Keep Pushing Those Pedals

Save our Cyclists

2012-02-02T10:08:00.001Z

Thursday, 2^nd February 2012: As of last night the wires were buzzing with news of the Cycling Initiative in The Times – well here is my paper copy of The Times. The Times has operated a paywall for some time, however this initiative is not hidden behind those links – jump in at Save our cyclists.

Here are some of the links that I have seen already: Cyclists in the City, The cycling Lawyer and Bike Biz with “Save our Cyclists, thunders The Times”.

They have proposed an eight-point manifesto and have requested pledges of support (on the same link)

Trucks entering a city centre should be required by law to fit sensors, audible truck-turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.
The 500 most dangerous road junctions must be identified, redesigned or fitted with priority traffic lights for cyclists and Trixi mirrors that allow lorry drivers to see cyclists on their near-side.
A national audit of cycling to find out how many people cycle in Britain and how cyclists are killed or injured should be held to underpin effective cycle safety.
Two per cent of the Highways Agency budget should be earmarked for next generation cycle routes, providing £100 million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities should be graded on the quality of cycling provision.
The training of cyclists and drivers must improve and cycle safety should become a core part of the driving test.
20mph should become the default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes.
Businesses should be invited to sponsor cycleways and cycling super-highways, mirroring the Barclays-backed bicycle hire scheme in London.
Every city, even those without an elected mayor, should appoint a cycling commissioner to push home reforms.

I personally believe that this is an issue that transcends politics, I also acknowledge that there are many bodies that have been campaigning tirelessly on behalf of cyclists and would-be cyclists. (The Cambridge Cycling Campaign being one such body – with its 100^th edition of their Newsletter.)

I do feel that our challenge is to make cycling attractive to non-cyclists. I know that cycling has gotten safer, I know that it is both practical and fun – but I also have heard inhabitants of the necklace villages around Cambridge say how if only it were safer they would return to their bikes as a form of transport (in formal presentations). I like that the manifesto focus on improving the safety of the roads for cyclists rather than focus on training and visibility and crash helmets. I believe that cycling is a safe activity made dangerous by the motorised road users and the road infrastructure. We need to focus on the problems and not the symptoms.

I also feel that this goes beyond the cities.

Grumpy Old Men

2012-01-31T17:35:00.001Z

We had a Burns Supper on Saturday night – I know a little later that January 25^th but it was date that most people could make. In the end there were 12 of us in total. it seems that calendars aren’t quite so packed in January as they might be at other times of the year. The Haggis (from Waitrose) was delicious and of course we had bashed neeps and tatties.

Now in my family (half Scottish and half English) we have always eaten mashed swede as the neeps, although often people talk about turnip. Well I can’t personally enlighten you. However there does seem to be enough of a controversy that the Guardian newspaper has this blog – “Are ‘neeps’ swedes or turnips?”. If you follow the link we had the vegetable on the right, well two of them actually. The article does actually say that neeps are swedes, as I know them but what the Scots and the English don’t always agree on what is a swede and what is a turnip. Anyway for me neeps are yellow, quite large and globular vegetables and taste delicious mashed with butter and pepper.

Seattle Market: – no swedes?

We also had Cranachan, which is a traditional Scottish desert, that I have ever only eaten on high days and holidays, well actually probably not that frequently. It is basically whipped cream, toasted oats, whisky, honey and raspberries. If truth be told I usually find it a bit sweet, but it went down a treat at our Burns' Supper. In fact apart from a small number of dissenters even those who hadn’t eaten Haggis before said how delicious it was. Mind you my wife’s excellent beef and gravy probably helped.

Why am I blethering on about this you might well ask – well I noticed that men of a certain age do deserve the term grumpy old men – we did spend quite a lot of time grumping. Which brings me onto this headline – “Award-winning postman ‘forced out of his job’ after being made to swap his bicycle for a trolley”. I despair of these sorts of decisions – the roads are congested, petrol is going up in price and will probably keep on going up. So what do we do – to stop people from stopping people using bicycles for work. The CTC had a campaign – which rumbles on. The new CEO is quoted as saying that “We have seen an increase in accidents linked to the use of cycles on busy road networks and in a number of cases these accidents result in major injury to our staff.”

A Letter box on the Church Wall - Risby

In one of strange coincidences (not) I have just posted around 40 leaflets through my neighbours door – democracy in action. naturally I used my bike to get around. Clearly I am not a trained Postie – but IMHO the biggest danger was the flipping letter boxes, my posting hand has gotten quite scratched. If we switched to a more friendly method of dropping off post – the American way? I reckon it would speed up things no end. I did it in shorts and no coat – the freezing weather was an incentive to jog around when not cycling.

It turns out that Nasa scientists weren't terribly sure where all the heat was going – well it is warming up the sea at half a watt per 10 sq feet. Of course there are some that feel that this is a form of greenwash to explain why there isn’t global warming. In my view there are enough humans on the Earth - it is bound to have an effect and we imperil future generations by not recognising that fact.

The Sea – Scarborough – soaking up all the heat!

Whilst grumping another thing caught my eye – it turns out that one skirmish in the Police war against the cyclist – wasn’t right – “Police cancel fines given to London cyclists for riding bikes in area where cycling isn't banned”. To be fair I am not the greatest fan of fines as the method used to control errant behaviour in any case. As a citizen I want there to be better behaviour whether it is on the road or street or home for that matter. However a fine is a punishment and we tend to assume that fines put people off. Although there are many cynics who see fines as a way for public coffers to be filled.

Police Declare War on the Speeders

In the “war on the motorist” it turns out that “speeding fines are to go up to £100 to bear the brunt of Ken Clarke’s new victim, surcharge”. I have several concerns here, the first is that fines hit people with different levels of income very differently. The punishment effect is huge if you are barely scraping along as it it and it is inconsequential to the very rich.

Can’t delay – must get to Oakington as fast as possible

The second is that I am not concerned with revenge, I just want safer roads for cyclists please. I want behaviour to change – I am not convinced that speeding fines do that. Although I do not have any evidence to support my thinking I am a fan of “awareness courses”. They cost time – a more equitable “currency”, but also are an attempt to change behaviour rather than “just” punish it. Speed again and you go on the extended two day course?

Although there are some road problems that perhaps can’t be dealt with quite so readily. There is a “Call for harsher sentences as drink drive figures soar” (well here in Cambs anyway overall figures rose by 10% in a year). I wonder if we need to be more explicit about distinguishing between criminal behaviour and naughty behaviour. The data suggests that the number of “morning-after” drink-drivers has risen by 40%. Is this because binge-drinking is more prevalent and the option to use public transport is being eroded.

Perhaps we need to be more inventive with modern technology. Should any drink driver, on returning to driving have to fit a device to measure his or her alcohol level before the car will start. Perhaps persistent bad drivers should fit GPS monitoring devices.

In this instance a “Father and son (were) hurt as van ploughs into back of car” and then the van drove away. This is just appalling – but whilst the focus has been on the increased safety of car occupants maybe there also needs to be be more monitoring of the roads to protect the occupants from the poor driving of others. In fact I wonder it the increased safety of cars is a factor in more people drinking and driving – they are actually taking less risk now. If we can afford air bags perhaps we should also have to have cameras and GPS.

After all if we had black boxes in our cars then it would be easier to prove or disprove whether whiplash had occurred. Here is an example of a spurious claim being made against a driver – apparently the driver claiming the whiplash injury had claimed four times before. A similar problem happened to a friend who drove into a bus in America – the driver claimed whiplash – the hire car company got a physics involved who proved that the forces involved couldn’t have caused the injuries.

We also have a motorist who is a “flasher” here in Cambridge, he targeted a female cyclist in Grange Road and has a square-face and weathered complexion.

It also turns out that Cambridge is going high-rise – the as the skyline shoots skywards. It was really the picture of Botanic House as it reaches completion that caught my eye. Apparently tall buildings have caused some controversy and guidelines will require significant for applications for buildings taller than six storeys. If you like tall buildings then here are some interesting “Rooftopper” pictures. I like heights, but I don’t think I will be taking roof-topping up as a hobby.

Botanic House – Cambridge

And finally – Pink and baby Willow on their bike. Which leads onto the question posed by this blogger - blogged “Who is cycling for?. It makes the point that currently it is mainly hard-core cyclists and if you want more of the general population to switch to cycling then you have to make cycling appeal to them (and not the inadvertent elitists.) I don’t like that term – I have never felt that cycling is an elitist activity – and certainly not when I get sprayed by a car driving through a puddle at high speed next to me.

I do agree that we should “spend less energy telling other people how to cycle and more striving harder to transform conditions” though. Mind you we shouldn’t act like the Association of British Drivers who seem to get way too much air time. Have a chuckle on their views on speed limits – ‘cos if you didn’t chuckle you’d have to cry.

And really finally – I have found the ideal chrome App to manage my multitude of open windows – Session Manager – so far it has been doing what it says on the tin.

Macro Experiments with my camera

2012-01-28T13:52:00.001Z

One of the dangers of the modern age is the Internet – it is just too easy to find out about stuff and then spend money. As a result of my son’s interest in Macro photography for his work, I have been spending time checking out what is possible. Which resulted in me spending money

There is loads of information on the web, but as usual nothing quite answers the questions in my mind. In general, like most things quality of the reproduction in photography is related to how much you are prepared to spend. Of course the aesthetic quality of the actual picture is about much more than just the cash involved. I didn’t want to spend too much money either.

My camera uses a Micro Four Thirds standard, which is used by both Panasonic and Olympus. A 45mm F2.8 Macro lens would cost around £560 (today’s Amazon price) and is capable of 1x magnification. For me that is too much to try out a branch of photography and for my son in his first job way too much.

An alternative is to use extension tubes, cheap, but lots of uncertainties about what you do about aperture and focus. Some tubes just physically move the lens away from the camera body, others might allow the camera and lens to “communicate”. Another alternative is to use a close-up lens which goes on the end of the lens but none fitted my Panasonic lens, as far as I could tell.

I’d given up, but it turns out that various filter manufacturers make them – from £10.00 to these Hama ones for £40.78 (Currently half price). In the end I succumbed and went for the Hama ones. The great thing is that I order them yesterday afternoon and they arrived in the post mid-morning today.

We have friend coming around for dinner tonight so I don’t have much play time. So here are a few cheeky pictures.

Using my 14-140mm lens this is the result.

Using the N4 lens – quite an increase in magnification – but either the focus point is wrong or I shook or the quality is compromised – it is a little blurry.

This time I used the N2 to take two pictures at different zooms. In the second case I allowed the camera to rest on the table and set the aperture to the max – f22.

When using the close-up lens I can see I will have to learn about the focus issues. Depending upon the zoom factor and distance from the subject I found there were times I couldn’t focus.

This is pretty good though, reasonable sharpness and flexibility.

A similar picture, but this time at f22 to get a greater depth of field. This was taken resting on the table with a speed of around 0.4s

I can see that, for me these close-up lenses will do the trick, without spending inordinate amounts on a new lens. As for my son I can see that will probably work for him – providing he can get the right filter size. As these were quick experiments I left the sky-light filter on the lens which probably compromises things a bit.

And finally (well a few finallys) – a driver takes a wrong turn and drives 50 yards along a main line railway track. I wonder if there were some lens issues?

Apparently we are no longer so keen on being green. For what it is worth I think that there are three issues, being green can be unclear – we sort our rubbish, but can they take batteries, what about compact fluorescent bulbs, where do they go. The second issue is we don’t see any real payback. I don’t mean that we don’t get paid – just that we don’t see any noticeable advantage. The last issue is that we are all guilty and frankly don’t want to acknowledge change is necessary – ‘cos we’d have to change things significantly. Let’s face it cars are pretty bad – but very few of us want to give them up (me included.)

Then when we do try we get let down – apparently some smart meters don’t work

This is related to photographing small things – a Lego man in space. The art of disguise – against wallpaper – although she needs to sort out her hair! and fireworks and lightening in Perth.

Stuck in the Office–and its Sunny!!!

2012-01-27T12:32:00.001Z

Now I am not really looking for sympathy. After all I do work from home and that has a lot of advantages compared with a life of commuting. I have stuff to do and I am also in the process of tidying up my workspace and diary, submitting gas and electricity meter readings and lots of other jobs that don’t take that long but added together seem to use of lots of time.

Mind you I have been out on my bike and I am popping out again shortly – to post some letters. If that sounds like an excuse – well it is. But it is sunny and the temperature is rising so it would be rude not to, I just I don’t get lost on the way back

After commenting upon the issues of the amount of traffic that builds up around schools an item appears in the Newmarket section of the Cambridge News – “Mothers campaign for safer road after girl is hit by car”. Remember that motorists have to drive with the safety of children in mind at a speed suitable for the conditions.

School Warning – Fen Drayton

I Interpret this to mean that when there are lots of children around –say at the start or end of the school day then you have to drive much more slowly. Children do run out into the road and you can’t drive as you might do on a clear road. I am not sure that is how motorists really see it though.

This morning as I cycled back from picking up a newspaper I was following a car that stopped at a T-junction, with no indication. It had stopped about a quarter of a mile from the school to let school kids out. When it did stop it left me unsure whether the car driver was being super-cautious before pulling onto the main road or which way it was turning. It wasn’t until I saw the kids open the car door did I realise it had wasn’t just waiting at the junction.

I’ve also commented on Transport Grants – well three community groups in Huntingdonshire are sharing £27,400 – lets hope it makes a sustainable difference. Whilst in the Ely area “Buses may escape axe” if they are “socially necessary”. Does all this to-and-for bureaucracy create value for money I wonder. Hopefully at least those in needs of such services might actually get them.

The Orchard Park development to the north of Cambridge city might finally be set to get a shopping centre. This is despite a previous scheme being approved in 2009. According to the comments there aren’t any cycle space planned. Apparently this pushes the development past the 900 homes which implies there are already 750plus people who end up driving whenever they need to go shopping. Joined-up planning?

CGB Near Orchard Park

Is is all sustainable? A timely chart from xkcd. (Which operates under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.).

Wish Lists

2012-01-26T11:31:00.001Z

What caught my eye this morning was this “£5m bus travel ‘wish list’ includes day traffic bans”. Apparently Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) has bid for some money from the Government’s Better Bus Areas Fund. This is apparently aimed at increasing passenger numbers in urban areas. Which implies reducing the number of cars within those same urban areas. If you read the article it seems to be a bunch of bits and pieces. Although perhaps I am just being a bit cynical.

Cambridge Guided Busway run trials for interested locals (April 2009)

The article also mentions another fund – The Local Sustainable Transport Fund which is another Government initiative aimed at economic growth and reducing carbon emissions – worth £560 million in total. CCC put a bid in but weren’t successful. If you believe the politics it was because the CCC planned to cut the bus services. Although apparently the “Council has reinstated £1.5m of those cuts”.

Several thoughts spring to mind here – would you believe a Council was keen on public transport when it starts cutting their budgets? It also makes me think that the Government has created some “slush funds” through which it can reward those councils that do its bidding. Now of course I am sure it is really all above board and not managed like that at all.

Also looking at both the Bus ideas and the bid we put in the last time there seems to be a whole load of bits and pieces – whereas I would have thought that this money would be better suited to catalysing bigger changes. If all that is needed is a bit of fiddling then those Funds are better spent elsewhere. The bid seems to include calls for substantial amounts of money for planning and publicity – and not enough of bolder moves that might actually create a modal shift. For instance the Chisholm Trail – joining the dots between the Southern and Northern sections of the CGB has a bid for only £41K and yet cycle counters require £30K.

Parking is tight in Cambridgeshire!

One area of spending I am at best ambivalent about is on “More road signs to warn motorists of traffic conditions”, at £18,000 they are not cheap and at best might slightly improve a car journey, I’d prefer to see the money spent on reducing the need to drive into Cambridge.

Cycle Ride Signs – Isleham

I was pleased to see that “Crossing the road brought up to speed” might reduce the waiting time at pedestrian crossings. Some crossings in Cambridge do seem to overly favour the road users – there is even a suggestion that “if people do see pedestrians given priority, hopefully they will think about not using the car for relatively short journeys and will walk instead”. Unfortunately it will take more than that in terms of joined up thinking – but it is a start.

Crossing the CGB – mind the step

In my view they should focus the spending on the critical items that might actually create change – then the publicity is easy. The trouble is many of us really don’t comprehend the importance of public transport – we either drive or can walk or cycle – yet it can be critical. As you might expect “How will we get to Tesco when our buses disappear?” is about Elderly residents in Cambridge who will be disadvantaged when buses are re-routed because of the Station improvements. We ought to remember that we will all get older one day.

Talking of which a “Tandem bicycle hearse is up for sale”. Apparently the owner, Reverend Paul Sinclair, 46 is not fit enough to operate it – he is “a biker not a cyclist”. Mind you Outspoken Deliveries have taken delivery of three trikes capable of carrying cargos of up to 1/4 tonne – they must be fit enough – perhaps they could buy the Tandem Hearse?

A Tandem – somewhere between Hull and Cambridge

Here is an interesting hobby – creating GPS track pictures. I am not sure I’ll be taking it up though.

And finally: I never thought I would have anything in common with Peter Hitchens who writes for the Daily Mail. His views don’t really accord with mine. However it turns out we have both been knocked of our bicycles by cars in SMIDSYs. He suggests that through the creation of safer cars (Seatbelts, anti-lock brakes, airbags etc.) it has created a subconscious carelessness leading to roads becoming “statistically safer because the soft targets have entirely retreated from them”.

I can’t disagree with that – you only have to look at how cars and buses whizzing around schools at the beginning and end of the day make cycling much more hazardous. (I cycle in such an area most weekday mornings). Some schools seem to actively discourage cycling – “Your daughter can’t cycle to school because it’s not school policy”. So much so that Sustrans has a page on “Can Schools ban cycling” – no but they can ban bikes on school property! The CTC has a “Right to Ride to School campaign”. It is changing though.

Cycling home from School – Long Road Cambridge

My wish list? Well I have some minor lurgy-thingy at the moment and my old wound (SMISDY – broken collar bone) aches a bit as well.) Roll on longer, warmer days!

Windy cycling–no problem when you don’t have to get anywhere fast

2012-01-25T12:33:00.001Z

Sunday, 22^nd January 2012: Wind is a funny thing – and just to be clear I am talking about the weather here. A lot of the time we tend not to think about it. We (well I) associate it with early Spring and Autumn. I also think of the Flatlands of east Anglia as a windy place but it turns out we live in one of the more sheltered parts of the UK and we do get our stronger winds around the winter months (Check out the wind section near the bottom). Surprisingly the average wind speed doesn’t vary that much – from 8 Knots to just under 12 Knots, whilst the Gust speed varies from 40 Knots up to 80 Knots.

Interestingly we also still measure wind speed in Knots – which is a unit of speed equating to one nautical mile per hour (or 1.852 Km per hour or 1.151 mph). So a wind speed of 80 Knots is a wind speed of 148Km/ hour or 92 mph. Perhaps we use Knots to make it seem less threatening.

We also have the Beaufort Wind Force Scale which quantises or lumps the wind speeds into buckets of increasing intensity. So a Beaufort number of 0 is calm and is used for wind speeds of 0 – 1 mph. Whereas further up the scale a Beaufort number of 5 is a fresh breeze and indicates a wind speed of between 18 and 24 mph. It was originally a qualitative scale relating to the effects on the sails of a man-of-war.

When riding a bicycle the wind always seems to be against you, although it isn’t really. Depending upon the strength of the wind I find that cross-winds can be far more unsettling that a wind blowing directly from the front, especially when passing gaps in the hedgerow.

The other factor that I dislike about wind is something I first noticed when riding a motorbike. When there is a moderate cross-wind everything is fine but whenever a large lorry passes in the other direction you get a significant buffeting as the lorry cuts across the wind and creates its own turbulence.

I have been riding a bicycle for quite a few decades and yet it is only recently that the effect of wind and large lorries/buses has really impinged upon my cycling. The buffeting effect is highly dependent upon how close you are to the lorry and whether you are travelling in the same direction or not as the lorry.

With the increase in shared-use paths – pavements you can cycle along – cyclists can find themselves quite close to oncoming lorries – which when windy can give you quite a buffeting. I have never seen much written about this though. It is particularly noticeable on roads where there is no speed limit restriction and a shared-use path. Like this stretch of road between Lode and Swaffham Bulbeck. At the Swaffham Bulbeck end there is less gap between the road and the path.

Swaffham Bulbeck – Lode Shared-use path

Of course the solution is to avoid that stretch of path – which I do most of the time – whether it is windy or not it is always very noisy. As I hadn’t been out to Wicken Fen for a while I cycled along High Ditch Road and around Low Fen Drove Way, then up to Horningsea and over to Lode. The round to Upware, and back through Wicken along Lodes Way. It was windy though with gusts up to 40 knots.

