Bath Road crossing

Our new cycle path along the Bath Road was officially opened to coincide with Bike Week. They've widened the footpath and made it shared use along about a mile of the A4. They've installed Toucan crossings at a couple of places. And they have linked all this to other routes and a couple of local schools.

The intent is to reduce congestion and parking issues by encouraging people in general to leave their car at home and encouraging children in particular to cycle (or walk) to school. Those are worthy aims that I think everyone can applaud.

From a more selfish point of view these changes will make a slight improvement to many of my rides by making it easier to cross the Bath Road. I regularly go that way on various routes heading south and west. Several months ago they began work on all this by installing a traffic island in the middle of what is now a toucan crossing. As soon as they had done that it started to have an effect on my trips, because I no longer had to wait for traffic to clear both directions at the same time.

It's a small improvement, but still I offer my thanks to the local authority and Sustrans, who each contributed £170,000 towards the cost. That's a lot of money, so lets hope that the new route gets plenty of use. Removing a short delay in my rides shouldn't carry any weight, but if these improvements do help to encourage more cycling and less congestion then that should encourage the council to make more investment like this in future.

I've been out to plot it all with the GPS this afternoon, and discovered that some elements had already been added to OSM. That's not bad for a facility that has only been open for a few days. I've now been able to made some more additions, and I look forward to seeing the results as the cycle map is re-rendered.

Colnbrook

I haven't been out on the bike much this week, but it's a very hot day today. So I decided to chose a fairly flat route, make an early start, and try to get back home before it all got too hot and uncomfortable.

I headed for Colnbrook, which today is part of Slough. The place keeps moving though - in the past it has been part of Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Surrey and Berkshire.

The first Cox’s Orange Pippin was grown here in 1825 (by a retired brewer called Richard Cox), so it has some claim to fame. In other respects (how shall I put this politely) it is not the most obvious destination for a gentle weekend outing. The routes there and back aren't bad though.

The village lies just west of Heathrow (under the flight path), and it is snuggled up against both the M4 and the M25. The A4 passes through the outskirts on the way to the centre of Slough. So it is something of a transport hub. Even National Cycle Route 61 passes through the centre of the village, and almost all of the milestones on the Bath Road around here give a distance to Colnbrook.

The reason for Colnbrook appearing on milestones is because it used to be a popular stopping point for travellers going between London and Bath. There used to be a lot of coaching inns here. The one in the picture, the Ostrich, was founded in 1106 and is said to be England's third oldest inn.

There is a story that in the 17th century the landlord of the Ostrich installed a trap door under the bed in the best bedroom. He would release two bolts during the night and tip the sleeping occupant into a boiling cauldron in the kitchen below. More than 60 rich guests are supposed to have been murdered like this, and slung into the local river.

As far as I know there was nothing that exciting going on in Colnbrook today, but it was a decent outing, a pleasant ride out through Windsor, and a pleasant ride back along the Thames. In the process I managed to mark up a few more of the remaining Bath Road milestones. As far as I can tell, there's only one missing from the 19 that must have originally been installed between Colnbrook and Twyford. That gap leaves a bit of a hole in the nice curve that is starting build up in the map below.

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New figures from the Department for Transport

The number of miles travelled by cycles in 2009 was up from 2,920 million to 3,078 million - a rise of 4.4% in the last year according to the Department for Transport, and 5.4% according to me. There have been a few ups and downs in the figures over recent years, but underlying the fluctuations there seems to have been a fairly steady rise for about the last eight years, and the total miles travelled by bike is back to a level that was last seen in the early 90's.

2009 was the first time that cycles have accounted for more than 1% of the total distance travelled on the roads since 1993. Bikes covered almost as many miles as motorbikes and almost as many as buses and coaches.

Around 20% of the distance covered by cycles was on rural roads, and 80% on urban roads.

