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Speeding cyclists on canal path



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 10th 12, 03:10 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Mr Benn[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 231
Default Speeding cyclists on canal path

http://www.kirkintilloch-herald.co.u...path-1-2224734

Dog walkers are calling for action to stop cyclists speeding on a popular
canal pathway.

Pet owners say riders can hit speeds of 15-20mph on the path along the Forth
and Clyde Canal between Townhead and the Stables.

Walkers say the problem means it is not safe for them to use the path in the
evenings.

They are now asking British Waterways to erect signs warning cyclists to
slow down on the route.

One concerned dog walker said: "It's a nightmare, they are coming along the
stretch at full pelt and if you ask them to slow down they just look at
you."

Ads
  #2  
Old April 10th 12, 03:32 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Mr Benn[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 231
Default Speeding cyclists on canal path

"Mr Benn" wrote in message
...
http://www.kirkintilloch-herald.co.u...path-1-2224734

Dog walkers are calling for action to stop cyclists speeding on a popular
canal pathway.

Pet owners say riders can hit speeds of 15-20mph on the path along the
Forth and Clyde Canal between Townhead and the Stables.

Walkers say the problem means it is not safe for them to use the path in
the evenings.

They are now asking British Waterways to erect signs warning cyclists to
slow down on the route.

One concerned dog walker said: "It's a nightmare, they are coming along
the stretch at full pelt and if you ask them to slow down they just look
at you."


Surely, if you are cycling on a path and are going to pass a pedestrian also
on the path, you should slow down before getting near the pedestrian.
That's what I would do. Am I being unreasonable?

  #3  
Old April 10th 12, 04:09 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Simon Mason
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,174
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

Bloody hell - is that a pig I have just seen flying by?

QUOTE:
Jeremy Clarkson, the opinionated presenter of BBC motoring show Top Gear and
bete noire of Britain's cyclists, has said that he would live in Copenhagen
"in a heartbeat" - and it's all down to the city's embrace of cycling as a
means of getting around.

In an article that appeared in the InGear section of last weekend's Sunday
Times, Clarkson contrasts London, where despite Boris Johnson's promised
cycling revolution it's fair to say the car remains king, with the approach
adopted in the Danish capital which sees around one in three residents cycle
to work or their place of study each day.

And it appears that Clarkson sees the Copenhagen model as the way forward to
create cities that are better to live in.

"I suspect even the Danes are baffled about why they keep being picked out
as a shining example of humanity at its best," wrote Clarkson. "Just last
week a newspaper in Copenhagen suggested it must be because, while cycling
from place to place, visitors enjoy looking at all the pretty Danish girls'
bottoms.

"In fact, I've decided that the world's five best cities are, in order: San
Francisco, London, Damascus, Rome and Copenhagen. It's fan-bleeding-tastic.
And best of all: there are no bloody cars cluttering the place up. Almost
everyone goes almost everywhere on a bicycle.

"Now I know that sounds like the ninth circle of hell, but that's because
you live in Britain, where cars and bikes share the road space," he
continues. "This cannot and does not work. It's like putting a dog and a cat
in a cage and expecting them to get along. They won't, and as a result
London is currently hosting an undeclared war. I am constantly irritated by
cyclists and I'm sure they're constantly irritated by me.

"City fathers have to choose. Cars or bicycles. And in Copenhagen they've
gone for the bike.

"In Britain cycling is a political statement. You have a camera on your
helmet so that motorists who carve you up can be pilloried on YouTube. You
have shorts. You have a beard and an attitude. You wear a uniform. Cycling
has become the outdoorsy wing of the NUM and CND.

"In Copenhagen it's just a pleasant way of getting about. Nobody wears a
helmet. Nobody wears high-visibility clothing. You just wear what you need
to be wearing at your destination. For girls that appears to be very short
skirts. And nobody rides their bike as if they're in the Tour de France.
This would make them sweaty and unattractive, so they travel just fast
enough to maintain their balance.

"The upshot is a city that works. It's pleasing to look at. It's
astonishingly quiet. It's safe. And no one wastes half their life looking
for a parking space. I'd live there in a heartbeat."

