even though cycling does get a mention in the 366 report
After all - it's only the 8th transport tome in the last 9 years. And
CW's Weekly News Eeview wrote:
Nothing has really changed...
After all - road pricing is fraught with problems and in the planned trial areas - how do you implement the proposed off-set of VED and petrol duty?
Back in 1997 - New Labour worried it would get kicked out of office if Prrrezz'a plans at the time ever came to fruition. The dossier was quietly binned
CW hopes the Eddington report will at least do something for cycling - such as backing SUSTRANS 10,000 mile cycling network.
Aside - to 
Er - the Swiss funded their network by fining nowty cyclists and per the Sustrans chief John Grimshaw
Quote:
Local councils have been slow to link their routes to the National Network
(You can obtain a map of all Durham's finest routes from the County's website
http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.n ... endocument )
Probably each council has their own data - go check it out
Grimshaw hopes this would be a catalysit for change as
Quote:
drivers will switch to bicycles for local trips if the routes are there
Yeah.. but hold on. Some of us do have both feet on the ground. Some people may not be able to ride a bicycle for a number of reasons - health may not be up to it.. Some may not be able to keep balance and we all know from experience of hectic shopping in our town centres, shopping malls and supermarkets - that jostling in crowds as pedestrians is not a bundle of fun. Thousands of bikes on the road aat one and the same time may not be the rosy idyll we think it to be. Better then to offer a wide range of choice - imporved public transport.. buses, trams, trains at afordable prices with realsistic frequency, interchanges and networks as well as the cycle paths and the nice roads for the cars. Plus a bit of encouraging bosses to flexi out the working hours, recruiting more locally or helping relocation in extreme cases.
Quote:
the govenment bangs on about long distance travel problems when most are short journeys of under 5 miles to work and the shops
Well
I know the Mad Cats have long commutes each day and my journey is about 15 miles or so to where I am based
I sometimes cycle - depends. My wife travels about 12 miles in the opposite direction to her place of work as well.
Shops? Well fine if you are shopping for the needs of one person. Not so fine if you are buying for a family and internet shopping still requires gas guzzling van to deliver it all - and then return if they got the order wrong!
So perhaps then not quite as simplistic in the big wide and real world after all.
Editor of CW wrote:
With the number of cars set to rise even more in the next 8 years - we're all going to grind to a halt unless the government can find a way to cut the numberr of cars.
So the message is don't drive. So do we watch TV instead. Ever naive I waited to see if this £28million would be invested in proper bike routes.
With buses and trains clogged the only viable solution is cycling
The viable solution? Invest in decent public transport. Swiss system has trams running as constant and you hop off one and board another and the at each stop they tell you which tram or bus it links to as well. System works well and those trams are well used. The journeys are comfortable.
Encourage kids to walk, cycle or use the buses to school
Stagger working times so that people are not scrambling for the same piece of road each day and accept that being a couple of minutes late for work is no longer a sackable offence.
All very well to have the cycling bug badly - but other people will have very different needs. However enthusiastic some of us may be - riding a bicycle will not suit everyone anymore than driving a Smart Car in a family situation would.
Think we have to accept that everyone has different needs and levels of fitness. Riding bicycles and even riding horses as another alternative requires stamina as well as the skills to do it safely. (Have to mention horses - Krissi
reckons the only true green mode of transport as you can recycle what it eats to help sow the oats Wimmin...
again.
)
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