is where we go next. It looks like the County Council can't help but favour car traffic even when money isn't the issue as was the case here (they were going to do some work anyway).

We need to try and win the battle for hearts and minds amongst the public in general and specifically amongst those who we ask to govern for us. At the moment asking nicely and going on a bit just aren't working as effectively as we want. If we are going to put effort into lobbying we might as well expose the way local government operates and hold them to account for the way they spend our tax rather than try and change their minds something we have so far failed to do.

Expect more from us soon about how you could help us get this message across in a law abiding but no longer polite and patient way.

Well at least nobody died

This is Derek Ryan's story from last week. He emailed it to us, worth a read. North Yorkshire County Council have argued they don't make better cycle provision because there is not enough demand. Seems to me they really ought to do a  more. Think we might start being a bit more demanding.

On Thursday evening I was making my way home through the town centre (it was about 19:45) along my usual route which takes me down East Parade towards Asda.

I came off the roundabout by the cinema and proceeded to coast down East Parade. There is a cycle lane along this road which I kept within.

I reached the traffic lights just before the turn off to Bower Street when out of nowhere a silver Mercedes S-Class (who must have been behind me) turned left in front of me and I had no chance. I managed to turn the bike to the left but it was too late and ploughed into his passenger door. I have yet to be given the drivers details so I can ask him how on earth he didn’t see me given that I had both front and rear lights flashing!

Alas, I ended up on my back with my legs now resting vertically against the rear door of his car. Within seconds passers by were ringing the emergency services. He was a youngish lad who had the decency to stick around and actually help the paramedics get me on a stretcher. You can see from the attached pics that the paramedics were concerned enough to strap me up as I had hurt my knee and banged my head.

The police officer who turned up was most unsympathetic and I shall be logging a complaint. He questioned me in the ambulance about the event, when I said I had been on the cycle lane he rather patronisingly told me that there was no cycle lane. A debate ensued before he then clarified that that cycle lane ends approximately 30 yards prior to the traffic lights. My point was that I ‘had’ been on the cycle path and anyway, it was irrelevant as clearly the driver had not seen me. He proceeded to inform me that he would give further details on his return to work the following Wednesday!? In some discomfort I then asked if I could be left alone with the paramedics to get taken to A&E rather than having a ridiculous argument with him.

A&E confirmed that I had in fact separated my AC shoulder joint, along with some other cuts and bruises. It could have been a lot worse. I have yet to speak to the driver to establish his side of the story but I suspect I will be taking this further.

I had to laugh that having very recently taken part in a charity bike ride across Scotland (150 miles) I get knocked over in my home town just minutes from my home.

The Woodfield bike show

Local PCSO James Skaith or as he is known on twitter PCSO_5391 organised a bike show on Sunday at Woodfield Park to promote cycling in Harrogate, we were there. It was great to meet James who is a switched on and enthusiastic cyclist and he seemed genuinely interested to find out what Cycle Harrogate was about. He was there coding bikes and giving security advice but to organise so many other companies and agencies to turn up as well really was above and beyond the call, so well done. I hope this become an annual event and that it is a way for Harrogate's cycling community to come together and become stronger as a result.

The event seemed really well attended by all ages and there were some interesting bikes there including some folding electric bikes of a type I have never seen before with the batteries running vertically behind the seat tubes.

Wheel Easy were there, we had a chat and it looks like the Harrogate to Ripley cycleway will be open by the spring once a final few access and planning issues have been resolved. This will be a great leisure route and its good to see Sustrans making a difference on the ground.

We ran into a friend of mine Craig Stevenson on the Specialized/Boneshakers stand who was a fresh from coming second in the Leeds Triathlon. I've been climbing a few times with Craig but didn't realise what a quality athlete he is. He is off to the World Champs in New Zealand soon, so good luck Craig.

North Yorkshire County Council also had a representative there and we introduced ourselves and explained what we were about. We soon got a lot of puffing and blowing and platitudes about why there was no money for cycling infrastructure and why resurfacing the Beryl Burton cycleway was important but couldn't be done at the moment. My wife thought I was a little to direct in my approach especially when I said I would resurface the Beryl Burton myself for 40K, but to be honest I think I may have been too polite.

It was to be honest a pretty depressing conversation that made me quite angry. The message seemed to be there is no demand for cycling so we don't bother making any provision. I think that this is both wrong and wrong headed and it got us to thinking that maybe we have to re-double our efforts with Local Government, to make them aware that there a lots of cyclists out there who want bikes to be better catered for. On a more positive note they did say they were hoping to work with the Hospital to encourage cycling something that so far we have failed to do and we will see what comes of that.

I think the council and I guess many Councillors have missed the huge groundswell in cycling recently and perhaps genuinely believe that what they are offering for cyclists is acceptable. Roads designed to put the needs of car users before the needs of other road users being something to be proud of rather something to be ashamed of. I put forward York as a city that seems to have given some thought and investment into the needs of bike riders but I  got stared at like I was deluded. I think we have a long way to go before the argument is won.