View Larger Map

Although it wasn’t that late when I set out the sun was still fairly low in the sky, being winter. So I didn’t hang around too much taking pictures as I wanted to be coming back along Lodes Way and able to take advantage of the sunset.

As you might expect there were walkers and dog walkers out and about. Not far passed Allicky Farm I tinged my bell to let a couple with a yellow Labrador know I was passing. Just past them I had the slightly panicked shouts that tend to cause my heart to leap into my mouth. Their dog was chasing me. Generally Labradors are more playful than aggressive. This one was playful and ran around me and in front of me – requiring an emergency stop – I was glad when I cleared the dog though.

Although Labradors are generally playful my younger brother was attacked by one when he was around 14 and had to go to A&E to get the wound sorted. It was as we were walking along a pavement and an old chap had the dog on a metal chain – it looked like a choker chain – he lost control and the dog went for the nearest limb to bite. Fortunately for me it was my brother’s arm. He has been wary of dogs ever since.

People often moan about digital photography and the ability to manipulate the pictures and how it is not real photography. The reality is that cameras don’t record what the human sees and lots of manipulation was possible in the film days of photography. The issue is that perhaps some don’t like that fact that manipulation has become easier.

My first SLR camera was a Canon AT-1, you had to focus and set the aperture and speed before taking a picture. You also had to load 35mm film into it. More than once I failed to load the film in properly and found that the pictures I thought I’d taken, hadn’t. My son used it a few years ago with black and white film to experiment with.

So this isn’t quite what it looked like when I was out – but taking a picture into the sun causes everything else to look darker and quite dramatic. My Panasonic camera is not technically an SLR camera – when you look through the viewfinder you are actually looking at a small LCD screen at what is coming through the lens. Whereas with an SLR camera, normally when you look through a viewfinder you actually see the picture through a mirror and prism system. This makes my camera a little safer when taking such pictures. Normally you would never look at the sun through a camera as it can be dangerous.

This was taken along Fen Road just out of Lode.

As you can see in this picture taken with my back to the sun along Great Drove towards Upware it wasn’t really that dark. It did look bleak though.

Once again shooting into the sun at the Washes near Upware – as you can see they tend to flood during the winter months. I didn’t see many birds – probably because of the blustery wind.

Wicken Fen wasn’t as busy as I feared – probably because by now it was getting darker. So I didn’t have to contend with path-blockers on the cycle route through. The sun was getting quite low in the sky by now.

After hauling my bike over the footbridge over Burwell lode and passing a few bird watchers I met MikeC on shanks’ pony – he’d decided against cycling in the face of 40 knot gusts. As we walked (well I cycled) along Lodes Way through Adventurers Fen we met and chatted with another cyclist coming the other way. (Mike seems to know many of the cyclists on Lodes Way).

He had visited Pout Hall Corner to see how the water abstraction to fill Burwell Fen was going.

After saying goodbye at Hightown Drove I put my lights on and carried along Lodes Way. I passed what looked like old computer monitor casings and then these bags. I have often wondered what really happens when you donate old clothes to charity by filling the bags that appear at you door from time to time. Well sometimes they seem to end up by the side of the road – and I have seen this more than once.

As usual the Council had been here first and checked and then labelled the bags in the hope of catching whoever dumped them here. They are probably one of the unsung parts of the council – but keep up the good work.

At the crossroads with Great Drove I stopped to take my last picture. As the sun sets it is less bright and so the picture ends up with less contrast. So although it is darker overall it looks lighter than the pictures taken earlier in the afternoon.

Despite the wind it was a very pleasant cycle ride. Partly because I wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry and partly because the route twists and turns, sometimes between hedgerows the wind was rarely against me for too long. Mind you if it had been raining as well then it would have been a different story.

1,562 whiplash claims per day–make neck braces compulsory in cars!

2012-01-24T16:56:00.001Z

I can’t actually track down the source of the widely reported1,562 whiplash claims per day in the UK, but have found an Association of British Insurers (ABI) Press release indicating it is nearly 1,200 per day (news release on the ABI website). Given this horrific news then surely we must demand that neck braces are compulsory for all car occupants. After all that implies that there are over 400,000 whiplash claims per year.

Apparently we are in the middle of a “whiplash epidemic”. In this video Malcolm Tarling from the Association of British Insurers suggests that “every minute of every day someone in this country claims for whiplash”. Which implies 525,600 claims per year (and 1,440 claims per day).

Despite the wind on Sunday, here in the flatlands, with gusts up to 40 Knots (46mph). I had a very pleasant ride – but as my browser fills up with interesting cycling-related bits and pieces it seems to slow down. So the time has come to either comment on them or close the window – so I’ll post about my Sunday ride later.

I am a Chrome user (currently Beta – 17.0.963.38), mainly because it is fast, I still have Internet Explorer (IE 9.9.4) on my machine but almost never use it, except when I come across some minor problem with compatibility – which are quite rare nowadays. Having said that I also use Flashblock to stop unnecessary displays appearing on webpages, all in order to cut down on the parasitic load on my computer.

The trouble is that Flash does crash from time to time although Chrome is quite resilient and quite a lot of the blocked bits around a page adverts. You can create whitelists, but in the main I don’t as blocked bits can easily be clicked to allow the Flash content to be displayed.

Mind you McAfee will also occasionally flag an advert as coming from a questionable source – the adverts don’t come from the same place as most of a page’s content. So I do wonder if there are too many programs getting in the way before finally showing me what is going on. I know that adverts probably pay for a lot of what I see – however whilst I accept that they might take up a bit if display space on a webpage I don’t really want them using up loads of CPU cycles and I really am not happy about them taking up loads of physical memory.

Currently with 30 web pages in two groups and Windows Live writer and Task Manager as my only programs it is using 94% of physical memory. When I close all the web pages it falls to 24% of physical memory. Re-loading most of the web pages again only takes it up to 76% – which implies a memory leak?

So where to start. Some of the webpages have been around for a while and I have forgotten where they came from – Twitter and the Blogs I read tend to be the main sources. Also my guilty secret is that despite the politics of the Daily Mail not being aligned with my own – they do have a free website with lots of pictures and some extravagant headlines.

Having said that the first link is a very measured response to a bunch of letters criticising a Cycling Initiative – “Pedal Power” for showing helmetless cycling. As you might imagine there an almost hysteric criticism – yet the letter in a well-measured way reminds us that “A bike is an ordinary and totally accessible means of getting about and needs to remain as such.” (My emphasis.)

What no helmets – cycling through Wicken Fen

Given the cost of other forms of private and public transport not to mention the health benefits you would think that society might want to encourage cycling and a belief in its safety. Talking about costs here is a Daily Mail piece on “Car insurance doubled?” Apparently the average cost of car insurance was £333 eighteen years ago, it is now £1,510. It highlights the issues of ambulance-chasers and the increase in whiplash claims. The article suggests that an Association of British Insurers estimates is that there are 1,562 whiplash claims per day in the UK. If that is really the case then there is a strong argument to say we should all wear neck braces when in cars. Cycling neck braces are not cheap though.

I have tried to track down the actual number of whiplash injuries made by the ABI – here is a news release on the ABI website, dated 19^th May 2011, that suggests that nearly 1200 whiplash claims are made per day. They estimate the costs as £8 million` to the NHS in treatment and nearly £2 billion in insurance payouts.

I also wonder if the drive to make modern cars much safer has also led to an increase in the costs of repair. For instance when I started driving we did not have air-bags, now we do – they definitely make a car safer for the occupants certain types of crashes. However they will then require replacement, not to mention the need for renewal after 10 years! According to this link, just the driver’s side replacement and fit will cost $700 (£450) for a Honda Accord.

Of course for many cyclists why does this all matter – well because it makes car drivers feel even more hard done by. When they feel hard done by then it makes them feel that cyclists deserve all they get.

You often see cars parked on pavements and cycleways, lots of cyclists complain, rarely do things get done. Although I have seen a ticket on a car parked on a pavement once. Here is the cyclist blog in the Cambridge News – justifiably complaining – “Blog 29: Is it a car park or a cycleway”.

Cars on the Shared-use Pavement – Fordham – room to squeeze a wheelchair?

Of course in that age-old territorial battle for the road between cyclists and cars, well that’s the way the motorists see it I think we have a celebrity entry. In an altercation between machine and bike we have Shane Warne as the driver. Here a small selection of links; “Shane Warne vs. cyclists: registration and number plates”, “Warnie puts bad spin on cycling” and “Warniegate! The Cyclist’s Side”.

I don’t know the truth about what happened but to paraphrase the way in which Judge’s sometimes seem to explain their decisions – I find the cyclist’s version of events far more credible than the cricketer’s. The trouble is such ignorance of the issues is the real problem.

Part of the problem is that Shane Warne turned to Twitter as if to get his retaliation first – perhaps not really the best way to resolve the issue. In another Aussie media-personality road rage case the motorist was found guilty of intentionally causing injury. Although that news report only really quotes the car driver. An earlier report of the court case tells the cyclist’s story – his finger was broken and there were six fragments.

The trouble is car drivers are not vulnerable road users and cyclists are – as a cyclist I do know how having a near miss with a car is a shocking experience.

We know that cars cause pollution and lower polluting cars pay less vehicle excise duty or car tax as an incentive to us all to drive lower polluting cars. Well we have a CO2 measuring sculpture in Cambridge to show the levels – it is positioned at the Hills Road entrance to the Botanic Gardens, I must look out for it. Although I better make sure I don’t leave it until we get some snow at a “Shortage of grit could leave Cambridge City Centre cut off”. Apparently they will grit the town centres of Wisbech and Whittlesey – mind you this only applies as an emergency measure if there is a shortage of grit.

Deck the halls and grit the roads, but not the shared-use pavements
Lode – Swaffham Bulbeck)

Just to rub salt into the problem – apparently the man-made carbon emissions means that the “oceans have acidified more in the last 200 years ‘than they did in the previous 21,000 years’” – rather a sobering thought.

I believe that those in power should lead by example – so was horrified to see that one “seaside town bans wardens from issuing councillors with parking fines”. It is Southend and they have programmed their new ticketing system to block the issuance of tickets. The good news is that nine councillors from the Independent Group have refused to take part. Then in Wandsworth a “driver was given a £110 parking fine as he helped give first aid to a motorbike crash victim”. So good Samaritans are not to be trusted, whilst Councillors are considered too upright to possibly flout the rules. That’s cockeye if you ask me.

In what appears to be a none story “is this the worst road in Britain? Residents count 134 potholes in just 350yards”. The Daily Mail actually shows a road with patched potholes, not that well I agree, but I wouldn’t report them as being hazards to a cyclist – yet. I do wonder why they don’t measure the distance in metre – perhaps because we still use miles to measure distance on the roads.

Almost finally – some cyclists items. Regent Street in Cambridge was closed after a crash involving a female cyclist and a car. I am not sure quite where it happened and she suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries. I hope she makes a full recovery. This bit of Regent Street can be tricky with the Bollards to block non-bus traffic and a right turn to avoid the bollards.

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A rather unpleasant cycling incident was also reported – “Cyclist snatches wallet from ride in Cambridge”. Although apparently crime is down 10% in the county (Cambs). It does highlight that cycling is the norm in Cambridge with perpetrators and victims on their bikes.

My son is interested in taking pictures of plant diseases (for his job) and has been asking me about Macro photography. I hadn’t realised just how complex a subject it is. You can get special lenses (macro lens), or lens that go on the front of an existing lens (close-up lens), or tubes that go in between the existing lens and the camera (extension tubes) or even attach you lens the other way around.

For his purposes I think he can get away with a close-up lens since he only needs a small increase in magnification and can’t afford an expensive purpose built lens. He has an Olympus Pen camera and by luck rather than judgement can use my Panasonic lenses as well. (As you might expect different manufacturers have different ways of fitting their lens onto the camera bodies). But I don’t have a Macro lens. This is about what my 14-140mm lens can achieve.

As I was sitting I though I’d take a quick test picture. This is Custard, my cycling mascot. He has been around the world and cycled in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and India as well as in the UK and was a gift from my daughter. He is about 9cm in height, although a little fore-shortened. So you can see that if the leaf had splotches around the size of the button – 10mm then doesn’t occupy a lot of the frame. Mind you even with 12mega pixies you could blow up the image

Which is what I have done here – the brown dots are 10mm apart in real life and yet appear on my screen as 40mm apart – and are at an acceptable resolution (IMHO).

Here are some proper macro pictures – some quite stunning insect close-ups. And I must check out the sky at night – with the solar activity we are getting Northern lights down above Yorkshire apparently.

And finally – “Denise van Outen’s bum is killing her” – she is doing a 289 mile charity ride across India for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Mind you technically the temperatures aren’t above boiling in India – it is hot and you do need to drink lots. In the last picture she seems to be practising cycling with her eyes shut!.

A bit of CGB News

2012-01-23T14:03:00.001Z

It has been a while since the CGB (Cambridgeshire Guided Busway) legal battles have been mentioned in the press. Well they have appeared in the Hunts Post – “Cambs Busway: £52m court battle still two years away”. That is a fair bit of money and the article indicates that the Council's budget for legal costs is £5m which is probably a good guess for the amount that the contractors, their parent company and their insurers will also be budgeting. (BAM Nuttal Limited.)

It is a good job that the Busway seems to be carrying plenty of passengers, that at least means that there is some value for money. I’ve often wondered quite why there seemed to be so much political pressure to pursue the guided busway rather than reinstate the railway line. Mind you as a cyclist I have benefitted from the conversion as it has led to the creation of an excellent cycleway between the north of Cambridge and St Ives.

CGB Cycleway near Swavesey

My guess is that although we think of the railways as being a privately owned and controlled system they aren’t really that free. In fact they seem to combine the worst aspects of capitalism and governmental bureaucracy. The office of Rail Regulation employs 320 people. According to Wikipedia the UK has the 18th largest railway network and is the fifth busiest. However a study released last year – “McNulty’s ‘Rail value for Money study’” indicated that UK’s rail costs should be 20-30% lower when compared with countries such as France. (Here is the full report – which does have increasing the revenue from car – parking as one of its Terms of Reference.– Annex A.)

So I have coined the term BureauCaptic – for the situation and I think this was the reason we got the Guided Busway – because it reduces the layers of bureaucracy. Mind you it also serves to reduce the power of the unions. Which might or might not be deliberate. Although with deals done to pay Tube staff more the bus drivers are also asking for more so perhaps it doesn’t?

It would also appear that the A14 £20million improvements fund might also be used to pay for doubling the St Ives Park and Ride capacity. So the CGB does seem to be flavour of the month.

St Ives CGB Park and Ride

Speed limits have also been in the local press. The A1301 north of Sawston is to become a 50mph stretch with a hoped for a 40mph limit where the cycleway crosses the road.

A1301 – with NCN 11 Cycle route crossing (blue dots)
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Pressure for an A10 speed limit has been scrapped though with the argument that it would be dangerous. There will be a 50mph limit between the Milton and Waterbeach – which might make crossing from Waterbeach to Landbeach slightly easier though. Some strange logic there – speed limits are dangerous – if that’s the case then why do we have them at all! There is of course no recognition of the quality of life issues associated with noisy roads nor the problem of crossing fast roads.

20mph Speed Limit – Cambridge City

Whilst talking about Fen Roads “Thirty vehicles stopped during multi-agency crackdown on key Fen roads” reports on checking for illegal use of red diesel, heating oil or stolen scrapped metal on roads such as the A10. I wonder if they knew how dangerous the road was if motor vehicles were slowed down.

A nicer place to live or faster roads–I know which I want

2012-01-23T11:30:00.001Z

Friday, 20^th January 2012: At the moment the weather seems to be changeable. It varies from freezing to around 10C almost on a daily basis. Some days it is calm, some days it can suddenly get blustery and although this part of the world (the Flatlands of East Anglia) is pretty dry we do seem to be getting a bit of rain. The weather graphs for Friday show persistent rain from about 9.30am through to 6pm and the graphs for the month of January show temperatures bouncing, the wind blowing and rain along with some sunshine as well.

Now I had a lunchtime meeting that was going to make an excellent excuse to get out for a ride and a bit of fresh air. Although I do have some cycling gear, including Lycra I am also in cycling being an every day thing that you can and should do in normal clothes. The trouble is the more cycling is marked out as a specialist activity requiring special clothing the easier it is to marginalise – think Lycra Louts or MAMILs.

The result is that cycling becomes marginalised and gives our politicians the excuse not to spend money on decent facilities, it allows motorists the excuse to transfer blame onto cyclists whether it is for not wearing a helmet or lights or bright gear. All of which really just allow motorists to drive faster and with less attention on the road. (IMHO).

One of the blame points appears to be on cyclists who jump red lights. Well look at this You tube video “Cyclists don’t stop at RED” to see just how well behaved motorists aren’t. When I saw it I couldn’t believe how wild-west the roads have become.

Mind you that was only a “few” motorists jumping red lights, the “majority of cyclists jump red lights.” Well no that is not true – a study in London by the Road Network Performance & Research Team looked at the “Proportion of Cyclists Who Violate Red Lights in London” showed that it was a small minority. It was still too large, but nowhere near a majority. (See Section 7, Summary on page 28. On average 16% of cyclists jumped red lights on a selection of traffic-light controlled crossings in London and yes I think it is mad too.)

Temporary Traffic Lights – Coton, a roof being re-thatched

One of the consequences is “Cotton wool children”. According to the article only one in five children play out every day, one in ten has never ridden a bike and a third have never built a den or climbed a tree. In our safety obsessed culture why would you let children do any of those dangerous things!

Despite have quite a few cycle accidents when I was a young lad and also falling out of trees a few times I didn’t actually break any bones until a couple of years ago (and well beyond being a young lad) when I was in a SMISDY and got knocked off my bike by a car driver who didn’t see me. (I got the classic, for cyclists, broken collar bone for his troubles.)

Anyone for tree-climbing? A Misty tree somewhere in Cambs

Although the guidance for motorists in this country is to pay special attention to road users requiring extra care (rules 204 - 225) as a society I worry that we are over optimising the way we live for motorists and their throughput. I reckon that many roads have gotten nosier, whether it is more traffic or nosier tyres I don’t know. The consequence is that many of us use mp3 players to drown out the unpleasantness. Well apparently “Serious accidents triple for pedestrians wearing headphones”. This results from “inattentional blindness”.

If you read the article, look at the quote from the AA man at the bottom. It is funny how only “Pedestrians and cyclists seem to get lost in a private cocoon when they’re on a mobile in the street, or wearing headphones”. If you take this to a logical conclusion then shouldn’t we also ban car stereos, SatNavs, hands-free mobile phones and talking amongst car occupants. After all driving a lump of metal around and suffering from inattention seems to be far more serious than bone, flesh and water.

I wonder if this was inattentional blindness? “Oops, I didn’t see the signs and flashing lights: Woman ‘lucky to be alive’ after driving into path of oncoming train”. Fortunately there were no serious consequences.

A Low Tech Level Crossing near Westley Bottom

In case you are wondering – although I got a cycle cape for Christmas the combination of wind and rain stopped me from trying it out – I ended up driving to my meeting instead.

A Tales of two cities–no cycling, but bicycle pictures

2012-01-18T19:10:00.001Z

Tuesday, 18^th January 2012:It was a day of meetings in London and foolishly I decided that it was so cold that that the sorts of clothing I required to keep me warm whilst cycling were not compatible with sorts of clothing I would need in London. More fool me. In hindsight I was stupid not to have just set off to the Railway Station on my bicycle since I know that I will warm up pretty quickly and that when it is really cold I modify my speed (work rate) to balance the heat I generate with the heat I lose to maintain a pretty comfortable temperature. (Perhaps I should get one of these – a suitpack, although I would have to change in the Railway Station toilets – not a pleasant though.

What’s more we had blue skies and sunshine which would have made it a very pleasant ride to the Railway Station. Regular readers will know how much I hate the Station facilities – whether I cycle and park my bike there, or drive there and park my car or take my Brompton folding bike and take it to London. The principle problems are if you are not a commuter then very often the available spaces have been taken - whether car or bicycle.

The weird thing is that they have built and additional platform to increase the Stations passenger capacity. The new platform means longer trains and so more customers. Cambridge is increasing in size, which is bound to increase the number of commuters –especially if they can now catch the train and not have to stand all the way there and all the way back.