Although it may be premature for Pickfords to get on the phone to ask
Clarkson whether he's fixed a date to move, his piece does give food for
thought; if the petrolhead-in-chief can see the merits of prioritising the
bike over the motor car in the urban environment, there's a glimmer of hope
for us all.

It is of course possible to take issue with some of the points Clarkson
makes. London, for example, is a very different city to Copenhagen, or
Amsterdam, say, with a much greater area which means longer commutes for
many of those who live in the city compared to the ones their Danish or
Dutch counterparts have.

Then there's the question of infrastructure. Cycling in Copenhagen or
Amsterdam is not undertaken exclusively on segregated cycle paths; cyclists
can, and do, ride on the road, but they are not choked by motor traffic to
the extent London's are, and the needs of bike riders are front of mind for
planners, not an afterthought, including issues such as the provision of
cycle parking.

Clarkson appears blissfully unaware that some of the conflict between
motorists and cyclists - who, it should be remembered, are not mutually
exclusive groups, with most adult cyclists also owning cars - could in part
be due to attitudes encouraged by his own TV programme and newspaper
columns.

And as the trade website Bike Biz, in its own report on Clarkson's comments
in the Sunday Times, points out, he is now on Twitter, and it's inevitable
that at some point he will use that medium to have a pop at Britain's
cyclists.

But that shouldn't detract from the underlying message of his latest piece -
encouraging people to use bicycles and not cars to get around does make
cities a more pleasant place to live, not to mention the health and
environmental benefits it brings.

With cycling pushed up the political agenda as a result of The Times
newspaper's Cities fit for Cycling campaign, itself building on the work of
existing advocates of cycling, the fact that someone of Clarkson's stature
recognises the benefits that the bicycle can bring is progress.

Copenhagen, it should be remembered, isn't a city that always embraced the
bicycle to the extent it does now. It took a conscious effort on the part of
city planners in the 1970s and 1980s to change policy that favoured the
motor car and lay the groundwork for the present-day city that Clarkson now
praises.

It didn't happen overnight there, and London and other British cities won't
be transformed solely on the basis of one newspaper article; but if Jeremy
Clarkson can see the appeal of cities built around cycling - cities, that
is, built around people - that in itself is progress.


http://road.cc/content/news/56433-je...agens-approach

--
Simon Mason

  #4  
Old April 10th 12, 05:24 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Mr Benn[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 231
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
. uk...

It must be a different Jeremy Clarkson!

I liked this bit - maybe psycholists can learn from it:

"In Britain cycling is a political statement. You have a camera on your
helmet so that motorists who carve you up can be pilloried on YouTube. You
have shorts. You have a beard and an attitude. You wear a uniform. Cycling
has become the outdoorsy wing of the NUM and CND."

"In Copenhagen it's just a pleasant way of getting about."
===============================================

"Just a pleasant way of getting about" is what cycling should be. A bicycle
is a tool for doing a job, that's all. It's not something to be worshiped
and taken your bedroom at night like some of the weirdos do in this group.

  #5  
Old April 10th 12, 06:31 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Bertie Wooster[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,958
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:09:38 +0100, "Simon Mason"
wrote:

Bloody hell - is that a pig I have just seen flying by?

QUOTE:
Jeremy Clarkson, the opinionated presenter of BBC motoring show Top Gear and
bete noire of Britain's cyclists, has said that he would live in Copenhagen
"in a heartbeat" - and it's all down to the city's embrace of cycling as a
means of getting around.

In an article that appeared in the InGear section of last weekend's Sunday
Times, Clarkson contrasts London, where despite Boris Johnson's promised
cycling revolution it's fair to say the car remains king, with the approach
adopted in the Danish capital which sees around one in three residents cycle
to work or their place of study each day.

And it appears that Clarkson sees the Copenhagen model as the way forward to
create cities that are better to live in.

"I suspect even the Danes are baffled about why they keep being picked out
as a shining example of humanity at its best," wrote Clarkson. "Just last
week a newspaper in Copenhagen suggested it must be because, while cycling
from place to place, visitors enjoy looking at all the pretty Danish girls'
bottoms.

