Ron Arad Two Nuns Bicycle from paul denton on Vimeo.
15 January 2012  |  | category: architecture, cycling, gravity life, transport, travel  | comments are closed  Great use of data “We’re house-hunting. And for me, like most coders, house-hunting involves lots and lots and lots of screen-scraping. As well as crawling Rightmove listings, I’ve been looking at transport and house-price data. [ continue reading train stations and house prices ] VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo. Thanks Gareth 8 March 2011 | | category: can't make it up!, cycling, film, gravity life, transport, travel | comments are closed SEE ME SAVE ME It’s nearly two years since Eilidh was run over by a truck that failed to see her. Her mum Heather has been working with their local Member of European Parliament to try and get an EU declaration signed to get HGVs fitted with sensors and cameras to remove their blind spot. 4000 people, mostly unprotected road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians are killed each year in Europe because of HGV blind spots. This declaration needs to be signed to be signed by half of the 736 MEPs before it lapses on [ continue reading Eilidh Cairns – Campaign – See Me Save Me ] 4 February 2011 | | category: cycling, scofflaws, tolerated crime and hypocrites, transport, travel | comments are closed Harry Beck’s map continues to inspire. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» European E-Road System as a Subway Diagram | Cameron Booth: .) 28 January 2011 | | category: art, location+, maps & mapping, transport, travel | comments are closed Copenhagen – City of Cyclists from Copenhagenize on Vimeo. A report commissioned by the RAC Foundation has stated that the cost of switching off all speed cameras in the UK would be up to 800 additional people killed or seriously injured every year, the BBC reports. The report’s author Professor Richard Allsop, emeritus professor of transport studies at University College London, also suggested that the popular perception of the cameras being there primarily to raise money is a myth with just £4 from every £60 fine going to the Treasury. RAC report also gives the lie to the revenue-raising "myth" read more (CLICK HERE [ continue reading UK-wide camera switch-off would mean 800 more people killed or seriously injured ] I dislike conflict. This is a questionable characteristic for a barrister. As a result there’s a sombre tone in this week’s post, as I’m tiptoeing precariously close to a shouting match. The Guardian recently posted this article asking whether the law does enough to protect cyclists. As expected, the comments express some fruity road-related read rage. At the same time there’s a strong debate in the cycle blogosphere on what can be done to increase the numbers of people cycling (see ibikelondon vs Carlton Reid, for example). Lots of people talk about ‘strict liability’ as one possible solution, and [ continue reading ‘Strict liability’ and legal protection for cyclists « UKcyclerules ] 16 November 2010 | | category: cycling, scofflaws, tolerated crime and hypocrites, the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed Here’s the funny thing: Google has no listings for “successful public-transport vehicles designed by critics and journalists” – funny that. The comments thread is, as usual where the true wisdom and idiocy resides with (certifiable) people who think the world would be better with no speed or parking restrictions and no buses or trains. “Yours Sincerely, PS I am mad” . Lazy, lazy, lazy. Although this is a bus with no name, it’s already known as the new Routemaster after the much-loved double-decker that served the capital’s streets for the best part of half a century until axed, save for [ continue reading ‘The new Routemaster bus is a design cacophony’ – Great Knockers of our time ] It seems to me that British people are on average rather more interested in cars than is good for them. In one sense this is understandable. On hearing that I normally drive rather infrequently, more than one person responded by saying that they “couldn’t manage without a car”. It’s easy to see why people believe this, given the way the country’s transport infrastructure is arranged. For many people it is genuinely difficult to imagine living without a car in the UK. Given the ubiquity of the car as the only way of getting about, it’s perhaps also not surprising [ continue reading Reflections on England ] 17 October 2010 | | category: advice, cycling, the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed I’d imagine that hardly anyone outside the cycling World knows that Cycling England even exists and cares even less what it stands for. Cycling England, like CTC are great for the already converted but utterly crap at projecting out to the non-cycling public who couldn’t give a hoot what a Cycling Demonstration Town is, or indeed how cycling would benefit them. Cycling England was never going to set the World alight on a meagre budget of £60m per annum (Honda’s ‘Impossible Dream’ advert cost £4.5m alone for perspective). Above all, if Cycling England is a Quango then its foundations [ continue reading so long, and thanks for all the Cycling England pish ] “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” – Tom Clancy Church and 30th St. San Francisco MUNI Construction from Ken Murphy on Vimeo. 