"WHEELS OF CONFUSION"*

 

ENDING FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AFTER BREXIT STYMIES RIDERS HOPES TO LIVE AND RACE ON THE CONTINENT

The Dave Rayner Foundation which funds British riders to live and race abroad has been thrown into disarray since Britain quit the European Union in 2020, ending freedom of movement (BREXIT).

Before Brexhit you just packed a case, took your bike, showed you passport, and off you went.

No longer.

The Brexhit effect didn’t immediately become apparent because the impact of Covid pandemic closed borders anyway.

But now, with covid restrictions eased, the end of free movement has swung into place with the rules only allowing riders to stay in Europe visa-free for 90 days in a rolling 180-day period. It means riders having to travel back and forth, to calculate time away so as to stretch the 90-day period across the season.

The Rayner fund is battling to make sense of the bureaucracy to allow them to continue their work.  The fund is famous for launching Tao Geoghegan on the road to stardom – he won  the 2020 Giro d’Italia - one of a number to make the top grade.

Tao Geoghegan, former Rayner rider,  winner of the 2020 Giro d'Italia.
Here he takes part in the 2021 Paris - Nice.

At present 12 Rayner funded riders are having to travel back and forth between races instead of living and racing and training abroad full time with their new teams.

The story made a full page in a recent edition of The New European by Tom Epton.

His story recalled how the untimely death of British star Dave Rayner in 1994 led to the creation of the fund to pay the way for youngsters to race live and abroad, to give them the chance to emulate young Rayner before he was cruelly denied.

It has been a major success story for British cycling ever since, established before the Lottery funded program in 1996.

The Fund’s annual dinner and auction to raise funds soon became the biggest social occasion on the home cycling calendar, rivalling British Cycling Federation’s annual bash.

Few can have foreseen how ending of free movement would lead to so much strife.

Many who voted to leave the EU saw the ending of free movement as a means of controlling the flow of foreigners coming here and “taking our jobs”.  The irony is that low paid agricultural work, such as flower and fruit picking, has always traditionally been done by migrants. 

(As many as 50,000 to 70,000 seasonal workers, according to the National Farmers Union because home labour shunned such jobs. Brexit and Covid, saw migrants return home. Britain has since made attempts to remedy the situation by making available 30,000 visas for 2022, possibly increasing this by another 10,000).

However,  ending free movement was a double edged sword for it applies also to many Britons seeking to work in the EU post Brexhit, including riders travelling to live and race in EU countries.

 The New European article recalled how last  year top British Tour winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas and inaugural women’s Paris-Roubaix winner Lizzie Deignan signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – Oliver Dowden – to argue that the travel restrictions presented a serious obstacle to the development of British talent.

What was needed, they said, was a visa to allow them unrestricted travel.

The whole issue became side lined by Covid, which halted all movement at home and abroad.

So how do matters stand now?  I called Dave Rayner Foundation Trustee Keith Lambert to find out.

He gave me the general outline of how the Fund has really struggled and referred me to rider liaison Joscelin Ryan who explained how they are working to best overcome the problems, hoping matters will improve. In the meantime, she gave me the current situation concerning the 31 funded riders for 2022.

Ryan:

 “10 have Residency in an EU country – this was restricted to anyone who was living there before Brexit. Normally lasts for a few years. Not available to anyone moving there in future (not low or non-earners anyway).

“Five have a VISA for an EU country – this has to be applied for in the UK before they go to EU. Has to be applied for every year.

“2 have DUAL nationality

“2 have a work permit for the Netherlands. (Unique to the Netherlands, it seems)  Has to be arranged by their Dutch team. Has to be applied for each year.

“12 are still trying to arrange something – if not successful they are restricted to 90 days.”

Ryan explained that those who are sorted are all abroad and should be ok to stay for the season. Those with visas are still restricted to a maximum six months stay abroad. Applications have to made each time. Riders can however, use their 90 days in addition each year.

 “The 12 that are not sorted are finding it very stressful, says Ryan. “They must try to save days and only travel when they have races. Returning to the UK  out of a **Schengen country.

“This is costly in terms of time, effort and money. Also not beneficial in terms of team integration. This is not something we would have countenanced before Brexit. The point of the RF was to encourage riders to fully integrate into a community and team abroad.”

 The success of the Fund cannot be denied. This year there are 11 former RF supported riders in World tour, Pro tour and Women’s World Tour teams.

*Wheels of Confusion is a Black Sabbath song; track one on the album Volume 4 (1972).