"In fact, I've decided that the world's five best cities are, in order: San
Francisco, London, Damascus, Rome and Copenhagen. It's fan-bleeding-tastic.
And best of all: there are no bloody cars cluttering the place up. Almost
everyone goes almost everywhere on a bicycle.

"Now I know that sounds like the ninth circle of hell, but that's because
you live in Britain, where cars and bikes share the road space," he
continues. "This cannot and does not work. It's like putting a dog and a cat
in a cage and expecting them to get along. They won't, and as a result
London is currently hosting an undeclared war. I am constantly irritated by
cyclists and I'm sure they're constantly irritated by me.

"City fathers have to choose. Cars or bicycles. And in Copenhagen they've
gone for the bike.

"In Britain cycling is a political statement. You have a camera on your
helmet so that motorists who carve you up can be pilloried on YouTube. You
have shorts. You have a beard and an attitude. You wear a uniform. Cycling
has become the outdoorsy wing of the NUM and CND.

"In Copenhagen it's just a pleasant way of getting about. Nobody wears a
helmet. Nobody wears high-visibility clothing. You just wear what you need
to be wearing at your destination. For girls that appears to be very short
skirts. And nobody rides their bike as if they're in the Tour de France.
This would make them sweaty and unattractive, so they travel just fast
enough to maintain their balance.

"The upshot is a city that works. It's pleasing to look at. It's
astonishingly quiet. It's safe. And no one wastes half their life looking
for a parking space. I'd live there in a heartbeat."

Although it may be premature for Pickfords to get on the phone to ask
Clarkson whether he's fixed a date to move, his piece does give food for
thought; if the petrolhead-in-chief can see the merits of prioritising the
bike over the motor car in the urban environment, there's a glimmer of hope
for us all.

It is of course possible to take issue with some of the points Clarkson
makes. London, for example, is a very different city to Copenhagen, or
Amsterdam, say, with a much greater area which means longer commutes for
many of those who live in the city compared to the ones their Danish or
Dutch counterparts have.

Then there's the question of infrastructure. Cycling in Copenhagen or
Amsterdam is not undertaken exclusively on segregated cycle paths; cyclists
can, and do, ride on the road, but they are not choked by motor traffic to
the extent London's are, and the needs of bike riders are front of mind for
planners, not an afterthought, including issues such as the provision of
cycle parking.

Clarkson appears blissfully unaware that some of the conflict between
motorists and cyclists - who, it should be remembered, are not mutually
exclusive groups, with most adult cyclists also owning cars - could in part
be due to attitudes encouraged by his own TV programme and newspaper
columns.

And as the trade website Bike Biz, in its own report on Clarkson's comments
in the Sunday Times, points out, he is now on Twitter, and it's inevitable
that at some point he will use that medium to have a pop at Britain's
cyclists.

But that shouldn't detract from the underlying message of his latest piece -
encouraging people to use bicycles and not cars to get around does make
cities a more pleasant place to live, not to mention the health and
environmental benefits it brings.

With cycling pushed up the political agenda as a result of The Times
newspaper's Cities fit for Cycling campaign, itself building on the work of
existing advocates of cycling, the fact that someone of Clarkson's stature
recognises the benefits that the bicycle can bring is progress.

Copenhagen, it should be remembered, isn't a city that always embraced the
bicycle to the extent it does now. It took a conscious effort on the part of
city planners in the 1970s and 1980s to change policy that favoured the
motor car and lay the groundwork for the present-day city that Clarkson now
praises.

It didn't happen overnight there, and London and other British cities won't
be transformed solely on the basis of one newspaper article; but if Jeremy
Clarkson can see the appeal of cities built around cycling - cities, that
is, built around people - that in itself is progress.


http://road.cc/content/news/56433-je...agens-approach


My God! First it was Nugent I caught covertly agreeing with the London
Cycling Campaign's "Love London Go Dutch" appeal, and now Jeremy
Clarkson too.

