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Imagine bike parks on the edge of towns instead of park and ride schemes. Where you paid £2 which you then got back when you return the bike. Woulb it be a disaster like the green bike scheme in cambridge years ago? All the bike were vandalised or stolen within a day!

Oh wow, that is really bad! I think we need to do some cultural work before that would be feasible.

My son-in-law is Belgian and he says that they have extensive bicycle ways over there, plus it is pretty flat which is good. Alongside a lot of our roads we have "cycle lanes" which gives the car drivers somthing to aim at. We need dedicated cycle accessways (like they have in Canberra) then I think it would be more attractive .

At the moment around here we are still building huge roads to make motoring easier.....which if you read the "peak oil" stuff doing the rounds, will have short service life!

Nev

Wombat wrote:Alongside a lot of our roads we have "cycle lanes" which gives the car drivers somthing to aim at. .

Nev

You are so right Nev! It seems to be the common idea that anyone on a bicycle around here is fair game!!! Annoys me actually!

Sounds like a great idea Andy, pity about the vandals. Perhaps they could have a tracker device put on each bike? Or a deposit or the like?

Have you heard about this new road use tax that the transport minister is proposing? Great idea...except they don't expect it to be in operation for another ten years. What's that all about? TEN YEARS will be too late. They can hike taxes overnight, but it takes ten years to get a green scheme going. PAH!

shiney wrote:Have you heard about this new road use tax that the transport minister is proposing? Great idea...except they don't expect it to be in operation for another ten years. What's that all about? TEN YEARS will be too late. They can hike taxes overnight, but it takes ten years to get a green scheme going. PAH!

No I have not heard of it, I suspect that 10 years means that they can appear to be doing something as in 10 years the ministers that are in power now won't be around. Basically passing the buck to a future government. - pity we don't have a Monarch or something

Shame about vandals yep, perhaps if your credit/debit card deatils were taken and they had cctv at the bike parks that might work.

We are making progress in this country with bike tracks etc now though, the national byway http://www.thenationalbyway.org/welcome.asp - for instance. Much better facilities now then there was even 5 years ago!

They had a project in the town where I went to university in Germany (Witzenhausen) in which the bike use was free - basically it was run by a few dedicated "greenies" who collected and repaired old bikes, which were then left at certain bike parks in the town (at the station, too) for anybody to use free of charge and to be returned to one of those bike parks. I think it went quite well to a certain extent, although of course there were ongoing repairs etc and not everybody could be bothered to return it to the right place, but vandals were the smaller problem. Probably because they were old bikes and strikingly painted none of them were stolen... Most people had their own, anyway, so it was only when for whatever reason you didn't have yours nearby that you were tempted to use one.

But then, as in Belgium and elsewhere on the Continent, cycling is a lot more popular and publicly supported. Everybody seems to have at least one bike (my family never had a car, but each member had a bike, plus the odd old one in the cellar).

I think the problem here with a system like that (and maybe nowadays in Germany, too) would be the current "compensation culture". Who is responsible if your tyre bursts and you have an accident? You'd pay a fortune for insurance before you got anything like this going.

Ina

The biggest problem I found in the UK with bikes was safety - there really isn't the infrastructure for cyclists, eg lack of bicycle lanes for one thing.

When I lived in Berkshire I tried cycling to work for a few weeks but then gave up as it was simply too dangerous - the drivers really were shits when it came to cyclists.

Yet when I was working in Holland and now in Paris I wouldn't dream of being without my bike.

I only have a bike as I can't drive, but yes safetly is definatly an issue when your riding and if you need to leave the bike.

Its a great idea but I wonder if people would use it seriously or just steal or vandalise the bikes? or not use at all

IrishAbroad wrote:When I lived in Berkshire I tried cycling to work for a few weeks but then gave up as it was simply too dangerous - the drivers really were shits when it came to cyclists.

As a current resident of a big town in Berkshire, I hope I give cyclists as much time and room as they need - I remember my grandad, who used to be a solicitor, telling me that a judge once ruled that every cyclist was entitled to wobble!

There is a cycle path that goes right past my house, several miles long, and takes you from the outskirts of town to near the middle. Yet I puzzles me that so few cyclists use it, prefering the busy road instead. I don't begrudge them the right to make this choice, but I do wonder why.

That must have been a different lifetime, when cyclists were allowed to wobble... I like that, though. Wonder if it still applies!

I was in Berkshire (country rather than town) at the time of foot and mouth on a workplacement. As it was impossible to walk on public footpaths, the only way I could get about was either take the bus into town, or walk along the roads. Even early on Sunday mornings that was a dangerous undertaking, let alone during normal waking hours - and I would not have dared to use a bike. Narrow roads, tall hedges either side, no ditches to jump into; speed limit seemed to mean minimum rather than maximum speed; I got pushed into hedges several times. Not much fun!

Usually when cyclists prefer to use the road rather than the cycle path it's because the path is useless: either there are potholes, it's strewn with broken glass, or there are frequent high kerbstones to negotiate, or - the most annoying obstruction - cars park on them, even if there are no parking signs. And moving in and out from cycle paths into the traffic is more dangerous than staying in the traffic flow in the first place.

I also know cycle paths that have narrow gates every so often (to prevent cars etc from using the paths) - they are so narrow that you have to come to a full stop and more or less push your bike round; cycles with trailer, wide panniers, tandems, tricycles (often used by disabled or elderly people) wouldn't be able to get through at all. What's the use of that then? All the more vulnerable cyclists are forced to use the road, again - and car drivers are even less vigilant because they don't expect cyclists. Oh yes, and mostly the cycle paths end just as the traffic situation gets more dangerous, i.e. roads narrow, tricky junctions... The mile-long paths can generally be found on wide, straight stretches of road, where it costs neither money nor much effort to paint an extra white line on the tarmac. But it looks good if the council can boast "we've got x miles of cycle paths"....

Rant over. I almost gave up cycling altogether when I first came to Scotland.

Ina

I gave away my bike a few years back - most of my journeys are local (and thus easier by foot - unlocking a bike and then securing it at the other end added too much overhead). I need a car for some purposes, such as getting musical gear to gigs, and finding the space to store a bike and time to maintain it was a lot of hassle.

However, I'd love the option of easily hiring a bike both for intermediate trips and also just for the fun of cycling!

Wulf

I used to live in Portand, OR. They tried to have communal bikes for everyone to ride. They painted they all bright yellow so everyone would know they were the free to borrow bikes. I think unfortunetly they all disappeared pretty quickly.

Cycled everywhere when I used to live in Amsterdam. Fantastic. Flat. Proper bike lanes, proper traffic signals for bikes, and traffic priority was trams - bikes - cars (at least some other foreigner told me). You don't want to get in the way of a tram. But cars have to give way to bikes except at proper signalized junctions.

Where I now live there are cycle lanes that appear out of no where and disappear just as quickly and, AND, cars (especially those with Disabled passes) parked across them.

I like the idea that cyclists are allowed to wobble. When I do cycle I take the view that it is easier for a motorist on four wheels to avoid me rather than a cyclist on two wheels to avoid veering into the verge/kerb. When I drive, I treat the cyclist as I would like a motorist to treat me on the bike.

However, you do get the occasional, ungrateful silly cyclist and lots of arrogant, selfish drivers. Perhaps people should be required to cycle on the roads for three to six months before they are allowed to drive.

LSP wrote:Where I now live there are cycle lanes that appear out of no where and disappear just as quickly and, AND, cars (especially those with Disabled passes) parked across them.

In my town they have built raised areas either side of every road especially for cars to park on. Very convenient. If only they could find a way of stopping all those pedestrians from using them.

Easy enough - tell them in the interest of safety they should all get themselves a car!

That's an argument I've heard more than once: Can't walk/cycle to school/work/college because of the traffic - have to take the car because it's safer...

Ina