RE: Govt spends £15m to cut school run traffic
Wednesday 28th June 2006
Let's end thisThe school run traffic jam may get smaller if the Government's new cycling initiative works. It has announced more choice to parents on the school run and children who want to cycle by announcing an additional £15m for cycling initiatives.
Govt spends £15m to cut school run traffic
More cycle paths and proficiency tests
Let's end this
The new investment, which doubles the budget for Cycling England and will provide:
- More money for the cycling Links to Schools project - which ties in schools to the wider 10,000 miles of the National Cycling Network reducing need for school children to cycle on busy roads. 70 per cent of the links to schools built by the end of 2005 were off-road;
- Funding to support the new more rigorous cycling proficiency test fit for the 21st century not the 1970s. Potentially training a further 100,000 children to a new, tougher standard including on-road training.
The move was welcomed by pressure group the Association of British Drivers (ABD). The ABD said approved of the incentive to provide cycling proficiency lessons for 100,000 children.
Policy director Mark McArthur-Christie, who uses a bicycle as his main mode of transport, said: "The ABD campaigns strongly for better education of all road users and the cycling proficiency test is a great place to start an education for youngsters that will not only help them stay safe when cycling but should provide them with a sound basic knowledge that will help them throughout their road use career. It needs to be followed up in their teens with some basic driver training as part of the national curriculum to see youngsters into their early driving or motorcycling career."
However, the ABD urged caution as to where the remainder of the money is spent. ABD spokesman Nigel Humphries said: "Too many times we see money frittered away by local authorities on pointless schemes which nobody uses such as cycle tracks around roundabouts where cyclists are expected to give way at every intersection.
"The idea of 'Safe Routes to school is fundamentally sound but all to often councils fail to implement useful measures, instead concentrating on red tarmac and lots of pointless signage whilst ignoring simple measures like providing good surfaces right to the edge of roads and enabling drivers to see cyclists by cutting back hedging etc to allow good sightlines".
The ABD has also in the past called for more driver education on how to watch out for cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians.
The Warrington Cycle Campaign's Web site features photographs of some more poorly thought-out cycle schemes.
Discussion
Still waiting for them to surface a path for there walk to school initiative.
£15m is a poxy sum of money to be spent on the whole of the UK. £150 million should be spent. A mere pittance compared to what they p155ed down the drain on the DOME! You only have to travel to work in the school holidays to see what a difference ruducing school run's can have.
£15m is a poxy sum of money to be spent on the whole of the UK. £150 million should be spent. A mere pittance compared to what they p155ed down the drain on the DOME! You only have to travel to work in the school holidays to see what a difference ruducing school run's can have.
I live in a village were it takes a maximum of 20 minutes to walk anywhere, I would say 75% of locals go up to the schools in cars and when its time to pick them up they get there about an hour early to get a parking spot and often are seen with flasks and sandwiches as they camp out waiting for the kids.
In theory a very good idea, I used to cycle to school from the age of 9 upwards, there's the obvious heath benefits etc.
But when I went to school society was very different, would I let my two cycle to school at the age of 9? NO WAY. At the age of 13? NO WAY.
I don't believe for a minute I'm on my own in this one either. There's a peodophile in the next village to us (and thats not just a rumour), so my kids go nowhere with out an adult. Its crap I know but thats life
But when I went to school society was very different, would I let my two cycle to school at the age of 9? NO WAY. At the age of 13? NO WAY.
I don't believe for a minute I'm on my own in this one either. There's a peodophile in the next village to us (and thats not just a rumour), so my kids go nowhere with out an adult. Its crap I know but thats life
The Dutch have an awesome bicycle network, solely for bicycles. We could do with something very similar if we are serious about cutting traffic. And cut traffic for who exactly - you, you, you, you and you. Same argument could be made for making people travel on motorcycles to and from the workplace. I read somewhere recently that whilst road traffic has increased by 37%, in the same relative amount of time, road building has increased by 1%. Smells like a convenient scapegoat for the government; blame the school run.
xtr2steve said:
The Dutch have an awesome bicycle network, solely for bicycles. We could do with something very similar if we are serious about cutting traffic....
Aye...just need to flatten the hills first.
Hills all around me, cycle lanes all around me.....no cyclists in sight.
