Category Archives: Subjective safety

How to stop people cycling on the pavement

With the opening of the Superhighway 2 Extension yesterday, I found myself looking through some photographs of Stratford High Street, before the new cycle tracks appeared. This one in particular caught my attention – Some young kids being ‘antisocial’, and … Continue reading

Posted in Pavement cycling, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 36 Comments

Resistance to change

Towards the end of the Ranty Highwayman’s excellent summary of a recent Institution of Civil Engineer’s lecture in London about cycling infrastructure, he makes an interesting observation, based on the two talks given by TfL staff during the evening – … Continue reading

Posted in Boris Johnson, Bow Roundabout, Car dependence, Go Dutch, Gyratories, Infrastructure, LCC, London, Space for Cycling, Subjective safety, Transport for London | 11 Comments

Ben Hamilton-Baillie and motor traffic

Last night I attended a talk given by Ben Hamilton-Baillie in Eastbourne. I didn’t really learn very much, because the talk was very similar to the ‘stock’ talk he has presumably given on numerous occasions before – the one you … Continue reading

Posted in Car dependence, Infrastructure, Shared Space, Subjective safety, The Netherlands, Town planning, Transport policy, Uncategorized | 30 Comments

What ‘robocars’ tell us about British cycle campaigning

There was a flurry of discussion at the end of last week about what the emergence of ‘robocars’ – shorthand for cars that automatically drive themselves, without any human input – might mean for how we design for cycling, prompted … Continue reading

Posted in Car dependence, Cyclists' Touring Club, David Hembrow, Go Dutch, Infrastructure, Robocars, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 44 Comments

Broad Lane – the great TfL supertanker ploughs on

Rachel Aldred blogged last week about Transport for London’s proposals for Broad Lane in Tottenham, pointing out that this wide three lane road is going to be reduced in capacity to just a single lane in each direction – but … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure, LCC, London, One-way streets, Subjective safety, Transport for London | 15 Comments

On training

Some back-and-forth on Twitter throughout this week about, allegedly, ‘training versus infrastructure’ (an imagined opposition which I hope this piece will set to rest) has prompted me to attempt to formalise the thoughts on training that have been floating around … Continue reading

Posted in Skyride, Subjective safety, The Netherlands, Training | 54 Comments

Separate to liberate

In four days in Utrecht last week, I took nearly 400 photographs of people cycling. Part of this exuberance with a camera can be attributed to my innate geekiness about cycling, but mostly it stemmed from the sheer excitement I … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 39 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

Cheapside – a video is not an adequate response to bad road design

The City of London have brought out what they presumably believe to be a charming ‘road safety’ video, entitled ‘Handle Like Eggs’. The presenter of the video informs us that it is really important we ‘share the streets, safely.’ This … Continue reading

Posted in Absurd transport solutions, City of London, Infrastructure, London, Pinch points, Road rage, Subjective safety | 25 Comments

Why we need space for cycling

Ahead of today’s parliamentary debate on cycling, and subsequent Space for Cycling protest, I thought I’d give a brief reminder of why change is so urgently needed in Britain, and to persuade you to come along to the ride. The … Continue reading

Posted in Cycling policy, Go Dutch, Infrastructure, LCC, London, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 18 Comments