So in this era of joined-up thinking you might imagine that they would have thought about getting to and from the station. Despite us living in capitalist times even the trains run faster than the solutions to the access problems. For me the problem might have been resolved if the CGB (Cambridgeshire Guided Busway) have been able to work its way through the town centre. For others I would imagine that if the CGB route between the Trumpington Park and Ride site had been a more frequent service.

Mind you it is only open from 7am to 8pm during the week – which if that means you can’t access the car park then it is a bit of a problem. it bills the time from the Park and Ride to the station as 13 minutes. The current charging system is non to clear to me though. Buses appear to run every 20 minutes from 6.39am to 19.39pm. The pricing is not set up for acting as a shuttle between the P&R and the Railway station but appears to be £3.50 for a dayrider. Whilst the current car park chares at the Railway Station are £7.70 (peak).

Of course regular users would presumably go for season tickets – annual car-parking at the railway station is £1300.50 (very important that 50p). Whilst a seven day ticket for the CGB is £12. So Assuming you go to work 48 weeks of the then using the Trumpington P&R would cost £576 , a saving of £724.50 and a wasting of 288 hours. I have assumed 13 minutes on the CGB and an average wait of 10 minutes for the bus. I can see that if you are commuting into London then that is too much time to “waste” for that level of return.

Of course, you say for a capitalist country like the UK surely the price is set by supply and demand, well maybe it is, but frequently when I drive to the station the car park is full. As for the cycle parking – you’d think that there would be some appetite for paying for decent cycle parking. Well maybe, but land space is also at a premium. If the car park is full every week day with say an 80% occupancy and everyone pays for season tickets that represents 435 * 0.8 * £1300 per annum. (£450,000).

It would appear that the P&R sites are being opened up to encourage competition though, so a bit of thought about making them even more useful might be worthwhile.

Enough moaning. We had another serious cycle accident in Cambridge. As is the way accidents that result in court proceedings take some time. One has recently been reported where a Driver struck a cyclist after losing control when overtaking. The comments make for perplexing reading as the injured cyclist has commented on the circumstances.

I am an advocate of further driver training as one of the ways in which such offences can be dealt with. I think such driver training makes sense in addition to the other penalties. I also wonder whether another penalty would be to restrict the maximum power of car that could be driven for some reasonable period. It sounds as if this Overtaking driver who hit a cyclist might benefit from further training.

One aspect that confuses me is that the serious of the accident is measured by the level of casualty. Yet the seriousness can sometimes be rather random. Here is a case of a lorry driver who was jailed for six years for killing two people changing a tyre by the side of a motorway. I presume that driving a lorry requires a higher duty of care (I would like to presume that). However it does seem that we punish the result and not the actual transgression itself.

Enough – I actually had a pleasant day once I was on my way to the station, walking through the new apartment blocks being built around the area. It is interesting how popular apartments around the Railway Station are – there is clearly a demand for convenient London commuting with minimal hassle getting to the station. Here is one such apartment block a few hundred metres from the ration.

There is a lot of construction still taking pace in the area – that crane is on the other side of Station Road.

The same picture but with a bit of manipulation to correct the distortion – there wasn’t enough correction by the looks of things though. You also lose bits of the picture when you crop it back to a rectangular shape.

The old Spiller’s building which was hit by a fire in March 2010. Here is a picture, pre-fire in 2000 and here is a painting.

As I walked along Station Road the usual sight. Now most people probably think flipping cyclists, what do they think they are doing leaving their bicycles where they shouldn’t. Me, I think why on earth can’t this problems be sorted out – if this Station is carrying loads of passengers then it ought to be making enough money to improve its provision for those using its services.

The challenge is that if you cycle to the station then what do you do if you can’t find a space to park – not go to work, miss the train? Given the work pressures on many people the thing that gets compromised first is the security of the bicycle. Let’s face it given the problems of bike theft here in Cambridge you wouldn’t choose to park your bike like this.

And this isn’t just the odd bike, any place a bike can be locked up to is used. After all that is what cyclists are advised to do to help prevent bike theft.

There are bikes on the roundabout at the top of Station Road as well. Although in this picture (as I’ve just viewed it – 18th January, 2012.) there aren’t any bicycles. So things must be getting worse.

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As you can see down the route of the CGB towards Trumpington P&R every spare lamp post seems to have bicycles locked to them. This is clearly not because the cyclists prefer their own personal lamp post rather than park in the bike parks. This is because of the crap provision for all travellers using the railway station. It surprises me how such a state of affairs exists in a place like Cambridge.

The other reason I took this picture is that, as you can see there is bollard control to prevent the wrong vehicles getting down the CGB – although more for show as it looks as if it would be quite easy to circumvent them.

I am pleased to report that the journey into London was fine and on time and there were seats, although the train was busy. There is still a load of work taking place at King’s Cross Station, but it must be getting close as they were handing out leaflets about it. I resist the temptation to accept stuff as you then struggle to find places to throw it away.

It does surprise me just how far the the tube platforms are – they can’t have moved, but seemed a lot closer before all of the works took places. As it happens the tube also ran smoothly and I had a bit of time to spare before my first meeting. When I travel by car/bike, train and tube I tend to allow at least 30minutes extra and this time around because of timings it turned into 45 minutes. So it gave me time to wander along the Thames a little bit. (I used the Embankment tube station.)

I walked up onto the Golden Jubilee Bridge (there are workarounds to the Wikipedia protest).

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And from that bridge I took a picture down the Thames of the Waterloo Bridge and beyond. large rivers do help to open out cities and I am thinking wider than the River Cam, not that it is too bad. Mind you the London skyline is iconic.

This is the pedestrian bridge – aka The Golden Jubilee Bridge – or at least one half of it as the map shows another on the other side of the rail bridge (Hungerford Bridge). it did bounce a little as I was taking pictures and people walked by.

On the other side is the Royal Festival Hall.

And on my side Cleopatra’s Needle and the building with the clock seems to be Shell Mex House.

A close-up of Waterloo Bridge with St Paul’s Cathedral behind.

What is it they say about buses – well here are four on the bridge at the same time.

I also had a stroll through the Victoria Embankment Gardens, stopping to take this picture of some spiky leaves.

There was also this pond with the aforementioned needle behind. It is in memory of Major General Lord Cheylesmore. According to the management plan he was Sir Hubert Francis Heaton and a Mayor of London.

A bit further along in front the Institution of Engineering and Technology was a statue of Faraday, well known to students of Physics.

As this point I had to nip along and start work, which I did. The second of my meetings finished around 6.30pm and on my way out of the building I thought I would take some twilight pictures. At this point I remembered that my camera was in my coat pocket and that I had left my coat and scarf behind. I nipped back in although I had handed in my pass – but no-one seemed to mind.

On the way back to the tube station here is the London Eye with a grey-blue sky behind.

And as I promised bikes, here are some bike – “Boris bikes”. What a fine array, ready and waiting for some willing cyclists. It made me think that I ought to join up and then use them to get around London. The main problems are that I don’t know my way around London very well and I certainly don’t know where the Boris Bike parks are. Actually they are the Barclays Cycle Hire bikes. Using the planning facility on the website the route is almost directly north and only 4.0Km. As I sit here I wonder why I didn’t ride.

And to finish, here are some rivers, taken when I used to have a job involving travelling around..

A frozen river in Seoul, but not the main one

The River Cam – and some punters

A River in Tokyo

A River through the middle of Bangkok

And that’s it for rivers.

You don’t know how cold it is until you are hot!

2012-01-16T16:00:00.001Z

Sunday, 15^th January 2012: Trying to predict the weather seems to be quite tricky for our weather forecasters, although the results can be stunning. Some of the pictures in the link are taken near Glastonbury Tor, a place I grew up near.

The bigger challenge though for me as a cyclist is that of choosing what to wear. Unfortunately it is not a simple matter of checking the temperature and putting on an appropriate set of clothing. The trouble is as a cyclist you also need to consider the possibility of rain, wind and sun. Which can all occur on the same ride and occasionally at the same time.

The bigger problem is that my body overrules my head. If it is cold then I tend to wrap up much warmer than I really need to. Cycling is an activity that leads to a generation of heat, yet when I start off I seem to wilfully forget that. So on Sunday I had leggings and my fluorescent gloves with inner gloves and I popped on a pair of shorts for added comfort. I also wore a hat and stuck a tubular bit of cloth (a buff) around my neck to block the draft there.

So I felt quite comfortable despite the low temperatures which by lunchtime were well above the -2C and around 5C. However when cold a good plan to generate heat is to climb hills, which of course is easier said than done when living in the Flatlands of East Anglia. So I planned my usual twin-peaks route which takes in the heights of the Swaffham Heath Road and the Gog Magog Hills. here is the Bike Route Toaster link to the route shown on the map below. It is just around 50Km / 31 miles and doesn’t really have two peaks. I took a short cut off the Swaffham Heath Road after cycling up out of Swaffham Bulbeck and took to a bridleway instead. The maximum elevation reached is 65m and the minimum is 6m so there isn’t really a lot of climbing!

It was fairly gloomy as I headed east out of Cambridge on the NCN51 towards Swaffham Bulbeck. I did stop at the Newmarket Road P&R site briefly to take this picture. The shared use path crosses this road section. It is the exit path from the back car park. The shared use path crosses left to right. The path on the left of the picture leads of the shared-use path. To the right of that path there used to be a huge row of shrubs which meant that any pedestrian or cyclists coming through to the crossing didn’t have much of a view of the oncoming cars (and vice versa). As you can see where the shared-use path and road intersect the level has been raised to that of the path.

The new situation is much better and an example of how sometimes aesthetics can get in the way of safety. Whilst in the main, most car driver would stop unconditionally for pedestrians and cyclists there is a small but too significant minority that don’t. The trouble is who is in the right? Well these types of constructions seem to leave it ambiguous, perhaps deliberately. I much prefer this cycle route out of town than the Newmarket Road – but this is rather a compromise for an important cycle route.

(This can also be a pain when there are uncooperative pedestrians walking across the entire width of the path.) .

As it happens the P&R was not busy, so I didn’t have any cars or people to negotiate a way through – shared-use paths do work when there isn’t much sharing required – IMHO. It was pretty grey and I had reached a fairly comfortable operating temperature by now. That is until I reached the slight rise out of Swaffham Bulbeck. Which as you can see from the two pictures, isn’t much of a rise

Quarry Lane, Swaffham Bulbeck
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Swaffham Heath Road, Swaffham Bulbeck

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By now, I was too hot, and whilst grumbling did I also mention that the shorts I was wearing on the outside of my leggings kept slipping down the smooth Lycra! Sitting here in the comfort of my study it is obvious I could have taken them off and probably taken my hat off and still been too warm. I did stop to take a picture of the miracles shining down on the distant trees though. (My son when he was a toddler used to call the sunbeams “miracles” – hence the name.)

And here are those same miracles again, but with a bit more zoom. I was listening to a radio program whilst out cycling talking about a technology that will give an assessment on how much tweaking a picture has been through (Click). This is particularly important in fashion and cosmetic advertising. They had one commentator talk about the virtual nature of digital photography compared with film photography. He then went on to talk about the assessment technology and how he didn’t think it was that necessary. His “photoshopping” was more about correcting lens distortions.

Funny that since lens distortions are just as much part of film photography as they are digital photography. In the days when I did my own developing and printing it was also a common technique to dodge and burn to subdue or bring out various parts of a picture.

What I ought to point out is that, as you might have guessed, the clouds did not look quite as dark and foreboding in real life as they do here. Shooting towards the sun tends to cause other parts of the picture to darken. Yes I could tweak it – but I rather like the dramatic air it gives the picture.

As I mentioned I then cycled along a bridleway that is yet to appear on the OSM map. It is on the OS map though and assuming that Where’s The Path still has capacity to serve map pages here it is. It runs alongside a 34m trig point (which gives rise to the sport of trigpointing) and down past Chalk Farm. This trig point is TP2104 – Chalk Farm. I took the shortcut because although it is harder work cycling on soggy grass than firm tarmac it is much nicer than cycling down the A1303 between the Heath Road and the junction with the A14. The hill after that is faster than the bridleway though.

As it happens there is a footpath that is perpendicular to the bridleway that is also missing from the OSM map. I am not moaning though, a lot of people have put in a lot of time and effort to generate the OSM.

I then headed through the Wilbrahams, stopping briefly before reaching Fulbourn to take another “dramatic clouds scene” with miracles shining down onto the trees.

I cycled up Haggis Gap in Fulbourn, where although you have right of way over the traffic on the right at the first mini-roundabout – quite a few cars seem to think that doesn’t apply to bicycles. So you have to be assertive and confident. Just don’t blame me if it goes wrong.

Haggis Gap, leading onto the Shelford Road, Fulbourn
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The main hill of the ride comes next, it is not that steep and although it is one of the few hills in the area compared to the Lake District you’d not think much of it. Once again I got pretty warm as I cycled up. Which is really a combination of too many layers of clothing and too much Christmas food. There were quite a few cars around the entrance to the Roman Road. I am not quite sure whether cars are intended to be able to park there or not. There is a narrow gap which will allow small cars but not much bigger. This leaflet from the Friends of the Roman Road does refer to limited parking there.

Apparently the hill is the highest point within the city boundary at 68m. You then get to cycle downhill. this is definitely big ring stuff, although not for long and you have to watch out for walkers and their dogs parking in a layby and then going for walks in the Beech Wood Nature Reserve. They don’t always appreciate that cyclists can easily be going 40mph down the hill. The other hazard is that most car drivers consider it a challenge to their manhood if they can’t overtake a bicycle. (And yes it does tend to be men). So they try to overtake, despite the fact that at 40mph on a bicycle you can’t just cycle along the very edge. All that being said, I rarely have those issue on that road.

At the bottom there is a staggered junction to stop vehicles (and cyclists) from accidentally shooting across. I remember when it wasn’t – I think. This road is called Worts Causeway – it must have been around long enough to lose its apostrophe. Although the aforementioned FRRFD (Friends of the Roman Road and Fleam Dyke) refer to it as Worts’ Causeway. The hill going up is Lime Kiln Road, which narrows considerably on the other side and is the scene for many a macho door-mirror slinging car driver showdown. The last time I cycled that way there were twenty plus door mirror remains at the side of the road. This being one of the few Cambridge high spots there are cellular base stations and a reservoir up there.

Worts Causeway leading into Cambridge. To avoid this being a rush-hour rat run it is bollard controlled a bit further along. Although I can’t recall seeing the bollard up, the sign indicates it is closed from 7.30am to 9.30am . Mind you I don’t pay that much attention to such trivial details when I am cycling, but more likely I haven’t cycled along the road in the restricted period. The Strangeways Research Laboratory is along here though.

You can just see the incerator tower on the Addenbrookes site in the distance.

AI then cycled around the hospital via Red Cross lane and onto Long Road. I was in two minds as to whether to cycle along the CGB but didn’t. I then popped down Trumpington Road and followed NCN11 past Coe Fen before cycling back through Lammas Land and then along to the Coton path via Barton Road and Grange Road.

Grange Road runs past quite a few Colleges and University buildings and also has 20mph restrictions. It is also used by many students. I also think that it suffers from Advisory Cycle Lanes that are way too thin as well as traffic calming in the form of keep right bollards on each side of the road. These just serve to create pinch points where vehicles encroach on the ACL space. Maybe the problem is that the road is rather narrow.

Grange Road, Cambridge
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After that I cycled up along to Coton on the Coton Cycleway. Stopping once more to take a picture of the miracles. Perhaps this is how Spring happens – well I suppose it is really, when the warm sunshine shines down the plants come alive again.

The same scene, but backed off and focusing on the tree in the foreground.

As it got darker and greyer the opportunity to take pictures dropped off. Or perhaps my enthusiasm for grey, twilight pictures is not high. I cycled back along the laughable shared-use path alongside the Madingley Road. This is really a not very good pavement, which is quite uneven and wobbly in places, but you are allowed to cycle along. I keep meaning to take a picture of the Schlumberger Building – but never do.

In case you are wondering I did have lights and I did turn them on, there is no point in not doing so. Now I am tempted to use a helmet cam, but my kids keep pointing out how geeky that would be - which stops me. I came across this report on “How fast-talking cyclist got away with ‘jumping red light’ after tongue-tied policemen failed to arrest him”. All I can say is that, in my view. it is cyclists like this that give cyclists in general a bad name. Maybe the policeman didn’t cover himself in glory, but red-light jumping is against the law and winding the policemen doesn’t seem to be a very adult thing to do. (IMHO). At this point I would say read the comments, but of course the comments are self-selecting and so don’t really give much idea how widespread the views are.

I should also mentioned how much better Gilbert Road is since the improvements were made. Thank you to amongst other the Cambridge Cycling Campaign.

I did cycle alongside Riverside – which could cost taxpayers £400,000 to build a pontoon. There are clearly some strong views held about the boats moored there as well as the Riverside.

Before I went home I did carry on through to Stourbridge Common to take some pictures of the sun setting. Here are a couple of them. This is looking back towards the Cambridge Museum of Technology. As you can see there were some walkers out that way as well.

You can just about make out the train whizzing by slightly obscuring the setting sun.

And finally – some rather nice pictures of the “frost so fair”, it really is getting colder. I didn’t know they made jackets for lambs. Here are some abstract colour splodges – just add a loudspeaker.

Let’s finish on some good news – “City bike thefts slashed as police wheel out new tactics” (in Cambridge). The not so good news is that the number of stolen bikes in 2011 was 2,146, not far off 6 a day.

And finally I added my blog to a list in Cycling Info – as of yet I haven't noticed anyone come from that link. In fact over the last few days cyclingwithoutahelmet.blogspot.com and cyclechat.net have been the source of quite a few viewers/readers?

Oh yes, here is the answer to several middle-aged male enigmas. See at the end for an explanation of MAMIL lack of small talk – but plenty of salivation (and why there are more pretty girls around as you get older.)

Do bad things come in threes?

2012-01-14T14:10:00.000Z

Sunday, 8^th January 2012:

For some reason this doesn’t seem to have been published. I normally check after writing a post that it appears, along with the pictures. I must have either forgotten or accidentally reset this Post back to “draft”. So my apologies if that is what I did. It is appearing out of order no – but hey these things happen.

It was another grey day in the Fens and although it was not too cold I decided to wear leggings. That way if I needed to stand around a bit to get a picture of a short-eared owl then I wouldn’t get too cold. I am so used to cycling in shorts, or normal trousers that it felt slightly odd, if anything wearing tighter leggings made my legs feel colder at first – it must have been in the mind. I normally wear MTB shorts which have pockets and are quite heavy, the leggings were much lighter and bib-type. If I do wear “proper” cycling gear I find them more comfortable as they don’t bunch around the waist. They do look a bit full-on for a cycle-wander around the Fens though.

The other challenge was where should I cycle? At this time of year the byways and bridleways can be a bit muddy for my hybrid Marin. I started out thinking I would do a circular route around Cambridge – out along NCN51 to Swaffham Bulbeck and then back down through the Wilbrahams, over the Gog Magogs and loop back round through Coton. As you can see I didn’t. I am not sure quite why. In the end I headed back down to Lode from Swaffham Bulbeck along the B1102 and headed out to cycle on and around the Lodes Way. Actually, my change of mind was a combination of possibly taking a picture of a short-eared owl and also to check out the tree damage after the gales.

The only thing was I’d set of quite early and so probably wouldn’t be at the right place at the right time to see (and take pictures of) the owls. I also hadn’t got my longest lens with me. As it happened it was fortunate I set out early as I had some mechanical issues to deal with.

After changing my mind about my route, in Swaffham Bulbeck I headed along Abbey Lane, around the back of Swaffham Bulbeck towards Cow Bridge, before I got there I stopped to take this picture – of these ivy-clad trees beneath a grey sky.

As chance would have it, a chap cycled past me at the same spot and here he is. Although it is useful to wear cycling togs I do think that seeing cyclists in Lycra does put off people from cycling. As you can see this chap doesn’t need Lycra to cycle. (I must admit I felt more self-conscious wearing my Lycra leggings than I do wearing a fluorescent yellow jacket.

As I often cycle in the gloom it seems sensible to wear something highly visible on some of these country lanes I cycle along. The trouble is there is an argument that says if all cyclists wore highly visible clothing then motorists would be able to drive faster as they would be more certain of seeing cyclists.

When I was cycling in India a couple of years ago it was interesting to see their approach to speed bumps. Here in England speed bumps tend to have warning signs on the road and are designed to provide a bump but not too much of a bump and often have paint on as well.

View Larger Map

In India the speed bumps are not signed, the tend to be more sudden and are almost invisible. The idea being to make it harder for motorists to slow at the last minute. I am not sure if it works or not though. Even on a bicycle you had to keep a look-out for them.

