I came across this on Pedal Pressure and was struck by the simplicity of the idea as well as the simplicity of implementation. This is a system that can be retro-applied to many, if not most, urban traffic systems as well as major rural roads.
How can prioritising safety for bicyclists and pedestrians be wrong or uneconomical?
r:B
From the packaging of a small, inexpensive set of taps and dies I bought for cutting screw threads in some plastic parts.
The vendor was clearly struggling with the correct Italian (I) terminology. And presumably just gave up when it came to Dutch (NL)…
Anyone care to provide the correct translation?
r:B
UPDATE: Apparently “draadsnij gereedschap set” is the Dutch term.
Quality of life increases proportionate to distance from a computer…and proximity to a bicycle.
r:B
Encouraging figures from the RAC (via the BBC) suggest that fuel pricing may be reducing unnecessary car use with a third making fewer short journeys. Hooray!
As mentioned in the article, rural areas tend to find this a difficult issue as public transport coverage is usually sparse and often absent. For example, around here, you have the choice of two buses in the morning (before 9am) and one in the afternoon (after 4pm) should you want to venture into the nearest city.
Alternatively, you can walk a couple of miles to the next semi-important road junction and try to synchronise your arrival with the bus from the village up the hill. Getting to any of the nearby towns requires either going into the city or splashing out on the on-demand Go-Flexi Taxi-Bus – the sobriquet Taxi-Bus presumably derived from the fact that it replaced the scheduled bus service and costs as much as a taxi!
Cheaper than a Taxi-Bus
I can only guess that some wit on the local council branded it Go-Flexi because a flagrant and irresponsible attitude to personal credit cards is a prerequisite to using it on anything approaching a regular basis. For the four of us to get to work and school in St Andrews – and home again too - using this “award-winning taxibus service”, costs a budget-bruising £64.00 per day.
“You just phone to book a journey and your fare will be similar to a bus fare.” Errrm…no! We regularly take the train to Edinburgh for less.
Joined-up transport policy? Not in Fife!
I wish I was back on two wheels…
r:B
There’s going to be some changes around here and the bicycle may have to take a back seat. (If you know what I mean.)
I’m not particularly well. To be honest, I’ve been at various degrees of “ill” for a while but I had a relapse last year which has forced me to resume vigorous drug therapy and make some changes to my life.
Don’t worry, it’s nothing immediately life-threatening. I’m suffering a rather unusual and relatively recently-identified autoimmune form of pancreatitis. This basically means that my body thinks my pancreas doesn’t belong there – so attacks it. Needless to say. this causes all kinds of problems… It can be somewhat* painful, knocks my blood chemistry completely out of whack, and has kept me on sick leave for longer than I like to think about…
Treatment is two-stage. Steroids to bring the initial symptoms under control and then long-term immuno-suppression to stop it recurring. Admittedly, neither of the drugs – prednisolone and azathioprine – are particularly pleasant but they appear to work and I’ve been able to forgo any pain medication for a few weeks now.
The steroids cause a lovely range of side effects which include poor healing, muscle wastage and weight gain. You’ll probably have worked out that these aren’t the rogue body-builder type of (anabolic) steroids. They do, however, have a remarkably robust impact on appetite. If an earthquake should strike while I’m at the supermarket, leaving me buried under a mountain of produce, I’m confident I’ll be capable of eating an escape route for everyone. I’m just not sure I should regard that as performance-enhancing…
Sadly, in most other regards, my performance is much-diminished. I have days when I just sleep, nights when I can’t, days when I never step outside the house and some when I only manage to with the aid of a stick (albeit a very fine Leki Wanderfreund). My proof-reading has also gone out the window…please excuse any oversights!
To add insult to injury, with the combination of drugs and a battered pancreas, I’m now going through steroid-induced diabetes which is proving difficult to control despite careful monitoring of both diet and blood glucose levels but this is hopefully temporary. I actually had a problem with this during my last round of treatment and it did seem to disappear once I was weaned off the steroids…so here’s hoping.
And then there’s the related high blood pressure.
The immunosuppression, naturally, comes with its own treats and surprises…but I don’t like to grumble! ;c)
More later. I’ve got an appointment with the Occupational Elf at work tomorrow.
r:B
*”somewhat” = a stoical British quantification that probably best translates as “excruciatingly”.
Yup..I’m back. Don’t have much time at the moment to recount the adventures I’ve had since I last kept this blog, but I’ll update soon. Energy isn’t in abundance these days and there’s grass to mow…
If you haven’t already, pop over to the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain and sign up… (wish they’d used Bicyclists’ Embassy…)
Stay healthy,
r:B
Well, this has been a long time coming…
I’m slowly recovering from a long bout of illness and think it may be time to start pumping up the tyres of this old beauty once again.
I could certainly do with the exercise. I even wheeled out the Chiltern Classic today in order to tweak the Sturmey. Encouraging comments appreciated… ;c)
In the meantime, here’s something to which Brompton owners – among whom I now number – will never admit. The first time always goes like this…
r:B
This blog is parked up for the foreseeable future…
r:B
Available for parties, lectures, live speaking engagements, underfloor exploration, casual rides &c. Reasonable rates.
flaneur.brian @ gmail.com
A Balanced View by Flaneur Brian
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