Author Archives: MrHappyCyclist

A response to a well-meaning, but ill-informed driver.

Three days ago, a driver in Bristol posted a video that has got quoted in the local press. This driver was aggrieved because his car was damaged by someone who was unable to be traced. I can understand why he … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Road Justice, Safe Cycling | 7 Comments

Is Britain showing symptoms of a third world country?

When a cousin of  my wife visited a country in Africa many years ago, she stayed in a relatively wealthy household. One of the observations that she made was that people there with expensive televisions in their homes often didn’t … Continue reading

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Thoughts from Skyride Bolton

Yesterday was the day of the Bolton Skyride; an event that happens at different dates & times in various towns and cities across the country. On these days,  the town is disrupted as roads are closed to allow families and … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Bolton, Space for Cycling | Leave a comment

Highlighting the bad bits.

Update (6th March 2014): Modified the annotations in the map to include links to videos showing examples of the problems that I encounter at these locations. Yesterday, I saw the following Twitter post from the All Party Cycling Group: My … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Bolton, Road Justice, Salford, Space for Cycling | Leave a comment

The stupidity of painting substandard cycle lanes on roads.

The UK Government’s guidelines for cycle infrastructure design are contained in  the Department for Transport’s Local Transport Note 2/08. This actually specifies quite a low level of design quality compared to those countries that have achieved high rates of cycling, but … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Space for Cycling | 2 Comments

Do the police normalize dangerously bad driving?

I have thought for a while about writing something about this issue, but time never seems to be on my side. However, I have had a number of experiences and encounters this week that have prompted me to set something … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Police, Road Justice | Tagged | 9 Comments

The very common problem of tailgating.

Tailgating by motorists is something that rightly annoys a great many cyclists, partly because, despite it’s being very dangerous, it is so common and often deliberate. Here are two examples from a single morning commute in May 2013: Those were … Continue reading

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Playing billiards with cyclists?

Introduction In the game of billiards, points can be scored by hitting the red ball and the opponent’s cue ball in the same shot; that is called a cannon. I wonder whether the equivalent on the road involves hitting two … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Road Justice, Safe Cycling, Salford, Space for Cycling | 29 Comments

Calibrating distances on video camera images

One of the problems with the video footage produced by cameras that are worn by cyclists is in the interpretation of images produced to determine passing and following distances. This could be an issue when trying to get video evidence … Continue reading

Posted in Article, Road Justice | 1 Comment

Looking back … a celebration :-)

It is now 3 years since I started regularly cycling to work. In that time, I have covered approximately 11,000 miles on my bike. In cycling that distance, I will have burned about 500,000 Calories of energy, which is roughly … Continue reading

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