Clearly there are limits – as a cyclist I wouldn’t really want to dress in black and cycle at night without lights. However whilst being visible is “sold” as a safety benefit to cyclists it also makes it easier for motorists to drive faster.

An important way of looking at the safety question is to consider how dangerous a road user is to other road users (including pedestrians) and focus on that as the issue that needs fixing. The Government helpfully produces road accident statistics - The latest data from the Department for Transport is “Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: Quarterly Provisional Estimates Q2 2011”, published November 3^rd, 2011. It shows reductions of 2, 4 and 7% in pedestrian, motorcycle and car user casualties respectively for the year ending June 2010. However for cyclists the pedal cycle casualties rose by 6% and deaths for by 8% for the same period.

Understanding what is happening is open to interpretation, it could be more ill-prepared cyclists taking to the roads, or cost-cutting of safety schemes, reductions in bike training, or milder weather encouraging more cyclists during the shorter darker days. It could be a statistical anomaly. The independent has an article that highlights the growing toll of cycling casualties, many involving lorries. Now I am not trying to say that cycling is dangerous, what I am saying is that we need to re-balance the focus and responsibility for improving safety on the roads.

To decide whether to cycle or to drive or catch the bus or train or walk all involve making trade-off decisions. One of the factors is perceived safety (along with time, cost, flexibility, comfort…). A focus on the issues is good, although it will put off people from considering cycling as a safe form of transport. What we now need is a focus on fixing the root causes of cycling accidents. In my view the problem is that non-cyclists don’t just concern themselves with the perceived safety of cycling they also concern themselves with the importance attached by Local and National Government to the issues. Would you take up cycling if you thought your council didn't take safety seriously.

A summary of Cycling safety by ROSPA has the interesting statistic that 80% of cycling accidents occur in daylight. What it doesn’t tell you is what proportion of cycling take place in daylight versus the dark.

Phew all that from talking about my yellow cycling jacket. Did I also mention just how noisy the road between Swaffham Bulbeck and Lode is – there is a shared-use path. Which is just a moderately wide pavement – two people can walk abreast just. Actually just before I joined the shared-use path I passed a horse-rider coming the other way. Now that would scare me – riding on the roads round here. I have done a small amount of pony-trekking on holiday in Canada and enjoyed it.

As I cycled along the shared-use path a couple of joggers were in front – I tinged my bell a couple of times – yes the noisy traffic. I think they were surprised to see me, I am not sure whether that was because I was on the path with them, or that they hadn’t heard me because of the traffic noise.

Pretty soon I turned off into the peace and quiet of Lode. Although it is alongside the busier road the village street is a no through road (except to cyclists).

On the far end of the village near where the railway station was there was some windfall. I suppose I am always a little surprised to see such a bounty lying on the floor. When I was a lad we used to do a lot of blackberrying and mushroom picking and my Mum kept a vegetable garden with a couple of apple trees. One of my Aunts used to come down for a holiday in the blackberry season sometimes and pick blackberries and make blackberry and marrow jam. At least that is what I remember, a Google search doesn’t throw up much although it does get a mention.

At first as one of these flew over I thought it was a Heron, but I don’t think so, the legs aren’t long enough

The first sign of a tree blown over by the gales. Although in this case it looks as if the tree has been cleared and turned into logs on White Fen Drove.

As it was a grey day I wasn’t taking many pictures. I did stop on Great drove (between Upware and Swaffham Prior) to take pictures of Commissioners’ Drain from the bridge. This is looking West.

The same drain looking east towards Wicken. There is what looks like a sluice on front of the Headlake Drove Bridge. On my way to Upware I was treated most courteously by several drivers coming the other way. In my mind I’ve classified them as Sunday-afternoon drivers and were elderly. I know I shouldn’t stereotype, but they are most welcome to drive around the country lanes.

I also noticed that the verges on the edge of the fresh tarmac had been made up to the level of the tarmac.

As I cycled round Upware I did try out Docking’s Lane – but it was way to muddy for me – not impassable – just unpleasant enough to make the road look a more attractive route. (Another of those trade-offs.)

Although it was a grey day I was amazed how full the car park at Wicken Fen was. It certainly seems to be successful. It would be interesting to know how the visitor numbers have changed. It was even more surprising since this is not the Summer season. An old Press Release “Record Breaking Year for Wicken Fen” indicates they had 35,846 visitors during March to September. The release talks about preparations for 2010 and the URL ends 09. I have been involved in marketing and was always taught to date a press release.

Clearly the NT want to make the area an interesting place to visit and given the positioning I can see that it is bound to attract cars. I think that getting people and their kids out into the countryside is a positive thing to do. What I did find frustrating is that making progress down NCN51 is quite difficult. At least from the car park round through to Baker’s Fen (Normans Bridge where NCN51 crosses Monks Lode).

As I cycled down I tinged my bell, although some people didn’t seem to `comprehend what it might mean. Others seemed to begrudge making room for me to pass. Maybe it is my paranoia, but I was cycling quite slowly, I tinged my bell in advance, I always said hello or thank you – but some walkers looked at me as if to say what was I doing cycling on their path.

To be fair others stood to one side and gave a cheery hello as I went by. However tie in with my view that shared-use paths only really work when one of the sharers is an occasional user.

I wonder if the NT has any provision for an alternate route (the Maltings Path) if it becomes too popular or to maybe widen the path. The trouble is the shared space just brings users into conflict. Neither user (walker or cyclist) is right or wrong, they just are different. Ultimately one or the other user gets put off using it. As it is the first bit of the route just after passing the NT buildings is pretty bike unfriendly with the path made up of rubble.

When I go out to ride that’s is what I want to do, so I try to avoid places that become congested – which seems to be at odds with the idea of making the route part of the National Cycle Route. If anything the NT ought to encourage cyclists to help reduce the inflow of cars.

Here is an interesting post on “shared spaces” and the importance and dynamics of sharing. The only point I would add is that for “sharing” to work it helps for sharing to be part of the culture. That is not how many motorists see the roads here in the UK so even with those intentions in mind there is not much of a sense of sharing the road – just look at how car drivers moan about lorries blocking their way on dual-carriageways. The A14 has places where lorries are not permitted to overtake during certain hours to avoid holding up the car drivers. Yet many of the lorry drivers are under much greater time pressure than the car drivers.

There are some marketing opportunities there. It would appear that this year they are offering a Green Travel voucher (£1) for those who arrive by bicycle, to be spent in the café or shop. I wonder if I would be eligible for that as a Member. I do stop for a drink sometimes when cycling by. All I would need to do is pop my head in, claim the Green Travel Voucher and then it would pay for my drink!

But they could do more and offer incentives for those cycling from Anglesey Abbey, they could also do cyclists’ picnics. Anglesey Abbey offers a reduced rate for those arriving by bike, foot or public transport, although that isn’t mentioned in the prices from the 1^st March 2012!. Come to think of it the Wicken Fen pricing doesn’t mention the Green Travel Voucher in the pricing from 1^st March 2012 either.

Even on a grey and gloomy day you get the odd ray of light. This is either the sun shining through a rift in the clouds, or perhaps the Starship Enterprise is beaming something up/down.This is the view across Baker’s Fen

For a change I cycled down into Burwell, although about halfway down I did stop to take a picture of this beet clamp. The East of England is the largest supplier in England although it has declined in recent years.

It would also appear that the road here has benefitted from some patching work along with Whiteway/Headlake and Great Drove.

I re-joined the Lodes Way by cycling up Newnham Drove and then carried along Split Drove onto Headlake Drove. At this point I was thinking about cycling through to Horningsea on my back as the weather, whilst not photogenic was not bad for cycling. I stopped as a car seemed to be coming the other way along Headlake Drove. (It was at the crossroads). It flashed me so I sped up and then found myself skidding down the road with the pedals locked.

Fortunately my recent skidpan training had equipped me to deal with the situation. It was quite a skid 5-10 metres and on stopping (no choice really) I found my rear mudguard tangled up against me rear wheel. I had gone over a stick which had gotten dragged up under the mudguard and then dragged the whole lot round up into my wheel before breaking and dropping out.

I tried to yank it out but in the end had to resort to unscrewing it. The other complication was that I need an Allen key along with a spanner on a couple of the fixings – fortunately my trusty multi-tool separates into two halves. I was thankful that I was doing this in the daylight and not the dark though. I had to take the back wheel out to get to one of the fixing bolts.

This is the rather bleak stretch of Headlake Drove looking back in the Wicken Fen direction.

I took my broken bits home with me, although my hand started aching from the slightly odd position. I didn’t get cold whilst sorting my bike either – wearing those leggings turned out to be a good thing.

Patch Tuesday

2012-01-13T13:35:00.001Z

Thursday 12^th January 2012: Patch Tuesday is a term used to refer to the regular Operating System and Application updates provided by Microsoft. It is a way for Microsoft to address issues or provide extra functionality in their software running on our PCs.

What has this got to do with cycling you may ask, especially as it is a Thursday. Well the Patch comes out Tuesday n the US but appears and gets downloaded Wednesday evening here in the Flatlands. (Cambridgeshire). I assume it is partly to do with time-zones and partly to do with when my computers are set to check for updates.

So this morning – Thursday I discovered several computers had already updated themselves and re-booted. I hate that, I always like to no what is being loaded onto my computer. One of the downsides of working from home is I do my own IT support. It does mean I tend to have quite a reasonable working knowledge of my PC, which is an upside, but I also probably spend more time than I would like fiddling around to make things work.

Because I do work from home I run a RAID disk system which maintains two copies of my computers disk information in real-time. So for ease my laptop and my wife’s laptop both update automatically. However my desktop computer doesn’t It downloads the patches but requires me to actually run them.

It was quite a nice days today and I had a gap in my afternoon so I though I really ought to go out for a ride on my bike. The timings all worked and after a Skype conference call at 1pm I had some time to myself. Having prepared for my call around 11am I thought I’ve got plenty of time, I’ll run the patches and they’ll be out of the way in plenty of time.

Of course SOD’s law came into play. The patching operation just seemed to stall and when that happens it is tricky working out whether it is merely taking a long time or has gone wrong in some way. The Task Manager showed little activity, so after a long while I stopped the update and re-booted the machine, where it then showed the “Don’t unplug or switch off you machine warning” – oh joy.

After another long wait, I ended up turning the machine off. Which means that when the computer boots up it has to spend time verifying that the two disks in the RAID system are error-free, it is still usable, it just runs like a drain. (Very, very, very slowly!) Fortunately it did boot up and not try to spend more time loading a patch. It also ran very slowly. In the end I resorted to loading each patch, one at a time. Two required the machine to be re-booted, a time-consuming activity whilst it is verifying the disks.

What do you know- this time it worked, But it took so long that I ended up using my Laptop for the Skype call and to review the documents we were looking at and it used up the spare time I had when I planned to go cycling – as I type this the disk verification is about 80% done. Ah well at least it is working.

Something I have been meaning to point out is Cambridge County Council’s recent press release – “Number of people killed on Cambridgeshire roads go down”. Although it excludes the Peterborough City Council area?

Year	Deaths
2007	62
2008	47
2009	19
2010	34
2011	26

This got me wondering about how safe Cambridgeshire is for cyclists, relatively speaking. The trouble is tracking such data down is tricky, at least getting like for like data. What I did find is a paper citing Casualty trends in Cambridgeshire. Table 2.6 gives casualties per 100,000 population for 2009. This shows a high number for cyclists, but really only reflects the high level of cycling in Cambridgeshire. (Another paper breaks down the data for cyclists – in Cambs – or rather Cambs and Peterborough up to 2010, the data does not provide information on accidents per 100,000Km cycled and so is of limited interest (to me anyway).

As you might imagine the CGB (Cambridge Guided Busway) has finally reached its millionth passenger. I only say finally because there have been Press Releases flagging this event through December and now it has happened. What is interesting is that of the 50,000 passengers using the service per week they reckon that only 24,000 were using the old bus routes. So more people are using the bus, which sounds like there might have been a modal shift from cars to the bus. (Or people who hitherto never travelled between the two places have not started to do so – in large numbers!).

Apparently there may be further competition on the CGB with other operators interested in running services along with some changes to the stops in St Ives. The latter change means that fewer people would need to cross the A1096 which cause delays for poor motorists. (A tip of the hat to Tlatelet – who published Embedding a map which spurred me on to embedding OSM maps for your delectation rather the Google ones which I have been using.)

A new CGB stop on Station Road, St Ives?
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It does seem a practical solution and might even reduce the number of people who drive to the other side to park in the CGB Park & Ride. However it does show how easy it is to fall into the trap of considering motor vehicles to have a greater priority than walkers. If we feel we want to get more people out of the cars and using alternate methods of transport (for all sorts of reasons) then we will have to recognise that we have to make the alternate methods of transport more attractive, despite their short-comings.

St Ives CGB P&R – Kiss and Ride

After my recent accident in the Newmarket Road P&R when I fell off my bike because of black ice I was horrified to read this headline – “Pedestrian fights for life after park and ride site crash”. There has been quite a lot of bush clearance a the Newmarket Road P&R, however I have long felt that the sight-lines were somewhat compromised. There are places where the shared-use path crosses the road. It does so as a raised section and most cars will stop for pedestrians and cyclists – however not all do. Which makes me wonder quite how the the law of the road applies in a car park.

Newmarket Road, Cambridge Park and Ride – shared-used path through the middle

As a cyclist I tend to notice reports of cyclist accidents – so I noticed this one where a cyclist fell of his bike on Station Road, Ely. I have cycled along that bit of road quite a few times, it is not the most cycle-friendly stretch around. I do wonder what causes such accidents.

Cyclist Accident – Station Road, Ely
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Whilst on the subject of “transport” it amazes me how often large trunk roads cut across public rights of way – footpaths, without any provision for crossing those very busy roads. If you drive along the A14, a dual carriageway, you will occasionally see signs warning of pedestrians, which look right out of place, well it is because there is a footpath that crosses the road. There are gaps in the barriers and it is technically possible to cross the road, but few in there right minds would do so. As you might imagine there are groups that concern themselves with this problem – here is a Ramblers Organisation report on the matter in April 2003. It implies a survey was due out, but I can’t find it. Although the Highways Agency does maintain various documents including this – “Geometric Design of Pedestrian, Cycle and Equestrian Routes”. As you might expect in bureaucracies I can find the documents telling you how to do an audit for NMUs “Provision for Non-Motorised Users” and how to do “Non-Motorised User Audits” but no audit results.

Here is a crossing point on the A11 from a ride to the Kings Forest.

On another ride I came across this one on the Cambridge to Ipswich Sustrans route. This has better provision with a wider Island in the middle, but still not that safe (IMHO).

Another tricky busy road crossing: A140 – part of the Sustrans route, near Ipswich

And finally as I think you get the picture – here is another one, the public path through the Girton Interchange.

The public right of way through the Girton Interchange

As you might expect, you can cross them and indeed I did. However what I think happens is that they put people off using the routes which the road planners can then use to justify their decision not to put in better provision. The bottom line is that NMUs (non-motorised users – pedestrians, equestrians and cycle-estrians) are just not worth bothering about. I wonder if that is why this group of walkers ended up on the A14 near Milton.

Almost finally, the river (Cam) gets a bit of press associated with the price rises for Narrowboat owners and other boat users. A 50ft boat currently costs more than £1,000 in mooring fees to the council and £660 to the environmental Agency according to the report. The latter fee will rise to £773.The Rowers in Cambridge have also complained.

Rowers and Narrowboats – River Cam, Riverside

And finally, some links to pictures – all from the Daily mail. The unseasonably warm weather has brought out the flowers early. We have snowdrops, mini-daffodils and a crocus out in our garden. A set of aerial photographs showing the geometric patterns of homes in various parts of the world. And finally some glorious red sunsets and here in the Cambridge News.

Sunset over the Lakes near the CGB St Ives

And really this is finally – the latest Cycling Blog in the Cambridge News – Blog 27: Chesterton Station paints a cynical picture of just how much cyclists are taken into account- Let’s hope it is wrong, but I won’t hold my breath.

What are the causes of Cycling Accidents?

2012-01-09T15:23:00.000Z

Friday, 6^th January 2012: There is a lot of debate about how to get more people cycling and of course the old chestnut of whether cycling is dangerous or not. I like to think that ultimately decisions and choices should be based upon data or facts. The trouble is it can be quite difficult sorting those “facts” and then working out what are the causes and the effects. We can’t forget that changes can also have unintended effects. (Rabbits were introduced into Australia for hunting purposes – causing massive ecological changes.) Mix in a political angle, not too mention how such things are costed and you end up with a right mess.

That seems to be where “Cycling” is in the UK at the moment. At times like this you have to try to simplify the issues. So, I suppose that at its simplest Cycling is a Mode of Transport first and perhaps a sport (or exercise) second. There have been several “Bike Booms” over the years, however in the boom of the 1890s the safety bicycle was one of the main reasons that roads got paved. Why was it so popular – well I guess it was “cheap” personal transport. There are many other benefits that can be derived from cycling – but they are derived from its main role and to be fair there are also some disadvantages.

So fast-forward to now and let’s ask the question – what sort of place to we want to live and how can we at a minimum sustain it and preferably improve it. Now this is not a question for those with money or car owners or people in work, this is a question for all society, We were all young and most of us will get old – so we need to consider what the long-term consequences are.

Why, when an old-person wants to cross a road, why should they have to go out of their way to a crossing and then wait until the lights say they can cross. Who in their right mind lets kids wander around their area because of those busy roads? Although it wasn’t like that when I was younger. Why has it become acceptable to give motor vehicles such a priority over our lives. Why do we have to endure the noise and air pollution and loss of countryside?

Why have so many village shops, pubs and post offices closed – which no-one thinks about until they’ve gone and then it is often too late to do anything about them. It has been said that “Opium is the religion of the people” (by Karl Marx of course), well I think that “cars are the crack cocaine of modern society”. Great if you are a rich footballer who can afford a stable of the finest cars. But for the less well off they become a habit that needs feeding and it isn’t going to get any better and there is not a lot our Politicians can do about it. Yes they can paper the cracks, but lets face it petrol is going up in price – it’s called supply and demand.

So why this diatribe? Well the habit needed paying for in my case. The Squealing Pig had to go in to have the parking sensors fixed. As Joni Mitchell once sang “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone” certainly applies to parking sensors. I am not looking for sympathy here, at least I can afford to get it fixed. As is my custom I popped my bike in the back of the car, that way at least I got a bit of fresh air by taking a slightly scenic long-cut on the way home.

Now I believe that cycling is most definitely a Mode of Transport and not a Dangerous Sport and has many, many benefits one of them being it is fun. I circled away from Marshalls Garage down onto Stourbridge Common and instead of heading home decided to cycle up through to Quy and make a decision then. There is something about cycling as the sun is coming up.

I joined NCN51, cycled through Ditton Meadows, stopped at the crossing on Ditton Lane, where you seem to wait for ages. The motor vehicles have definitely got the priority on that road. Then onto the shared-use path leading off from Thorpe Way. It is a pleasant detour, but why was that path made so narrow? I sometimes wonder whether the power that be deliberately create narrow shared-use paths to bring cyclists into conflict with pedestrians and dog walkers. There is a master-plan to marginalise cyclists in society.

Then I passed under the large Cycle sculpture, shown here- but at a different time of year.

The Newmarket Road Park & Ride Cycle route exit

The sight that greeted me was this one – one of a sun rising and lighting up the trees along the edge of the car park. So I pulled off the cycle lane, so as not to block other cyclists and to take my camera out.

Well that was the intention. I then found myself rolling along the ground as my bike slipped away from me. I had no idea what was happening but as I tried to get up and started slipping I realised that I had inadvertently cycled on black ice.

I haven’t fallen off my bike for a while, but this increases the number of accidents that have been related to cycle paths. Personally I would much rather cycle on a cycle path than on the road. However I also agree that there is probably a grain of truth in the suggestion that cycle paths are not safer than roads. Just as cyclists are considered as second-class citizens so are the “special” facilities built for them. My only serious cycle accident was on the road – a car ran into me and broke my collar bone in a SMIDSY.

This is the place I fell off, just as I reached the red-brick between car parking space. I suppose you could say what was I doing cycling on the parking area and it is my own fault. However given the Car Park is manned and they apparently do a risk assessment for things like ice I just think this is an example of how bicycles are not treated as a Mode of Transport. I did report it and got a sorry mate. I had to stop and straighten things up on my bicycle as the saddle had been knocked skew-whiff.

I want proper cycle facilities please and would happily see congestion charges being used to that end here in Cambridge – Congestion Charges Bring life to Cities.

The good news was that I had slowed down before the fall and I am getting better at rolling rather than sticking my hand. So I only have some minor bruises around me knees and shoulders. My trousers got a bit abraded and so did my front light.