** The Schengen Area comprises 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders.

 

 

NICE BIKE, SAID THE SKY DIVER

 

My bikes have shared flats with interesting people back in the day.

Back in the day, when I was a singleton in London I lived briefly in a one roomed flat in a big house I shared with a number of other mortals in Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham.  One Sunday morning I was up at 4am to have a breakfast before riding out to do a time trial on the A3, west of London, near Cobham.

It was probably a 15-mile ride.

I set off while the rest of the house was still asleep. Of course they were. Who in their right mind would rise at 4am, unless they had to?

Well, I had to. I had to ride this “25”.

I recall riding due west along the South Circular Road and somewhere around Tooting suddenly realising I would not reach the start in time.

What to do?

I stopped at the side the road and thumbed a lift.

A car soon pulled up. A man was driving his young son to a judo tournament – as you do.

Can we help, he asked.

Bit of cheek, I said, but are you going via the A3, near Cobham?

They were passing that way and kindly offered to give me a lift.

I removed the wheels and slid the bike into the back of their estate wagon.

So where are you off to, I said.

I’m taking my son to a judo tournament in Guildford, said the father.

Where was I going?

I told him, describing the time trial. We all three swopped stories about our respective sports.

They dropped me off about a mile from the start of the TT. I was extremely grateful.

I recall getting changed in what often passed for dressing rooms in an early morning time trial – behind a hedge at the roadside.

But I couldn’t fault the organisers.  Because it was a very fine hedge, dense foliage, with huge overhang to keep your change of clothes dry from the rain which had started to fall.

I cannot recall the time I posted. Nothing to write home about. I was a road racer, really. Well, sort of. Once briefly rose to the rank of second cat.  

 I didn’t have the pure speed needed for time trialling. But I liked to ride them occasionally, to test myself, alone, suffer unaided and against the clock, after which I would tell myself, never again.

I could expect a top 20 in a hard rider’s event, because I could climb reasonably well, and take corners fast.  But I wouldn’t normally trouble anyone in a flat out and back TT.

What struck me about this particular course were the terrifyingly large slip roads you had to cross, where a solitary cyclist felt adrift in a sea of tarmac exposed to  traffic hurtling by. Thankfully, traffic was light on this occasion.

For this was a section of the newly opened A3, built to motorway standard.   I vowed never to ride it again.

And then I rode home, stopping briefly for a coffee and sandwich at a café somewhere.  I was indoors again by 11.30am, having been out for about six hours. Felt like a whole day – a refreshing vigorous workout.

The house was as silent as when I had left at first light.

No one was up. The curly headed guy and his girlfriend were still in bed. Well, it was Sunday!

But Martin poked his head out of his room as I parked my bike on the landing. And he emerged to admire my Harry Quinn Bill Bradley model, sparkling in kingfisher blue with half-chrome forks.

Martin was an amusing fellow, from South Africa. He wanted to know where I had been and I told him. He was mildly interested and told me his chosen sport was sky diving.

He regaled me with tales of daring do, free-falling from 12,000 feet at over 120 mph before opening the chute to arrest his fall and so glide the final 4000 feet or so.

And how during free fall he would aim to catch up a mate and wreck his dive by yanking open his rip cord  to prematurely open his 'chute –– before shooting away again at speed, leaving his mate swinging there screaming….

 “B A s T A A A A A A R D……………”

REMOVING POP-UP CYCLE LANE UNLAWFUL - declares High Court

 

GOOD news for Cycling UK.  The High Court has declared that Conservative controlled West Sussex County Council did unlawfully remove the Pop Up cycle lane in Shoreham by Sea over one year ago.

Casting around the on-line news sites for this story I spotted this which says it all, from Rowan Smith, lead solicitor from the Leigh Day law firm telling Sussex Live:

 “This is a massive legal, as well as campaigning, victory that will benefit cyclists in West Sussex and across the country.

"Cycling UK has achieved a big win in upholding statutory guidance to embed more climate-friendly travel, which it hopes will contribute to a greener post-pandemic recovery.

"Such great news comes in the wake of the Government setting up Active Travel England, a new body with powers to rank local authorities on the quality of cycling provision in their areas.”

The one photograph I saw of the cycle lane in question revealed a thin miserable strip of tarmac of minimal width, marked out with stick up poles on the tarmac which looked to be too close for comfort.  They could have taken another couple of feet from the bloody motors, if you ask me.

Notwithstanding that, the Shoreham lane had proved very popular with cyclists.

