Rough and smooth

Conditions in this bridleway near Dinas Powys, South Wales were interesting when recently, I looked for a bit of rough-stuff cycling and found the cold early winter conditions provided some smooth going. I'd thrown the folder into the car on a recent visit in the hope of doing a little exercise. I wasn't sure what to expect but once off the tarmac, it coped amazingly well. This lane receives a lot of run-off water draining from the neighbouring fields. It had created a thick layer of ice along most of its length, which made progress slow but interesting - I was glad I was going uphill. I got some strange looks, perhaps because onlookers were amazed anyone would ride what is essentially a shopping bike on a bridleway, also because I don't think many cyclists explore bridleways around this part of South Wales.

The Vale of Glamorgan Rights Of Way Improvement Plan acknowledges that there are limited opportunities for cycling. It has only 27km of bridleways in its 550 km network of public rights of way and many are still poorly signposted or maintained. Their Local Access Forum represents all types of users of rights of way including the Cyclist Touring Club. In their survey they concur that signposting and maintenance is a problem. I didn't have to go far to find an example. This bridleway on Pen-y-turnpike road isn't signposted and has a locked gate.


View Larger Map

The Public Spending Review is likely to have an adverse effect on the future of public rights of way with maintenance and signposting receiving less funding as local authorities try to balance their books in the face of reduced budgets. I do hope it won't become a case of 'use 'em or lose 'em as there are many ancient ways that have been lost in the past and not all authorities treat them with equal priority.

Keep exploring - on two wheels.

No Waiting

As if..

Velib troubles

photo: Cédric Bonhomme

It seems the contractor JC Decaux running the Velib cycle hire scheme in Paris is having difficulty. The costs of replacing stolen and vandalised bikes is outweighing the benefits and they want to renegotiate their contract with the city.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7881079.stm

London to get Velib like bike scheme

£500m over 10yrs: Five point plan:

• £75m scheme to provide 6000 sturdy cycles located around London with 'stations' situated every 300m. Will be free for first 30 mins to registered users, and a £1/30mins after that.

• Around a dozen radial cycling corridors into the city centre

• Bike zones with cycle priority streets, 20Mph limits linking areas.

• Legible London signage to help navigation for cyclists and walkers.

• 'Streets of Gold' urban makeovers linking key local destinations such as schools, shops and stations.

Aim - by 2025 5% of trips to be made by bike (1.7m), 22m on foot and include major investment in cycle parking facilities. Today Mr. Livingstone also announced gas guzzling vehicles will get hit for £25/day to drive within the congestion zone.

London Cycling Campaign
Singletrack Magazine
Times online

Cycle man - Meet the 'Greens'

Driving my son to climbing recently, I noticed a large cycling related poster on a hording. I kind of took me by surprise as you don't tend to see large posters featuring people claiming to cycle to work. It showed 'Cycle Man' who states 'I cycle to work every day... What are you doing?'. At the bottom of the poster is the logo of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

BwDC's website currently features on its front page, a link to 'Meet the Greens', one of which, is Cycle Man . The poster is part of a new environmental campaign by the council to raise awareness of how families living in the borough can make a difference to the environment. The initial posters are ficticous characters, but there will be a subsequent round of advertisements featuring real people from the borough. Anyone living in Blackburn with Darwen and doing something green can put themselves forward to be part of the next phase by sending a photograph and small description of themselves by 4th Jan 2008 to

theshuttle@blackburn.gov.uk

or

Freepost RRHY ZKBR BSLA,
Lucie McFall,
Communications and Marketing,
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council,
Town Hall,
King William Street
Blackburn
BB1 7DY

I would, but I don't live in Blackburn borough.

Sustrans bid wins £50m lottery money

Yeah! They, we, you did it! The Peoples £50m lottery give-away has been awarded to Sustrans' Connect2 scheme after capturing 42% of the votes.

BikeRadar summarises the areas to benefit. It is also covered in many other news articles.

Don't forget to cast your vote

Remember to cast your vote in the people's £50m lottery givaway. It has four projects in the final, one being Sustrans' Connect2 bid.