At least I didn’t have my bicycle stolen by this “Cowardly and despicable thief”.

You can just about make out the patch I slid on, near the white, ninety degree corner marking. As this cyclist went by I was in two minds about warning them. However didn’t because I figured that if they didn’t quite hear me and cycled towards me then they were bound to fall.

After sorting my bike I decided I needed to cycle for at least some distance before heading home to make sure it was OK. If it wasn’t ok then my back up plan was to lock it up at the P&R and get the bus back.

I was OK to cycle and so was the bike and so I did go up to Quy and back although I found myself watching the track surface like a hawk.

Here is my shadow projected by the early morning sun onto a newly ploughed field.

My aches and pains increased slightly during the day, but not enough to stop me cycling off to collect my car. Full marks to the Service Advisor who was very pleasant and kept me informed on what was happening to my car. Part of the wiring harness needed replacement.

Cambridgeshire County Council has a policy, but the news groups still report black ice cycling accidents and it took a lot of people to complain to get the County Council to take notice. That is in a City many would consider to be one of the best places to cycle, unlike London – where despite having a cycling Mayor things seem to be going from bad to worse.

Windy Weather cycling–still good for getting around

2012-01-07T16:14:00.001Z

Thursday, 5^th January 2012:Wednesday night/Thursday morning was a pretty windy here in the flatlands. We tend to think if it being windy in the Cambridgeshire area, because the last is flat and so there is nothing to stop the winds from blowing. Mind you I think we probably got off lightly. These graphs of the weather in January so how the max wind speed has gone off the chart (50knots, bottom graph).

It made it all the more difficult to get to sleep as the rattling and banging was really quite noticeable. I also had to get up early (4.30am!) for a conference call and it was still pretty windy. The reports started coming in pretty quickly about tree damage in the Flatlands. The headline says “Nine Roads blocked by fallen trees”. However there are more than nine roads in the list. The Upware Road was reported as blocked as well (part of one of my Lodes Way cycle routes).

A train also had two windows smashed near Ely which was caused by wind damage to the train power lines. There were also arcing power lines in Twentypence Road, Cottenham. I had a meeting on the South-East side of Cambridge from 1pm, but because I had been cooped up in the house for a few days I was determined to get some fresh air and made up my mind to cycle.

This week hasn’t been too bad for congestion, however apparently it is going to get much worse in Cambridge. The Council has carried out modelling work and predicts that over the next decade a 10 minute journey across the city will increase by almost 50% (to 15 minutes). The increase is driven by the population increase; 117,000 in 2008, 125,000 in 2011 and is predicted to be 153,600 by 2021. The Council will rely on Developer Contributions to undertake the work. My advice would be to make it a joy to cycle and cut the traffic in Cambridge to those needing personal motor transport for essential reasons.

Inevitably the City Council seems to be somewhat car focused. The car park on Park Street is needing £3.4 million of repairs and one option is to include housing. There is no mention of doing away with the car park altogether of course.

Fortunately when I set off to my meeting on my bicycle although it was windy the strong gales had died down and it was just so nice getting out into the fresh air. Indeed it was so nice I took a long-cut and despite the winds overnight the wind damage wasn’t too bad. There were twigs on the ground and one or two signs had been blown over.

What was more worrying was every now and then as I cycled the clouds got darker and occasionally there would be a spit or two of rain in the air. As I had time to spare I decided to cycle from shelter to shelter, or at least try to be near places I could stop if necessary.

For a change I went down the Barnwell Road, which is a road I almost never cycle along. It is not a very inviting road, although there is a cycle path alongside the road.

View Larger Map

The trouble is that cycle path is a bit isolated it is not that easy to get get onto it or leave it. Yet it could be a tremendous part of a route – if only there were joined up thinking and cyclists weren’t just abandoned to their fate at roundabouts.

Here it is as it passes a Primary School, it is reasonably wide and segregated from the pavement and a good distance from the road. It has a bit of tree root damage. The trouble is when you reach the Sainsbury’s Roundabout as it reaches Brooks Road/Coldhams lane. You end up having to get back onto the left hand side of the road to carry along, or at least I think that is what you are supposed to do.

The row of trees does make it harder for motorists to consider it as a car park, unlike this plonker who wedged his car between two cycle lane bollards.

As luck would have it I avoided the rain, got to my meeting pleasantly refreshed. The only downside was I had forgotten to take a front light with me. I didn’t cycle without lights though, I got one “delivered”.

Cycling – definitely a Mode of Transport and not a Dangerous Sport. And the wind was behind me going home.

Sunny, Wintery Wicken Fen

2012-01-03T14:03:00.001Z

Monday, 2^nd January 2011: We’ve had a bit or rain recently so the byways and bridleways are a bit soggy. I still managed to get out around Honey Hill (near Quy) and across to Lodes Way. As I type this I am certainly glad I went out yesterday – the wind is blowing a gale and there is quite a lot or rain. According to the Cambridge University DTG’s (Digital Technology Group) weather page we have had gusts of up to nearly 60 miles an hour. Yesterday there was a stiff breeze, unfortunately against me on the way back but it was sunny virtually all day. It does seem much worse in other parts of the country though with 105mph gales and Force 11 winds according to the Daily Mail. Where Force 11 is a violent storm on the Beaufort Scale.

The good news is that the days are getting longer, or at least the gap between Sunrise and Sunset is getting longer. For Monday the gap was 7 hours and 49 minutes (8 minutes longer than the shortest day) and by the end of the month it will be just over 9 hours.

I also had a fair few episodes of The Archers (along with Ambridge Extra) to catch up on as well. I tend to interleave the two so that the story lines match up.

Something I associate with Spring, although really they tend to come out earlier are Catkins – these are Hazel Catkins I think.

As I set off down Low Fen Drove Way I stopped at the A14 bridge to take stock of the puddles. You can pick up a reasonable turn of speed off the bridge, but you want to avoid the deep puddles as they can be quite deep.

It was muddy in places along the Drove Way, but with a bit of momentum not too difficult as long as you don’t mind the back wheel slipping around. I also bumped into some hikers just past Snout’s Corner – they were on their way to the Crown and Punchbowl in Horningsea and wanted to confirm they were heading in the right direction. Which they were, I think they might have come over from Lode and intended to pass by Quy Fen.

Although so far my pictures don’t have any people in them I did pass quite a few people out walking along with around 35 cyclists in the greater Lodes Way area. (I didn’t count the cyclists I passed in the City.)

Here is White Fen, there were some walkers having a brief rest at the picnic tables near Swaffham Bulbeck Bridge.

I cycled along the road to Upware and two cars passed by disturbingly close to my handlebars at high speed. At this point the wind was blowing across but way from the cars rather than towards them.

I did find myself close to the edge of the road and since it has been patched there is quite a difference between the road and verge level. I found myself so close to the edge that a small gust of wind took me off onto the verge – I carried on cycling and didn’t try to get back from the verge to the road until I had a bit of speed and could get onto the road at a reasonable angle. I have fallen off when trying to re-join this very road at an acute angle.

As I passed through Upware I noticed the the Birse Civils encampment seems to have gone although they have left the wire fencing in place.

After Upware I cycled along the back way into Wicken (part of NCN11) – the low sun makes it quite tricky to take pictures – the bright light causes internal reflections in the lens.

As I left Wicken Fen and reached the footbridge over Burwell Lode I noticed quite a load of cars parked up. There weren’t that many bird watchers visible, MikeC suggested that they might be visiting hides along Harrison’s Drove. A quick look on the Wicken Fen website suggests rare visitors on Tubney Fen. I would imagine that there are a few such birds around the area.

As I heaved up my bike over the footbridge I scared off some bird watchers from the bridge. They hadn’t seen what they were looking for I assume. You can hear water being moved around though. I assume that some of it will find its way to the new Bund a little further along. It sounded as if the water was heading into this ditch. As you can see the sun seems to have grown and a couple of laser shots have been fired to the bottom left of the picture.

Between the footbridge and Reach Lode bridge I passed a couple of walkers who had stopped for to take a drink of something warm from a flask (I assume) It was quite a drag cycling into what was quite a brisk wind and I was wearing shorts. I hauled myself up Reach Lode Bridge and waved to the SBC who had stopped there, but I carried on (Sorry SBC I was engrossed in a storyline and my brain didn’t register fast enough.) I did make a brief stop to take a picture of the new flaps between the bridge and the ramp, these should help cyclists horse riders and walkers, they look pretty reasonable to me.

(It would seem that the bridge to replace the footbridge has been given planning permission.)

As I headed along Split Drove three cars were heading my way, I stopped to left the first one go by but it was a bit cold standing there in my shorts. I then bumped into MikeC at the junction of Split Drove and Headlake Drove and as we chatted several more cars went by. I can only assume that there has been another interesting flying visitor to the area. I have never seen so many cars along Split Drove ever.

By now the sun was getting low in the sky which makes it easier to take pictures – this is the sun behind one of the trees along Headlake Drove.

The same picture (well very similar) but getting a silhouette effect.

Though the skies were pretty much clear there one or two interesting clouds – it took ages before I reached a Pylon free sky to get this one over Swaffham Bulbeck?

After passing through White Fen the sun lit the way.

With a little HDR this is what the end of White Fen Drove looked like.

After passing through Lode and on the shred-use path between Lode and Bottisham I stopped to take this picture of the sun almost set.

And of course the same picture but using multiple exposures to show you more of what it looks like with the naked eye.

By now I was getting a little fed up with the wind and with the sun down it was rather cold. When I got home my legs tingled with the effect of having being cold and then walking into a warm house. A warm bath was most welcome though.

A Happy New year–cause or effect?

2012-01-02T11:17:00.001Z

Sunday, 1^st January 2011: Happy New Year

Ely Fireworks November 2011

It seems to me that Humans are not too good at cause and effect. Or rather to play safe is safer, after all it is better to err on the side of caution and get it wrong as opposed to think something is OK and get killed by it. It probably goes back to primitive man – cautious people lived longer. You don’t die if you run away from an imaginary threat, but you may die if you don’t run away from a real threat. So if that is true why do we seem to do the opposite as drivers.

In my view we are just not very good at assessing situations where there is a very small risk of something bad happening, but where if it did it would be disastrous. In fact it would interesting to assess what risk thresholds humans live with when it comes to making decisions such as drink-driving or mobile phone-driving. Of course people are different so some people are prepared to take more risk than others.

For instance, at this time of year there is generally a “crackdown” on drink-driving motorists. The aim of which is to discourage drivers who might otherwise consider it OK to drink and drive, yet drivers still do. It was reported that “More than 2,400 motorists stopped during drink drive crackdown” here in the Cambridgeshire area. But probably most of us would feel that this is just and actually we would just prefer not to have drunk drivers, we are not interested so much in the punishment except as a deterrent. According to the article 109 motorists were arrested for being over the limit.

Now that figure was for Cambridgeshire apparently there were over 171,000 drivers fined for using a phone behind the wheel in England and Wales (in the past year). The article also suggests that over 7 million people have spoken on their mobiles in the past year. It would seem that the effect of the penalty is not causing a reduction in usage. Or perhaps there is a threshold probability of being caught which might affect alter the behaviour of those transgressors. In this case you could say that as the fine is £60 and three points, but the chance of being caught is 2.4% (per year) which is a one in 40 chance. So averaged out the “cost” is £1.50 and 0.075 points per year and although it of course doesn’t really work like that it isn’t much of a risk really.

Prickwillow Phone Box Art Gallery

Mind you there are some types of risk where the problem is not really the fine – but rather the accident – as in cars jumping red lights in this Daily Mail article – “Don’t jump red lights” featuring some American RLJ videos. More tragically it would appear this this driver “had too much faith in satnav” in which a crash resulted in the death of a motorcyclist. The article suggests that the Judge said that the satnav was partly to blame although as satnavs are not purported to be overtaking aids I would have thought that the issue was perhaps more one of over-reliance on the satnav and the map of the road ahead.

CGB (Cambridgeshire Guided Busway) road/busway intersection

I wonder what this Professional Driver was relying on when he plunged down an embankment after a botched three-point turn.

This train of thought came about partly because of this Copenhagen Cycle Chic post- “I’m Mad”. Apparently traffic fines there for cyclists are going up by 50% – 100%. I have to ask whether the punishment fits the crime here. As the article notes more cyclists helps to reduce the number of motorists (the real cause of serious accidents). The danger is that in the world of Police statistics they can make more money and catch more transgressors by getting cyclists rather than the more difficult to catch but potentially more serious motorist transgressors. I wonder whether there has been much academic work on fines, prevention and the economic fairness.

A recent post Vole O’ Speed “Its not just me, SWOV also thinks ‘safety in numbers’ is untrue” also touched on the questions of cause and effect in relation to whether more cyclists cycling leads to safer cycling for all cyclists. This is a position that a few bodies had espoused, although I seem to recall reading in the CTC monthly magazine recently that their message has been nuanced with more cyclists leading to more investment in cycling which leads to better facilities and so leads to safer cycling.

The CGB Cycleway – Safer Cycling

Even trying to compare the safety in different cities around the world can be difficult. in this blog – (Drawing) Rings Around the World, the author Jim Gleeson has written “Some estimated cycling casualty rates for London and other cities (a work in progress). In which he describes the difficulties in both finding and comparing the data. He has produced a chart comparing the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured for every 100 million kilometres cycled per year. For London in 2010 it is over 70, Berlin 2009 it is 30 and Amsterdam 2009 it is around 12.

At this time of year they also seem to announce the increases for rail fares, apparently our Rail fares are amongst the highest in Europe. The article fails to really drill down to why that is and instead relies on a series of quotes from various interested parties all supporting their own point of view.

Steam Trains – Normal for Norfolk?

To round off on cycling issues – here is from from A View from the cycle path – “Campaign for Sustainable, not Strict Liability” with an excellent explanation of how the liability approach works in the Netherlands. More shockingly it would seem that apart from a few Posts already written they have reached a point where they are too busy to be able to deal with the workload, which is a great shame but understandable. As a Blogger for just over three years I have followed Blogs that had to stop, not to mention Yehuda Moon. Although it would appear to be re-starting – humm I’ll have to take a look.

In another shock Round-the world cyclist Mark Beaumont has taken to the seas for an Atlantic Row.

In another shock Spring seems to have already Sprung in Cambridgeshire.

March 2010 – Real Spring in Cambridgeshire

And finally some beautiful cycling, (Cycle Chic) surely not Spring and some bygone pictures.

Cambridge not a desirable place to live?

2011-12-29T11:20:00.001Z

It seems to me that there are several reasons for doing surveys, one is of course in the pursuit of science, unfortunately another seems to be to generate publicity by association. Now I have no idea which camp the annual Halifax Quality of Life Survey falls into. However Cambridge isn’t in the top 50. Whilst East Cambridgeshire has leapt from 22^nd in the ranks to number 4.

Apparently scores are based up things such as jobs, housing, educations, health and crime and broadband and traffic. Which seems strange because I know a few people in the east who might be rather critical of their broadband provision. I think I know what must have been the decisive factor, or the swing factor as it might be known; cycling.

Lodes Way – every desirable place to live should have one!

The East of Cambridge has gained the Lodes Way, good for health, education and traffic flow to name but a few things (and just general wellbeing). Whereas Cambridge can’t even sort out its 20mph speed limit, in fact the 20mph signs leave the good folk of Cambridge baffled. The power of the motor vehicle is strong still in the City. I wonder if North Cambridge has leapt up the ranking because of the CGB cycleway? (And here is a rather nice post from the Cottenham Cyclist on the joys of the CGB at night – check out his Christmas t-shirt at the end of the post) At this point I ought to mention I don’t actually know or care where the boundaries are – IMHO they seem to be there more for the benefits of bureaucracy than people.

Pedestrian jumping out of the way

However perhaps Wisbech is looking for promotion into the premier league of places to live which a new cycle shelter at the Horsefair Shopping Centre now another 36 cyclists can park there in comfort. Although Copenhagenize recently post some pictures of some rather neat plastic Bike racks.

The Bristol Bath corridor – a nice place to live it has a cycleway?

A rather more sobering piece in the Guardian “Cyclist deaths rise during recessions, figures suggest” reminds us that despite falls in fatalities for car occupants and pedestrians, cyclist fatalities has increased from 2007 and 2010 by 10%. This can be “explained” pointing out that there are more cyclists and that actually cycling is safer in numbers. However as pointed out by Cycalogical in “a dangerous legacy” in London you law-abiding women seem to be disproportionately represented in the death toll.

Cycling has many benefits and leads to a longer life, however we have a right to be treated more safely by other road users and by the road design. It is not good enough to try to lay the blame at our door by demanding we wear helmets. We should be allowed to if we so choose, but the fundamentals of cycling are not and should not be so dangerous that they require such unproven protection. Yes we should be free to choose and I choose safer roads please. (Or should all pedestrians wear helmets?)

Helmets – a free choice (and sensible in India)!

And finally – a bus on fire on the A14 – a drastic way to keep the passengers warm. (Should bus passengers wear fire-proof jackets and why don’t they have seat belts?)

Build it and they come–but why stop there

2011-12-26T19:54:00.001Z

I mentioned that I was starting a new Blog. Why you may ask, well for a number of reasons. I like cycling, it is energising and fun and practical and green and cheap and… Yep there are loads of reasons and we all have our own reasons. I guess the important thing is to maximise the pleasure and try not to become a slave to it. Whether that is cycling to work or doing a 24 hour time-trial or whatever it is you do.

There is no doubt that for me having some pleasant cycling facilities encourages me to cycle. Cycling around Cambridge for meetings is pleasant in all but the most foul of weathers because there are cycle routes and cycle parking.

However, even in Cambridge I come across cycling facilities that are really pretty pathetic, despite the best and excellent efforts of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign. I also came across Crap Cycling in Bournemouth which reminded me of Crap Cycling & Walking in Waltham Forest. So as both an homage and just to remind ourselves that our best cycling facilities aren’t that good in comparison to The Netherlands, I created.

Crap Cycling in Cambridge

I intend to use it to put the pictures of the dodgy facilities that I come across in Cambridgeshire, yes I know – that’s what’s called feature creep. (County rather than City).

| also intended to try out Adsense to see how that worked (sort of related to what I do). However with only one post so far I have been turned down – not enough material. I know I could add it to this Blog, which has over 700 posts, but it seems easier not to.

I have started with my pet hate the cycle parking facilities at the Cambridge Railway Station. I, perhaps in common with other men, had to do a man-dash into the city centre for some last minutes Christmas shopping. it got me thinking, there are bikes all over Cambridge, many of the cycle parking areas are full and quite a lot of fences as well. So clearly there is a demand for easy access into the centre, so why do they often seem to build something and then get annoyed when it overflows. Why not just build some more.

Cycle facilities are pretty cheap compared with roads, yet when they seem to work the powers that be seem to get annoyed. You can almost hear them in their Council Chambers – “harrumph – damned cyclists, just like rats and they get in the way of rich motorists who clearly buy more than those scruffy cyclists. Then when we build something for them they have the temerity to complain.” Of course we know it isn't true.

So on that festive note – here is some cycle parking in the middle of Cambridge – I bet some of them are actually Christmas shopping.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, when it will be time for some New Year Resolutions.

Preparing to Take Stock (me prevaricating really)

2011-12-23T18:25:00.001Z

So much to do so little time. Well that is sometimes how it feels as we reach the end of yet another year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, where does that flippin’ time fly to? Here we are already at the end of December.

The good thing I suppose is that there is nothing major to do, the bad news is that there are quite a lot of minor things to sort. Most of them are quite pleasant, none of them particularly onerous and of course a few bills come in as well. One niggly thing is that the squealing pig (my name for my Landrover Discovery after it developed an intermittent squealing noise that did not diagnosed until the car left its warranty period) has now told me (via the dashboard) that the front parking sensors don’t work!.

I don’t do an awful lot of car mileage if I can help it. I have several bikes with significantly more mileage than my Disco, so, what I consider is a poor level of reliability irks me more than a little (and so does the cost of fixing it). I am not asking for sympathy, don’t buy something unless you can afford to run it is my motto. (Actually I’ve just made it up but it sounds about right.) I suppose that in this day of modern electronics at least the parking sensors have reported the error of their ways. You wouldn’t really want to find out they weren’t working by driving into (in my case) the back door of the house!

Of course there is also Christmas stuff to sort and it does lead to pleasant anticipation and no I don’t mean the presents I am going to get. The trouble is I do suffer from present-buying anxiety, trying to buy something that the recipient wants, but wouldn’t get for themselves is sometimes a challenge (and of course doesn’t cost an arm and a leg!)