During its short lifetime it was used for 30,000 cycle trips, serving five schools along its length. 

Then it was gone.  And the battle began to hold the council to account.

It took Cycling UK 11 months of legal argument before the council finally agreed to an out of court settlement.

West Sussex had ignored the statutory guidance for installing temporary Pop Up cycle lanes.

It had only been in place a month, from the end of September 2020, before its fate was sealed as a result of complaints from drivers. This allowed no  time for it to bed in,  nor to evaluate any possible problems.

Cycling UK forked out huge sums to fight their case, supported by the Cyclists’ Defence Fund contributed to by the membership.

But this is a bitter sweet victory as the council spokesman says there’s no chance the temporary cycle lane will be put back.

The new facility, so hurriedly ripped out, was paid for out of £700,000 worth of

Government funding provided to help a number of local transport initiatives. 

The Pop Up cycle lane was part of a national Active Travel campaign (active being the operative word for getting about under your own steam).

The initiative was born out of the realisation that people may be reluctant to use public transport during the pandemic. The Pop-up cycle lanes were installed across the country as quick-fix measure to encourage people to cycle who otherwise might be deterred at the thought of mixing with traffic. There was an option to make them permanent, if they worked.

Shockingly, it seems one council member was responsible for taking out the cycle lane, 

apparently going against the advice of the council’s scrutinizing committee.

You wonder how this is possible.

What surprised Cycling UK then was the way the council attempted to brush off the issues they alone were responsible for.  Their spokesman was full of spin and bluster, suggesting that they only “settled the case so as to avoid further costs to the public purse”.   

The declaration that West Sussex Council acted unlawfully came with an order against the council for costs. Dollimore explained on Cycling UK’s website that the council’s unlawful action has barred them from receiving any more government funding for transport planning. They must also pay Cycling UK’s £25,000 costs.

Dollimore took a look “behind the spin” and on his Cycling UK blog explains what’s happened and what it means.

Link here https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/unlawful-decisions-removing-cycle-lanes-what-does-it-all-mean

 Alarmingly, Cycling UK say West Sussex are one of many councils to rip out cycle lanes.

“We don’t have the capacity to challenge every decision councils make which we don’t agree with. But, in the last 18 months, too many councils have removed cycle lanes and other active travel schemes without allowing them time to bed in, without adequate evaluation, and with scant regard to the relevant statutory guidance. The decision in Shoreham was a classic example of this, so we took this case to court to shine a light on this issue, and to send a message to other councils.”

This begs the question, if councils are in breach of government statutory guidance, why is it not the government bringing councils to book. Why do they leave it to Cycling UK?

Boardman's 'quiet' revolution

 

FORMER Olympic Champion Chris Boardman has promised a “quiet revolution” to take back the roads from cars and get people cycling and walking in his new role as head of Active Travel England (ATE), he told The Guardian’s Peter  Walker.

Oops. Mind your language when mentioning cars, Mr Boardman, in case the petrol heads get wind of this!

If we dare allow ourselves to dream a for moment, could Boardman’s enterprise be the game changer for cycling as transport?

The signs of change are already there with the revised Highway Code calling for drivers to be prepared to give way and give space to vulnerable road users.

I can think of no better person to lead this latest initiative to get cycling as transport firmly established in the minds of planners who need to be dragged screaming and kicking into the 21^st century.

It is only right that the young, the old and the in-between, can feel safer on the roads when cycling those many shorts trips instead of always driving them.

Three cyclists and 100s of cars in Bristol

If the Olympic champion can do for other towns and cities what his publicly acclaimed Bee network for walkers and cyclists promises to do for Manchester - once and if it’s finished - dare we  hope government will at last provide the £billions necessary to make the roads safer?

Inadequate funding, that’s the issue. For although the £millions being awarded for various cycling initiatives do some good, it will take £billions to get to the heart of the matter.

But still less than the £27bn earmarked for road improvements!

As head of Active Travel England Boardman will award funding for cycling and walking schemes and also look keep a beady eye on design.

Crucially, ATE is a statutory consultee and their remit extends beyond roads to big developments to make sure planners design in access on foot and by bike, not just by car.

Councils risk losing funding for substandard schemes, which will include bikes lanes distinguished only by a painted line, or if they delay work.

Boardman’s organisation will inspect work in progress and annual reports will rank councils performance in the same manner as Ofsted with schools.

Boardman says they will offer to help in design and also judge it. He will have the power to say the work is not good enough!

That will be interesting for him, given that many engineers know bugger all about designing roads with cyclists in mind. And it was an engineer who told me that!

