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I am intimidated by buses on Union Street
At the beginning of this year I thought my days of cycle campaigning were coming to an end. Not because I didn’t still fully support the need for cycling infrastructure but because the designs the council were showing us were all good and aside from minor details I felt confident and positive about the future […]
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Pavement cycling
David Hembrow is an Englishman who lives in the Netherlands and writes a blog called A view from the cyclepath. He also has a You Tube channel about cycling infrastructure. He’s very good at making observations about people, transport, and infrastructure and drawing conclusions from what he sees. This video is a very good one […]
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A vision for King Street, Aberdeen
Earlier this year I applied for and received funding for the Aberdeen Cycle Forum to commission two visualisations of streets in Aberdeen with a bike path. One of them has just been released. It’s for King Street and extends the King Street Design Competition we held by taking the winning designs and turning them into […]
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Pedal on Parliament 2019
It was Aberdeen’s annual Pedal on Parliament today and we changed tactics slightly by cycling laps around the city centre. In previous years we’ve had a ride starting from somewhere outside Aberdeen and ending up in town. This year we cycled a circuit through town. It worked really well because it was all left turns […]
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Police Scotland say roads unsuitable for slow-moving individuals
Tomorrow Aberdeen will be having a mass bike ride in protest of the lack of cycling infrastructure in the city. This is part of a nation-wide group of protests under the umbrella of Pedal on Parliament 2019. Several weeks ago I notified the police of the event, out of courtesy. In the past they’ve usually […]
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Sustrans Cymru criticised for active travel scheme
This appeared in my Twitter feed yesterday: Great to see new @WG_Economy funded #activetravel schemes in #aberystwyth @CeredigionCC pic.twitter.com/faLRnRIcbW — Sustrans Cymru (@SustransCymru) June 20, 2018 It generated a lot of discussion on Twitter. Can you see what’s wrong with the photo and the accompanying text? Sustrans is a national sustainable transport charity and in […]
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Make Union Street Great Again!
I made a few signs about the event coming up in Aberdeen on Saturday, 3rd February, asking for a bike path for Union St. I put one of the signs in Foodstory on the weekend and they took a photo of it and posted it to Facebook! Foodstory are the best. Please go there! I’m […]
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I am not a cyclist
This is a cyclist: This is me: A cyclist has special clothing for cycling, a helmet, an expensive bike, clip-on shoes, and they travel fast. I, on the other hand, cycle slowly, I don’t wear any special clothing, and I’m terrified of those clip-on shoes cyclists wear. I ride my bike in regular clothes. I […]
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Never put cyclists between parked cars and traffic
I was nearly doored this morning by a motorist opening her car door on us as I cycled passed. Fortunately I always take a wide berth around parked cars – for this very reason – and as it was the door missed the three of us by mere centimetres. It was a mother dropping her children […]
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Moan, moan, moan – that’s all I seem to do
I feel like I’m always complaining to the Aberdeen City Council. It’s just that they keep making silly decisions and not doing what I suggest. This week they announced their plans for pedestrianisation of an historic street in the city centre only their idea of pedestrianisation is to make it a thoroughfare for buses. Don’t […]
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Super review for airbag helmets
The Hövding invisible bicycle helmet has received a favourable review from a Stanford University team. We found that the airbag has the potential to reduce the acceleration of impact by a factor of five [over traditional helmets]. I’ve been using the Hövding for over a year now and am very happy with it. I’ve never had to test […]
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Dressed for the destination, not the journey
This YouTube video comparing cycling in Holland with cycling in Britain is truly wonderful and well worth watching. What is particularly interesting is that it wasn’t always this way in Holland. They used to have the same problems we have with traffic and air pollution but a spate of child deaths sparked protests and so began the start of policy which […]
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Cycling in Auckland part 2
Cycling on the footpath sucks. It really does. I’ve just returned from cycling Elizabeth to kindergarten and I’ve started cycling on the road for parts of the trip now. In fact, when I’m on my own cycling home I use the road almost the whole way. Why? Because the footpath is difficult to navigate. It’s […]
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An open letter to Gerry Brownlee
We will be leaving the UK at the end of this month and so I have started to think about what my life will be like back in Auckland. The biggest change will be the shift from a commuter-cycling lifestyle here over to a car-dependent one in Auckland. But does it have to be this […]
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When is it ok to kill cyclists?
Earlier this month The New York Times published an opinion piece about cycling, “Is it O.K. to Kill Cyclists?“. It prompted a huge number of articles and blog posts which, insofar as discussion about cycling safety helps to improve cycling safety, is probably a good thing. Even the Economist has waded in with, “The American […]
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How the Dutch got their cycle paths
A friend of mine shared this video with me which I found really interesting. It discusses the reasons why the Dutch have such brilliant cycling infrastructure today and you get to see some of it in action. I wish more countries would follow suit.
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