Except a few kamikazes and the obligatory handful of belligerent t
ttts said:
concentrating on red tarmac and lots of pointless signage whilst ignoring simple measures like providing good surfaces right to the edge of roads and enabling drivers to see cyclists by cutting back hedging etc to allow good sightlines
Totally agree with this. By me there is a two post sign informing drivers of a staggered cross roads just ahead, and a set of traffic lights half a mile ahead. As this is a straight, slightly downhill piece of single carriageway 30 limit road, IMO if you can't see these two things with your own eyes then you shouldn't be on the road. I think every slight bend in the road now has grippy tarmac and a sign telling you which way to turn. I find that if you get a passenger to shout out the warning for every sign they see it's like having your own rally co-driver!
Having just come back from driving through France, I can honestly say our road network is just........ well you can guess what I was going to say!!
In a 1500 mile trip through France my mates S6 bottomed out twice. I lost count how many times it did on the 200 mile trip back from Dover!Ah Wait! 
I have an idea........what if:
We had "local schools" and then the kiddiewinkles wouldn't have to travel so far and they could all walk to school!!!.....easier to move a few teachers around than 500 kids!
oh!.......
We closed them all to save money...didn't we?
I have an idea........what if: We had "local schools" and then the kiddiewinkles wouldn't have to travel so far and they could all walk to school!!!.....easier to move a few teachers around than 500 kids!
oh!.......
We closed them all to save money...didn't we? Edited by 8Pack on Thursday 29th June 02:55
it will be interesting to see what happens as a result of this. i suspect not very much. there have been several announcements like this in the past for london - ken is very keen on bicycles but... unless you are completely confident on a bike cycling in central london is extremely dangerous.
the transport situation could be greatly improved if we had the same level of cyclists as, say, copenhagen. there they had similar levels of cyclists as london (ie the square root of none) until they put in a proper cycle network of cycle lanes and places to lock bicyles up both of which are almost completely lacking in london. it's a disgrace that ken livingstone champions bicycles one the one hand and does nothing to make cycling in london safer.
i've moved back to london after living in france for almost ten years and i use my bike to get around central london. it's scary stuff by comparison! there is very little road space made for cyclists and london drivers are on the whole a hell of lot more agressive than french drivers and are pretty inconsiderate towards cyclists.
the transport situation could be greatly improved if we had the same level of cyclists as, say, copenhagen. there they had similar levels of cyclists as london (ie the square root of none) until they put in a proper cycle network of cycle lanes and places to lock bicyles up both of which are almost completely lacking in london. it's a disgrace that ken livingstone champions bicycles one the one hand and does nothing to make cycling in london safer.
i've moved back to london after living in france for almost ten years and i use my bike to get around central london. it's scary stuff by comparison! there is very little road space made for cyclists and london drivers are on the whole a hell of lot more agressive than french drivers and are pretty inconsiderate towards cyclists.
Phil Dicky said:
In theory a very good idea, I used to cycle to school from the age of 9 upwards, there's the obvious heath benefits etc.
But when I went to school society was very different, would I let my two cycle to school at the age of 9? NO WAY. At the age of 13? NO WAY.
I don't believe for a minute I'm on my own in this one either. There's a peodophile in the next village to us (and thats not just a rumour), so my kids go nowhere with out an adult. Its crap I know but thats life
But when I went to school society was very different, would I let my two cycle to school at the age of 9? NO WAY. At the age of 13? NO WAY.
I don't believe for a minute I'm on my own in this one either. There's a peodophile in the next village to us (and thats not just a rumour), so my kids go nowhere with out an adult. Its crap I know but thats life
Hi Phil. Its a shame that having one paedophile (now you're sure that's not a paediatrician?? lol) in a village a few miles away is stopping you from encouraging your kids to have a little more independence.
I used to first walk, then cycle to school (around 5 miles each way for the cycle journey) all the way up to when I left - in fact at that time it was sheer 'uncool' embarrassment to be seen having your mum or dad collect or drop you off at the gate. That was only a mere 15 years ago and I doubt the number of paedophiles in this country has grown significantly in that time - just that they're more widely reported now that there's a proper registration system in place. Furthermore, I doubt that there's any more paedophiles than before riding around on bikes scoping for children on bikes to chase after.
How about encouraging your kids to cycle to school together, or with friends? Safety in numbers. They'll be a lot more healthy and learn a little bit of road sense beyond the bad habits of their usual 'taxi drivers'...
JJ
grahamw48 said:
More people should just get off their fat lazy backsides and WALK.
That way the kids who do walk or cycle to school (like mine), and aren't scared off with all this ridiculous pedo paranoia, can do so more safely, unhindered by the real threat to them, which is MOTOR VEHICLES !
