Kicked into action by @owlernook.bsky.social I've done my bit for Greater Manchester by answering a few questions at www.gmconsult.org/transport/tr... The short 'takes 10 minutes' questionnaire took me an hour but you can always just object to the A6-M60 and High Lane bypass if you want to save time
A timely reminder (for those who leave everything to the last minute and then forget to do it).
I can remeber the days when the head of UTC refused to have green stages for pedestrians to cross every arm because of 'traffic'. I think you get a tipping point. As it gets increasingly slower to drive across the centre so people don't it, becomes that much easier to add pedestrian facilities.
Needs to be said that free parking is paid for by council tax. Visitors don't pay for the free parking but residents do.
I looked at fuel costs and fuel use across Western nations. What is interesting is that the countries with the cheapest fuel, 1. US, 2. Canada, also spent the most on fuel. The Jeavons Paradox effect is exacerbated by the built environment's response to increased mileage. Escalating car dependency.
As a distraction from events in Manchester, those who cycle, use trains and live or travel in the North might want to participate in this short survey:
surveys.northernrailway.co.uk/jfe/form/SV_...
There's a free form question at the end for being creative.
There is an alternative origin for the name. Under a road between Hanley and Burslem in Stoke on Trent was a particularly good seam of clay for making pots. So the potters would dig holes in this road to get the clay out. Hence the name. Probably easier than digging up the buildings either side.
Yes, definitely, if you are contrasting low density suburbs with high density terraces. However my quote came from a 1949 textbook comparing one low density layout with another. And I'd agree that on many counts we shouldn't be building swathes of low density estates.
If you really want to know, culs de sac were devised because they were cheaper to build. There is less road per house. That they also prevent through traffic is just a side issue.
But cyclists are the 'illegal immigrants' of the transport world.
That's certainly an impressive (in a bad way) amount of information.
I worked on Manchester Metrolink in the City Centre (years ago now), maybe we need to start a conversation?
Many of the incidents cyclists recall won't have made official records. Publicly available records do show crashes on tramtracks but not what actually happened. Many of Sheffield's issues are systemic unfortunately and there is no retrofit silver bullet. (more)
TRAM TRACKS, CYCLISTS & CRASHES:
About two-thirds of Sheffield's tram network is on-road, with a lot of cycle crashes as a result.
In search of information regarding solutions to this that have been or are being trialled or implemented elsewhere.
Grateful for retweets to extend reach.
The photograph shows line of ambulances which have all been hit from the rear, implying that hi-viz does very little to prevent things being hit.
I pinched this picture from Bluesky a couple of days ago which shows how things far bigger than children get run into by inattentive motorists.
I hired a car and took it to a place without kerbs or white lines and it had apoplexy. On returning it, and commenting on this the hire chap said "Oh, I always turn those features off when I go there". Those features do not help.
Copenhagen is changing the green wave - from cars to bikes 🚲🚦
15 major streets will now give cyclists coordinated green lights, reducing stops and improving flow. A small but important shift in who the city is designed for.
Read more: www.nordicpath.dk/copenhagen-i...
Personal Contract Plans as a car finance system that is very difficult to pay off mean we are heading in the same direction.
Hi Owler. I find I need to verify my age with an unknown private company to message via Bluesky which I'm not prepared to do.
So steve@steveessex.com will find me.
Actually, yes. I was just getting some exercise and doing a bit of domesticity (making supper and having a sneaky beer.)
One of our clients says that they still want to implement LTNs but they can't call them that. So who is it? Shhh... We can't say.
I couldn't think of any in Derbyshire (Reform). "The Guardian contacted the councils now run by Reform – Derbyshire, Doncaster, Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire – and they all said they had no such schemes".
The trouble is that most tram or metro ideas come and go and come round again. In the late 80's there was an Avon Metro proposal with suitably amended pictures of Tyne and Wear metrocars. I'm not sure that British governments understand rail transport enough to overcome the Treasury bean counters.
I tried doing that with my dog (border collie), it worked for a bit then she decided she could go much better on her own ta.
I think they way cyclestreets turn into cycletracks abd v.v. seamlessly is one of the great features of how the Dutch do it. It means that cyclestreets can be a core part of their strategic cycle networks rather than being isolated 'things' as British guidance seems to consider them.
And having looked it up (map only, not history books) Rugby Midland seems to have been on the end of a long branch from Leicester built to main line geometry but not apparently going anywhere. I wonder what their target destination was?
I stand corrected.
Marketing. It should be Milton Keynes Off-Central.
Hmm. Stockport was always Edgeley but Macclesfield never had another station and the Midland never went anywhere near Rugby. But nice try.
A problem is that we have surrounded many high streets with a space consuming inner ring road barrier & cleared out many of the buildings within it to build car parks. I'm not sure many councillors are brave enough to support downgrading the inner ring road & closing the car parks to build houses.