Boardman says it is essential motor traffic no longer is allowed to dominate local roads, a situation made worse by rat runs identified by satnav.

Add to that the ubiquitous school run where parents feel pressured to drive their kids to school because the roads are unsafe, thereby making them even less safe!

We must hope that no one sees this as an anti-car crusade, particularly the Daily Mail and the Daily Express usually so quick to defend the so called rights of the roads lobby.

The last guy to try reducing this unhealthy dependency on cars was Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the 1990s with his proposals for an integrated transport policy. His boss, Tony Blair, considered this a vote loser.

He stripped Prescott of his transport brief and binned his proposals and all was right in their world.

Surely we have moved on, and want to encourage cycling and walking instead of always driving. Most journeys we make are five miles and less, ideal for cycling.

 “This is about enabling, and encouraging once you have the safe space,” says Boardman.  “The message is: this is for people doing normal things in normal clothes, just having the choice of not having to do it in a car. And it’s in all our interests to face up to that.”

 “We have a finite amount of space, and there’s over 20bn more miles being driven around homes than there was a decade ago,” Boardman said. “We’ve co-opted local streets to soak up traffic that roads were never designed for. It’s not going to be easy to unpick, but it’s really worth it.”

 “Kids don’t have a choice to drive – they have to be driven. And these are their roads and streets, too, and they have the right to use them.”

Boardman, previously commissioner for Transport for Greater Manchester, was first motivated to work for safer cycling upon the realisation that the roads around his home were too unsafe for his daughter to cycle to the park 500 metres away! 

Royce Road junction on a section of
Manchester's Bee Network for cyclists and pedestrians.

He suffered personal tragedy when his mother was killed by a driver while he was campaigning for safer cycling.

 .................................................................................

Reality Cheque

Cycling development is routinely underfunded by government writing piddling cheques for amounts which fall well below what they know is required for the grand schemes necessary to promote the bike as transport. 

Or schemes are given nothing at all, as was the case with the national cycling strategy launched by the Conservatives in 1996.

The Secretary of State for Transport, Sir George Young, himself a cyclist, said the strategy didn’t need money because any costs would be incorporated within the roads budget generally. That was all very well and as it should be for new schemes.

But crucially, the so called strategy took no account of costs to redesign the existing roads and junctions  laid out without thought of how cyclists and pedestrians were to manage. Some have since been adapted, but many are most unsatisfactory.

It took a Labour government to put a bit of flesh on the strategy in 2005, creating Cycling England with the paltry sum of £5m.

Nevertheless Cycling England was brilliant.  Their cycling advocates Christian Wolmer the transport journalist and John Grimshaw of Sustrans, the father of National Cycle and Walking Network, identified and worked with nearly 30 towns to help create small but impressive cycling schemes. A cycle lane here, hire bikes there.  They proved that if you provide for cycling more people will cycle.

And then a decade ago the Conservatives killed the initiative stone dead.

We must hope that Boardman’s ATE does not go the same way. It’s been a long haul to move cycling up the agenda.

I am reminded of the Friends of Earth’s campaign “Reclaim the Roads” back in the mid-1970s. I still have their manifesto on how England should improve road conditions for cycling. A huge cycling demonstration was held in Trafalgar Square, and I joined thousands of cyclists to ride to Downing Street, where the report was delivered to Number 10.  I naively thought that cycling’s time had come. Nothing happened.

The report probably went into the shredder.

That was 50 years ago.

We’re no nearer calming the roads now than we were then.

Over to you, Mr Boardman, save us from the *Petrol Heads.

*Petrol Heads. This species probably evolved in the late 1950s as car ownership grew in popularity and led the government to believe they needed to provide as many roads as possible to satisfy this desire to drive everywhere.

This led to the government commissioning the Buchanan Report in 1963. It was all about cars, nothing about trains, bikes, buses, walking. All about cars.

Buchanan presented plans to have motorways carved into the heart of every town and city. London would be encircled with a series of huge ring roads.

Plans were abandoned when it was realised tens of thousands of homes in London alone would be demolished and city centres destroyed. But not before work had begun in various cities – if your town has a huge highway that suddenly comes to an end, that’s probably the mark of the Buchanan Report before it was halted.

For more on Buchanan read Christian Wolmar’s transport perspective Are Trams Socialist? Why Britain has no Transport Policy).

You will be alarmed.

Then pray Boardman succeeds in his quest.