Will Judith, Cheerless, Mr Benn and Mad Dave now sign up to the
petition.
http://lcc.org.uk/sign-go-dutch-petition
  #6  
Old April 10th 12, 06:33 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Bertie Wooster[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,958
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:24:14 +0100, "Mr Benn"
wrote:

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
.uk...

It must be a different Jeremy Clarkson!

I liked this bit - maybe psycholists can learn from it:

"In Britain cycling is a political statement. You have a camera on your
helmet so that motorists who carve you up can be pilloried on YouTube. You
have shorts. You have a beard and an attitude. You wear a uniform. Cycling
has become the outdoorsy wing of the NUM and CND."

"In Copenhagen it's just a pleasant way of getting about."
===============================================

"Just a pleasant way of getting about" is what cycling should be. A bicycle
is a tool for doing a job, that's all. It's not something to be worshiped
and taken your bedroom at night like some of the weirdos do in this group.


Wow! Again I agree. Though if you have nowhere better to store your
bike, a spare bedroom works well.
  #7  
Old April 10th 12, 07:10 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Judith[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,000
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:33:09 +0100, Bertie Wooster
wrote:

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:24:14 +0100, "Mr Benn"
wrote:

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
t.uk...

It must be a different Jeremy Clarkson!

I liked this bit - maybe psycholists can learn from it:

"In Britain cycling is a political statement. You have a camera on your
helmet so that motorists who carve you up can be pilloried on YouTube. You
have shorts. You have a beard and an attitude. You wear a uniform. Cycling
has become the outdoorsy wing of the NUM and CND."

"In Copenhagen it's just a pleasant way of getting about."
============================================== =

"Just a pleasant way of getting about" is what cycling should be. A bicycle
is a tool for doing a job, that's all. It's not something to be worshiped
and taken your bedroom at night like some of the weirdos do in this group.


Wow! Again I agree. Though if you have nowhere better to store your
bike, a spare bedroom works well.



Yep - complete with dog ****.

  #8  
Old April 10th 12, 07:31 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Just zis Guy, you know?[_33_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,386
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:31:48 +0100, Bertie Wooster
wrote:

Will Judith, Cheerless, Mr Benn and Mad Dave now sign up to the
petition.


In green crayon?

Guy
--
Guy Chapman, http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
The usenet price promise: all opinions are guaranteed
to be worth at least what you paid for them.
  #9  
Old April 10th 12, 08:12 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Bertie Wooster[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,958
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:10:14 +0100, Judith
wrote:

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:33:09 +0100, Bertie Wooster
wrote:

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:24:14 +0100, "Mr Benn"
wrote:

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
et.uk...

It must be a different Jeremy Clarkson!

I liked this bit - maybe psycholists can learn from it:

"In Britain cycling is a political statement. You have a camera on your
helmet so that motorists who carve you up can be pilloried on YouTube. You
have shorts. You have a beard and an attitude. You wear a uniform. Cycling
has become the outdoorsy wing of the NUM and CND."

"In Copenhagen it's just a pleasant way of getting about."
============================================= ==

"Just a pleasant way of getting about" is what cycling should be. A bicycle
is a tool for doing a job, that's all. It's not something to be worshiped
and taken your bedroom at night like some of the weirdos do in this group.


Wow! Again I agree. Though if you have nowhere better to store your
bike, a spare bedroom works well.



Yep - complete with dog ****.


I don't know about you, but I find the road has less dog poo on it
than the pavement. Another excellent reason to use the road for
cycling not the pavement.

Indeed, while I can recall many unfortunate moments when I have
trodden in dog poo, I cannot recall once having cycled through such
mess.

Perhaps your experiences are less fortunate than mine.
  #10  
Old April 10th 12, 08:13 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport
Bertie Wooster[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,958
Default Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen's approach

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:31:58 +0100, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
wrote:

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:31:48 +0100, Bertie Wooster
wrote:

Will Judith, Cheerless, Mr Benn and Mad Dave now sign up to the
petition.


In green crayon?


Yes, I forgot. Mad Dave cannot read Ikea instructions and therefore it
is highly likely that he cannot write.
 




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