WalkleyIan

OK I was replying to the general question "does the council ever intend to improve congestion". I presume most people will agree that the IRR extension does reduce congestion and journey times. Whether that justified a 70 million quid spend is a different debate. For the record since the changes Ive found it quicker to drive to Walkely along Bradfield Road now that the left lane isn’t blocked with parked cars. By all means put it back how it was before but I still think you’ll have a bottle neck there as only one lane goes straight on. Turn out for that vote wasn’t too good was it? Just over 1000 votes for all the schemes from a half million population.

70 million quids worth of IRR extension maybe?

Word going round the local clubs is that Denis suffered a fatal heart attack before he was in collision with a car. I’ve not seen this confirmed officially

It was a Shame for Mr and Mrs Low that they were forced to close down after all these years... http://www.thestar.co.uk/food/End-of-the-road-for.3747148.jp

I got an N95 as a free upgrade and I wasn’t impressed. The camera was good but battery life was appalling, the GPS didn’t work, and the handset would crash regularly. I found out I was a couple of software updates behind. After Id updated the software (5 minute job) it was like a different phone, still a good camera but now has reasonably good battery life, the GPS has been excellent for use out cycling, walking and in the car, better than the Gamin on my bike . So if you’ve got an N95 sat in a drawer check what version software it has before you give it away.

We shouldn’t make assumptions about this incident until the full facts are known. 531c (nice user name) is correct, in countries that have made helmet wearing compulsory numbers of cyclists have gone down, eg in Australia it dropped by 1/3 when the law came in. The knock on effect is that the health of the nation as a whole gets worse, leading to more deaths from diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, heart problems etc. The number of deaths from head injuries did fall in Australia, but not as much as they should have done when taking into account how many less cyclists there now were. For this reason for many years the BMA opposed compulsory cycling helmets for adults. Countries with very high numbers of cycle journeys (Holland / Denmark) have very low accident rates. The more people who cycle the safer things get. These countries also have very low numbers of helmet wearers. (Im told less than 1% of Dutch cyclists wear helmets Cycling is not a dangerous activity, no more so than walking or using the stairs (stair helmets anyone?). What is far more dangerous is not taking some form of daily exercise. Off road I wear a lid, popping to the cash point Ill do a Boris. Descending Holme Moss at 55mph I strap a piece of polystyrene to my head. The whole issue of helmet wearing is best left to the individual cyclists to weigh up the risks

have a look in today's Shef Tel.. Council leader Paul Scriven is back on his bike, cycling well out from the kerb and aiming to get 1/5th of the cars off Sheffield roads once a week. "Our leader has an assertive riding style, you may not be surprised to hear. Good positioning, well out from the kerb, keeping up with the traffic nicely – but he's rather close to the edge on roundabouts and he could do with watching his back a little more often"

The whole road tax argument has been done to death so give it a rest please we are bored (abolished by Churchill in the 1930s). VED is a whole different thing, and is zero rated for some cars. To cycle 12” from the kerb is incredibly dangerous as it gives you no room to manoeuvre for broken glass , potholes or grates or if a pedestrian should step out, and takes you out of the line of vision of drivers . Cyclists should adopt the "primary position" in the lane whenever possible, this is close to the centre of the left most lane, and at no time any closer than 0.5m to the kerb. The primary position puts you in view of the traffic and ensures that a motorist will only overtake you when it is safe to do so. If you cycle in the gutter you are asking to be squeezed into the kerb at best. I suggest both cyclists and motorists read a copy of Cyclecraft, endorsed by the department of transport and the ctc which will give you more details of techniques for cycling on modern roads, and consider signing up for some lessons with Pedal Ready, the Sheffield cycle trainers I'm not a trainer but I've done helmet cam video of the Sheffield trainers and as a road cyclist of over 30 years (and car driver of 27 years for that matter) It was an eye opener at just how far out the approved trainers cycle in the lane. I was also surprised at the approving nods and we got during a filming session on Eccy road. Motorists find it easier to overtake an assertive confident rider , rather than someone weaving down the gutter One more myth to deal with, the two abreast thing is completely legal , its in the most recent edition of the HC, the same one that says that you are not obliged to use cycle lanes.

By 6.30pm we had 2 police cars blocking both ends of Howard Road, a paramedic car, a fire engine and an ambulance. A queue of 95 buses and cars diverted along side streets. What was going on?