I also need to tidy up some Blogging loose ends, like the header that says I want to cycle in Japan this year (2011). That definitely has to get changed, I’ve also decided that the bit about me could do with trimming. I also have to tot up my distance for the year having come to the end of an experiment. I tend to believe that what gets measured gets done and so for the first time in years have not been putting my cycling stats into an Excel spreadsheet. Previous years have seen me cycle around 10 to 12 thousand kilometres, without even thinking about it this year’s total will be less.

So I need to reflect on next year and given this years experiences that will mean one of several things. The first is to set a goal that I will need to prepare for, the second is to set some cycling (and weight-losing) targets and the third is to keep my cycling spreadsheet up to date.

I have also started a new Blog, don’t worry it will not replace this one, it will be more pictorial and as soon as I have created the first Post I will mention it and why.

So here is a quick round up of various bits and pieces that have ended up on my Internet Browser. Starting with a report that the CGB (Cambridge Guided Busway) is expecting to carry its millionth passenger in Jan 2012 and they expect to have carried 2.5m passengers by the end of the first year and more buses are on order. Although I have a soft-spot for trains I am pleased to see that the CGB seems to be a success in terms of bus passengers as well as for cyclists and horse-riders and walkers. It wasn’t cheap after all.

CGB Busses – you wait for ages then three come along at once

MikeC tipped me off about the excellent Wicken Vision blog – John’s Blog – it talks about the stuff that gets done in and around Lodes Way. It also mentions a local Blacksmith – Mike Overall of Twenty Pence Road, Cottenham. I used to enjoy metalwork at school, we used to make things like toasting forks on the forge as well as planishing copper and enamelling copper.

Talking about metal – here is one way to do it. “Scrap metal thieves cut hole in van floor to make it easy to swipe manhole covers”. I guess it is a combination of the rising value of scrap metal along with the difficult economic times.

Of course no cycling Blog would be complete without a gloating mention of car parking issues. Apparently there have been years of problems for St Matthew’s Gardens which means “Parking clampdown planned for Cambridge Housing estate”. The issue appears to be one of congestion. At the end of the day when all’s said and done parking is a game of two halves. We all want free, road parking for our cars but not for other peoples, parking has become a cliché of our age.

Mind you it isn’t just residents spare a though for the Police as there is “Nowhere to park for speed-check camera van” on Mill Road. It would appear that the issue revolves around whether to have visible of hidden police checks. Apparently the Cambridgeshire County Council’s east area committee heard that casualty figures do not merit hidden checks.

This strikes me as being one of the issues we face in society, surely roads are not just about moving vehicles around as quickly as possible. Take Mill Road – this is a “shopping street” with interesting and quirky shops, many people live in the side streets around Mill Road. So should this just be an issue of casualties, surely not, we should also consider the quality of life for the occupants and people who visit the area. Having said that only a small number seem to be speeding, over 16 hours there were 27 drivers driving at 20-24mph and only 2 at over 30mph. There are other streets where on a short journey on my bike I see more speeding cars.

Parking rears it head along Riverside with a call for “yellow lines to help clean up Cam”. Whilst this might look a little like a NIMBY problem it arises from the rather love-hate relationship we have with cars (and motor vehicles) in general. We love or own cars and hate everybody else's.

Shared-use paths are for everyone – NCN51 in Bottisham

A quick bit of train news, the Queen has let the train take the strain, I wasn’t on the train this time but have been before and it creates almost no fuss. It would appear that the freight link improvement between Ely and Bury St Edmunds might also boost chances for a Railway Station at Soham. The old one was levelled in a wartime explosion. Also a train has been named Ely cathedral, although it was only a second lass 379 train.

Ely Cathedral

We have also had an evolving story in which a 13-year old girl was knocked off her bike by a van driver suspected of drink driving. It was then reported that she was saved by her helmet and the van driver was banned for two years and find £250 plus £100 costs. The family were then reported to forgive the van driver. It is interesting to see how stories evolve and what elements of a story drive that development. The good news is that she is ok, it does add grist to the mill of those who feel cycling is dangerous though.

Also what worries me is that it promotes the idea that the only safe way to cycle is with a helmet and as reported in Cyclists in the City the WI have been discussing the idea of promoting compulsory helmet wearing. Which as the post discusses focuses the debate of cycling safety in the wrong direction. How do they manage to be safer in the Netherlands with less helmet wearing than we get in the UK? By focusing on the right issues.

In an old report in the London Evening Standard (April 2009) “Pedestrians more at risk than cyclists” – which just goes to show that being a pedestrian is no joke either. Perhaps they should wear helmets as well.

Some Pedestrians in Ho Chi Minh City – wearing their pedestrian helmets

I also read on a Forum of news reported by the Scottish Director of the Road Haulage Association. From the report I am not sure whether he makes certain remarks or is quoting others, including; “a public road with motor vehicles is no place for a cyclist” and cycles “be fitted with headlights that must be on at all times”. There also appears to be a whinge about cyclists with helmet cams reporting poor driving. As a cyclist I felt a little intimidated by such statements. Having said that for the sort of cycling I do and where I do it the brand name lorry drivers (Tesco, Sainsbury etc) are among the better drivers on the road.

Tail-gating Lorries on the A14 near Quy – surely not

I ought to also mention another fly-tipping success – “Man fined after dumping medication in the countryside” and another chap got caught a second time! There has also been a mistaken bicycle case as well – something along the lines of “I thought he was riding my bike guv”.

Fly tipping – between Exning and Burwell - NCN51

And finally some pictures; “red sky at night, starlings’ delight”, a world record Christmas display, some stunning pictures from the winners of the National Geographic Competition, amazing pictures from space (the Space Station actually) and some Altocumulus Lenticularis clouds in the UK.

I’m a wimp–it’s official

2011-12-20T12:19:00.001Z

Friday, 16^th December: Friday was going to be an interesting day, I had a meeting in London in the afternoon, but had to get back to Cambridge in order to pick up my daughter on the last plane from Edinburgh. The added complication was that when I woke up it was snowing, which is recorded as rainfall on the Cambridge DTG weather page. The graph shows quite a lot of rainfall which makes me wonder quite how that works with snow.

Now my original plan was to cycle to the station as the timings were fairly relaxed and it should have been easy to get back in time in order to drive down to Stansted Airport. My planning had even extended to clothing that was suitable for cycling and “relatively” smart – well proper trousers and a jacket.

The trouble is during the morning the snow turned to rain and then I had a decision, cycle in full weather gear (leggings and rainproof jacket) and pack my jacket and trousers or drive. The changing facilities (the Gentlemen’s toilets) at Cambridge Railway station are not that salubrious, in my opinion. Now there’s a thought – changing rooms. There is also the hassle of what to do with my wet weather gear if I do change. Ideally I’d want it to dry out, but if you have to wrap it up and carry it around then it can be pretty unpleasant to change back into for the journey home.

You can see where all this is going, I wimped out and decided to drive to the station. That of course leads to parking anxiety, so I had to allow extra time in case the car park was full. It is all very well letting the train take the strain, but it is all the other hassle that gets me. As it happened there was quite a bit of space available on the Cambridge Railway Station car park – here are four spaces all in close proximity.

Despite dire threats about what happens to bicycles locked to these car park barriers cyclists still use them. What else can you do if you turn up to catch the train during the rush hour. They won’t let the bike on the train and you don’t want to be late for work. Sometimes just catching the train can be uncertainty enough.

As you can see cycle parking is in short-supply and so space is at something of a premium.

Presumably the cyclists feel that the risk if locking their bicycles up around that area is less than along the footpath barriers. One thing – the car parking was cheaper than first think in the morning.

There are premium spaces available for cycle parking, but a quick web search throws up little information on quite how you rent a space. I guess the signs on top say what to do – but it is too blurry to read from this picture. There was someone unlocking their bike just after I took the picture but I thought it better to be on my way. As you can see yet more bicycles locked but not secured. Although I struggled to find much about how to pay for a cycle space there are websites that offer parking space near to Cambridge station on private drives for a fee, such as this one, 4 minutes from the station for £20 a week, compared with the station car park at £33.20 per week. I presume that a space (at the Station) is guaranteed, but I am not sure.

This was the first time I had used the station since the opening of the new platform and as luck would have it my train was departing from one of the new central platforms. as I walked up to the new bridge I was just in time to get a slightly blurry shot if this cyclist carrying his bike up the stairs. Why you might ask when there is a lift and a cycle ramp.

Well because they screwed up on the ramp up the stairs. The idea is that you can wheel you bicycle up the bit of angle iron – but the observant might notice how close it is to the handrail – the trouble is this wastes money and I bet it will still be closer to the handrails than the width of some handlebars (my Marin’s for instance). The modification process is one of those invisible ones, perhaps the elves come out at night and will move it millimetre by millimetre.

This chap’s bicycle looked like a light-weight racer, easier to carry up the stairs and perhaps too desirable to want to leave locked up in the cycler park.

This is the view from the new bridge looking back towards Carter bridge – for cyclists and pedestrians.

One of the new central platforms – with clearer electronic displays.

Another cyclist with her bike ready to catch a train.

As we passed Royston there was snow on the hills.

This is where you put you bike when travelling on the London trains – in the doorway. You also hope that it doesn’t fall over.

As you can see I used Picasa’s new frame feature for the last two pictures.

In the end I got back home in plenty of time to get to Stansted later – my daughter’s flight was delayed as the planes needed de-icing up in Edinburgh.

You shelter me from rain, but it is the bike that sets me free

2011-12-19T15:47:00.001Z

Tuesday, 13^th December: More meetings, this time out on the East of the city, and as is my custom, I tried to squeeze in a bit of extra distance. I must have been pretty sleepy that morning as I paid little attention, actually no attention to the weather.

It wasn’t a super-formal meeting, so I wore clothes that were perhaps more comfortable for cycling than smart – but I did wear long trousers and a yellow cycling jacket, although the trousers could be converted to shorts by un-zipping the legs. I also took with me my MP3 player so that I could catch up with a pod cast or two including – More or Less on radio 4, by Tim Harford.

My plan was to cycle out along the NCN51 and then loop back through the Wilbrahams and Fulbourn and back into Cambridge. My meeting started at 10am it was relatively easy setting off in plenty of time for my extra-curricular cycle ride, or so I thought.

Although it was quite cold (around 5 or 6C) there was some sun around and it felt quite blustery. Perhaps there was a clue in the blustery-ness and the dark clouds in parts of the sky. However, once I reached a reasonable cycling temperature it was very pleasant until I passed through Newmarket Road P&R site. Was that rain I felt, I decided to press on with my plans, but by the time I reached the A14 underpass my legs were soaked. So I stopped to take refuge and decide what to do next.

The trouble is when you are wet and it is cold then you end up getting cold. So O walked up and down a bit in the tunnel and took a couple of pictures. I know this underpass well, having cycling through it quite a few times, so it looks fine to me and is well lit. But it got me thinking, the underpass I used at Fenstanton looked pretty unwelcoming and I guess this one does look a little dark and damp at times. Whilst I appreciate that the intent is to keep the costs down and provide a route that is functional, it demonstrates how institutionalised the approach is in terms of treating cyclists/pedestrians as second-class citizens by road planners.

The trouble is that this approach does not just save cost, IMHO it also increases the risks for those “vulnerable road users”. Successful transport routes seem to be measured in terms of vehicle throughput which of course skews things in favour of cars. You only have to look at the issues in London at the moment to see that there is an endemic problem with road planners seeming to sacrifice the needs of cyclists and pedestrians to the great goal of throughput. Although reading Cyclists in the City apparently Boris has claimed that there will be a “step change”. Why does the cynic in me think this will mean more bouncing off and on shared use paths with nasty kerbs to trick the unwary. Or as Vole O’Speed nicely puts it a London Cycling Superhighway is “rather an overpriced and massively engineered road sign for the benefit of those who choose to drive”.

Even worse a recent report has also suggested that there is also a huge North/South divide in terms of the spending on transport projects. In London the amount is "£2,731 and her in the East £43. In the North-east it is £5. (Yes your read that correctly Five Pounds.) Apparently this is due in part to spending on the Olympics, although in my mind that just makes it even more of a slap in the face to the North-east.

I wonder what the Dutch do to ensure that cars do not use their cycle routes. Here in the UK the approach is to put up poles, either concrete, metal or wooden as barriers. Fine in principle but I can’t help wondering why we put up with this approach. Am I the only one that thinks that there posts are dangerous for cyclists? Or is the assumption that cyclists only go out during the hours of daylight. Or am I just being over-critical, in the case of this tunnel there is a kink in the path at one end and a T-junction at the other, so perhaps these posts serve to slow cyclists down. The trouble is they appear all over the place and whilst on a bicycle they might not be that bad you want to try them on a tandem (which I have) or with a bicycle trailer or a tricycle.

After some time stuck in the tunnel the rain dies down so I changed my plans and decided to cycle back and the down Airport Way cycle way to cut my journey short and hopefully avoid too much rain. The only problem was that this meant the wind was against me. For some reason I had not realised quite how bluster it was on my way out of Cambridge, perhaps because the cycle route was relatively sheltered.

Also have you noticed just how loud the tyre noise is along Airport Way, it is not the fastest bit of road, but quite busy and I guess cars and vans generally do 50mph+. The tyre noise on the wet road was awful, so loud I struggled to hear my MP3 player.

The good news was that my trousers started drying out in wind (they were designed for cycling), until the next shower and they were sodden. Fortunately the last bit of my journey was dry so I arrived dry and surprisingly comfortable I reckon that it helps if a cyclist’s short-term memory isn’t too good, that way you quickly forget any problems and just feel the buzz of a bit of exercise in the fresh air.

Since my plans to cycle a slightly longer route had been foiled on the way out I decided I would give it a go on the way home. I headed back through Fulbourn and the Wilbrahams. As I headed down into Fulbourn along Hinton Road I had the double benefit of both the wind behind me and a slight down hill, it only drops by 5m but that’s steep in these parts. So I reached the bottom at over 40Km/hr without even trying. As I reached the corner the road I was on has right of way whereas the traffic coming from Fulbourn Old Drift (east) has to give way.

However if you are driving a white van then you are, of course, excused from such a minor technicality when it is only a cyclist who has right of way coming down the road. Of course being a cyclist you can’t afford to trust non-vulnerable road users and I was covering the brakes. Yes he pulled out in front of me and then clearly so stunned that I was travelling at more than a snail’s pace slowed down in order to straddle my lane for even longer. I’ve seen it quite a few times, they seem to freeze in my non-existent headlights and gawp out of their side windows at me. You can almost see the speech bubble above their heads “where the f*** did he come from”.

Modern cars and vans have quite large A pillars, to protect the occupants from poor driving skills and awareness. The trouble is it actually makes it means the side view is compromised and unless they look twice woe betide any cyclist or motorcyclist – you are just another SMISDY.

Now like all good cyclists I have a bell on my bike, but it isn’t much use when trying to alert those poor motorists insulated from the nasty outside world. So I shouted, no words, just a shout. At least it made me feel better.

I have yet to listen to it but here is the Guardian’s take on “Are Britain’s road safe for cyclists?". I’ll let you know what I think when I heard it.

As the weather was unpredictable I kept going rather than take pictures. However after passing through Little Wilbraham by way of primrose Farm Road I had a choice to make safe-cut or short-cut? The clouds looked rather forbidding did I feel lucky, or did I feel lucky. In the end I took the slightly longer, but in my opinion, safer route via Bottisham and onto the NCN51. I didn’t get wet, the Little Wilbraham Road seems to be and out and out drag road for cars and although they have reasonable visibility I prefer not to have boy (or girl) races tear past me.

A quick round-up of some weblinks hanging around on my browser. In what can only be described as a typical Daily Mail type of headline “Frankenmoth: Health fears over plans to release millions of GM insects designed to destroy pests”. Whilst I think that GM has a role to play in agriculture and does in many parts of the world, this type of experiment doesn’t fill me with confidence.

It also turns out that one of the Icons of a British winter the Robin Red Breast is in a battle to survive as population crashes by 88% in three decades.

And finally if motorists fail to notice level crossings what chance do cyclists have? (A crash between a lorry and train in Wales.)

Winter–a time of sun and blue skies

2011-12-18T15:07:00.001Z

Monday, 12^th December: I cycle because it is fun, pure and simple. To be fair sometimes the pleasure isn’t always when you set off, but invariably when I reach my destination I feel good, I notice things. Generally cycling is also more reliable for getting to a place on time. Yes, you might have to start out earlier, although not as often as you might think around Cambridge, however you can take short routes and cycle pretty much door to door.

Now that is how we used to see the car, it gave door to door freedom compared with public transport and the opportunity to set off at your own convenience. The trouble is our friend the car has turned out to be a bit of a liability in its old age. In the UK we have more people, around when I was born the UK population was around 50 million people, this year the population is 61 million, a growth of over 20%. At the same time the UK GDP has grown from around $72B to a peak of $2.8T in ‘07 although has has dropped back to around $2.2T. So a “wealth growth” of nearly 40 times, but just recently with 22% drop.

So we have two factors. more people and more wealth which has caused a significant increase in the number of motor vehicles using the roads. From June 1994 through to June 2011 the number of licensed motor vehicles has risen from 25 million through to 34.5 million. This doesn’t tell the whole story though, as our cars have become more comfortable, public transport declined the number of motor vehicles out on the roads at any one time has also increased. For reference the number of licensed motor vehicles vehicles was around 8 million in 1960.

Apparently the average distance people travel per year has increased by 50% since the 1970s in the UK, although this is all types of transport including walking and cycling. (DFT Annual travel survey pdf.) Over that time the average occupancy of a car for commuting and business has remained pretty stable – it was 1.2 in 2010. Over the last 10 years the total road length been pretty stable it was estimated to be 245,000 in 2010 and only increased by 1% from 2000.

For reference in 2010 cars accounted for 243.8 billion vehicles miles, light van traffic for 41.8 billion and HGV traffic for 16.4 billion vehicle miles. And for good measure here is a blog indicating the in the UK the total cost of annual motor vehicle accident costs at approximately £18bn per annum in the UK.

This train of though arose from a report in Cambridge First that “A14 traffic to grow by 15 per cent over next decade”. Apparently the road has a peak capacity of 3,600 vehicles per hour on the two lane stretches and improvements to the rail freight link between Felixstowe and Nuneaton will only deal with the equivalent of one year’s growth in HGV traffic. There were also a couple of articles in the Daily Mail – “Fuel taxes are pricing motorists off the road, claim campaigners as car use plummets” and “Drivers hit for £1.3bn in parking fees as councils rake in record takings”.

The thinking and comments made in the articles tends to be very conventional – let’s face it this country does not have its own oil (for refining into petrol), so inevitably fuel prices are going to go up. It seems that we focus on peak oil as the issue (the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached). This allows the naysayers, and most of the rest of us to believe in the new sources of oil as easy fixes. However in reality the cost of extraction is going up, the number of sources is going down and demand is still growing (the world population is growing and economies such as China and India are enjoying rising per capita incomes).

So inevitably oil (and so petrol) prices rise. Forbes recently published an article highlighting the issues – “Bracing for Peak Oil Production by Decade’s End” suggesting that “global oil production will max out in the next 5 to 10 years”. That is a scarily short timeframe. According to the Guardian Newspaper it turns out that “UK ministers ignored ‘peak oil’ warnings, report shows”.

So it seems to me that conventional ways of planning are akin to sticking our heads in the sand. Rather than piecemeal planning we need to acknowledge that a more strategic view of transport needs to be taken. On top of that problem we have of course the pollution issues and the space issues the cars also represent. Why shouldn’t councils charge an economic parking rate – although the challenge is how to does an economic price get set? The challenges are compounded by the high cost of real-estate (land) especially in cities and the planning restrictions.

Of course this is a big debate but it does not really seem to be played out. Just recently the Cambridge News reported on “Expansion of retail park gets go ahead”. This is a retail park long the Newmarket Road – one of the congested routes into Cambridge, one of the arguments against was that it would damage the economic prospects of the City centre by tempting shoppers away from the centre. What sort of life and society do we want want?

There is still concern about parking whether it be from people who want to park in the city or those that live there and feel that they have a “right” to park on “their” streets. The decision to charge for the Park and Ride at Babraham has led to the concern that “Park & Ride charges will force cars onto neighbourhood streets”. At it simplest roads are public and should be available to all, but does this mean that we should have a right to park on the street where we life? Does it mean that we should be able to exclude non-locals from parking on those streets?

The trouble is whilst we can build more roads and the A14 say could be improved we would then need to deal with the increase in commuters. This is a problem that needs a more radical view of how we might plan for the future.

