Re: Connect2

in message <5ra0lkF13mbu3U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Peter Clinch
('p.j.clinch@xxxxxxxxxxxx') wrote:

Ekul Namsob wrote:

Indeed. That's why I've asked the council to give details of their
proposed Guild Wheel. I am not campaigning against cycle facilities, I
just will not vote for one's designed by an organisation with, in my
experience, a consistent record of outputting crap.

if Sustrans /consistently/ produced crap then everything on the NCN
would be awful, but there's a lot of really nice riding to be done on
it, including on-road.

There's certainly a lot of really nice riding on roads which have been
decorated with NCN stickers. But those roads were just as nice to ride
before the NCN stickers were added. Sustrans have done nothing to add
value to those roads, for cyclists.

But, for example, following NCN7 from Creetown into Gatehouse of Fleet, you
get routed off a wide, quiet village street with a 30mph speed limit which
takes you past all the cafes and shops, and instead taken through a maze
of footpaths and back alleys and pedestrian bridges, with a number of 90
degree turns you simply would not be able to ride a tandem through.

That's not adding value. That's removing value - actively detracting from
the cycling experience. When I originally planned the 7/24 route it was my
intention to make the maximum possible use of cycle facilities, partly to
publicise them. And I've found that they're simply unusable or unsafe. The
descent from the old railway to the road at Creetown is too steep, is
under trees and is inadequately maintained, with leaves and mud on the
surface most of the time, leading to very hazardous braking. The section
through Gatehouse I've described. In Dumfries there is a new and very
beautiful cycle-route bridge over the river, exactly where it's needed:

http://www.purpleboxproductions.com/?p=41

But there are no links going southwest from the southwestern end. Instead
you have to go back up north to join the same road as you would have used
if you'd used the St Michael bridge, so the new bridge just introduces a
one-mile detour to no benefit.

Therefore their record is not consistent, which
may be an argument in itself but it isn't the one you're making.

One thing about their policy militates against them being able to produce
good routes: an NCN route may not cross a 'major road' at grade, but
there's no funding for underpasses or flyovers. The consequence is that
NCNs often take bizarrely convoluted routes to take advantage of
existing 'not at grade' crossings, and in my experience these convoluted
routes often involve dangers at least equivalent to the 'at grade'
crossing.

--
simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Q: Whats a webmaster?
A: Like a spider, but nowhere near as intelligent.
.

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