14 October 2010 | | category: can't make it up!, film, photography, rail, transport, travel, world of work | comments are closed Just in time for Christmas …. Is the white people’s SUV and golfing Church of the saints of Groundwork UK still going? Just wondering Watch out for transport spending levels in next week’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond is expected to be one of the ministers with the biggest axe – chopping nearly 40 percent from the DfT budget – but if he announces any road building funding whatsoever, critics will call foul. He has been pressed and pressed that cycling offers a good return on investment. Good for local economies; good for health; good for people; good [ continue reading bonfire of the quangos set for Thursday ] Long ago I came to the decision that to fight for ‘cycling infrastructure’ was fun but often a pleasant, chatty, waste of time. Congestion, squalid public-transport, rising health-care costs due to overwhelming levels of morbid-obesity, pragmatic convenience, and lack of space are always going to be the true legislators. There is only one reason people don’t cycle; because they are lazy – no other reason. Don’t listen to the whinging excuses about, lack of cycle-lanes, danger, weather, or anything else, they are lazy, and why not? Being whisked around in a heated armchair with piped music while you get obese [ continue reading enough about bicycles already ] This spew of a speech must surely go down in the annals as one of the most ridiculous collections of words and hyperbole this week – I refuse to believe that many of the people in that hall truly believed a word of it. DAILY MAIL GOVERNMENT. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» YouTube – Philip Hammond: rail is “subsidised”; roads are “investments”: .) [ continue reading Philip Hammond: rail is “subsidised”; roads are “investments” ] 5 October 2010 | | category: scofflaws, tolerated crime and hypocrites, the new 'priest class', the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed Saw this post by a blogger I enjoy and respect and find that I am troubled by the action of the post here. I am told that in Switzerland every registration number is searchable to owner and that this results in more polite and considerate driving. Any cyclist, or driver for that matter, must be aware of the number of drivers phoning, texting, smoking, eating and whatever else while their children roam the car unrestrained and wonder at why it is so difficult to photograph and prosecute by tech with an equal approach to all offenders. It’s easy [ continue reading Identifying scofflaw drivers – how far is far? ] 3 October 2010 | | category: cycling, scofflaws, tolerated crime and hypocrites, the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed Eleven years ago, French rollerblading and boardsports enthusiast Jean‐Marc Gobillard decided that the small wheels of rollerblades weren’t quite speedy enough. He experimented with a few different ideas, which ultimately led him to design the Dreamslide. This unique device combines the standing stance of things like skateboards and roller blades with the efficient locomotion and larger, faster wheels of a bicycle. It even has its own special pedaling system, designed for a standing rider. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» Dreamslide takes a new stance on pedaling: .) [ continue reading Dreamslide takes a new stance on pedaling ] District line, Whitechapel-ish (11:30pm, front carriage) » The gentleman in the padded jacket stares into nothing. » The bloke in the ribbed top is plugged (via white headphones) into his iPhone. » The bloke in the grey jersey is plugged (via black headphones) into his iPhone. » The man in the sweatshirt has his phone lengthways, and is tap-tap-tapping a graphic entity around the screen. » The lawyer in the suit and unbuttoned white shirt checks his emails whilst listening to some piped music. » The youth in the stripy top and red neckerchief watches tumbling blocks fall into pixellated [ continue reading diamond geezer ] The contractor was driving a van through the 16th century Augustinian Archway in the grounds when it hit the arch, bringing down tonnes of ancient stonework. Valerie Stuart, manager of Colliston Castle Scotland Ltd in Arbroath, said the driver had been collecting a marquee from the palace after the weekend’s Perth Hunt Ball. Manager tells of shock at destruction of historic Scone arch ] Secretary of State for Transport Norman Baker this morning officially opened the UK’s first Dutch-style CyclePoint at Leeds railway station and also allayed concerns that Bikeability training would be scrapped as part of government cuts. Baker says training secure as he opens Leeds CyclePoint, but won't be drawn on Cycling England’s fate read more (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» road.cc Transport Secretary provides reassurance over Bikeability’s future: .) What a waste of tax money. This kind of… via 2.bp.blogspot.com What a waste of tax money. This kind of thing is clearly a result of poor urban planning. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» The Rubbish Bin via 2.bp.blogspot.com What a waste of tax money. This kind of…: .) More schoolchildren are daily being killed by traffic on the highways of the world’s poorest nations than by deadly infectious diseases such as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, prompting campaigners to call for a UN-backed target to halt the spiralling numbers of traffic fatalities by 2015. Road accidents claim the lives of 3,500 every day, 3,000 of which are in poor countries. Watkins said that more lives, of those aged five to 14, were lost on the roads than to “malaria, diarrhoea and HIV/Aids”. Unlike these deadly diseases, road traffic injuries were “conspicuous by their absence from the international [ continue reading 3,500 killed EVERY DAY by drivers ] Cyclists and drivers ‘Sharing the road’ in London (A503, Walthamstow) and ‘cyclists not sharing the road’ (Netherlands, pic: David Hembrow). A new report published by the Department for Transport examines the views of cyclists and drivers about each others’ behaviour and considers them in the context of ‘road safety’: Qualitative research was carried out with cyclists, other road users and the parents of young cyclists to explore views on the positives and negatives of cycling, accounts of stress and risk on the road, views on the potential problems in interactions between cyclists and other vehicles, [ continue reading ‘Cycling, Safety and Sharing the Road’: new DfT report ] 26 September 2010 | | category: cycling, the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed Sheffield’s cycle-commuters need to up their security measures or risk losing their steeds as bike thefts from city railway stations continue, say British Transport Police. In a bid to thwart the thieves, officers will be giving crime prevention advice to morning commuters who cycle to Sheffield station on Thursday, 23 and Friday, 24 September from 6am to 9am. Commuters urged to take advantage of three hour 'surgery' read more (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» road.cc Transport police offer bike security advice in Sheffield: .) [ continue reading Transport police offer bike security advice in Sheffield ] Open letter to Norman Baker, minister for cycling, walking, buses, alternatives to travel, etc Giving “freedom” to local authorities with less money and no precise remit to spend it on cycling will result in more kids failing to learn to ride. Many will be unhealthier and fatter and our roads will be clogged with more parents driving their kids around everywhere. Make no mistake – your decision will affect real lives. So Norman, ask yourself this. What is Norman Baker for? Or more precisely, what is the point of you being in the Department for Transport? Are you a fig-leaf [ continue reading Norman save cycling cash | Christian Wolmar, an open letter ] 10 September 2010 | | category: cycling, the new 'priest class', the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed … some dinosaurs flatly refuse to serve the public good. Chief among them is National Rail Enquiries, owned by the Association of Train Operating Companies, which continues to reject calls to open up its feeds — despite collecting huge taxpayer subsidies. When I asked why, a press officer said “it just isn’t practical to make [services] entirely open to developers” as data was constantly being updated and the system would face “extra strain”. Nonsense: it’s simply an excuse to maximise revenues by charging for data that should be freely available. In response, our new “open” prime minister should threaten [ continue reading Wired impatient with National Rail Enquiries ] Russian police trying to make motorists respect pedestrians on zebra crossings thought of drafting in exotic zebras to halt Moscow traffic. Only, police in the Russian capital could not get any zebras – so they painted black stripes on white horses instead. They paraded the horses over crossings, forcing motorists to slow down and read road safety messages. Thousands of pedestrians die in road accidents COLLISIONS in Russia every year. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» BBC News – ‘Zebra’ stops cars in Russia road accident campaign: .) [ continue reading ‘Zebra’ stops cars in Russia road ‘accident’ campaign (what’s accidental?) ] 6 September 2010 | | category: scofflaws, tolerated crime and hypocrites, the state we're in, transport, travel | comments are closed On this street every single house has off-street parking for at least two vehicles. Baron Gardens is a very wide street, four to five lanes wide, which could easily be converted to a cycling-friendly street on the Dutch model. Instead the ‘cycling-friendly’ council has re-allocated road space to car parking. Not only are there parking bays at the side of the road, parking bays have even been created down the middle. This is car dependency gone mad. It also deters cycling, because it creates lengthy pinch points where cyclists are forced into conflict with vehicles approaching from the [ continue reading #Redbridge council: suppressing #cycling and promoting #car-dependency ] Let’s say it again. Among the greatest obstacles to the development of mass cycling in Britain are the nation’s two leading cycling organisations, the Cyclists’ Touring Club and the London Cycling Campaign. They both deeply damage the prospect of cycling ever really taking off in Britain. Both are fundamentally committed to the doomed strategy of ameliorating the conditions of vehicular cycling. Cycle lanes are a perfect example of this campaign strategy, supposedly delivering an improvement in conditions for cycling. The fact that cycle lanes have failed to raise cycling’s modal share is of no interest to the ideologues. [ continue reading The #CTC : suppressing #cycling ] |  
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