Not enough cash to make a real difference

The city council plans to spend £180,000 over the next three years to improve cycling routes in Nottingham.

It’s not a lot of money. It might bring some small improvements for cyclists but it’s hardly likely to see a mass movement of people abandoning their cars and taking to two wheels.

Which is a shame because the city would benefit in so many ways.

I suspect the project is likely to produce a series of small improvement which cyclists will appreciate but fall short of the major new routes that are really needed.

Hopefully the money will not be spent on creating more ‘cycle paths’ like the ones in Netherfield, on the hill as you approach the railway crossing.

They appear out of nowhere at a couple of junctions, run for about 25ft and then end.
What is the point? They look like someone wanted to use up a barrow load of red Tarmac from another project

If you know of a dafter, or more dangerous path, please let me know by commenting below.

Safe riding

Cyclists are not the enemy

Cyclists have enough dangers to contend with without other cyclists smashing into them.
But that’s what happened to one rider in Nottingham, who was using a cycle path when another cyclist rode off the pavement and hit her.
The result - the victim had to have her spleen removed.
Police are now clamping down on pavements cyclists, dishing our fines and stern warnings.
Anyone caught like this cannot moan - the law is clear, if you break it, you pay the price.
I have no sympathy for adults caught on the pavement, but many such riders are youngsters who have probably been encouraged to ride there by worried parents.
And fewer adults would be tempted into breaking the law if the roads were safer.
There seems to be an unwarranted backlash against cyclists following media coverage of a tragic accident. Indeed one national newspaper ran articles which painted cyclists as the scourge of the road (one, ironically, written by a taxi driver).
Cycling is healthy, low cost and environmentally friendly and now is the ideal time to be pushing it as an alternative form of commuter transport.
Clamp down on the lawbreakers, but provide proper facilities for those who stick to the rules of the road - and help the environment.

Respect is the route to safety

What a terrible tragedy that a young girl should die because a cyclist ran into her, having shouted at her to move when he could have swerved around her.
Her parents are angry the rider was only convicted of dangerous cycling and fined £2,200 - not even the maximum.
Who can blame them?
Another family is grieving; a lorry driver in Hampshire was fined £250 for careless driving after pulling out of a junction and killing a cyclist.
Both punishments seem paltry when put against the loss of a life, and the families deserve justice, but is that really the point of these two stories?
Surely the lesson to be learned is that everyone who uses the road should drive, and ride, with other people in mind.
Cyclists should not speed along pavements, jump lights and ride the wrong way down one-way streets.
And motorists should make it safer for cyclists to ride in the road - then more would do so.