{"id":1337,"date":"2016-06-08T12:58:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T12:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.happycyclist.org\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2016-06-08T12:58:04","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T12:58:04","slug":"great-britain-so-adept-at-getting-it-wrong-gmcycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/?p=1337","title":{"rendered":"Great Britain &#8211; so adept at getting it wrong."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are two pieces of off-road cycle way that have been created recently (in their current form) not too far from where I live. One of these is the shared path that runs alongside the 4.5 miles long Leigh Guided Busway, shown here:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m24!1m12!1m3!1d18984.770225631783!2d-2.4807994956523953!3d53.502475510469075!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m9!3e1!4m3!3m2!1d53.5121281!2d-2.4127886!4m3!3m2!1d53.4966021!2d-2.5113125!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1465387763683\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The installation of a major infrastructure project like this provides a perfect opportunity to create decent, high quality infrastructure for walking and cycling, and so it was nice to see that a wide path was created alongside this route. It seems rare that there is the money, the space, the opportunity, and the political will to create such a cycling facility, so I thought I&#8217;d go along and have a look. Well actually, I was trying to follow National Cycle Route 55 when I can across it, but then I decided to give it a go.<\/p>\n<p>You can see the whole ride here:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Kq-lprvNSr4?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nbut I suggest you skip to <strong><em>1:36<\/em><\/strong> to have a look at an example of the quality of this path. The camera shake is not me waving my head around on purpose; it is a consequence of the quality of the surface on this so-called cycle facility. I don&#8217;t have suspension on my bike, but I do have carbon forks and 32C tyres. Goodness knows what it would be like on a road bike. The path is like this for the whole length.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it&#8217;s possible that the quality here was compromised simply due to lack of money. I&#8217;ve no doubt that a better surface costs more to build, although I wouldn&#8217;t expect it to be that much more. The next example, though, is just beyond belief.<\/p>\n<h2>Snatching failure from the jaws of success.<\/h2>\n<p>The second example that I want to look at is the branch of National Cycle Route 55 that goes from Bolton to Roe Green. That 3 mile route is shown here:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m24!1m12!1m3!1d18974.453031958863!2d-2.4192438408311663!3d53.52551028285536!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m9!3e1!4m3!3m2!1d53.5403412!2d-2.4246209!4m3!3m2!1d53.5108223!2d-2.3800890999999997!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1465389316471\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I showed this route in a video back in April when it was nearly complete. The video shows a beautiful, wide path with a smooth tarmac surface. Almost perfect but for the fact that it is shared with pedestrians, including many dog walkers.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KFG2xGPVHGA?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nNow, I&#8217;d like you to skip to <strong><em>7:45<\/em><\/strong> in the video above and see how lovely it is as it goes under one of the bridges and continues on its way. Clearly that facility is completely finished, and to a high standard &#8230; or is it?<\/p>\n<p>Last week, I went down that route again, and became puzzled when I passed a truck with some workmen. What I saw a little further on, starting from the bridge that I asked you to look at in the previous clip, was completely mystifying:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xGSWzdK1WEc?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The lovely, smooth tarmac surface has been covered with stone chips, making it difficult to move at any speed without risking a fall. This is absolutely beyond belief: they have taken a brand new smooth tarmac surface on a &#8220;National Cycle Route&#8221; and spent money to make it treacherous for cyclists to ride on!<\/p>\n<p>This is not the result of lack of money. This simply stupidity on the part of the designers. The only reason I can imagine for this is to cause cyclists to have to slow down, presumably because of the presence of pedestrians. If that is true, it is equivalent to putting speed bumps along the A6 because you can&#8217;t be bothered to make provision for pedestrians (or cyclists for that matter), but I can&#8217;t imagine that happening soon!<\/p>\n<p>In my best Victor Meldrew voice: &#8220;I don&#8217;t bloody believe it!&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are two pieces of off-road cycle way that have been created recently (in their current form) not too far from where I live. One of these is the shared path that runs alongside the 4.5 miles long Leigh Guided &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/?p=1337\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happycyclist.grahamecooper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}