New Gov Commuting Initiative

[MikelBikel]

Grant Shapps to the rescue. Eh?
£2bn for bike commuting.
Parisians queueing out the doors of secondhand bike shops for 2wheel transport.
Rome gets 150km of bike lanes now.
Ireland Dublin City Council has moved to install more segregated cycle lanes, as the Covid19 lock-down period continues.
Rollin rollin rollin ;-)

 

[Nealh]

Any money will end up in London mostly.
We need more dedicated cycle/scooter/pedestrian lanes lanes on main routes properly divided to prevent other vehicles using them (and not painted silly lines on a bit of road).
Cut dual carriageways down to one lane and 40mph with a hard barrier to prevent other vehicles using the inside lane for other users .

 

[Tarka]

It's a good idea but by the time any of it happens everyone will be back in their cars and carrying on as before.

Links to the official goverment pages relating to this:
Network managemant
New era for cycling and walking

 

[Nev]

Cut dual carriageways down to one lane and 40mph with a hard barrier to prevent other vehicles using the inside lane for other users .

I remember a mate of mine saying to me well over 30 years ago, that he could not understand why when we were building new dual carriageways we didn't build a cycle track along side at the same time (with a barrier from the traffic). He thought this would only add a small percentage to the overall cost of building the new road. It seemed like a very sensible idea to me.

 

[sjpt]

(and not painted silly lines on a bit of road)

They don't just paint silly lines, they paint pictures of squashed bicycles as well.

 

[Nealh]

They don't just paint silly lines, they paint pictures of squashed bicycles as well.

True, they paint a line and a squashed bike on the road usually no more then 2' wide expecting this to be enough for vehicles to safely pass. I often see vehicles give no extra room when passing and many don't slow down, imv a cyclist should be given a four or five feet berth at least and then over taking speed should be reduced.

 

[Tarka]

Following Borris' announcement. From Wednesday, throw the old bike back in the shed and get the car out for a long drive, (although not to Wales or Scotland).

 

[Nealh]

I will be be going on long bike rides again after this week, I have 3 or 4 days of outside house maintenance to finish and will have saved myself about 3.5k sterling by doing the work myself during the lock down conditions.

 

[PP100]

I think the most signficant par tof the transport announcements was the fast tracing ie bringing forward to next month ) from next year) the trialing of electric scooters.
But reports from other cities that have had them wasn't encouraging .
and in London we see them used anyway...

Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, has announced that plans to evaluate electric scooters in the UK will move forward from next year, to next month, while the scheme is also expanded from the original four future transport regions, to all regions of the country.

That could lead to the legalisation of e-scooter rental schemes from the likes of Bolt and Bird, while also funding a boom in e-scooter ownership. A Department for Transport update said that the change in the evaluation has the "potential to see rental vehicles on UK roads as early as June.

"

E-scooters could be legal in the UK as soon as June

Plans to evaluate electric scooters in the UK will move forward from next year, to next month.

www.pocket-lint.com

 

[Nealh]

I nearly splatted one in Horsham yesterday evening with a middle aged user, he wasn't expecting a 3.5t van to come round the corner of a quiet residential street when all was quiet. He shat himself looking at his face and then decided too late to turn the front light on.
Tbh they will become a menace on the road and some will die, covid might not get them but the escooter will.

 

[nicholasj]

It's a bit of a shame us pensioners get no incentives for buying an ebike. I fully agree with the cycle to work scheme etc. It's the right thing to do, but living on a pension makes an ebike expensive. They could at least reduce the VAT. Mini rant!

 

[flecc]

It's a bit of a shame us pensioners get no incentives for buying an ebike. I fully agree with the cycle to work scheme etc. It's the right thing to do, but living on a pension makes an ebike expensive. They could at least reduce the VAT. Mini rant!

Now out of the EU we can remove the VAT altogether and give a cash grant towards purchase as we do with e-cars.
.

 

[Tarka]

I expect VAT and all taxes come to that will have to increase at some point to help pay for all the costs of the lockdown.

 

[Wicky]

Depends on how money is spent and wasted promoting cycling - Essex county splurged out on a cycle lane in my town that nobody wants inc. cycle groups

New delay for £750,000 cycle path nobody wanted

A CONTROVERSIAL shared cycle and footpath costing £750,000 has been delayed.

www.gazette-news.co.uk

Also including steps on a recently built cycle path...

Residents: Developer’s cycle lane is step too far!

CYCLE campaigners have hit out after discovering a cycle path has been created...with steps in the middle of it.

www.gazette-news.co.uk

 

[MKCyclist]

It's a bit of a shame us pensioners get no incentives for buying an ebike. I fully agree with the cycle to work scheme etc. It's the right thing to do, but living on a pension makes an ebike expensive. They could at least reduce the VAT. Mini rant!

A lot of European countries already provide financial support for e-bikes, quite often at a local level.

https://ecf.com/sites/ecf.com/files/FINAL%20for%20web%20170216%20ECF%20Report_E%20FOR%20ALL-%20FINANCIAL%20INCENTIVES%20FOR%20E-CYCLING.pdf

 

[nicholasj]

Thank you for this. But just look at where the UK comes in all of it! Rather poor.

 

[flecc]

Thank you for this. But just look at where the UK comes in all of it! Rather poor.

Agreed, but that's the fault of the population as much as government.

When only 3% here cycle but most are car drivers, there's severe limits on what governments can provide for cycling at the expense of cars if they ever want to get elected again.

It's dead easy in the Netherlands where 70% cycle at least once daily, most more often. When their government started their cycling facilities program back in the early 1970s, it was due to intense public pressure and anti road-death campaigns since many still cycled there. Here in Britain utility cycling had already virtually disappeared then, large numbers of cycle dealers had shut down and there was no campaign for cycling facilities. All the public pressure was for more and better roads for their cars.

The result is what we have and asked for.
.

 

[Nealh]

People in UK are to damn lazy to make the effort. For the most part money rules there world and having all the latest must haves and expensive cars.

 

[MikelBikel]

When we dont need no ro.. err, bike lanes..
I'm just off down the pub

 

[flecc]

When we dont need no ro.. err, bike lanes..
I'm just off down the pub

It will only ever happen for a very few privileged people, certainly not for our 40 million drivers.

They can't even avoid colliding with each other on our roads with white guidance lines, crash barriers, signs, speed limits, traffic lights, roundabouts and flyovers.
.