All 2 entries tagged Cycling

Connect 2 Kenilworth

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/newsandevents/intnews2/connect2_help_to/

I'm in at least two minds about this. It turns out that there's going to be a televised popularity contest in December to determine how to spend £50 million of lottery money. Now call me cynical but as I see it, the government are making a statement that they are not prepared to commit any public money to these schemes, leaving it up to the tax-the-desperate scheme that is the National Lottery instead. In turn, the lottery people are making it absolutely clear that they are not going to fund £150m of worthy projects (i.e. the losers). It all leaves a bit of a funny taste ...

Mind you, on the other hand, one of the 'entrants' is Sustrans who I think do some great work. The Tissington Trail is a fine example, which is a disused railway that has been turned over to a cycle path. Their plan is to bring that sort of thing here, proposing a path from Kenilworth town centre to the University. It will be a bit of a hilly beast in my opinion, but will take you out across some pleasant countryside - unlike the current roadside scheme. They have not been explicit about the route but it will almost certainly be that of the home leg of the railway run. So it has the potential to ruin my favourite cross country route, but I'm sure I'll cope.

So forget everything I said and go and vote!

Simon Harper : 28 Nov 2007 14:18 |  Tags: Cycling Warwick University |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Road Safety

Waiting to pull out on the roundabout on the A45 this evening was not much fun. After sitting there for two to three minutes I practically leaped off my saddle as a fire engine was scrambled (is that the right word?) directly behind me. The truck came belting out, blinding and deafening and approaching rather quickly. Clearly it couldn't see me standing in the middle of the road, despite my nifty flashing red light.

If you found yourself in this situation, would you:

a) Turn round to stare at the 20 ton vehicle, hoping it would back off, or

b) Realising that a) wasn't working, turn round and pedal like mad. Don't bother looking at what's coming round the roundabout, it can't be as bad as the fire engine.

Of course, I tried both of the above, but I lived to tell the tale. Why didn't I use the cycle paths? Oh, don't get me started ...

Simon Harper : 12 Nov 2007 23:24 |  Tags: Commuting Cycling |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem