DOTD

[Cudzoziemiec]

Can we put pedestrians in here? I nominate the one who stepped off the kerb right in front of me while looking the wrong way. I just managed to emergency stop before hitting him and to my surprise, the word that I reflexively bellowed was "IDIOT!" which caused him to turn his head and look at me as if he still couldn't see me. I think he was a Chinese student, but that's probably not why he was looking the wrong way; it's a one-way street with contraflow cycle lane. I've never felt entirely comfortable with this concept.

I'd nominated the designer of that concept.  There's one I use in Oxford, but I treat it as if I was riding down a fully pedestrianised street - the pedestrians haven't seen me.  I only use it to avoid two moronic sets of traffic lights.

Yes, it's a dodgy concept. And yet it's surprisingly popular with (at least some) cyclists and cycling campaign groups. I think it can work well when it allows cycle access to an area or avoiding what would be a laborious one-way system, but design is (as always) important.

IIRC the PushBikes line on the subject is that two-way streets with "no entry (except cycles)" are preferable to contraflow cycle lanes, and that the concept only works if it's the default for an entire area, so that road users get used to it.

This makes sense, but with low volumes of cyclists you still have the risk of motorists thinking you're breaking the rules (IIRC clarion got assaulted for this) and city centres are always going to be full of pedestrians who've never driven/cycled around the area and are oblivious to road signs.

On the gripping hand, you're only going to increase the volume of cyclists if you do something to make the roads easier to cycle on, so it's better than an impenetrable maze of one-way streets, or (arguably) having everything jammed up with two-way motor traffic.  I think a better solution is to reduce the motor traffic with modal filters and removing parking, but that would be politically courageous.

Modal filters and scarce parking are definitely the way to go.

[Kim]

Birmingham's attempt at modal filtering seems to have evaporated.  Or at least they gave up putting the filter at the end of Wrentham Street back when the taxi drivers kept moving it - I haven't spent enough time in the city centre to vouch for any of the other ones.

[SoreTween]

We've just been reassigned to a different parliamentary constituency, so democratic that if you pinned the right colour rosette on a monkey it would get elected (actually that might have happened).  They posted their political newspaper through our door, so I thought I would see what messages my new MP wanted to present.  One of them caught my eye - from a local councillor.

"We believe you should be able to go where you want, when you want, in the vehicle you want."

Do they actually mean it?

I decided that it gave me carte blanche to ride anywhere I want at any speed I want and when he is stuck behind my in (probably his monstrous Range Rover) I could remind him that I was following the desires of his campaign literature.  After all my bicycle is deemed a vehicle.

Sorry but no, that freedom does not apply to you. The telling word from your rosette adorned monkey is 'in'. Perhaps you should write and ask if to rephrase to the less discriminatory "..., by whatever vehicle you choose."

[Mr Larrington]

We've just been reassigned to a different parliamentary constituency, so democratic that if you pinned the right colour rosette on a monkey it would get elected (actually that might have happened).  They posted their political newspaper through our door, so I thought I would see what messages my new MP wanted to present.  One of them caught my eye - from a local councillor.

"We believe you should be able to go where you want, when you want, in the vehicle you want."

Do they actually mean it?

I decided that it gave me carte blanche to ride anywhere I want at any speed I want and when he is stuck behind my in (probably his monstrous Range Rover) I could remind him that I was following the desires of his campaign literature.  After all my bicycle is deemed a vehicle.

Sorry but no, that freedom does not apply to you. The telling word from your rosette adorned monkey is 'in'. Perhaps you should write and ask if to rephrase to the less discriminatory "..., by whatever vehicle you choose."

Or get a velomobile.

[matthew]

We've just been reassigned to a different parliamentary constituency, so democratic that if you pinned the right colour rosette on a monkey it would get elected (actually that might have happened).  They posted their political newspaper through our door, so I thought I would see what messages my new MP wanted to present.  One of them caught my eye - from a local councillor.

"We believe you should be able to go where you want, when you want, in the vehicle you want."

Do they actually mean it?

I decided that it gave me carte blanche to ride anywhere I want at any speed I want and when he is stuck behind my in (probably his monstrous Range Rover) I could remind him that I was following the desires of his campaign literature.  After all my bicycle is deemed a vehicle.

Sorry but no, that freedom does not apply to you. The telling word from your rosette adorned monkey is 'in'. Perhaps you should write and ask if to rephrase to the less discriminatory "..., by whatever vehicle you choose."

I agree, I would like to travel to his nextdoor neighbour in an F35-C, would he be so kind as to approve the construction of a landing pad please, oh and I'm sorry about the noise when I take off at Audax o'clock. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

The guy on the e-bike on the path alongside Temple Way, who slalomed in between almost stationary me and the almost stationary pedestrian I was almost stopping at the zebra for.