Castle Blvd Nottingham
This was in my to do list since January when I went to the National Coaching conference for Orienteering. On the occasion I drove up to Lincolnshire to see family and didnt want to drive city to city solo, so I borrowed one of local designer Mark Sanders’ Strida folding bikes for the train /bike trips either side of Nottingham Station. This worked brilliantly as I had checked already that there was a pleasant protected cycle route right from the Station to University, might be something you’d consider too? Why blog about it? Its a busy time for Blighty waking up to the possibility of moving people by bike, the evidence is right in front of us, we can move people better this way, in fact 70 people in 20 seconds by bike on a good bi-directional track. Cars are slowing us down in towns, our health is suffering, pollution is worsening and our productivity as a nation is going down. So heres the pictures, an A road, tamed – given a continuous cycleway that has lights over junctions and quality surfacing. Right the way from Central Station to University, can you think of another town that might benefit from this sort of route? So theres the small details too. this is at a major Roundabout, where there is lights that have to be obeyed, however the desire line is alongside the road- not meandering all over the place. Roads in the back streets that link are also treated well so that Cycles are expected and given primary position on the road. Finally another road the A38 in the Birmingham area , has been given a treatment, this time in Blue. This opened last week to great acclaim. Well done Birmingham. Today I spoke on radio about developments being spearheaded by Cycling Commissioners from several cities.Its changing fast this country, hope you can catch up with the Bicycle too.