Politics

I had to nip into Whitley Bay at lunchtime today to get a new strap for my watch. The old one had come unglued (for the second time), and the watch had fallen off my wrist and into the road a few days ago. Miraculously, it was undamaged! Anyway, while I was in the jewellers,...
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Once again here’s your opportunity to win fame and admiration from your peers. This week you can try your hand at satire. Remember that Nice Congressman Patrick McHenry?  The one who’s such a hoot at parties, with his instantly recognised catchphrase, “I’m not making this up”? The one whose funding includes $30,000 from the National Auto...
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I started riding again because I realised that doing the same thing, but expecting different results is a pretty workable definition of insanity. It suddenly struck me about four years ago that sitting inside a tin box going no-where fast, and expecting everyone else to get out of my way wasn’t working. And that expecting...
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By and large, cycle infrastructure in the UK is a mess. It’s not joined-up, doesn’t go where you need to get to, and always, always seems to play second fiddle to roads for motor vehicles or footpaths for pedestrians. Many local authorities do things that could only charitably be seen as making any effort, yet...
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There was an interesting question raised on the Commute By bike blog yesterday, as to why the world at large seems to view cyclists as “Kooks, Freaks and Weirdos”. Basically in societies where the car has usurped the bicycle as the mode of transport of choice about town, people riding bikes are very much...
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You can’t say that we don’t ask the big questions here! So. Here’s my problem. I have this image in my mind of a point in the future, where there’ll be integrated networks for people on bikes in all British towns and cities. It will be possible to get pretty much from your front door...
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So yesterday was meeting & talking about getting kids on their bikes with the Tony Blair Sports Foundation . . . and today was email chat with a business support agency in Tyneside about getting their employees on their bikes . . . and then a great meeting with Sustrans. (followed by having to...
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So. Yesterday, Amsterdamize put up some charts about the Dutch population’s ways of getting around. Great stuff, showing how far people travel, and what mode of transport they use depending on journey length, and how far people cycle. As an engineer, I like numbers,  so I thought it would be fun to compare our part...
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Well, car manufacturers don’t seem to be having a good time of it right now, do they (”Hey, Congressman, buddy, can you spare $35bn?”). This might seem good for the environment - after all, transportation accounts for a boatload of our carbon emissions, so fewer cars means less of that going up into the...
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That David Hembrow’s got me thinking again. He lives just across the sea from me in what looks like Cycling Utopia. I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way either - from the saddle I sit on, the Netherlands, and specifically Assen, look like The Real Deal. Anyway, he posted some photos and a video...
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