"Put Me Back On My Bike"

... with apologies to the late great Tommy Simpson. 

But that sentiment is real. I ain't done with this whole cycling thing. 

It's been nearly 1 year since I was knocked off my bike on a morning commute into London. A lot has changed and is still changing, including cycling -- the role it plays in my life and the role it plays in my own identity. 

I've spent the past year internally screaming at motorists "but I'm not a CYCLIST, I'm just a person on a bike" in a desperate attempt to stop feeling 'othered', to stop feeling like a target for people who don't give a damn whether they hurt or kill another human being.

Well, guess what, my internal campaign made no difference whatsoever to the attitudes or behaviours of drivers. But the turmoil was having a negative impact on me, on my confidence, on my sense of self-determination and independence. 

(The actual cycling this past year? A few hundred miles in total -- if we're generous -- mostly local errands on my sit-up-and-beg vintage mixte, plus a few group pootles on the road mixte or Cross Check. No road cycling. No lycra. No clip-in pedals. Which also meant.... no Enigma.)

Adam tried tempting me back with a super wheels upgrade in the spring but nope, somehow it just wasn't happening.

Then we went to the NEC Cycle Show last Thursday. Nothing revolutionary here.... but I found myself in conversation with a number of people where I presented myself and my point of view as a Cyclist with a Capital C. And it felt good, normal, natural... right.

The next day, I asked Adam to dig the Enigma out from wherever it was behind a lot of other bikes in the garage. He pumped up the tyres and adjusted the brakes, I donned proper road shoes and mounted up. 

Halfway down the driveway, I was assailed with that old-familiar but completely unexpected sense of "Ahhhhhhh!" I love this bike so much.

So I asked Adam to plot us a ride for Saturday. 'Keep it under an hour', I said. 'And flat', I said. He kinda sorta ignored the first but delivered on the second. 23 miles out to Goodwood Motor Circuit and back home via the Centurion Way. 

 

A group of cyclists were also here -- and at least half are women, from the set up of the bikes!

It happened to be a public Track Day so of course we had to watch for a while.

  

on the Centurion Way

Pleased to see that a number of defects in the path that
Adam reported a month ago have all now been repaired.

My basic fitness turns out to be okay, but some of that conditioning that supports a static position on a bike needs to come back!

But... I am back! I am a cyclist, as well as a person on a bike. This is who I am. I love it.

In other news, I am very excited and happy to be increasingly involved with local cycling campaigning and advocacy (under the banners of Sustrans, CTC/Cycling UK and Cycle Bognor plus mucking in to get stuff done with a consortium of all local groups, called the Bognor Regis Cycling Forum). I hadn't entirely stopped doing that, as road safety is something I'm passionate about -- for pedestrians as much as for cyclists -- but I am committed to bringing my years of experience as a London commuter and cycle tourer to bear here in this southwestern corner of West Sussex.

RE-BLOG: London Cycle Infrastructure Safari next Saturday, 2nd April 2016

from the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain website: 

London cycle infrastructure safari, with Ranty Highwayman - 2nd April

Posted by Mark Treasure on Tuesday 22nd of March 2016

The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain will be joining the Ranty Highwayman on a cross-London Infrastructure Safari, on Saturday 2nd April.

The ride will start at Tower Gateway, where the eastern end of east-west Superhighway meets CS3, at the junction with Royal Mint Street - location here. Meet at 11am!

The ride will take in the east-west Superhighway itself, the north-south Superhighway, and Superhighway 5 at Vauxhall. The ride will finish with a look at Vauxhall Walk, and a visit to a pub. More details on the Ranty Highwayman's facebook page.

The full trip is expected to be around 10-15 miles - with regular stops to examine the new infrastructure, as we go, and for lunch and coffee.

This Is How We Roll (Behind The Wheel)

Dear [owner of family-run business supplying fresh fruit and veg to central London restaurants]

I have had to have words with one of your delivery drivers this morning and am writing to let you know about it in case you would like to have words with him yourself.