Why do so many people in Cambridge cycle? Well probably for a whole host of reasons, but it probably reduces down to the issue that there would be nowhere to park and the traffic jams would be even more horrendous if we didn’t.

I was interested to see that Outspoken Delivery, a local cycling courier business is now also picking up packaging used in deliveries for re-cycling. There is another problem – what do do with the waste we create – it either uses land (landfills) or pollutes or both. I wonder if another way of looking at the problem is that we are just running out of space her in the UK, space for people, cars, roads, waste.

Space is at such a premium in Norwich that they have even had to paint short double yellow lines – 41cm long – was that to stop someone parking their skateboard?.

Now I would like to think that some somewhere is taking a long-term view – lets face it our kids are already thinking that our generation has basically enjoyed the best years, what with jobs, employment, house price inflation, free education. Now they will have to pay.

Why all these thoughts well I saw a lorry pass through a red light at a crossing, I’d crossed, there was no-one around, but the second example in two days that it isn’t just cyclists who “flout” the law. I also had a near miss with a car, I was on a shared path and it came out of a side entrance, we both had give way signs, it didn’t give way and I didn’t see it soon enough. I managed to swerve around it, and accept that we were probably both at fault. However I could easily have been killed and the car might have been slightly scratched.

To be safe I suppose I could have cycled along at a much slower pace, slowing even more at each such junction, or just maybe we ought to be re-considering the relative priorities of different forms of transport. After all one more bike means one less car causing congestion.

The good news was that I had to get out and about in Cambridge and of course for me cycling is the best answer. I get some fresh air, I get there on time and generally there are far fewer issues with parking. I started off up at the Cambridge Science park and was pleased to see that the company I was visiting had recently installed some cycle racks. The science park is also well served by CGB (Cambridge Guided Busway), cycle routes and it even has the A14 nearby. The only thing that is missing is a railway station – and there is one in the plans for Chesterton.

I left via the CGB cycleway and saw a bus join the CGB from Orchard Park East for the first time ever. I wasn’t quite quick enough with my camera to get a picture of it turning onto the CGB but here it is a little way down the CGB.

I also took a picture of the SmartLife building that I had seen after dark during a recent ride.

I took another of the CGB and bus because I had thought that there was a cyclist coming through under the A14 bridge – but no it was someone taking a motorbike for a walk!

I then followed signs for cyclists pointing towards the City Centre. Although first I stopped to take a picture (well two actually stitched together ) of the Orchard Park East CGB stop. There is a clue in the picture for the reason for taking it – yes, you’ve guessed it the bicycle. One observation I would make is that the combination of cycling and the CGB has been pretty successful, what is disappointing is that development of the CGB has not been even more bicycle friendly.

I think that there should have been more cycle parking at all stops. That there should not be short poles obstructing parts of the cycleway and there should have been a decent route through the town to facilitate CGB users commuting cross-town.

The route I took was not the most obvious to me despite knowing my way around Cambridge pretty well. It looks straight enough on the map, based upon Northfield Avenue, Roxburgh Road, Mere Way, Carlton Way, Stretton Avenue and Searle Street. On the current OSM cycle map it is marked as a planned route – although the map key gives no clue. However as the list of streets implies there are a fair number of junctions and speed bumps and the like to contend with. Just as car drivers tend to favour direct routes so do cyclists (well I do anyway).

I joined NCN11 as it ran alongside the River Cam. A quick stop at Jesus Lock to take a picture of the route plus two cyclists. There were quite a few apples on the tree as well.

It is interesting to see a cow trough in the middle of a city – albeit on a Common (Midsummer Common). I am convinced that the winter sun imparts a warmer look despite it being winter. I guess it is because the sun is lower in the sky.

Where I grew up in the Mendips it was mainly dairy farming and many of the fields had a cow trough, or quite often a cow trough would be found at the corner and shared by several fields. Every now and they they would flood or dry up and being ~~fine upstanding citizens~~ meddling kids we would fix the problem. It was pretty much always a problem with the ballcock.

I wonder when I will get to cycle on snow – we never get that much in the Flatlands,. The bigger problem is black ice on the cycle paths and that has been promised..

The cracks of doom have been filled (mostly)

2011-12-16T10:37:00.001Z

Sunday, 11^th December 2011: A couple of days ago the Swaffham Bulbeck Cyclist (SBC) left a comment mentioning that the chasms along Headlake Drove had been patched up, so as it was the weekend and although grey and quite cold (less than 10C) it was dry so it was time to cycle out around Honey Hill/Snout Corner and then from Horningsea to Wicken Fen and back again. This is a regular route of mine, as quite a lot of it is off-road it is also means I can catch up with the weeks Archers podcasts (not forgetting Ambridge Extra). I am convinced that motor traffic noise (in particular tyre noise) has gotten worse than.

Even at this time of year it is possible to stay off-road on most of the route. I did cycle along the road to Upware and Wicken Fen though. These trees lie just off Low Fen Droveway, between the bit where it crosses the old Cambridge to Mildenhall Railway line and Snouts corner.

It was on this route a while back I noticed missing drain covers on the bridge over the A14, well the problem seems endemic now. The Cambridge News reported that “Thieves steal 96 manhole covers before crackdown”. (We seem to be in a world of sound bites and crackdowns at the moment.) Although the solution might well be plastic.

As it was a grey day it was a struggle to take many pictures, however after reaching Lode and cycling along the Lodes Way I cam across the road repairs on Headlake Drove – it looks like they are on going.

I reported the problem twice. The first time was through the Cambridgeshire County Council website. Where I got back very little, very quickly saying that the problem was closed. My issue was really the total lack of information. Did it mean that the problem was going to be fixed, or was it deemed not necessary to fix, or what. So I re-reported the problem through the CTC fill that hole system. This through up a more considered response and I did add some pictures as well, but there was still no information communicated. If it hadn’t been for SBC I wouldn’t have known. Looking on the CTC website today there has been an update on the 15^th December 2011. The CTC web details have space for adding a “planned fix date, but that is blank.

I have not received any e-mail update either. it seems that the e-spirit is willing, but that the flesh finds it difficult to use. As you can see the repairs look pretty good, at the moment.

They have patched up chunks of the road, whereas I had assumed they would just fill the cracks. I assume that one of the problems is that the foundations below the road are not consistent and so the surface bends. This bit of road was also widened and I thin that is also one of the issues. There are still a few cracks in places, but given the repairs appear to be on-going I didn’t look too closely.

As I passed through Upware the Birse Civils encampment was still in evidence and I even cycled down to the pub to see if I could spot what work is taking place. I couldn’t though. I did do another web search last night, but found nothing on the web either.

After passing through Wicken Fen and past Priory Farm there were quite a few cars parked up along the verge. Which made me thin I would see lots of bird-watchers. (Note as you might expect in an area with agriculture peaty soil does find its way onto the roads and can be quite slippery when wet, so pay attention.)

I took this picture from the far side of Burwell Lode to give you an idea of the number of cars. As it turned out I didn’t see any bird-watchers. So I guess that many of these were out for an afternoon’s stroll.

The only reminder of the birds, apart from them flying around in the dusk was this notice on the field-lock (like an air-lock but with gates!) over at Newnham Drove/Lodes Way. The notice indicates that there are up to 15 short-eared owls and asks visitors to stick to the signed routs (sic). (I know I can’t talk, whenever I look at an old post it seems to be riddled with typos.)

I probably ought to have lined up my cycle light more centrally on the notice as well.

And that is it – a very pleasant ride, but not many pictures unfortunately. I can recommend the Lodes Way for a pootle though. I also managed to catch up on listening to various Podcasts I had down-loaded through the week.

Optimism bias–I take the risk of your optimism

2011-12-15T13:49:00.001Z

Friday, 8^th December 2011: One of the pleasant aspects of working from home is that you cut down on the commuting. So when I have to “commute” it can make me a little crotchety. Now one of the things that annoys me is when you can’t park – either bike or car depending upon my mode of transport. What also annoys me and frightens me is when I am cycling and cars treat me as if I was not there – either by getting too close or not giving way at junctions and roundabouts or Toucan crossings.

So I was surprised to see that according to an article in the Daily Mail: “Talking on your mobile while driving DOESN’T increase the chances of a crash (so long as you use hands-free)”. Apparently the previous methodology used to demonstrate there is a risk was incorrect. The trouble is having read the approach used I can’t say I believe the new research either. When I used to have to do a lot more driving for a living I twice missed the M11 turn-off from the M25 when on a hands-free conversation. Yes I know that is not statistically significant, but there are times when common sense matters.

The challenge is that the chance of an accident is relatively small, even when the driving is poor. Consequently trying to assess the risks of certain types of driving behaviour is difficult and as drivers, in one study, more than 74% believed themselves to be better than average behind the wheel. (Here is an interesting article which discusses how “More than 50 percent can be above average” – it depends upon the distribution – but really bad drivers get selected out pretty quickly in real life.

Apparently the driver perception is coloured by optimism bias. This article discusses why optimism can lead to higher-risk behaviour in drivers. Indeed nowadays there is much more focus on teaching learner drivers to check in their mirrors when braking firmly (with the exception being a real emergency) just to check the person behind won’t run into you. When I learnt to drive the presumption was that the person behind had a stronger duty to drive at a safe distance. It is a subtle distinction but I think that cycle lanes “allow” car drivers to pass more closely than Highway code rule 163 would suggest, such behaviour then becomes the norm regardless of cycle lanes.

A search for Highway Code Rule 163 throws up this post from the Croydon Cyclist. The picture is what cyclists expect and anyone who has ridden a bike will know that there are some drivers that do leave space and a worryingly large number who don’t.

As an example of a bizarre way of looking at risk – apparently Texting while driving kills 6,000 annually in the US. The risk of collision is 23 times greater when a driver is texting. This came from “10 Incredibly Bizarre Death Statistics”, which also reports that 450 people are killed annually falling out of bed.

In the UK the response to these sorts of problems seems to be one of a crackdown – a Google search for “crackdown cyclists” lights threw up over one million results. Including this one in Cambridge. Do they work or do they make Mr Grumpy of Cambridge happy. The same is apparently also the case for phone-using car drivers as “Phone fines ‘fail to deter drivers’”. Mind you the rise in phone fines might simply be the fact that the police are making it a priority.

Whilst on the subject of driver inattentiveness the Cambridge News reports the “Hunt for lorry driver who smashed through level crossing” – this is the level crossing in Ely on the A142. There is a road under the railway lines for short vehicles and a level crossing for tall vehicles. Some tall vehicles have also be known to drive into the bridge. It looks as if things will change though as the “£28m plans for Ely southern bypass wins support”. It will entail a viaduct being built which will be 550yds long and 33ft high. (Curiously the article used imperial measures, perhaps that is how roads are still built?)

This picture is from Wikipedia – under these terms. Thank you HelioSmith.

I wonder what will happen to the NCN11 cycle route will it run under the viaduct – as shown on the map. I wonder what they will do with the current level crossing/bridge. It would make sense to remove the level crossing, although that would not stop tall vehicles crashing into the bridge. There are concerns about the habitat loss as well.

So what was all this side-track about. Well despite the fact it was pretty cold, it dipped to near zero around 8am it was a sunny day, with blue skies and only a few clouds. I had to be over on the East side of town for a “meeting” at a warehouse spent doing some moving of boxes. The great thing about Cambridge is although we might have sub-standard cycle lanes and routes when compared with the Netherlands – at least we flippin’ well have them.

It means that you have the opportunity to avoid cars with their cyclist blind spots and noise and basically enjoy much more scenic views. Some would say that “cycle lanes” are more dangerous than roads and my own experience probably supports that view. In the last 10 years I have had one serious accident when I was knocked of my bike of the. All but one of the other tumbles have been on cycle-lanes or shared paths.

One fall was a slippery wooden bridge (cycle route) – fortunately x-rays in casualty showed there were no broken bones. Another fall was when leaving a shared path on a slightly lowered kerb to get onto the road, my wheel caught the edge and I tumbled off. I fell off my bike when trying to track stand on a byway and I was blown of my bike along Headlake Drove (road) when the wind caused me to slip into a ridge and then as I tried to get back onto the road another gust caused me to tumble.

So there you have it more accidents off-road than on-road, although the on road crash was the most serious. But the off-road accidents were because of off-road paths were not very good. With only anecdotal evidence I believe decent cycle paths would me safer than cycling on the roads.

It would seem that there is support for Mill Road to be pedestrianised more often as well. You really can have too many motor vehicles. Except Addenbrooke’s Hospital site which will require three 1,000-odd multi storey car parks over the next decade.

So here are a few pictures taken after my warehouse work, near the Newmarket Road P&R. A fine collection of elderberries. the observant might have noticed that there is a frame around the picture. Well Picasa, which I use for the bulk of my picture editing has been upgraded from 3.8 to 3.9. (Note that link is the top one and will change – here is the article on the new features in 3.9) Partly I think to build support for Google+, but there are some welcome new features as well.

Look at the blue skies and green ground, with the last few leaves on the trees.

This was an accidental picture, I didn’t even know I’d taken it until I downloaded the pictures for the day. So it got a border and a cross-processing effect as well.

I have also noticed a less welcome change in the way that my pictures on Picasa Web get served up onto my Blog. Depending upon the circumstances the pictures that are displayed will appear with different resolutions depending upon the way in which they were called. There used to be an instruction at the end of the file link, but this changed to appear just before the file name.

Depending upon how my pictures were added to the Posts – anything from the Blogger on-line editor, through to Zoundry and now Windows Live Writer (with two different mechanisms) the pictures can appear at a lower level of resolution. Especially when found by an image search. The default size of an image served is to have a width of 512 pixels of no width is specified. This improves how Google serve images globally – or so they say. There are quite a few disgruntled users who have commented. Don’t you just love the cloud sometimes.

Perhaps next time they could better serve my needs by halving the speed at which all motor vehicles drive on the roads (except my car of rouse!).

Supply and demand

2011-12-14T17:55:00.001Z

Thursday, 8^th December 2011:It was a day of meetings around Cambridge. The interesting feature of the timings was that it gave me a bit of time to cycle around between the meetings. It was not something I planned, but just how it worked out. Mind you the weather didn’t look too promising, but in this part of the UK I don’t often find myself getting that wet. Although I suppose most car drivers never, ever get wet on their daily commute. So by comparison even a couple of days getting caught out in the rain on a bike must qualify me as being mad by most drivers.

As someone who counts photography as a hobby I was appalled to read about the way in which this young lad was treated by the police. I can only hope that we get a real change of attitude. The trouble is the Police have to pay compensation, but will that actually cause a change in behaviour – in some ways it is the taxpayer who is getting fined here. Do I have a chip on my shoulder or are photography and cycling both treated as second-class activities.

The wind did buck up a bit during the day though as the Cambridge University DTG’s weather graphs show, it swung about a bit as well. As it happens it did rain a little at the end of the day, but when you are on your way home that doesn’t count. It’s the sitting around in damp clothes I don’t like – getting wet is not a problem if you are warm enough and reconciled to the fact.

The reason for the title Supply and Demand – well my journeys got me thinking – there is demand for better cycle infrastructure – but where is the supply. When will the good citizens of Cambridge realise that “Cars cause congestion so one more bike is one less car”.

My first meeting was at Le Gros Frank on Hills Road, just where it meets Station Road. This is a great place to meet as it is convenient for the Station, (for the people I was meeting) and as there is cycle parking just opposite. The Cyclestreet website show the cycle parking on the inside of the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, but it turns out there are two bits of cycle parking on the outside as well.

I haven’t included a Google Streetview picture, partly because it is out of date and partly because my computer is so loaded than it can’t take the strain of yet another open window.

You can just about see one bit of the cycle parking to the bottom right-hand corner of the picture. That is not my Marin though. As you can see the lights are red however I am pretty sure that the two cyclists you see across the junction went through after it turned red. Personally I prefer to see the laws upheld and have no sympathy for this sort of cycling.

The entrance to the Botanic Garden, open daily at 10am although they will close for a period over the Christmas Hols.

I had not met the two people I was meeting before and had a slightly embarrassing moment when I walked and someone said my name as I went over to introduce myself I found it was someone I knew who happened to also be in the Cafe. after a few more false starts I found them in the end.

Although it had started out somewhat damp it was not looking too bad mid-morning so I cycled down to Trumpington to pass the time before my next meeting. This is the Trumpington P&R. According to their webpage there are 43 cycle racks and undercover cycle storage for a further 30 bicycles. Given that there are so many bicycles locked along the fencing you might wonder how many car spaces are there – 1,340.

This is the view looking the other way up the fence. Clearly there is a demand for cycle parking here. I am not quite sure why. It could be people working locally or near-ish inhabitants using the P&R but finding it much cheaper to cycle over rather than drive over. Although if I were to cycle this far I think I’d probably carry on into town. However there is clearly a demand and yet insufficient supply.

I reckon there are at least 30 bicycles locked to the fence and there seem to be more over by the building locked to lampposts. I can’t help but feel that despite bicycles being a major part of the solution for Cambridge’s congestion problems they are either an after-thought or cyclists considered as second-class citizens.

Of course this might have been caused by a very recent uptick in cycle usage – well no. In an article in the April/May 2020 Cambridge Cycling Campaign Newsletter – My way: Fowlmere to Cambridge in which the author (Kevin Steinhardt) has captioned one of his pictures at the bottom of the article: “Trumpington Park & Ride where the cycle parking is full to bursting”.

Mind you it hasn’t taken our Councillors long before “New charge agreed for drivers who park but don’t ride” over at Babraham Park and Ride. I am pleased to see that there are 126 cycle racks and uncover storage for 126 cycles, which I assume means cycle parking for 252 bicycles in total. There is also parking for 945 cars. According to the article over 200 motorists (vehicles) park there and then walk or cycle over to Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Mind you the hospital is seeking planning permission for its own 1,228-space nine-storey car park as the first stage of their 2020 development plan. It will not provide cycle-parking though.

Apparently the Park & Ride runs at an annual loss of £700,000. (Note here is a dissertation by Martin Lucas Smith – Park and ride – sustainable transport or expensive white elephant? with some interesting conclusions. It was finished in May 2000 so time has passed since then. But I will quote one of the conclusions “… Cambridge park and ride is merely displacing and increasing rather than reducing car traffic,… We should be under no illusions, the old adage build it and they will come appears to be true, unfortunately building better car-parking facilities will attract more users – which means vehicles. Conversely charging those Addenbrooke’s users of the Babraham P&R will probably also mean that some park out in the streets.

The trouble is that there are economic advantages from concentrations of employment such as the Addenbrooke’s site or of shopping areas such as large Supermarkets or the Grand Arcade in Cambridge. The advantages seem to accrue to the organisations whilst the costs seem to fall to society in terms of getting people to and from those sites. Our current approach based around the motor car means that parking can be a significant cost. Indeed for some it is virtually impossible to travel without access to a car.

I guess the question it raises in my mind is are we apportioning the costs properly. If land is at a premium then why shouldn’t all on-street car-parking have a cost? Why shouldn’t there be a cost for people parking at their place of work? I would consider it reasonable to have thresholds. After all bicycles take up so much less space they ought to be free.

I suppose it comes down to what are we trying to achieve. At one level by making personal transportation cheaper and faster all we do is increase the number of miles driven, we reduce localisation and inevitably increase pollution. On the other hand if we suddenly charge for city parking and city congestion then politicians don’t get voted in. People who live in cities find themselves less well off . The poorer sections of society probably lose out disproportionately.

The trouble is you have to start somewhere which means trends towards localisation, more working from home and better public transportation corridors. However everything I read suggests that our current approach is one of short-term tactical management rather than taking a more strategic view.

I think I got a bit side-tracked there back to my ride. As luck would have it I cycled up from the Trumpington P&R along the route of the CGB (Cambridge Guided Busway) past Addenbrooke’s hospital site. There is quite a bit of development going on around here. I hope they make it a pleasant place to live.

One of the rather odd things about cycle routes – or shared-use paths is haphazard nature of the route. With so much housing being built and the development of the Addenbrooke’s site just nearby I would imagine that this will become a well-used way in to work. Yet the path has short poles acting as constrictions and hazards. They appear to have been given an extra dab of green paint. Have they already been causing problems? I wonder whether road planners, who then turn their hand to busways and cycle routes understand just what cycling is all about.

I am no spring chicken, I don’t consider myself very fit and am certainly not a racer, yet there are times when I will cycle along at 32Km/h / 20mph. The only saving grace about this junction is that at least there are streetlights (or should that be busway lights). Given all the attention to health and safety how do these sorts of routes get constructed?

In fact what are those ankle-breakers for? I assume they are to stop cars driving along the shared use path. As a cyclists I am not sure the benefit outweighs the risk.