By building bridges and new crossings over barriers such as busy roads, rivers and railway lines, Connect2 will connect people to the places they want to go.

The nearest project is the Padiham, East Lancashire Loop, which may eventually link up with the old railway line in Great Harwood.



Voting is now open, so make your views count and vote for one of the projects

School bus

No Chelsea tractors here. No massive queues or fighting parents. No 4x4s obstructing the way of cyclists. Just a walking bus coordinated by volunteers. So easy really.

Why not Eurostar?

Recently, I was perusing options for getting bikes onto the continent. I'd heard that it was becoming more difficult to get bikes on a plane. British Airways was reported as tightening regulations for carrying sports equipment and I know other low cost airlines are making it less cost effective to get gear abroad, charging around £30-£40 extra for a return trip. Whilst I was thinking about the options, I started looking at trains, thinking that was a great solution. The problem is the more I looked at it, I became less reassured of commitment to supporting cyclists among the companies that make up the transport industry.

Looking at some of the options over on the continent, it seems the world is your oyster, so to speak. There are ample facilities for cyclists in some countries to go by train. In the UK though, the situation can be less than optimal. Some stations have facilities for bicycles for parking but many are not secure. Train companies may advertise they allow cycles on the train, but sometimes only have room for two cycles. If there's three people wanting to take their bikes on the same route at the same time you're stuck. There is incentive to improve and the good guys get some recognition at the annual cycle rail awards.

I thought I'd come up with a cunning plan going completely by rail until I discovered some of the difficulties. I thought 'All I need to do is get over to the right place on the continent and then use local trains to get about in country. Eurostar!' 'Ideal', I thought - blast all the way to the south of France or over to Brussels or Berlin. And then I found, you can't easily take bikes on Eurostar. You can book them on board, but as a checked baggage service costing £20 and not on the same train as the passenger.

It seems I'm not alone in thinking this is not a very modern approach to a sustainable and integrated transport solution. About a hundred cyclists mounted a protest recently at the newly refurbished St. Pancras station, the day of the first non-stop high speed Eurostar trains to the continent. They were campaigning for better facilities at the station and better access routes in the vacinity of the station as well as pressing Eurostar to allow bikes on the same train as their passenger owners.

It seems to have had an effect. Around 100 bike stands were rushed in by Network Rail to improve on the inadequate stands that existed at the remote end of the car park. This seemed quite a decent number until I read Rotterdam's new station has 8000! The biggest breakthough has to be that Eurostar have promised to enable passengers to reserve space on the same trains they are travelling on.

Well done London Cycling Campaign, keep the pressure on! I'll get back to my planning now...

How much do you want cycling facilities to improve?

The people's £50m lottery givaway has four projects included in the final. One of them, Connect2, is proposed by Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity. This is what they say they will spend the money on, for the benefit of cyclists, commuters, schoolchildren, the elderly, leisure walkers, and wheelchair users:

"The money will be spent on Connect2’s 79 projects all over the UK.

Each Connect2 scheme will be inspirational in design but sensitive to the character and needs of the local area. The project will create attractive and welcoming networks of walking and cycling routes and intends to work with local people and organisations to create an environment in which you can take real pride.

By building bridges and new crossings over barriers such as busy roads, rivers and railway lines, Connect2 will connect people to the places they want to go."

Of the 79 projects in the scheme, the nearest is the Padiham, East Lancashire Loop, which may eventually link up with the old railway line in Great Harwood.



Connect2 needs your vote!

Sustrans' Connect2 is a UK-wide project that will transform local travel in 79 cities, towns and villages by creating new walking and cycling networks for everyday journeys.

For Connect2 to happen we really need your help. Connect2 is one of 4 projects competing in the Big Lottery Fund's: The People's £50 Million Contest on TV this December. A public vote will decide who wins the £50 million.

If you'd like to see £50 million invested in walking and cycling please register today so we can get in touch to let you know when and how to vote. Visit www.sustransconnect2.org.uk or text the word 'Connect2' to 80010.

