The BBC covered the session on Democracy live TV and the information given is very informative and interesting. I have embedded the video below, and its available from the BBC here. Enjoy…

Full Story here

Bike Rental

Picked this story up from a tweet by Carlton Reid. Briefly summarised; Dublin’s bike hire scheme has seen a fantastic response to its launch; so much so that they have run out of registration cards! Full story here: http://www.sbpost.ie/

Personally I cant believe we don’t have these in Glasgow! I think from the success of these schemes in France, The Netherlands, Germany, Canada etc.. someone in the Scottish parliament would try and push such a scheme for cities like Glasgow. A story in the scotsman a few months back reported the possibility of such a scheme in Edinburgh, but as usual they are dragging their heels when it comes to implementation.

As I posted yesterday, I cant believe we are wasting money on £14m worth of train station parking that I cant see a lot of people benefiting from, when it could be spent on schemes like these and dedicated bike path construction. WTF?

The reason I can’t see this as a step in the right direction is that it seems to miss the point of better cycling facilities within cities and suburbs. I am aware that point of view is a narrow one, but let me run through some reasoning.

Firstly; schemes like this work in Denmark, as they already have the bike infrastructure to support journeys to the station by bicycle. These hub’s came about as a way to encourage people to leave their bikes at the station, as opposed to taking them on the train. As you can see, this is an entirely different problem than we have in the UK. Right now; we cant even get the bikes to the station.

Secondly; in some parts of Britain, you may have to walk 2 or more miles from the train station to your place of work. If this is the case, then that’s when you really want to have a bicycle with you, not in a bike rack at your home town. In these situations you would need to have facilities such as Velib to fill this gap; which once again exist in the Netherlands but not in the UK.

Finally; with the price of train transportation constantly on the rise; the almost yearly deterioration of service and already severe overcrowding problems in carriages, should we be considering the train as a viable mode of transport for the future? Do i need to point out again that the rail infrastructure in Denmark is far superior to anything we have in the UK?

To put this simply, it can be said that the Netherlands introduced the cycle parking schemes at train stations because they needed to provide better parking facilities for the already huge numbers of bikes left at stations by commuters, who used the efficient trains and arrived there safely using excellent cycle specific transport infrastructure. This is not the issue we have in Britain, and definitely not the same situation.

I think that London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has a far better way of pushing Britain’s cycling revolution with his ‘Cycling Superhighways’ idea, as it recognises that a bicycle is a very practical alternative to expensive & unreliable trains or buses. It also recognises that once people are cycling more, that you need to provide facilities such as secure bike parking facilities everywhere, but not just at train stations.

Award winning Go- Cycle

On Wednesday the 30th of September, ETRA (European Twowheel Retailers’ Association) submitted to the European Commission a motivated proposal for changes in the regulations governing pedal assisted cycles, electric bikes and electric mopeds.

To summarise briefly; they have recommended an increase in power for electric assist bikes, but have opted not to allow an increase in speed. They have also created a new category for electric bikes that are throttle controlled and are not pedal assist.

This new category is perhaps the biggest change as some cyclists view a throttle controlled bicycle as an electric motorbike, not a true bicycle. I personally have to agree. If the bike has pedal assist then it is without doubt a bicycle as it requires human power to move; but when you remove the need for pedaling it becomes a motorised vehicle. I guess some in the industry are worried that if you remove the need for pedaling a throttle controlled bike,  then how long will it be before they remove the pedals from such machines altogether.

The full text of the document can be found here.

Before I say anything else, I would like to say that I believe that children should wear helmets until they are able to control a bike fully. On the other hand I believe it should be left up to the parents to decide when it is safe.

I personally only use a helmet when cycling off road and I take a lot of stick for this. But I believe its personal choice and I believe that it can encourage drivers to perceive you as wearing protective gear when wearing one, causing them to drive closer to you when overtaking. Dr Iain Walker does mention this factor as part of his studies on this issue, which are summarised well in this podcast http://bike.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=361037#. As such I would like to see a bit more study into to the causes of road cycling accidents accidents and their prevention before any legislation is passed.

I also feel its a bit cheap of the medical profession to go after helmet wearing legislation, when the biggest percentage of serious accidents involving cyclists happens during a collision with a car; were 3cm of painted polystyrene sitting on top of your head will make little or no difference to your injuries. Getting behind campaigns that are petitioning the government to provide car free routes to schools and play areas are surely far more sensible. Lobbying for segregated cycling lanes and bicycle training schemes is also more beneficial. Enough said?

If you would like to read more on the ludicrous reasons for the legislation push, then have a look  here at BikeBiz, which also includes a reponse from the CTC.

In the wake of child obesity concerns, Sustrans has identified traffic calming measures and cycle only routes near children’s home to encourage the use of bicycles as a means of transport and a means to improve child health.

More on the story can be found here

Here is my new blog system powered by WordPress. I will be using it to post about my favourite pastime cycling.

I live in Glasgow, Scotland and will be posting news, thoughts and general ramblings on cycling related issues… especially those related to my home town.

So over the next few days, months and years this blog will evolve and maybe one day it will be worth subscribing too…