Cycle the A4 to get fit? Yeah right!

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/home/20...cycle-path.html

Glad to see £5.7M being spent wisely.
I'm sure it will be heavily used.
Who needs social care anyway!!

When you think that the Town Council spend every year something like £150k on civic niff-naff and associated flummery then I don't think West Berkshire contribution of £100k is so bad. I think it's a good idea to promote cycling as it's good for people and good for the environment.

Taken in isolation it may seem not too bad but if you take all government spending, local and national, then there is a very real lack of coordination on what the priorities should be. Sure there are some things it would be nice to have but ensure the essentials are covered first. A cycle way is no help to someone who is unable to get out of bed in the morning as they have no carer to assist them due to underfunding etc. So joined up thinking seems to be severely lacking in a very many councils etc.!

Bear in mind it is the A4, which is only getting busier. Even if it is not as unsafe as one might think, there's the stink from trucks and VWs, etc!

I do agree with you, but I would still have sustainable transport high on my list of priorities.

Yes, I'd have thought the money might be better spent improving National Cycle Route 4 which already connects Newbury and Reading via the Kennet & Avon canal tow path (and in the interests of full disclosure I should say that I work for the national charity that maintains the canal, but that my view is my own).

I'm inclined and initially agree, but then I remember there is one thing that spoils a nice walk along the canal...

In that case I'm sure you also support HS2 ?

Just so long as it gets the 'lycra warriors' out of my way it gets my vote, just a shame I won't get to smoke em like kippers with my nice pretty euro 4 white van.

Swans??

The fragrant Mrs Capp?

As you asked, yes, I support HS2 as part of an integrated sustainable UK transport and development strategy, but to deliver all of that it needs to be built with British steel and engineered by British companies, and that's not guaranteed.

But HS2 is more your hobby horse than mine - if it was up to me my first priority would be to install footpaths and cycle ways between every settlement in the UK.

Fkn 'enthusiastic' cyclists!

The main Lycra Louts don't like the towpath, no red lights or traffic signage to ignore and unable to ride three or four abreast!

One day.... when petrol is up at £4 a litre and diesel cars have been banned from the road you may be glad that some faceless government officials had the foresight to plan the gradual conversion of the A4 into a cycling superhighway....you people have got no vision...

Painting some road graffiti is visionary?

Have the people who do this no vision either?
Or when petrol is up at £4 a litre and diesel cars have been banned from the road would we glad that government officials had "foresight".
High speed rail is part of future transportation as most of Western Europe, Japan and several other countries have already realised.

I suspect if you delve into this you will find the name sustrans listed - they seem to be a consultancy who specialise in getting sustainable transport grants for councils which saves them spending their own money. For instance from M4 J11 to Winnersh instead of Wokingham spending 80k resurfacing the road from their budget they got nearly £1m of grant funding to build a cycle lane and fence and resurface the road. Nobody uses the cycle lane, the road has had it's speed limit reduced and extra islands so you can't overtake plus the roundabout had to be reprofiled after a couple of crashes due to poor sightlines - but hey Wokingham "saved" £80k. Even the cyclists hate it as they have to stop for the side roads and the fast cyclists just want to keep moving

So unfortunately i doubt the money could have been spent on social care as it would have been a ring fenced grant

Fast cyclists can cycle on the road - cycle paths are for safe cycling, not racing. As for no-one using the cycle path - I drove along there yesterday for the first time since the path was built - and noticed cyclists on it. Struck me that it was a rare UK example of doing the job properly, not just painting an ineffectual line along the edge of a road.

You obviously found the rare day they were there and not a day when a car breaks down (which now blocks the whole road) or when the walker had a suspected heart attack and the ambulance staff had to get the stretcher through the fence whilst their ambulance blocked the road or noticed the increased number of crashes on the roundabout since it was but it or the total mayhem when the stretch of M4 from 11 to 10 was shut and all motorway traffic had to use the now narrowed road.

And of course you ignored the perfectly good cycle route already provided through that area along the old road from before lower earley was built cutbush lane - it is directly the other side of the field and follows nearly the same route

Cyclists are entitled to ride three or four abreast (not that I've ever seen more than two).

You don't get out much then?

You need to read The Highway Code rule 66 newres.
(Does anyone ever read that document anymore once past the test? )

It's a good job cyclists know the rules even if I don't because I have never seen more more than two abreast.

You don't get out much then?