Add your pledge, or better still, vote for one of the projects

Seven Trees

Tree Fellers Wanted. Reminds me of that Irish joke. Anyway, another event this morning heralded the demise of another tree on my route. That's four in as many months. I haven't seen many new ones planted to replace them either. I'll have to plant some of my own if this continues!



This tree was on Whalley New Road near Seven Trees. The aborists told me it was coming down because it had been hit by a truck. I couldn't tell, but then I'm no tree surgeon.

And then there were six. (Actually there aren't seven trees at Seven Trees).

Fly Tippers

In a previous post, I reported one of the businesses on my route has ceased operating. The yard at Fecitt's Memorials is no longer active. Some of the remaining off cut stone was purloined. Now it is being replaced by bags of rubble. Someone can't be bothered to take the stuff all the way to the tip, so has left it here for all to see as they pass. It could be a builder that doesn't want to pay the charge for commercial waste or it could be just a lazy DIYer. Either way it's a shame they haven't more social conscience.

Benefits of cycling

Cycling England commissioned a report on the benefits of cycling. The analysis performed by SQW consulting reports that the benefits of cycling are many fold. Not only are the benefits to the individual documented, such as improved health and fitness, but also considered are the benefits to society in areas such as reduced health costs, less road congestion, pollution etc.

Whilst there are many positives noted in the report, the current situation viewed against the backdrop of previously set targets are also noted. The story is not good. Not only will cycling targets not be met, apparently cycling activity is declining (by one fifth in ten years).

Some of the numbers and costs are quite startling. Life expectancy falling, cost of diseases and health issues due to inactivity £8.2bn in 2002. Road traffic is responsible for 22% of UK greenhouse gases. Commuting could save an average of £400 per cyclist. A 20% increase in cycling would produce benefits of £500m in the next five years. These include savings of £107m in reducing premature deaths in adults, £52m in NHS costs, £87m for employers by reduced sickness, £71m a year in reduced pollution, £201m by reduced road congestion. Bearing in mind the low number of cyclists currently, this 20% rise is nothing when compared with true cycling oriented cultures.

Cycling England have taken the findings of the report to propose a new cycling programme called 'Bike for the Future II'. This involves training and encouragement for children for travelling to school and producing cycling demonstration towns. The report contains detailed breakdown of the costs of implementing the programme against the possible benefits.

A summary of the main points also appeared in the newspaper Mail on Sunday.


The full 86 page document is available from http://www.cyclingengland.co.uk/viewer.php?fd=225 with an executive summary at http://www.cyclingengland.co.uk/viewer.php?fd=224

Collateral damage

The culvert roadworks spread to include the cutting down of a tree today. Above is the scene this morning on the way to work. Below is the scene this evening on the way home.

The River Blakewater

Blackburn, originally a village dating back to around the 6th century and mentioned in the Doomsday book, was a settlement on the banks of a small river called the Blakewater. The name Blakewater derives from 'black water', though this name probably described its appearance before heavy pollution took a hold in the early 1800s when sewage was discharged into the river and it became a source of infection for epidemics such as scarlet fever, cholera and typhus.

In 1849, Charles Tiplady a printer and alderman of Blackburn in the 1800's, in a letter to the Preston Guardian, called public attention to the polluted state of the Blakewater Brook at that time, and contrasted it with the purity of the Brook in his boyhood. He wrote:

“Then, how beautiful to stroll, by its devious courses, along the fields to Brookhouse; to the rookery at Little Harwood Hall; and on to the confines of the Sour Milk Hall farm. Then, following its mazy current, we came to Whitebirk. There we sat down on its banks, listening to the sweet carolling of the birds; ever and anon refreshing ourselves with copious draughts of the pure liquid, and pulling our homely crust of ‘pie and other prog’ from our pockets, feasted right merrily. Ah, those were happy days! But now, poor old Brook, how art thou fallen!”

The river improved in the later 1800s as more sewage treatment plants were built but probably not to a condition fit for drinking. The river is a central feature of Blackburn's coat of arms where it appears as a black wavy line symbolising the origins of the town on the banks of the Blakewater at Blakey Moor.