This driver looks quite young, wearing a blue and white striped short sleeve shirt today. His delivery was in Windmill Street but he left the van on the corner in Charlotte Street. The time was approximately 9.15am.

Firstly, he reversed into a place to leave his van to make a delivery, but the space he reversed into was not a parking bay, although he managed to get the rear bumper and possibly rear axle of the van over the line into the end of the parking bay behind his van, in which a small car was already parked. In reversing alongside the kerb, he very nearly knocked me (standing on the pavement to lock up my bicycle) over with his side mirror. I moved out of the way so wasn’t hit, but then he brought the van to a stop, the mirror was exactly next to my bike with no space in between, so I could not get in next to my bike to lock it. I had to wait for the driver to make his delivery and return to the van. When he did, I told him I wasn’t happy with what he had done, having caused me to jump out of his way to avoid being hit, then parking illegally and preventing me from going about my own business. He replied to the effect that he was “over the line” in the parking bay – I pointed out the van was not in the parking bay, only the rear of it!

He then put his mobile phone to his ear, turned on the engine and began to pull away. I shouted at him through his closed window “Put that phone down!” He rolled his window down. I told him that, his parking transgressions aside, driving while using a mobile is illegal. He said he “wasn’t on a call”. I said “It doesn’t matter, you have a phone to your ear and cannot be in full control of your vehicle…. And, you have not put your seat belt on. Also illegal.”.

He did then put the phone down and put his seatbelt on, and drove away. 

To be fair, he was calm and co-operative (and in those respects a credit to his parents) but I am not his mother or the police and shouldn’t have to tell him how to behave. You however as his employer should, I think, have a word with him to ensure he takes care in future not to endanger other people, to use his seatbelt NOT his phone when behind the wheel, and generally to behave like a trained and skilled professional driver. There is also your insurance liability to consider, should he be involved in any incident while on the phone or driving without wearing his seatbelt.

Kind regards

....

It is so rare to get the chance to have a conversation with a driver – any driver, whether he’s cut you up or not, whether he 'communicates' only with a rude gesture or not – that I felt this worth sharing. 

My main ‘take away’: Sadly, this low standard of behaviour behind the wheel is so prevalent and pervasive, drivers simply do not have any understanding that they are failing, much less how or why.

P.S. I did actually send this e-mail to the business concerned. It bounced back from all three contact e-mail addresses on its website.

Singled Out

Image credit: APA 

The other day I was cautiously making my way out of the NCP multi-storey car park (with its impressively abundant and popular bicycle parking areas) behind London St Pancras International train station, when I was hailed by a man entering the car park on foot. 

I stopped. 

"You really shouldn't cycle here", he said without preamble. 

"Really? It's not prohibited," I responded. 

"Cyclists go too fast. We've had so many people have the life scared out of them by cyclists coming through here."

"Well, it wasn't me who startled them. There are people who aren't considerate of others, in all situations. I am always careful, so please don't tar me with that brush."

"You shouldn't cycle here, you really shouldn't", he said again, shaking his head in a scolding fashion. And then he turned and walked away. 

That was the end of the conversation, such that it was, so I called "Bye" to his retreating back and pedalled off. 

As I did so, I found myself musing....

Unravelling -- or, Each Road Has A (Main If Not Only) Function

Two topics I have on my 'wish list' to post about are "Presumed Liabilty" and "Priority (or, who gives way to whom?)", with my takes on what others (far more knowledgeable than me) have written elsewhere. But not today. (Sorry if that's a teaser!)

The item that caught my attention over my morning coffee today, however, was an article titled "Channeling the Flow", by Bez over on the Beyond The Kerb blog.

The issue of course is the seeming inability of UK local authorities and traffic/road planners to understand why the Dutch do what they do. In the Corbridge case covered by Bez, a road treatment that is very common indeed in the Netherlands has been adopted -- because "if it's Dutch, it must be good" (er, not always!) -- but in wildly inappropriate circumstances. Observers (and video evidence) are now confirming there is too much traffic on the road in question for this kind of layout to work and it has in fact rendered the road less attractive (and safe) to cyclists, not more.

