Cyclist's paradise?

"Ambitious plans to turn Twyford into a cyclists’ paradise have been given a lukewarm response by village leaders. The town hall’s boroughwide blueprints for strengthening the cycling network include proposals to introduce 14km of paths in the area, but village leaders said levels of traffic in Twyford will make it difficult to find space for the five new routes."

See the Twyford Advertiser

All this touches on some of my local circuits, and the draft plan from Wokingham is here, but I'll not be holding my breath.

A step away from world domination

According to Google analytics, this little blog has had a visitor now from every continent (except Antarctica). Almost 90% of the visits are from the UK, and 8% from the USA. Australia ranks in third place. I've had more than one visit from Brazil, Sweden, Germany, Hungary and Canada; but Finland, South Africa, India, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Netherlands and Estonia have visited once, without returning.

I haven't seen many comments in Estonian, and it wouldn't help much if I had. So it's difficult to know what all of my overseas visitors make of my ramblings. Most probably arrive by accident and disappear pretty quickly, but it is clear in the stats that a few stay to poke around for a while.

I suspect any kind of personal web publishing is a form of vanity, and I would be ashamed to admit how often I check the visitor figures. But it isn't really about the numbers. Even on this tiny scale, and after having played with this stuff for the best part of twenty years, this kind of global reach is still a source of wonder to me.

Just a number

It was a very pleasant trundle around Cookham this evening, covering about 16 miles altogether. There was nothing particularly memorable about it, except that it took me past 1,000 miles on this bike since the beginning of the year.

It's just a number, but it feels like a milestone.

BMA

There is a letter in today's Guardian from the Deputy chair of the BMA patient liaison group, which skirts around the issue, but seems to oppose the introduction of polyclinics on the curious basis that they will damage the relationship between patients and their GPs. Why this should be the case escapes me, but no matter.

In a complicated world, where there often isn't enough time to examine and consider arguments on both sides of an issue, I have found that a decent rule of thumb is that whatever the BMA opposes is likely to be something that deserves support. There are numerous examples, such as: access to doctors outside normal working hours, implementation of decent IT systems in the NHS, alternative models of primary care, and the like.

However, now I find on their web site that they favour cycling, and think that the use of cycle helmets should be encouraged, but not imposed. These seem to be eminently sensible views, so maybe I need to refine my rule of thumb. Since these policies seem to date from several years ago, perhaps it is only more recently that the BMA has lost the plot. Or could it be that they sometimes speak for the interests of members, not those of the public.

Gizmo

Alert readers will have noticed that I now ride like a snail in more ways than one. Apart from my progress being a little more stately than I would wish, I also leave a trail of digital slime behind me, using this little GPS gizmo from Garmin.

When I get home I can use data on my speed and distance either to beat myself up, or congratulate myself, depending on how I feel. I can also load the digital slime into Open Street Map, and use it to plug any gaps where I have ridden a route that nobody has mapped before.

As the picture shows, I've loaded up the OSM cycle map (here it shows National Cycle Route 61, next to the Jubilee River, near Eton). However, in practice, while I am out and about I still use paper maps to navigate around. Perhaps I will adjust in time.

My excuse is that this encourages me to ride further, and faster - but the truth is that I just enjoy playing with my new toy.

Today's route was 40 miles out to Windsor, pootling about in Windsor itself, then a loop round Eton, Datchett, Old Windsor, Fifield and White Waltham back to home. This picture was taken just before the half-way point.

The weather was hot, but the route was flat. As long as I kept moving it wasn't uncomfortable. I took plenty of water with me, but I also sank a lot more once I got home.

Weekly roundup

With the aid of a bank holidy weekend, there have been several notable milestones this week:

• The first time my total weekly mileage has gone into three figures (106miles)
• I finshed marking up regional route 52 round Maidenhead, and have seen it rendered on the OSM cycle map
• I have cycled to a business meeting for the first time (albeit an informal one, over lunch at a nearby pub)
• I received a comment on the blog from Fat Lad
• I completed my Winter Hill loop at an average of 13mph

Things seem to be getting back on track after my unimpressive efforts in April.

I really try not to be grumpy, but....

...sometimes it is difficult.

Here is a depressing survey of what parents allow their children to do on their bikes. The survey was run by Populus, and commissioned by Cycling England.

Populus asked parents about how much freedom they give children of different ages. The headline numbers are depressing enough (55% of parents surveyed do not allow their children to ride their bike on the roads; 24% only allow their children to ride in their own street; 10% do not allow their children to ride out of sight; 3% give their children a bike, and then do not allow them to ride for recreation, to their friends house, or to school; 18% say they would never feel happy letting their child cycle on the road, at any age).

But the really surprising figures are those relating to 15 year olds.

• 19% of parents of 15 year olds do not allow them to ride on the roads.
• 24% only allow their fifteen year-old to ride in the immediate vicinity, and 6% only within their own street.
• 7% do not allow a fifteen year-old to ride without adult supervision.
• 4% do not allow a fifteen year old to cycle to school, or to a friends house, or for recreation.

Apparently 8% of parents say that they won't let their fifteen year-old child ride on the roads, because of a lack of confidence and skills (I wonder what could be causing that).

There is a range of comments attached to the report in the Times, but the consensus seems to be that children should be prevented from cycling until there is sufficient cotton-wool in place.

There is a Cycling England commentary on all this here.

Call me old-fashioned, but I am amazed that fifteen year-olds are letting their parents get away with this nonsense. However, 25% of parents do admit that they don't know where their fifteen-year olds go on their bikes. That sounds more like it.