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Nice - price motorists off the roads

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3 hours ago, Penistone999 said:

Sheffield council have been doing this for years with their barmy road system, bus gates ,tram gates, one way streets 

No they haven’t, one could argue that they made life for motorists more difficult, but never that they made it better for other road users.

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10 hours ago, tzijlstra said:

Last Christmas I spent time in my native Netherlands. In a medium sized city. Car ownership is far more expensive in the Netherlands than it is here. The entire infrastructure is based on cyclists and pedestrians, in particular in city centres. 

 

Result: The Dutch 'exercise' twice as much as almost any other EU nation. In fact, the number of 'inactives' ie. those not reaching  targets (moderate activity, lasting 30 minutes, five times a week), in the Netherlands is 18,2 %, compared to the UK at 63.3 % - let that difference sink in for a second... Even the Americans have considerably fewer inactives at 40.5 % according to these measures.

 

Personally I was most definitely part of that 63,3 % - but since actively aiming to improve my health I have not only lost 3 stone in weight, I am considerably more fit and generally happier with myself. All I've changed is that I leave the car more often and actually go for walks on a regular basis.

 

I don't approve of over-taxing cars, but I would most definitely welcome a complete change in the way infrastructure in the UK is designed. More dedicated cycle lanes and footpaths, better junction designs where pedestrians and cyclists are priority rather than afterthought. Better laws to protect cyclists and pedestrians in traffic.

Perhaps they should start levelling the hills in Sheffield to make it as flat as the Netherlands - that would make cycling and walking a lot easier.

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4 hours ago, Penistone999 said:

Sheffield council have been doing this for years with their barmy road system, bus gates ,tram gates, one way streets 

Thousands of people have no trouble driving into the city centre every day - summat wrong with your driving ability I reckon.

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7 hours ago, Longcol said:

Perhaps they should start levelling the hills in Sheffield to make it as flat as the Netherlands - that would make cycling and walking a lot easier.

Pergaps they shouldn’t and then people from Sheffield can be the fittest ever?

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17 hours ago, Longcol said:

Perhaps they should start levelling the hills in Sheffield to make it as flat as the Netherlands - that would make cycling and walking a lot easier.

The figures don't really back up this claim.  Flat cities in the UK still have a very low number of trips by bike.  Lower than hilly cites in Europe. Flatlands are also notoriously windy.

 

https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/wiki/people-cycle-in-the-netherlands-because-it-is-flat

 

Maybe more companies should look at the work the University of Sheffield has done to reduce single occupancy car trips 

 

https://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/how-university-helped-thousands-ditch-their-cars-1-9504576

 

 

 

 

 

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Cambridge has a much higher rate than the average, what's the difference (I'm convinced that being flat helps btw).

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I went on a guided bike tour around Cambridge, we rode for miles without sharing road space with motor traffic. It was great! The tour was fun too - I can highly recommend it 

 

It wasn't as good as Copenhagen, far from it. But still much, much better than Sheffield. 

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10 minutes ago, Cyclone said:

Cambridge has a much higher rate than the average, what's the difference (I'm convinced that being flat helps btw).

An educated populace would be the easy answer, but I'm always surprised at the amount of bikes I see in rural Lincolnshire (not a bastion of higher education) but that said there isn't likely to be much in the way of public transport.

 

Now there's a thought, get rid of all buses and make fuel even more expensive (car journies do reduce when fuel goes up If memory serves) - price people into peddle power!

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The stick is the bit that people don't like in the proposal from NICE though.  And rightly so IMO.

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1 hour ago, Cyclone said:

Cambridge has a much higher rate than the average, what's the difference (I'm convinced that being flat helps btw).

I'd argue that the lack of accessibility by cars into the old city is the main factor.

50 minutes ago, tinfoilhat said:

An educated populace would be the easy answer, but I'm always surprised at the amount of bikes I see in rural Lincolnshire (not a bastion of higher education) but that said there isn't likely to be much in the way of public transport.

 

Now there's a thought, get rid of all buses and make fuel even more expensive (car journies do reduce when fuel goes up If memory serves) - price people into peddle power!

We see more bikes everywhere, the problem is that cyclists are still treated as secondary road-users on almost all of the UKs roads. The test is pretty simple: When you are driving around on a road, see if you could fit a meter wide cyclepath either to the side of the road, or indeed on the road with segregation. You will find it is possible nearly everywhere, so why is it not implemented? Level of education is nothing to do with it.

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On 1/4/2019 at 8:55 AM, ECCOnoob said:

Well it really isn't is it.

 

Firstly good for you for increasing your use of taxis -  you must have a lot more than I have in the bank because I won't be able to afford to do that.  On average I fill up my car with £15 pounds of fuel once a week which covers all the journeys I want to make and my daily commute to the office.   A taxi from my house to the shops is anything between £8 to £10 each way.  

 

Secondly,  last time I checked buses still caused pollution and still caused lots of noise. Presumably if we are to encourage people not to use their cars we will have to massively increase the service frequencies and route offerings to make sure it is as convenient as possible for service users - That would obviously lead to more buses on the road and more pollution in the air. 

 

Perhaps we could extend the less polluting tram network but that will cost significant sums of money which we don't have and those pesky hazardous tram tracks will be spread all over every primary road in the city  -   awww the humanity!!!  To think of all those poor cyclist who keep getting their wheels caught in tram tracks smashing their faces into the concrete, skulls shattered, limbs broken all over the pavement.

 

I know, maybe we could get rid of the commute all together.  That would be best.  Get people living within the city limits -.  yeah that could work a great big metropolis with everyone living on top of each other.   London does it why can't we.  I'm sure that wouldn't have an effect on the property prices whatsoever.   

Rickshaws are the answer,  lol. That will get a lot of people off benefits and back to good health and clean up the city as well. :)

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23 minutes ago, tzijlstra said:

The test is pretty simple: When you are driving around on a road, see if you could fit a meter wide cyclepath either to the side of the road, or indeed on the road with segregation. You will find it is possible nearly everywhere, so why is it not implemented? 

I take issue with this bit. In major cities, and alot of towns, that would involve knocking down an awful lot of buildings I'd have thought, or removing pavements.

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