And here is one of the new buildings on the Addenbrooke’s Site with a CGB spur heading into the site. The bridge takes it over the railway line.

As I mentioned even a slow cyclist like me can pick up a bit of speed. Heading back into Cambridge the wind was behind me. The two cyclists still managed a chat whilst keeping up a good pace.

As you can see in two consecutive pictures they had travelled a reasonable distance. I should also mention that I saw some buses on this bit of the track. Look a this bit of the cycle way – not bad eh.

When I reached the station as I cycled over the Carter Bridge (opened in 1989) I stopped to take a picture on the new central platform, which is now open. Apparently they have put in channel on the new new footbridge to help cyclists get their bicycles over. If you check out this Cyclestreets picture then you will see that it is sub-optimal and will be modified. Perhaps that is what you get when you cut back on Cycling officers. Still cyclists are second class citizens aren’t they.

Let’s hope they don’t make the same mistake on this possible “shortcut to path beside busway” at Hills Road where they have not got enough room to build a ramp. What about wheelchair access though?

At one point I stopped a some traffic lights, along with two other cyclists. The old boy turned round and commented – a nice bit of wind eh. It was at our backs. Unfortunately I was going to have to cycle back into it at some point.

Am I being oversensitive or should this council lorry have parked on the grass rather than in the middle of the shared use path – the left fork after Oyster Row towards Riverside. (Second class …)

As most people in the UK are aware it has been quite windy. For a change when I parked up at the Judge Institute there were quite a few empty cycle racks. Strong winds can be very off-putting. The winds seem to have shaken a few bikes out of the racks as well.

As you can see I followed the age-old parking principle of parking well away from other bicycles.

I have to say it was a most enjoyable day, cycling around having meetings and getting some fresh air. It was a little more damp at the end of the day which is why the pictures stop here. But as I said at the start getting wet on the way home doesn't matter quite so much does it.

And almost finally I loved this article in which a rocket car was built and powered by Mentos and coke. According to a comment as it managed to cover 239 feet using 54 bottles of coke that is about 0.002mpg, mind you don’t blame me if the maths is wrong I didn’t check it.

And really finally – a picture of Glastonbury Tor meeting Independence day. When my kids were small and we were visiting Grandma and Grandad, who lived in Somerset we took a bottle rocket with us and set it off down at the bottom of Glastonbury Tor. We had a surprisingly large audience gather around us.

Plans, Mice, Men and meetings in London

2011-12-12T19:43:00.001Z

Tuesday, 6^th December: I had to head down to London on for a meeting at the end of the day. So my plan was to get some work done in the morning and then cycle off to the Railway Station and look forward to a pleasant cycle home later that evening.

I much prefer to cycle if I can although I could claim mileage if I drive my car, but nothing if I cycle. I was pleased to see that Cambridgeshire clerics will be able to claim 20p mileage rate for cycling now though. It always annoy me that many companies are quite happy to pay 25-40p for people using their cars for business trips but seem to feel that a cycle should be free. Perhaps they feel that the exercise is all the reward that should be due. In reality it does cost money to cycle, albeit somewhat less. More seriously a company can save money by being generous with the cycle mileage rate. (Or in this case the Church can save money and…)

Whilst on the subject of cars there is more pressure than ever to reduce the reliance on the biggest liability in the car – the driver – In “How close are we to a crash-proof car” a BBC reporter explores the work on making cars even safer. It gives the statistic that 1.3million people are killed and 50 million injured on the world's roads. How is it that such an horrific statistic seems to sit below the radar. I just hope that the systems also make the roads safer for the other users.

In one of those interesting bits of law a Drunk women was banned from driving after being caught riding (an electric) scooter over the limit. Hover she can still continue to use her electric scooter – and on shared-use paths. I have passed electric scooters a few times on shard use paths – at first, from a distance I thought they were mopeds and not allowed – but the ones I have seen have been late-middle age ladies. I can’t help feel that they are necessary because our public bus system doesn’t meet the needs of a chunk of the public.

Last Tuesday they weren’t running, but now that the new central platform at Cambridge Railway Station is open longer commuter trains (now) on track from Cambridge. Twelve carriage trains can now use the new platforms – 7 and 8. I wonder if this means they will reduce the peak period time during which the fares are higher? No I don’t really wonder that at all. Whilst it might have been introduced to cut peak time congestion I can’t see them giving up the extra revenue.

Back to my journey – I got a phone call, the person I was meeting had a change of plan and could I get there sooner. Well there went my plans. I plucked up my stuff hopped into the car and set off for the station. Whenever I cycle I struggle to find a space for my bike but see quite a few empty car spaces. Whenever I drive there are no empty car space. Today was no exception – fortunately I did manage to park on the street around the corner.

My haste to catch the train also caused me to forget my camera, so I had to go with my camera of last resort, the camera on my phone. Now I am not an iPhone or Android phone user my principle requirement for my phone is a decent battery life. So the following pictures only have three million pixies still you get the picture.

Now it was close to lunchtime, so I decided to multi-task; travel and eat. Really it was an excuse to have a pasty. Here it is, is it me or are they not quite as good as they were. Although the best pasties I have eaten have both been associated with exercise. Once, when I was a boy, we had a family holiday at a place called Budleigh Salterton. A friend also came along and my brother and our friend would have an evening swim in the sea. We swam out to a float and then as it got dark swam back to the streetlights. Then we would buy some pasties and eat them as we walked back to the house we (well my Mum and Dad really) had rented.

The other memorable pasties were ones I bought when cycling in the first two counties of my Land’s End to John O’ Groats ride.

As I walked through London I was slightly jealous of this chap on a Boris bike. Mind you there is no reason why I shouldn’t use one when down in London. Except that it would require a bit of up-front planning, including some form of map as I don’t really don’t know my way around London.

After my meeting as I was walking along Whitehall there appeared to be some serious trouble. There were loads of police, several ambulances, a police helicopter and at least one person on a stretcher. When I got home I struggled to find anything on the web about it. (It was a demonstration related to elections in the Democratic Republic of Columbia.

When I catch the train home from London I tend to find the journey unpleasant, I feel tired but can’t settle in a comfortable position, so a cycle home is really exhilarating. except of course this time around there was no cycle ride home.

I forgot to mention that over the weekend my wife and I reserved our Christmas tree, ready for us to pick up later on in the month. Here it is waiting.

Ah well there was some good news, at one point it looked as if I would have to go to London on the following two days as well, but my early visit saved me.

Across the fields to Childerley and then back via St Ives part 2

2011-12-05T17:31:00.001Z

Saturday, 3^rd December: A quick recap my plan was to cycle through Dry Drayton and check it out a bridleway through to Childerley, then if it looked too much like hard work I was going to take the cycle way through to Bar Hill and up to Lolworth. In the event I took the route I planned. Here is the Bike Route Toaster Link, it is just over 50Km / 32 miles long and reaches the dizzy heights of 70m above sea level.

Although I have cycled many of the lanes here before it did take one byway that I had not cycled along before – Thorofare Lane, which passed Thorofare Spinney. It is marked on the map as “unexplored bit”. In this survey – “Millennium Survey of Paths in South Cambridgeshire” - it is path number 8 and its use is noted as "Quite frequent by walkers and riders (too wet for cyclists)…”. Whilst looking for references to the byway I found a Wikipedia article which mentioned the use of descriptive street names being normal practice in medieval times. If you are interested here is the link – it refers to a street used for prostitution so is probably NSFW, but ultimately is etymological in content.

Before moving on I ought to just mention that BHDDMADCYCLE website where the parish Councils of Bar Hill, Dry Drayton Madingley and Coton have joined forces to (attempt to)develop a cycle path to connect existing cycle paths. Here is a link to their April 2011 map. It is great to see some enthusiasm for such activity, but a little dispiriting how long these things take.

There are certainly some interesting names in this part of the world after passing Bird’s Pastures Farm, Battlegate, Dundry and Extra Farm. Dundry is a name I know from my childhood growing up in the Mendips and is the name of a village near Bristol. The Wikipedia link suggests that Dundry means the Hill that is dry from the Old English “dun and dryge”. On the OS map Dundry does appear to be at one of the higher spots – 67m.

Here is Thorofare Lane – it appears to be a pretty decent track certainly better than many I have cycled along.

As I might have mentioned before, once I stopped looking for Spindle I started seeing more of it. This ride was no exception – here are the distinctive pink berries of some Spindle growing along Thorofare Lane. According to the link the 4-lobed fruits turn deep-pink in autumn and later open to expose four bright orange seeds. I must keep a look out for that.

This is the other end of Thorofare Lane – it wasn’t all quite as good as the track earlier – but it was quite cycle-able on my hybrid. Although the footpath report I linked to earlier did suggest it might get wetter at times. The signpost points out that it is a Public Byway – Thorofare Lane to Battlegate Road (half mile) and Childerley.

There is also a Pathfinder sticker on the pole.

However on the other side of the lane is a much more obvious Pathfinder March sign.

The lane ends up in Knapwell a rather nice village, it is named after chalybeate Red Well in a nearby wood apparently. No this dilapidated building is not Knapwell – just a structure in a field alongside the road on my way up to Conington.

After Connington I reached outer Fenstanton – or rather the bit of Fenstanton that is isolated from the main bit by the A14. It used to be that main routes passed through settlements. Indeed those settlements would have provided service from travellers and gained economic benefit. However as horse gave way to motor vehicle the distance and volume of “travellers” grew. So we have a situation in which bypasses were build for towns and villages to cut the through traffic. This seems to be a case where the road, now called the A14 did slightly by-pass the village of Fenstanton, you can see a slight kink on the map. But as the A14 became a more important route the houses to the west became more isolated.

This is a picture of West End Road – which on the 1930s OS map was a small road that directly connected with the main road. It doesn’t any more – the grass along the middle of the road is a bit of a giveaway.

Strangely it reaches the A14 where you see a “Public Bridleway” signpost. No I didn’t lift my bike over and try to cross the road. I am not the only one who has cycled along here and wondered about this dead end. A Cycle Seven post – Two Bushes and a Bogey has a similar picture. Although in my picture the brambles have been cut back.

Instead I cycled back to Hilton Road and then to an underpass – this is on the main village side. The Cycle Seven link does have a picture of the tunnel itself. The village’s map of footpaths doesn’t show a route across at West End |Road or the underpass either. The Cambridgeshire County Council Website (Rights of way) does show the merest smidgen of bridleway at the end of West End Road, but stopping at the A14 – how weird.

After passing under the subway I did stop at a shop to buy a sandwich for lunch and I had already packed a few jelly babies for dessert. When I reached the Low Road/Harrison Way roundabout a car stopped to let me cross – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – that is not a nice place to cross the road.

I cycled through St Ives and then crossed Harrison Way again, this time on the CGB (Cambridge Guided Busway) route. Apparently the response time for pedestrians pressing the cross button was speeded up. However in my experience this is a dangerous crossing still, even with light control, I have seen cars speed up when they see me about to push the crossing button and this time a car went through on red. A car running a red light is a lot scarier than a cyclist. The issue has reached the Hunts Post, some drivers just don’t want to be held up by any other road user – lorry, bus, cyclist or pedestrian.

I had my picnic in the St Ives P&R, which as you can see was busy. I wonder how many of these cars are CGB users and how many use it as a convenient car park? In Cambridge there is going to be a charge for Cambridge’s busiest park and ride site – targeting motorists who leave their cars but do not get the bus. According to the article there are people who park at the Babraham Road P&R and then walk or cycle into Addenbrooke’s Hospital. It costs quite a lot to put in the controls so this charge will not spread to the other car parks at least not immediately.

As an indication of just how car-centric we are as a society Addenbrooke’s is seeking planning permission for a 1,200 space car park. But there will not be any provision for cycle parking. (They come later – now where have I heard that before.) Now this is the same NHS that tells us to exercise more, cycle to work even – do they not realise that they speak with forked tongue.

One of the benefits that users of the CGB get – whether it be on the cycle way or the busway is sun beautiful views of the sun setting over the Fen Drayton lakes.

Although I am not quite sure why I have two similar pictures of that sun shining through the clouds.

As I have mentioned before there are loads of small walls alongside the CGB – like this one. A search of the trusty web shows that the information is available on a website I subscribe to “Travelling the Cambridgeshire guided busway”. They are Art Installations and the words on the bricks relate to the busway. According to this link – “Cambridgeshire guided busway dotted with art” they are by an artist – Jo Roberts and are “Busway bricks for the Guided Busway”. (I wonder if it is this Jo Roberts?) In case you were wondering and eve if you weren’t – some of the words; drain, you r here, busway, meridian, Jo Roberts, Swavesey and barges.

I often moan about the lack of decent cycle parking at the Cambridge Railway station. Well apparently a protest is mooted. If every cyclist chose to drive to the station and park there early quite a number of car drivers would quickly realise that more cyclists on the road mean less congestion and (paradoxically) more parking spaces. One more bike means one less car! The beauty of such an approach, well it would be perfectly legitimate, civil obedience even, and might even help car drivers see how they benefit from other people cycling.

I was pleased to see that along the route the cycle parks are being used, although here at Swavesey there already seems to be cycle overspill (I think it is Swavesey – but am not 100% sure. With two bikes locked to the lamppost and one to the fence. This is great news – it shows that the CGB can not only reduce unnecessary car journeys on the main roads but also in the villages.

In my view it also shows that high-quality routes are what attract users. here is an interesting piece in the Guardian with a discussion on “Bristol’s Railway Path is becoming a victim of its own success”. Now it is a good path by UK standards, but that just shows how low our standards are. Our paths are more like non motor-vehicle linear “ghettos”. The path’s over-popularity is a measure of its utility – the solution we need more such paths to be built with better segregation between cyclists and walkers.

The Longstanton passenger building also got a ceremonial opening – Building sets a new shade of green. £430,000 is quite a bit of green!

Before I venture of the busway another driver has driven their car onto the busway - “sun in my eyes”. Perhaps that is why cyclists feel safer segregated from car drivers – the classic SMIDSTB.

Although I set out early and didn’t need my lights there has been the traditional crackdown in Cambridge – “Dozens of cyclists caught in Cambridge with no lights” and, quite rightly the stance has been backed by the City cycling campaigners. As someone who cycles at night my safety is compromised by cyclists not using lights. However my safety is compromised more by speeding motorists and parking in mandatory cycle lanes and so as noted in the article cyclists would also like to see Police address those issues.

In that vein I was pleased to see that there will be a “Crackdown to enforce Mill Road 20mph limit”. Although personally I am not convinced that “crackdowns” are the answer – they sound more like newspaper headline speak. I’d rather see a more general adherence to the rule of law – whether it be cyclists and lights or cars and speeding (or limited access roads).

One bugbear of mine is when you see drivers using non-hands free mobile phones. A number that has increased.

Here is the Cam from the Green Dragon Bridge – pretty still. Although Rowers make waves over plans to raise fees. Apparently there is a £50,000 annual shortfall, but the study cost £27,000 to carry out!!! That seems to be a case of it being easy to spend other people’s money.

And finally some picture links – some interesting use of perspective and small apertures to increase the depth of field – “Why size doesn’t matter”. Some stunning pictures of the British landscape. I like the frost-dusted trees. Some daytime fireworks, using 8,000 shells.

Across the fields to Childerley and then back via St Ives part 1

2011-12-05T17:27:00.001Z

Saturday, 3^rd December: My wife had signed up for a Christmas Wreath making day at one of the not so local National Trust properties with some of her friends so we had already done the week’s shopping the day before. What is more it was sunny and not cold (10C).

I haven’t really cycled along a new bridleway or byway for ages so I figured it was time to a change of scene, but where? In the end this is the route I followed. I have cycled around the Childerley area before (here, here and here to name but three). The route from Dry Drayton to Childerley was not the easiest route for cycling along the last time I did it. There is a well signed bridleway, but the path itself was a mud path well used by horses and on a slope. On a dry day it would just be bumpy on a wet day the cloying mud makes it very hard work.

My plan was to cycle through Dry Drayton and check it out, then if it looked too much like hard work I was going to take the cycle way through to Bar Hill and up to Lolworth. In the event I took the route I planned. Here is the Bike Route Toaster Link, it is just over 50Km / 32 miles long and reaches the dizzy heights of 70m above sea level.

I took the river route along to Magdalene Street – for a change rather than any particular convenience, as routes go it can get pretty busy with pedestrians and then on the street buses, taxis and cyclists. I cycled out off Cambridge on Madingley Road. It is an odd hodge-podge of a road with shred-used paths and various bits of wide road painted up to be thinner.

For the last bit I used the shared-use path on the right-hand side of the road, which is pleasant since the traffic can get quite fast in places. The path though is quite thin and not that suitable for two-way cycling. I did have a near miss with an on-coming cycling just because there was barely any room. I slowed down, she didn’t and our handlebars were separated by about a centimetre.

I could have carried along wider cycle path to Hardwick and then across to Dry Drayton, but instead pass through Madingley, with views of Madingley Hall. It was acquired by the University in 1948 for £50,000. Apparently black squirrels have been seen in the grounds.

After wending my way through to Dry Drayton I set out along Scotland Road, which has the misfortune to be a “short-cut” between the A428 and the A14. Some friends once rented a house on this road, a house that led to them renaming the place Damp Drayton. Cars whizz along this road in both direction once out of the village and yet the countryside is really rather pleasant. Unlike the fens it is gently (very gently) undulating with trees. Whilst there is a bridleway to Childerley on the other side of the road there is a footpath to Dry Drayton. It takes you down to follow the path of Callow Brook which runs between Hardwick and Dry Drayton.

The path follows the first line of trees in the picture I think. I do think that sometimes there are quite a few of the more remote footpaths that would benefit by allowing cyclists to use them. It would help make them a bit more accessible. I guess the concern would be about the extra “traffic” damaging the path and the need to put in cycle friendly gates. Our network of paths is a hidden treasure in some parts I fear. Callow Brook gets a mention in the Dry Drayton Parish Council minutes – work on flooding problems.

This is Scotland Road, just before taking the picture two cars passed by travelling in the same direction, one overtaking the other at a great rate of knots. I did wonder just how much attention would have been paid to a cyclist travelling in the other direction. I have been pushed into the verge more than once by over-taking cars. I think they become so fixated on cars they they fail to see other types of road user. I also would imagine that the window pillar probably obscures their line of sight as well.

This is the view looking back towards Dry Drayton, the paths are well signed and look their is even a bicycle symbol the route across to Childerley must be ok.

After crossing the road and passing through the gap in the hedge – this is the friendly sign that greets you. I suppose that here in the UK guns are now so heavily controlled that we have become somewhat shocked by them. It was usual to see farmers out and about with their guns where I grew up in the Mendips. I have had a farmer wave his gun in my direction. As young lads we didn’t rally think he was going to shoot at us, it was more like waving a stick in our direction.

I can’t help but feel that this approach is a heavy-handed way of trying to stop people from wandering from the beaten path. Although to be fair if they do a bit of shooting it is better to be forewarned. I wonder how often they do shoot around here?

The path heads out across the field rather than along the hedgerow. The 1930 OS map shows this as a “road” all the way to Childerley Hall. As you can see it is a soil path although fortunately it looks like a couple of bicycles have been through along the right hand side of the path. My tyres are just a tad too thin for comfort on this sort of track, The track does go down though which makes it easier.

This is that last track viewed after reach the bottom. It looks reasonably steep – for a flatlander.

The same view but viewed from the bridge over another brook that appears to be nameless on the various OS maps I have looked at. .

That is the course of the brook as it makes its way towards Bar Hill and ultimately the Great River Ouse.

What goes down must go up. There was a climb back up from the brook – once again the place to cycle looked to be to the right. It was and I managed to keep going without stopping. It wouldn’t be easy if it got much stickier.

There appears to be a named path the Pathfinder 46 mile Circular Walk. It is used for an annual 46-mile walk around four main airbases of the Pathfinder Force. RAF Wyton, Gravely, Oakington and Warboys.

As I mentioned before, for a flatlander, this countryside is really rather rolling. After passing through a bit of woodlands, which has Edinburgh Farm marked on the older maps nearby it was down hill again. This is the view looking back along the track. Inevitably dome pylons have made there way into the picture.

And finally as I neared Childerley there was a gravel road. The village was depopulated by Sir John Cutte in the 16th Century in order to form a deer park!

I have taken picture before of the Hall so check out the links earlier in this Post. This time I concentrated on the tracks themselves for some reason. This is the bridleway out, at least the one I took there are a couple of footpaths that converge on Childerley.

After getting home I realised there was a shorter route to Battle Gate which I must try out the next time. This time around I went the long way round Bird’s Pastures Farm.