Bike blog | The Guardian – Tagged "Transport" – Page 8

Channel 5, Cycling, London, Television, Television & radio, Transport, UK news - July 8, 2019

Channel 5's nonsense will make me and other cyclists less safe

Cyclists: Scourge of the Roads? isn’t just as bad as the title indicates – it’s irresponsible

On Wednesday morning, I’ll be a little bit more wary when I cycle into work. I’m always hugely careful, anyway – the trip involves sharing space with tonne-plus lumps of speeding metal – but this time I’ll be particularly on my guard. Why? Because Channel 5 are putting me, and others, at risk.

At 9.15pm on Tuesday, a reasonably sizeable number of people, the majority of whom probably drive motor vehicles, will sit down to watch what is undoubtedly the worst, most scaremongering, inaccurate, downright irresponsible programme on cycling I’ve ever seen.

Many motorists see cyclists as scum of the roads – speeding through crossings, riding where they shouldn’t, and generally hogging the roads.

For many drivers in the capital, cyclists have become public enemy number one.

What really winds motorists up is the feeling that cyclists are allowed to pedal outside of the law.

It’s not just in cities that some riders are on a right old rampage.

The pastoral dream – or it was until the cyclists came.

Cyclists sure can be a pain in the rear end, and some are a danger on the roads.

Ten common myths about bike lanes – and why they're wrong

From congestion to cost, there are many entirely misguided arguments in circulation

Cycle lanes have been in the news recently, as have the many often entirely misguided arguments that opponents use against them.

For all the (slight) progress in some UK cities over mass cycling, we are still at a stage where a leaflet from a local branch of the party of government (see below) will state falsehoods about bike lanes as if they were the undoubted truth.

An official leaflet from the Conservative party. pic.twitter.com/465FkKMw9P

What £1.4bn buys: 1,800 miles of cycle lanes or one big roundabout

What happened to Chris Boardman’s plans for the UK’s biggest cycle route network in Greater Manchester?

Almost exactly a year ago, Chris Boardman – the Olympic champion turned walking and cycling czar – revealed a bold vision: Greater Manchester was to turn itself into a Dutch-style cycling paradise by building a huge, joined-up 1,000-mile network of walking and biking routes called Beelines, after Manchester’s civic symbol, the worker bee.

A year on, the network has changed its name to the Bee Network after a rather embarrassing copyright infringement, and has now expanded to cover 1,800 miles. Yet so far, only only one tiny section – a bit of towpath in Wigan known as the “muddy mile” – has actually been started, and the first wodge of money has already gone.

Share your photos of the best and worst cycling infrastructure in your cities

Some cities feature spectacular bridges, bike paths and transport hubs designed with cyclists in mind, while others remain less than cycle-friendly. We want to see your examples, both good and bad

Some of the best and worst of examples of cycling infrastructure in cities have hit the headlines this week. On Monday, the Bicycle Architecture Biennale – which celebrates cutting edge designs from around the world – launched in Amsterdam. Schemes included a 8km bicycle skyway in Xiamen – China’s first suspended cycle path and the world’s longest aerial cycle lane, and projects from cities as far afield as Australia, the US and of course the Netherlands.

The depressing lesson of west London's lost cycle route

Kensington and Chelsea council has blocked a flagship plan after a campaign based largely on myths

More or less every time a city orders a report into how expanding populations can be moved around in efficient ways that also improve liveability and sustainability, the same answer comes back: active travel – that is, more walking and cycling.

And yet in many of those same cities, when specific plans are introduced to make walking and cycling safer and more pleasant, they face a fierce backlash, which can be sufficiently noisy and disruptive to scupper the schemes.

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Transport RSS

Channel 5's nonsense will make me and other cyclists less safe

Ten common myths about bike lanes – and why they're wrong

What £1.4bn buys: 1,800 miles of cycle lanes or one big roundabout

Share your photos of the best and worst cycling infrastructure in your cities

The depressing lesson of west London's lost cycle route

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