AFTER several months in a cycling utopia of endless
car free roads somewhere on the planet, I
stir into blog action again with good news. The preposterous plan to ban
cyclists from the A63 at Hull has been dropped by the dictatorship,
Highways England.
We must thank Cycling UK for their energetic
campaign to oppose this ban, raising almost 10,000 signatures in protest.
The highways authority stipulated protests should be
by the neglected art of ink on paper and placing said sheet of paper in a
sealed envelope affixed with a postage stamp. Clearly, in this world of electronic data they
thought this might deter protest.
It failed. Cycling UK acted as a collection point
for letters and a cargo-bike laden with mail was pedalled into Highways
England’s Leeds offices last February.
The A63 road forms one of the fastest time trial
courses in the country, and although the highway authority didn’t say as such
in so many words it was felt that the ban was targeted at time trial events
there.
The V718 time trial course on this 15-mile stretch
of the A63 is the fastest course in the land.
It is the very course Tour de France winner Sir
Bradley Wiggins recorded a 17-58 “10” in May 2015.
However, according to Cycling Weekly time trialling
on this road now faces an uncertain future.
The last event to be organised there was on August
26 and there are no future events listed.
Highways England says it will examine
requests for future events on this section, together with Humberside
Police and the East Riding Safety Forum.
Nevertheless, whatever time trialling’s
future here, Highways England’s decision to withdraw their proposed ban (announced
at the beginning the year) l is a victory for common sense.
It was feared such a ban would be the
thin end of the wedge and spark bans on roads deemed by so-called experts as “unsafe”
elsewhere in the country. And if we’re
honest many roads have become unsafe because cyclists have been designed out of
the equation!
So, design them back in! That’s the
problem which is not being addressed because at the root of the problem is this
weird idea that roads are “motor roads” when they are not and never have been,
they are for all of us to use.
This is the wider battle for Cycling UK.
They said they have been fighting for 140 years for the rights of
cyclists, and were not prepared to let Highways England impose a ban when there
was no real basis or justification.
Duncan Dollimore, Head of Campaigns,
added:
“One of the arguments put forward was that
cyclists couldn’t keep up with traffic, but on that basis they would have been
banning cyclists on every A-road and many sections of B-road across the
country.
“I’m delighted that
common sense has prevailed and pleased that Highways England listened to our
arguments.
“I’d like to thank
all our supporters who took time to take part in the campaign and respond
during the consultation period.”
Highways England
In a statement,
Highways England said: “We want people using our roads to be safe and alongside
Humberside Police were particularly concerned about how safe cyclists would be
with increasing volumes of fast moving traffic on the A63 between North Cave
and Hull.
“We’re really
grateful to everyone who commented on our proposed ban, especially from
cyclists themselves.
“We are already developing more cycling
and safety improvements for the A63 and in the meantime we urge all road users
to use this route safely.
No comments:
Post a Comment