Lessons should have been learned from previous 'experiments' of this nature in the UK!

The problem is that design is being driven (if you'll pardon the expression) from the wrong starting point. Whether this kind of road layout can work or not in any given location is not a question of traffic volumes (which can and do fluctuate) or space -- it's about Function. 

As a first-time visiting cyclist* to the Netherlands last year, it's the clear delineation of function that struck me as the key to the "success" of growth into a "cycling nation". Much about Dutch infrastructure surprised me -- and at times even confused me -- but this underlying feature was, to me, glaringly obvious. 

We cycled many miles on roads with exactly this treatment -- but it worked. 

on the Molendijk, outskirts of Rotterdam

#Errandonnee 2015 Challenge: Rides 1-5

Here's my first batch of Errandonnee rides. I haven't really got to grips with the new controls. In the absence of specific food/drink categories and given my current unavailability for any ride that could remotely be construed as "social", I foresee too many errands being categorised as Personal Care when they are anything but! (If only I were looking after myself as well as my anticipated over-use of this category might imply...)

Errandonnee #1

Date: Sunday, 8 March 2015

Errand:  Get Cash

Category:   Personal Business

Destination:  ATM in Luton town centre

Steed: Riley the Enigma

What I learned/observations:

When an ATM is unable to dispense cash, it will still take you through the entire menu right up to selection of the amount you want before telling you so. Why can't the cash option be disabled or displayed as unavailable right on the main menu?

Take 1:

Errandonnee #6: Local Advocacy

Last night was the bi-monthly meeting of the Luton and Dunstable Cycle Forum, plus its Annual General Meeting.

Errandonnee #6

Date: Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Category: Community Meeting 

Destination:  Travel Choices Hub, Dunstable

Distance:  13.3 km

Steed: Riley the Enigma

What I learned/observations:

1. Sometimes day to day change is hard to measure. Now and again it's good to step back and look where we were... yesterday, a month ago, a year ago.

This was the Forum's second AGM. The duration of the inaugural AGM was almost entirely spent on hammering out the terms of the group's Constitution! There was little time left to make plans for events and bike rides, much less things like soliciting volunteers to run them or resources to promote them.

A year on, it was great to review how much progress has been made in concrete terms, i.e. activities not just talk! After a number of years of not being in a good position to influence the local authorities to improve conditions for cyclists (other than by lobbying people in specific roles at the relevant Councils), now there is a sound foundation for actually "increasing the number of bums on saddles" by having a presence at community events e.g. Luton International Festival, Dunstable Party in the Park and -- thanks to formal Ride Leader Training by Sustrans -- leading more community bicycle rides.

Last night's proceedings were lively and interactive, with several new faces. Everyone had an opportunity to voice their concerns, and everyone's views were taken on board. The Chair, Robin Cowan, is invariably enthuasiastic, always seeking to move any situation towards a positive outcome. This was beneficial on a number of issues where not everyone saw things eye-to-eye but in the end everyone was happy with the agreed plan of action.

Collecting Potholes

As in many areas, our rural roads suffered a lot last winter. Unfortunately, the local authorities are not in a position to undertake systematic patches/repairs. If a pothole is not individually reported, it won't get filled.

Here are the ones I am reporting this week. I don't 'worry' much about rough surfaces per se. I take note of holes that are big/deep/rough enough to (a) potentially bring down a cyclist if hit with a front wheel or (b) cause a cyclist a lot of difficulty if he's being crowded by a fast vehicle behind or overtaking.

Slip End by the PAIGE car park.
While not particularly deep, a cyclist not already familiar with
its location is presented with a last-minute
"which way to go round it" decision to make,
usually with a few cars that had to wait behind you
at the traffic lights now itching to get past!

In Woodside: a rough and bumpy mess on a sharp descent
to a T-junction. Negotiating this while braking hard
and preparing to indicate is not fun. 

Manor Road between Woodside and Caddington:
another "which way to go" dilemma for the unwary. 

Manor Road:   just... ouch.  Hate this. 

