'Lock 'em up'

Is this sort of thing blighting your neighbourhood? There were three of these placards along my commute chained to either lampposts or in this case a tree. Most seem to have been destroyed. We must be a nation of horders to need all these lock-ups. You'll notice it is lying down in the picture. When the council chaps come to cut the grass they move it out of the way but don't remove it. Not their job, see.

Bike commuter mugged at knifepoint

Previously, I showed a route available to commuters on the west of Blackburn, taking the Leeds and Liverpool canal towards Rishton. Last week I also had a look the other way along that route. Access points to the canal around the Whitebirk area on the east of Blackburn are plentiful with access possible from the main A6119 shown here, Phoenix park and the Greenbank areas.

Travelling towards Blackburn has a distictly different feel from the route through the countryside towards Rishton and Accrington. In the Blackburn direction the towpath is more enclosed with a mixture of modern industrial units and large old mills combined with numerous road bridges.

This not only makes it a less fluid ride, but it also introduces hazards with sharp bends in the path. What is also noticable, is the graffiti, wasteland and industrial decay leading to a less secure feeling as I rode along. I did see another cyclist and a couple of other folk.

It was near these access points that, yesterday around 7am, Andy Seward, a commuting cyclist from Rishton, was robbed of his bike, rucksack and phone by two hooded men armed with a knife. More details from the Lancashire Telegraph here..

This route is of key importance to the local cycling strategy but crimes like this will completely put off potential cyclists from using the route. The more people use it, the safer it will feel but one feels much more has to be done to reassure users that it is safe.

Gone in 60 Seconds - The Bike Crime Wave

Tomorrow, Tuesday 24th July at 19:30, ITV1 The London Programme, shows a documentary on bike crime and the methods used to steal bikes. The program will apparently give an insight into how thieves are stealing bicycles from city centres. If you're about to buy a lock for your bike, it could be worth waiting until you've seen the program and then you know what you're up against.

Mobile phones

The ride home today and this article about a hit-and-run tragedy reminded me of the ever present danger on the roads as we cycle. The hit-and run incident ended in a poor girl's death. Allegedly the driver may have been using a mobile phone. There was insufficient evidence and the verdict was accidental death. The family are understandably upset and feel justice was not done.

Myself, I spotted three drivers using mobiles whilst I cycled home. One, a young Asian girl, unbelievably, appeared to be texting and was actually looking at the phone not the road. Frightening.

You and Yours

BBC Radio4 'You and Yours' program was on cycling today and touched on many of the issues and challenges facing improving cycling in the UK.
You can listen again for 7 days at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours.

It started by citing the examples of York and Oxford for the cities with the greatest use of cycling but mentioned large increases in uptake where there is traffic congestion and especially charging.
Cycling England were represented: two pronged focus on cycle training and cycling demonstration towns comparing spending in equivalent continental towns.

Guests also compared attitude between UK and Holland. Sharing facilities and respect of road/path space and other users being a common theme. Contrary anti-cycling views cited badly behaved cyclists.

The revival of road bikes vs. the boom in mountain bikes was mentioned by Bike Biz trade magazine, seeing a trend in increasing demand for city bikes. The tax rebate scheme, 'Cycle to Work' also got a mention. Details http://www.bikeforall.net/. Also in the bike business, in 10-15 years UK indepedent retailers down in number from 4000 to about 2000 but knowledge and quality of service better.

Training was emphasised for both motorists & cyclists. Bikeability (formerly cycling proficiency) cycle training uk, 3 levels. Also: importance of asserting yourself on the road. 35/149 local authorities offering bikeability training check http://www.bikeability.org.uk/ and your local authority for details.

Safety with traffic and trucks - a planner's view was that we suffer from insufficient planning for walkers and cyclists.

Lyon in France have a scheme Velolyon similar to the one just launched in Paris. Paris will have over 20,000 bikes available by end of year.