Monday - meetings in London today; however as I only needed to get there by 10am it meant I could catch the 8.45am - which tends not to be such a busy train - although they do charge peak rate for the fare! The other plus is that I only had to spend a few hours in London which meant that I could park my bike at Station Cycles rather than waste time finding a cycle parking space.
It costs £1.50 to leave the bike with Station Cycles - quite expensive compared with the daily weekday charge for the car park - £7.20 (5 bikes ~equals 1 car). But the bike is indoors and it then means not having to strip of lights and speedometer from my bike - I reckon it saves 10 minutes of messing around at the station. the shop is in the car park on the way through to the Station Building so is convenient. It is opposite this cycle park (one of the three cycle parking spaces.
To get home I cycled along Mill Road, not a normal route for me as I don't like the traffic but I wanted a change of scenery. As i was cycling along towards the city centre a bus had stopped on the opposite side for passengers, two cycles overtook it and passed me and then a red car also overtook the bus and driving at me forced me onto the kerb - what a tosser. I was wearing light clothes and it was mid-afternoon - in my opinion that person is not fit to drive a car. I do believe that cycling has gotten riskier - which stops people cycling. Yet we should be encouraging more people to cycle - not just the "die-hards" like me.
The Cambridge Guided Busway (CGB) has been in the news again - "No opening date...". Apparently based upon (lack of) progress they will not be able to commit to an opening date before July at the earliest. Whenever I cycle along the CGB there does not seem to be any evidence of real urgency associated with the project - it seems to me that there is something badly wrong if over £100million of taxpayers money can be tied up in a project which then gets caught up in a "Mexican-standoff" between the two parties involved. The CGB maintenance track also gets a mention in another piece of News: "Estate residents worry as travellers set up camp".
Finally Gilbert road was the scene of attention as newly-elected MP Julian Huppert and various interested parties witnessed for themselves the issues facing cyclists on Gilbert Road. The question we need to answer is how to get more people cycling, especially the young. Cars (and other motor vehicles) are not unconditionally good as some people seem to believe. We need to make cycling significantly safer to overcome the resistance that poeple have to it.
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