Blog moved

This blog is no longer maintained. It has been moved into the new version of our family blog. Please visit http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/category/mutterings/ for the latest mutterings. Thanks for reading.

Give way to those travelling uphill...

I was going to rant about car drivers not giving way to cyclist travelling uphill, but see the Weekly Gripe has beaten me to it. (Great title by the way!). I share their grievance. Travelling along National Cycle Network 23 I had the same problem the other day. In a car, stopping to give way to a bike takes mere seconds and no effort (unless you count depressing the brake pedal). By following the correct procedure you will, however, save the cyclist from losing momentum, and expelling lots of effort restarting on a hill. Get a grip guys, it costs you mere seconds.

Belgian Drivers

This blog has been moved. This post can now be found at http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2007/06/belgian-drivers/

Take turns

Father and I just decided we need a new approach to roadworks and other situations where lanes merge. The most efficient system is to use both lanes until the point when they must merge, then merge in turn. Unfortunately our mentality is to join the queue straight away, which actually leads to an inefficient system, with multiple merge points and porr utilisation of road space, hence longer ques and road rage as a few drivers actually carry on to teh end. One person cannot change this, and would just become a road rage target.

So, how about a mass advertising campaign, followed by signs at such places announcing - USE BOTH LANES --- STAY IN LANE - then - MERGE IN TURN - at the end? I've seen this done in one spot in Edinburgh (never suggested it was an original idea!), and largely it works OK. Change the culture overall and I think it would be a stunning success.

Anti-bike culture

Just posted on the family blog about how good cycle infrastructure is in the Netherlands (after a slightly petty gripe about signage at one junction) and that improving ours in the UK would almost certainly see a modal shift from car to bike. What I'm not sure about is how you change an anti-bike culture. The Dutch drive sensibly around cyclists, are tolerant of them making mistakes (and misdemeanours), I would wager there are few calls for compulsory tests, insurance or tax on bikes as are often heard in the UK. Cycling is deeply embedded in Dutch culture though, and we have lost that now. I'd like to hope that would start to change if we got to the stage where we had decent facilities for cyclists and hence more people using bikes. But I'm not sure. Oh, and before anyone suggests no-one will cycle in the UK because its hilly, and the Netherlands is Pancake-flat, I don't expect us to reach NL numbers of cyclists or distances, but for many trips a bike makes sense, and for many more it would make sense with some major or even minor improvements to our infrastructure.

Oh, and by the way, Dutch roads are excellent by and large. Driving here is not unpleasant at all. Just often unnecessary.

Q

Discovered today I rather like the British art of queuing and similar niceties, but not the aggressive attitude towards those who flout our conventions. For example in the Netherlands, France and Belgium if you want to change lanes you pretty much just signal and move into traffic in the next lane. No-one flashes, swears, tries to ram you etc (one boy racer in a tarted up piece of *** broke the mould but I'll let that go). This rather laid back approach generally works, but I do miss people flashing to let you out, waving me across a junction or whatever.