Category Archives: John Franklin

Let’s get vehicular

The new edition of Cyclecraft was published last week. I haven’t had a chance to give it a good read yet, but at first glance it appears to contain much of the same dogma previous editions contained. For instance, the … Continue reading

Posted in Cyclecraft, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 26 Comments

The myth of incompetence

You won’t need me to tell you that John Forester is the ‘father of vehicular cycling’. One of his biggest apparent obsessions is the notion that cycle tracks and cycle paths foster ‘incompetent’ cycling. He has written, for instance, that … Continue reading

Posted in Cyclecraft, Cycling policy, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 27 Comments

A letter from Zohra

I recently chanced upon this amazing letter, written to the British Medical Journal, almost exactly 13 years ago. Why do school children cycle on the continent, but not in the UK? Dear Editor, I have been reading the responses to … Continue reading

Posted in 20 mph limits, Cyclecraft, Cycling policy, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 28 Comments

Cycling on the pavement

I wrote a rather long piece a few months ago about a West Sussex County Times article entitled Councillor warns of road ‘peril’. This was an article that, for some reason,  decided to focus entirely on the dangers of ‘selfish cyclists’ who … Continue reading

Posted in Cyclecraft, Helmets, Horsham Police, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Transport for London | 16 Comments

What should ‘Going Dutch’ mean?

Matthew Wright’s article in the Guardian yesterday was entitled There’s more to ‘going Dutch’ than having a separate cycling lane To which the obvious, superficial, response is ‘no shit Sherlock’, and the longer, more detailed response would be as follows. … Continue reading

Posted in Cycling renaissance, Infrastructure, John Franklin, LCC, London, The Netherlands | 5 Comments

John Franklin in action

I mentioned in a recent post that John Franklin – the author of Cyclecraft, and prominent U.K. advisor on cycling policy and design – appears to have one governing principle, which is that cyclists should be on the roads, and … Continue reading

Posted in Cyclecraft, Cycling policy, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Road safety | 27 Comments

John Franklin and Cyclecraft – Cycle safely by turning yourself into Mark Cavendish

Next month I am planning to take some Bikeability Level 2 classes. My main motivation is not really the training itself because I feel, perhaps hubristically, that I am a competent ‘vehicular’ cyclist, fully versed in the speed and positioning … Continue reading

Posted in Cyclecraft, Cycling policy, Cycling renaissance, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Road safety | 42 Comments