Commuters across Lichfield and Burntwood are being urged to get in the saddle for Cycle to Work Day.
The annual initiative takes place tomorrow (September 14).
The national event aims to promote the benefits of leaving the car at home.
Cllr Mark Deaville, Transport Chief at Staffordshire County Council, said: “There’s huge passion for cycling here in Staffordshire and as a county we are committed to developing our cycling network.
“We have invested around £5million in cycling infrastructure improvements over the last two years, making us a much more connected county than ever before.
“We want to see more people on their bikes, not only for leisure but for getting to and from work and Cycle to Work Day gives us a great opportunity to remind people of the many benefits of cycling. Keeping fit and healthy, getting fresh air and saving money by not using the car are all great reasons to get on your bike.”
Cyclists can plan safe bike routes using an online planner.
It’s just a shame that the council could not extend the cycle path on the Western bypass beyond the Abnalls road turn off just a bit further up to the Hedgehog/Friary leisure centre allowing alot of kids that are in the south Lichfield friary catchment area to safely ride straight up to school (reducing morning school traffic) and make a connection with the new Police station when it’s built.
Come on LDC spend some of that government cycling infrastructure money on cycling infrastructure.
This will probably account for the greater than normal extent of traffic queues and erratic overtaking manouevres by frustrated motorists, whose journey to work took longer than usual.
Most of those “frustrated motorists” making erratic overtaking manoeuvres don’t use their indicators upon seeing a cyclist, which alerts oncoming traffic who reposition themselves accordingly on seeing the cyclist/car in the opposite lane, allowing the motorist to pass the cyclist without significant hold up and with plenty of room.
However the usual tactic is get as close to the cyclists rear tyre as possible, this then obstructs the cyclist from view to traffic behind, who wonder what is going on, the “frustrated motorist” who is incapable of moving a small lever that operates the orange blinking light in the power assisted everything car then cuts between the cyclist and the oncoming traffic dangerously close, usually accelarating away hard.
Next time you are out in a car, see how many drivers use indicators to pass a cyclist, I can tell you from experience it is very few, generally way less than 1 in 10 cars.
Many cyclists now are a complete nuisance on the road.
When it is unsafe to pass they happily cycle on with a queue of traffic trailing behind them.
My biggest gripe is cyclists on footpaths they happily skim past you from behind at great speed.
At each end of the walkway alongside Minster pool there is a sign asking cyclists to dismount but it is generally ignored and they happily disrupt what should be a pleasant walk way.
There may be bad drivers but there are equally as many bad cyclists.
IMO, Nowhere does it say that a cyclist, horse rider or any other form of legal road using transport has to “move out of your way” read rules 162,163, 211 & 213 of the highway code, it is pretty clear on the requirement.
And the path alongside Minster pool is officially a “Cyclepath” marked accordingly (broken blue line denoting a Cyclepath) on Staffordshire County Council maps (available online).
I’d gripe, but rule 216 of the highway code also covers this.
A little patience, consideration and tolerance goes a long way. Never ceases to amaze me how impatient fellow motorists get at even the slightest hold-up. They take it personally and seem to regard waiting even a few seconds as an attack on their indvidual rights.
We seem to have collectively lost the ability to slow down when we encounter an obstruction of any kind – the first and only instinct is to accelerate, even if that causes more problems for everyone else.
I’m speaking as a regular car driver, cyclist, horse rider and pedestrian – I don’t feel as safe as I should whatever form of travel I take.
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@agitatorofthpeople
No part of the Highway Code must be regarded as law, although contraventions of it may constitute an offence. Like §28 (RTA 1991) quite wide ranging when it comes to cycling.
The odd thing is, when a police car passes, they all file nicely into a line.