That way the kids who do walk or cycle to school (like mine), and aren't scared off with all this ridiculous pedo paranoia, can do so more safely, unhindered by the real threat to them, which is MOTOR VEHICLES !
Exactly!
Here in Germany, in the large cities nearly all the kids go by bike to school. Loads of people cycle to work. The problem in places like London is that the streets are so narrow, you can't have dedicated cycle lanes without narrowing the roads for traffic even further. It's rubbish simply painting a white line along the side of a road and calling it a cycle lane. That's not investment - it's the cheapest option which is all too common in the UK.
Edited by silver993tt on Friday 30th June 08:56
Interestingly, the Times Online is running a story today saying how the number of cycling deaths increased dramatically last year. They're blaming an increase in "inexperienced" cyclists starting to use bikes, also saying that last years bombing on the tube caused more people to cycle in London (sales of bikes up 20% from July last year).
Of course the safety zealots at Brake instantly call for more 20mph zones and more traffic enforcement. Which is what we've had for the last decade, and still cycling deaths have gone up.
Could it be that the congestion charge, which has sped up traffic flow in London (if you believe the propaganda), is contributing to the cyclist statistics? I would have thought slow moving traffic would be safer for cyclists. Also the big increase in buses in London would be bad for cyclists, as they tend to share lanes, and buses have poor visibility and unpredictable driving/stopping routines.
Don't get me wrong, I love cycling, and would like to see it encouraged, but investment needs to be properly targeted to get the best benefit, especially when the amount of funding is so low (according to the papers yesterday, we pay 2 million pounds a year to fund John Prescott's department, so £15m will very quickly get eaten up by bureaucracy when spread round the country as a whole).
There also needs to be a realisation that cycling, as with all our transport issues cannot be tackled in isolation, we need to look at many other areas as well, including town planning, investment for business, public transport links, policing etc.
Of course the safety zealots at Brake instantly call for more 20mph zones and more traffic enforcement. Which is what we've had for the last decade, and still cycling deaths have gone up.
Could it be that the congestion charge, which has sped up traffic flow in London (if you believe the propaganda), is contributing to the cyclist statistics? I would have thought slow moving traffic would be safer for cyclists. Also the big increase in buses in London would be bad for cyclists, as they tend to share lanes, and buses have poor visibility and unpredictable driving/stopping routines.
Don't get me wrong, I love cycling, and would like to see it encouraged, but investment needs to be properly targeted to get the best benefit, especially when the amount of funding is so low (according to the papers yesterday, we pay 2 million pounds a year to fund John Prescott's department, so £15m will very quickly get eaten up by bureaucracy when spread round the country as a whole).
There also needs to be a realisation that cycling, as with all our transport issues cannot be tackled in isolation, we need to look at many other areas as well, including town planning, investment for business, public transport links, policing etc.
silver993tt said:
[quote=grahamw48]More people should just get off their fat lazy backsides and WALK.
That way the kids who do walk or cycle to school (like mine), and aren't scared off with all this ridiculous pedo paranoia, can do so more safely, unhindered by the real threat to them, which is MOTOR VEHICLES !
That way the kids who do walk or cycle to school (like mine), and aren't scared off with all this ridiculous pedo paranoia, can do so more safely, unhindered by the real threat to them, which is MOTOR VEHICLES !
Exactly!
Here in Germany, in the large cities nearly all the kids go by bike to school. Loads of people cycle to work. The problem in places like London is that the streets are so narrow, you can't have dedicated cycle lanes without narrowing the roads for traffic even further. It's rubbish simply painting a white line along the side of a road and calling it a cycle lane. That's not investment - it's the cheapest option which is all too common in the UK.
Totally agree with the post above (sorry lost quotation marks for 993's post for some reason)
The bad siting of a new cycle lane can create more danger than having no cycle lane at all.
In my locality a new 100m (approx) cycle lane is being proposed - fine but this one will mix pedestrians & cyclists on a current pavement and cut accross the driveways of more than 30 houses, pass 2 pedestrian crossings and to enter or exit the lane will require cutting accross the mouth of 2 busy 'T' junctions.
Targets have been set for the amount of new cycle lanes to be created seamingly with suitabilty and safety as a secondary priority.
I seriosly doubt if getting cycles off the road and into conflict with pedestrians and increasing the number of junctions to be negotiated is going to encourage cycling or reduce accidents.
Edited by Roman on Friday 30th June 11:45
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