In times of average rainfall it is no more than a stream. It is quite insignificant and people mostly ignore that it is there. It meanders down from the local hills to follow a course through the centre of town. It passes my cycling route in the vicinity of Little Harwood and trundles off townwards mainly out of site. For a lot of its course it is covered. It disappears under bridges, behind mills walls and down beneath culverts as it passes through Blackburn. The river is covered by main roads such as Ainsworth Street before going west to join up with the River Darwen at Witton.

Since the river disappeared in the 1960's underneath extensive culverts, it has now been realised that many of those changes, which gave priority to motorised traffic, are no longer suitable for the future needs of the town. In its master plan for the development of the town centre, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, has as one of its goals 'the opening up parts of the River Blakewater'. This will be an interesting part of an extensive regeneration plan that includes 'ribbons of green'.

Little Harwood has a tributary brook that is also culverted. Passing through Little Harwood you certainly wouldn't know it was there. It then joins Knusden Brook under Philips Road before reappearing as the River Blakewater to go under the railway line and past Cob Wall to town. Little Harwood Brook was recently the site of lengthy roadworks in Robinson Street where the culvert was repaired over a period of many months.

This also involved part of Philips Road near to where Little Harwood Brook joins Knusden Brook. Now it seems it is the turn of Philips Road proper to have extensive road repairs. The sign indicates more than 6 months of disruption to traffic (including bikes!). You can see from the old photographs where the river was culverted in the 1960s how extensive this work can be. Perhaps it's too narrow? Look forward to some updates on progress in the coming months.

Some content was provided by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Lancashire Evening Telegraph for use in the Cotton Town digitisation project

Vive la vélorution!

Today is a special day. As well as Bastille day, Parisians can celebrate having over 10,000 bicycles at their disposal for travel across their city. Link.

Cycling schemes

One of the features I thought would be good to include is to show you some of the improvements to the 'cycle network' that make up part of my route. Then I realised, there are none. Between Brownhill and Blackburn town centre or Little Harwood there is not one initiative that helps cycling.

In its cycling strategy Blackburn with Darwen council states:

"The Council plans to develop a number of schemes to link residential areas to the whole
range of needed facilities including employment, leisure, education, retail and health in a
traffic free environment. Such schemes are essential in widening choice for citizens and
promoting alternative sustainable travel”

None of the schemes include the A666 Whalley New Road or Bastwell, which is my shortest commuting route. It is acknowledged in their strategy document that there are shortcomings to on-road cycling facilities and that the busy A6119 Whitebirk Drive, which is my alternative, is not suitable for cyclists.

One scheme that has seen some activity in recent years is improvement to the canal towpath alongside the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The canal was opened in 1816 and now a section past Blackburn makes up part of National Cycle Route number 6. This provides a through route from east to west across the town. As an excuse to warm the muscles in the incessant rain we're having this July, I decided to forego the normal route home and explore this path towards Rishton. In the photo you can see we're quickly into the countryside on what is a reasonable metalled path. Commuting from Rishton to the east side of town at Whitebirk is easily achieved in 15 minutes although mudguards (fenders for our American readers) are advised, since there are some areas of standing water and the occasional pothole to contend with. From Rishton you can continue to Accrington or take a disused railway line to Great Harwood.

I've no idea how many cyclists use this route. I didn't encounter anyone apart from a couple of walkers exercising their dogs. From these communities, this route provides a great way to get to Blackburn without too much effort since it is flat all the way.

Streets of gold

The route to work suddenly got brighter the other day. It looked like it was paved with gold. Well it was, only a kind of fool's gold. Then, I discovered where all the yellow came from. It was from this tree.
Looking like it had done 10 rounds with a Russian boxer I didn't rate its chances for survival. After all, you're not supposed to prune plants when flowering, are you?

Mr Titchmarch advises:

'Laburnums are best pruned any time from the end of the summer, up until Christmas. Pruning earlier in the year should be avoided because they are prone to bleeding'

And there it was lying all over the street, like a bloodbath.
I can confirm it won't be surviving since it was chopped down today. I wonder if it had a tree preservation order on it?

Hopefully, the owners won't wait until National Tree Week to plant a replacement.