Saturday, 30 October 2010

CM and the Blueline taxi

I went on the Critical Mass ride yesterday. just a group of friends with a common interest who go for ride.We started at about 5.45 from Haymarket and went to Monument where we met up with a few others and then about 50 went down to Central Station. Coming back from Central Station,going up Clayton St West there was an incident.50 bikes takes up a fair bit of road space so we were spread across both lanes, and joined the traffic queue I was towards the middle  of the pack.  There was  car horn going intermittently - I assumed an impatient driver. There was a bit of a commotion. There had been a collision between a taxi and one of the bikes, related here,  with some pictures of the damage. We all stopped, turned around and went to see what had happened. I saw the driver , in the car, not getting out until the police arrived.   So eventually they arrived and started taking statements. Several people came up , volunteering names and addresses as witnesses.
Hopefully we will get to hear the outcome.

So what does CM achieve (other than making taxi drivers irate) ?

  • As a regular commuting cyclist, it is undoubtedly safer going through the city centre on a bike, as part of a large crowd. My daiy commute is  to the Coast and I'd love to have a CM ride along the Coast Road. Much better than the hotch-potch mixture of back roads and cycle paths in varying states of repair.
  • Its good humoured - and the pedestrians seem to like the spectacle.
  • It will remind people that a bike is a good way of getting around.
is annoying taxi drivers a  good or bad  side-effect ?  As the average rush-hour speed or traffic through town centres is something awful, a bunch of cyclists wont make much difference

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

Go Milton Keynes, Go



Councils and residents in University towns and cities were relieved and delighted when the last Government introduced changes to planning regulations that meant a change from a family house to HMO would need planning approval. This is in no short measure due to the tireless efforts of richard Tyler and the HMO lobby. At last Councils could exercise some control over housing in the urban ghettos of student areas. The new Government thought otherwise and revoked the legislation after a brief invited consultation.

However Milton Keynes Council took the lead and have started the steps leading to s Judicial review. More infomation about all this is on the Royal Town Planning Institute website . More information on or shortly after 8 October, the date by when the Government has to respond.

And I'll even include a link to Tourism in Milton Keynes!