 

 

A few pictures because words fail me

 In order of appearance,

the crow which fell down

the chimney; 

memories of an open door in summer; 

getting a few miles in

indoors;

and this sign greeting

gents as they leave a 

urinal.

New for old

New Hitachi Azuma express operating on the London-Edinburgh route of the LNER. Steam, meanwhile, still making an appearance, as in this shot at Redhill.
 

The car is no longer king of the road under government's new safety rules to benefit cyclists

 

MAJOR changes in the Highway Code announced this month should end the hostile road environment where motor vehicles charge about with impunity expecting pedestrians, cyclists  and horse riders to make way.

Now the greater weight of responsibility for safety is to rest on the shoulders of drivers to look out for vulnerable road users and take greater care in overtaking and turning and on the approach to crossings.

Shifting the greater responsibility to drivers recognizes at last the disproportionate consequences caused in collisions between a ton weight of metal and the flesh and blood pedestrian, cyclist, motor cyclist and horse and rider.

For even when driven carefully, the high tempo of traffic, greater power and acceleration poses a threat to cyclists who might feel safer taking their chance riding through the lion enclosure of a safari park.

The changes ought to lead to a general slowing down of traffic!  But best not count on it on roads specifically designed to be taken speedily in vehicles designed to go ever quicker.

Those shaved corners have also contributed to the unease of pedestrians, as vehicles need hardly slow down when making a turn.

Although there has been a largely positive response from the cycling and motoring organisations to the changes, the concern is how will they be conveyed to the public who only read the Highway Code in preparation for taking a driving test?

It's not exactly a best seller!

Britain’s national cycling organisation, Cycling UK campaigned for these changes and now is urging the government to ensure the British public get the message, saying “now is the time to right the misunderstanding on our roads.”

Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns said:

“Cycling UK is concerned the forthcoming improvements to road safety outlined in the latest revision of the Highway Code, which will benefit everyone, are not being communicated through official channels. In a month’s time, our Highway Code should change for the better, but these changes will be of limited benefit if the public aren’t aware of them.”

Just as drivers will have a greater responsibility to look for people cycling, walking or riding a horse, so too will cyclists have a greater responsibility to look out for pedestrians on pavements and shared paths.

Some key amendments to benefit cyclists in the new Highway Code include:

Ok, although this illustration has the guys driving on the "wrong side", it illustrates the point - drivers must give a wide berth when overtaking cyclists. 

·          Clearer guidance for drivers overtaking cyclists,  giving them at least 1.5m.

·          Guidance on how drivers and passengers can prevent ‘car-dooring’ cyclists by using the Dutch Reach – Which means if the door is on your left reaching for it with your right arm, so making you turn, the easier to look behind!  And of course, the left arm if the door is on your right.

·          At non-signalised junctions drivers must be prepared to give way to pedestrians and cyclists and so prevent “left-hook” collisions, bringing Britain in line with similar laws on the European continent.

Dollimore says when passed, the Highway Code update will include a new hierarchy of road user. For the first time in Britain the law will recognise that those who pose the greatest risk on our roads to others have a higher level of responsibility. This means someone cycling will have greater responsibility to look out for people walking – including on shared paths - and waiting to cross, while someone driving would have greater responsibility to look out for people cycling, walking or riding a horse.

Cycling UK are right to be concerned that people will actually take the trouble to read up on these vitally important changes which otherwise have the potential to lead to confusion among road users who are not briefed.

Leaflets explaining the changes need to be placed under windscreen wipers of every parked vehicle and/or, posted to every address in the land.

Currently, drivers are only required to give way when someone steps onto a crossing, while pedestrians are told they shouldn’t start to cross until vehicles on the road have stopped.

This will now change, drivers seeing a pedestrian waiting must be prepared to give way to allow them to cross.

The updated Code will also give cyclists priority at junctions when travelling straight ahead, as well as issue guidance on safe passing distances and speeds.

The changes are part of a new cycling and walking strategy  unveiled by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who was due to announce  a £338million package to boost both across the country. 

Announcing the changes,  Schapps said:

“Millions of us have found over the past year how cycling and walking are great ways to stay fit, ease congestion on the roads and do your bit for the environment.

“As we build back greener from the pandemic, we’re determined to keep that trend going by making active travel easier and safer for everyone.”

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As I understand it, the rules of the Highway Code are advisory which means a person won’t face prosecution for not complying with them.

However, if the highway code is used in court to establish liability in the event of an accident under the Road Traffic Act, and you are found to be at fault as a result of not complying with the Highway Code, you may face charges.