DfT have also released some accident statistics. Total casualties among cyclists increased by 5% - roughly in proportion to the distance cycled. But accidents were less serious - the number of cyclists killed fell 10% from 115 to 104. but the number seriously injured rose 6%. There seems to have been a particularly big drop in the number of serious accidents involving children on bikes.

The data is here and here. There is a CTC press release about it all here.

Define: rumble

I see various cycling events described as a "rumble" (Ryedale Rumble, Burgess Hill Rumble, Surrey Rumble). As far as I can make out the implication is that these are particularly hilly rides. In a similar vein, a "wobble" (Warminster Wobble) seems to be used for a festival, or social event rather than for a ride. Have I got this right?

All Saints, Crondall

Regular visitors will have noticed that the bike hasn't had very many outings recently. Things have been a bit hectic around here, and although we've managed a few short evening rides there hasn't been a long weekend outing for several weeks.

Considering that it has hardly moved from the shed for four weeks I thought the bike did very well today. It was running very smoothly and keeping up a good speed for almost the whole day. That positions me nicely to make some self-deprecating comment about my own performance after a few weeks without a long ride. However I'm not going to do that. Partly because it would be a bit of a cliché, but mainly it's because I actually think I did quite well.

The ride covered sixty miles in total, to visit the 41st church on my list.

I doubt if even its closest friends would describe All Saints in Crondall as one of the prettiest churches in England. It has an impressive tower, and an interesting history. There's quite a lot to see inside, including a Saxon font, an unusual brass memento mori (below), and some crosses inscribed in the door frame by crusaders. But the exterior is a bit of a mish-mash. I have to say though, that the guide book is one of the best I have seen at describing the church, and placing its history in context.

Getting there was a bit tricky. The challenge when I head south is always to avoid a lot of suburban sprawl and busy roads. There are decent routes through, but it's not easy to find them. This time I went out through the edge of Bracknell, then Finchampstead and Fleet. It's not unusual for me to get a bit muddled in Bracknell and today was no exception. In the process I discovered a new route that avoids some of the busiest parts. That should help in future.

Coming back I used the tow-path of the Basingstoke Canal to get back to Fleet, and then followed a slightly different route home through Wokingham.

It was a glorious day for a ride. The morning was a little grey, but the afternoon was sunny. I had a following wind on the way out, but it had stilled by the time I was heading home. It wouldn't be right to expect more than that.

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“You earthly impes that here behold this picture with your eyes
remember the end of mortall men and where their glory lies"

Bath Road Milestones

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I did a 20 mile loop out to Windsor and back this evening. For a change I went out along the Bath Road so that I could mark up the rest of the old milestones between here and Slough.

This will never be one of my favourite roads - through the edges of Slough Trading estate. But it's not as bad as you might think. There's a decent cycle path for most of the way into Slough, separated from the main road by a grassy verge. After leaving Slough it was a lovely evening to come home via Eton and Windsor, with the old buildings looking magnificent in low sunlight.

As the map shows I think I've now marked all the milestones from Slough to beyond Twyford, and it looks as though the complete set is still in place (though one is looking a bit wonky). The next step will take me a bit further afield.

Jaunts

Definition: jaunt - noun a short journey taken for pleasure; verb to go on a jaunt

I always like to have a destination for a ride, if only so that I can answer the question "where have you been today?". It's even better if I have a plausible answer to the question "why?".

Visitors come to Tlatet from all over the place, so this won't be of interest to everyone. Indeed it might not be of interest to anyone, but I've been collecting together some of the local destinations that I particularly like.

The criteria I'm using are a bit loose, but there are basically two. Firstly I'm trying to pick places that involve a pleasant ride, that can be reached while avoiding busy roads. Secondly I am trying to pick destinations that are a bit out of the ordinary, or that might be interesting to others.

The current state of the list is here. They are in no particular order. Normal rules apply: the decision of the judges on what to include or leave out is final. However  I'm open to challenges, and lots of people know this area better than I do - so I would welcome suggestions of places to add.