The common wisdom when faced with traffic congestion seems to be that just adding more lanes will sort everything. It won’t. Whilst it may initially relieve some pressure, it won’t be long before more traffic arrives to fill the space. … Continue reading ‘Induced Demand’
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting on a new bike. You go along to your local bike shop, pick out the one you want and get yourself measured up.
But if you already have a bike, do you really need another? Continue reading You probably have enough bikes…
As a society we’ve become very good at overlooking the costs of many things, whilst quibbling over every last penny of others. One thing we are especially good at brushing under the rug is the cost of motoring, not just to our own wallets but to society as a whole. We’re going to need a bigger rug… When someone is hit by a motorist, they’re very often swept up in an ambulance or at the very least sent to A&E for an X-ray. The NHS then has to mend any broken bones; the council has to repair street furniture or … Continue reading Counting the cost of casualties and inactivity…
Bicycles are versatile machines, capable of being used for everything from shopping, to touring, to professional racing. However, whilst a bicycle may unite the different disciplines, the needs of riders are usually very, very different. The right tool… To the untrained eye a bicycle is just a bicycle, but look deeper and there may well be differences between bicycles built for different disciplines. However, there’s nothing to say you can’t commute on a high-end road or mountain bike. It isn’t always the right tool for the job, but there’s flexibility built in. However, it’s the needs of the rider where … Continue reading Tools for the job…
The folks at Uneven Earth tracked down and re-published this essay from 1973 by André Gorz, a philosopher and journalist. It’s as relevant today as it was back then. People rushed to buy cars until, as the working class began … Continue reading Something to read: The social ideology of the motorcar – Uneven Earth
When confronted with the prospect of investing in cycling, one of the common retorts is that not everyone can ride a bike.
It’s very easy to say, but much more difficult to back up with facts. The first mistake is assuming that everyone can drive, just because you can. Continue reading But not everyone can ride a bike…
Whilst not strictly about cycling, as users of sustainable transport we have a role to play in making our world a better place. This rather fascinating piece in the New York Times is required reading. Grab a coffee, perhaps utilise your browser’s reader feature (because the white text on black is tough on the eyes) and give this a good read through. This narrative by Nathaniel Rich is a work of history, addressing the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989: the decisive decade when humankind first came to a broad understanding of the causes and dangers of climate change. Complementing … Continue reading Something to read: Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change – The New York Times
As a species it is probably fair to say that we don’t always have the answers.
Thanks to giant leaps in scientific discovery, we often find that just because something has become “normal”, it doesn’t always mean that it was right. Continue reading The benefit of hindsight…
The council has just published its transport and clean air green paper and is seeking comments from all of us on some of the ideas it is putting forward. A far cry from the frankly dismal Economic green paper we’ve … Continue reading Cardiff's Transport and Clean Air Green Paper
Cardiff may be a fairly new city in the grand scheme of things, but thanks to the changing needs of the population over the past two centuries it has become a collection of different ideas, all somehow blended together.
Whilst some ideas may have made sense at the time, others should be consigned to history and forgotten. Continue reading More thoughts on our urban spaces…