I hope these will be filled in sometime this month.

Goodbye Law Firm, Hello Cycling Charity!

Sustrans' Dr Bike at work at a local middle school

I was made redundant just before last Christmas, at a tricky time in my legal career: not yet qualified but no rank beginner. Job listings right now seem to seek 4+ years post-qualification or untried trainee. I tried a three-month stint as a legal PA, only for that to reinforce my theories as to what I truly find stressful and soul-destroying. No more.

So what next?

Since leaving London for the rural delights of Bedfordshire, I've had some exposure to the work being done by the Travel Choices Hub in Dunstable. This is a project funded by local government but operated by Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity. I applied for a "Schools & Communities Officer" role there a few weeks ago. I didn't get it, solely due to my complete lack of schools/teaching experience. However, the Hub's co-ordinator spotted qualities in me that she thought potentially too valuable to "let get away". So she got approval to hire me as an "Events & Hub Assistant" on a casual basis for four months, working as many hours as I want!

I started on Tuesday. It has been a non-stop whirlwind. 

Would a Dutch-style roundabout work in London?

On 29 April 2013, Danny Williams of the Cyclists in the City blog posted this on Facebook: 

Coming to a street near you soon.
At long last. Transport for London is testing real,
proven bike infrastructure for rollout in London
over the next couple of years.

More here http://www.trl.co.uk/cyclinginnovationtrials/

I've been collecting responses (samples below) from friends on Facebook. These are all experienced, skilled and confident "transportational" cyclists. Their views range from very much in favour to very much against, with lots of healthy doubt and skepticism in the middle. 

So what do YOU think? 

(You may like to read Danny's full blog post on this for more information and background.)

 

Direct Action does work!

Ten days ago and feeling rather sceptical as to any positive outcome, I reported this series of potholes to Central Bedfordshire Council:

Local Real-Life Cycle Forum

My partner Adam has been attending meetings of the Luton & Dunstable Cycling Forum over the past year or so.

As a newcomer to the neighbourhood, I've found it difficult to define what this group does!  It seems the activities have, to date, mostly been for people with cycling interests to... well.... meet up and talk. The people who attend are drawn from a wide range of influential (whether anti- or pro-cycling!) organisations e.g. both the Luton and Central Bedfordshire councils and Sustrans.  There seems to be huge potential to contribute to transport and planning processes and to influence the results so that cycling provision both improves (quality) and increases (quantity).

To date, the meetings have been an opportunity to meet up and compare notes on what is going on in the various attendees' 'home' organisations.  Meetings have been every other month.  There have not been any outward-facing events, like rides or having stands at local fairs and events.

But this is about to change.

At the last meeting, it was agreed to draw up a Mission Statement that is clear, focused and much more ambitious.  Adam was asked to set up a Facebook group (which went live about a week ago and already has 3 members - besides Adam and myself!). Adam has put a lot of time into gathering information that should prove useful to new cyclists, and has been posting collections of photographs and links to websites with further information/assistance e.g. FillThatHole and the like. 

A commitment has been made to organise and lead local rides for beginners as we (hopefully) see the weather head towards Spring. We will also get more involved in various events at the TravelHub in Dunstable (whether solo or jointly with Sustrans remains to be seen - either way, it's a positive step!)  While these ambitions will require more manpower and profile-building, we're seeing more people step forward offering their services, so momentum seems to be building. 

The group's AGM is next Wednesday evening.  I'm looking forward to meeting the other members face to face for the first time. I hope we'll agree a positive and feasible list of action points and will come out energised to achieve great things.

I learned how cycling campaign works and witnessed firsthand the dividends it pays, from working with one of the country's most successful cycling campaign groups - Southwark Cyclists. I will have the wisdom and experience of many London colleagues to draw on and am really looking forward to doing my part to make a difference here, to make cycling more popular and viable as a safe and effective means of transport in both towns and in the corridor in between and to getting cycling firmly onto the agenda of the two councils' planning and transport committees. 

"Ask your council not what it can do for cycling, but what cycling can do for your council." 
- Ann Warren