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Shocking, powerful stuff from Chris Boardman and Active Travel England.
A study of over 100 cycle schemes has revealed that old-fashioned schemes (i.e. just painting the road) will 'kill 10% more people than doing nothing and you get no uptake because it doesn't make people feel safe', whereas a scheme designed to modern standards will get 'between 20-60% increase in uptake and halve the number of deaths.'
@BicycleBen while we're on this, the choice of roads for the #sustrans National Cycle Network also seems pretty anti-cyclist. I'm thinking particularly of the NCN7 west from Dumfries, which chooses hillier, more twisty routes with poor sightlines over flatter, straighter routes with better visibility.
As routes for effective #ActiveTravel, they're more or less useless.
@simon_brooke @BicycleBen Similarly the #NCN23 - it includes a dirt byway, it takes an almost circular route to take in a Roman town, avoiding an actual town with a rail station where people live and might want to cycle, when it gets to Basingstoke it again misses the town centre and station, takes in an industrial estate where you can do battle with lorries and where the council decided that blocking up a dropped kerb was safer than allowing cyclists to access the cycle path.
@simon_brooke @BicycleBen The #NCN2 is rubbish in Purbeck in Dorset in that it prioritises sand and dirt paths suitable for mountain bikes over anything suitable for standard bikes
@jonpsp @BicycleBen On this subject, I had my closest miss in about twenty years on NCN7 today. I was approaching the entrance to Threave Gardens; there was a dog walker on the left, and an orange Audi coming the other way. I passed the dog walker wide, and was then returning to my own side of the road when the Audi, without signalling, turned right, into the gardens, across my path. I've NO IDEA what the driver was thinking.