Anyway good to see cyclists being catered for by our police service and at least acknowledged by the people we ask to govern us and if we can keep putting our concerns and requests in front of them we will be more difficult to ignore and change will follow.

on Bikes and Harrogate's Grumpiest man

So @alanhuddart Harrogate's self proclaimed Grumpiest Man, legendary slayer of dragons and victor in the famous battle with Harrogate Borough Council, posts a link to an article in the daily mail  by Petronlla Wyatt. In it she says her mum had been knocked down twice in a month by a bike rider. Now this sounds terrible but it turns out she made the same claim two years ago and it looks like some of the article was a cut and paste job.

Why could Petronella have a thing against cyclists? No possible reason I can think of. This the Same Petronella Wyatt  that had a dalliance with London's mayor Boris Johnson that is now fading into the past, Boris well known cyclist and brains behind the Boris Bike? Just pointing out those last few facts, I'm not obviously suggesting any link.

Anyway back to Harrogate's Grumpiest Man, we got into a mild twitter spat about cycling. Him saying folk shouldn't be riding on pavements (in principle I agree) and that its dangerous and illegal. So is it? Should we always seperate bikes and pedestrians on the grounds that it is simply too dangerous for them to mix?

Well the best data I could find was saying in the 10 years 1999-2009, 29 pedestrians were killed by bike riders and 7,600 by cars. So if your a pedestrian you are roughly 200 times more likely as a pedestrian to die as a result of by being hit by a car than a bike.

What do I think about pedestrians and bikes sharing footpaths or even pavements? Well in principle I'm against it as I said but I do want to act on Chris Boardman's suggestion that we re-design our urban environment to favour cyclists. Trouble is even if this argument is won, it won't happen overnight so what could be done in the way of interim solutions? Well mixed use of of some suitable wide footpaths seems to have merit, we have some in Harrogate on the Stray for example.

I'm not suggesting that this is a solution that would work everywhere but I do think the idea that pedestrians and cyclists should live separate lives on the grounds that they cannot rub along in reasonable safety is wrong. I for one would rather have money spent on better cycle provision, for example urban speed limits of 20mph seem to have the most effect in reducing fatalities for both pedestrians and cyclists. Rather this than the enforcement of laws that may well do little to save the lives of pedestrians.

I'm reading this and I'm worried people will think I'm anti car. Some deep green, knit your own yoghurt commune living freak and it ain't necessarily so. Read my on the road post for more on my love of cars and one in particular. I drive more than I cycle and walk, I don't suppose that will change. I own a car and its a battered SUV, I like it (but I love my bike). Its great for driving around the relatively empty county of North Yorkshire and I chuck tools in it for work. I suspect I will always drive more than I cycle. I just think for journey's under 3 miles round town the bike wins if your on your own. Its quicker and it keeps you fit.

What really got to me about Petronella's piece is the unjustified attack on bike riders especially as the source article looks well up to the rigorous journalistic standards that the Daily Mail always adhere to. Sure the odd cyclist rides badly, some of them use pavements all the time and you can't condone it. Thing is some pedestrians walk out into the road without looking or walk around so drunk they are a danger to themselves and others, see Harrogate about 11 o'clock most Friday nights. People drive around talking on their mobiles so often I hardly notice, speed limits are ignored as a matter of course by many and nobody even sees it.

Bike riders are just like other road users, most are pretty considerate a few are selfish and and an even smaller minority really are dangerous. I think the reason cyclists are seen as a soft target or often as the target of choice is they have novelty value. You see we might have the best elite cyclists on the planet but riding a bike on the road remains a minority behaviour. So just being on a bike gets you noticed, if your breaking the rules you stick out like a Roman Nose and you get remembered.

Do I think me and Harrogate's Grumpiest Man will ever agree on this? No not really he seems to be a rules and regulations guy and I'm interested in change. I want better towns where the car isn't king and the bike is no longer the transport chav, part of the underclass, a useless NEET of all the choices you have when you want to nip out in one of the nicest towns in Britain. Anyway spleen vented.

Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice

Chris Boardman, cycling commentator, Sustrans advocate and former Olympic champion was on BBC breakfast this morning talking about cycle safety and articulating the debate about the need for a better environment in which to cycle. He did it better than anybody I have seen so far. He explained that 30,00 people die annually of obesity and only 100 on a bike which made the point for healthy lifestyles wonderfully. He said that helmets on you bike aren't the answer and put to rest, for me at least the points made by Wiggo without criticising him. Are you listening CTC?

Then he went on to talk about how the Danish have modified their cycling environment so pedestrians have presumed rights over cyclists, who have presumed rights over cars and that such a shift in the UK is needed. It was great to hear and this was on the back of all the cycling success from our athletes this years, so well done team GB cycling.

I can't find an iPlayer link yet to the BBC breakfast story but in the meantime here is Boardman doing much of the same on five live