Monthly Archives: June 2004

Some bike pictures.

Salon.com Technology | Why don’t we do it in the road?: “A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works.”

Kottke has some commentary on this.

This does make a lot of sense, though the examples of ‘no rules roads’ given are all in places that have never had rules. Simply getting rid of the rules would lead to chaos. However, cyclists who take their space on the road are much safer than the cyclists in the gutter.

I set off for the Darlington Midsummer Bike Ride in some trepadation. It’s marked up as a “2-bike” ride in the leaflet. The next hardest is the 50 mile Tourist Trial. Just in case the going was too tough, I’d packed a map and encouraged AndyRoo to go along as well; we could always drop off the back and make our own way home, leaving the shaven-legged roadies to carry on their relentless chain gang.

I needn’t have worried. The pace was, erm, leisurely; we took 2-and-a-half hours to travel around 10 miles and everyone managed to keep up. We even had an ice cream stop half-way.

Though the pace was slower than I’d have liked, it was an enjoyable ride out and very well attended – the biggest turn-out yet for a guided ride in Darlington with around twenty riders. There was a huge range of bikes, from me on my ‘jumpy’ GT, to women with baskets on the bars, to a shaft-drive bike to a Dawes Galaxy, almost all manner of bike was represented.

We travelled out past the Darlington College to Nunnery Lane, where we took a bridleway out onto one of the roads behind Cockerton, then along a bridleway by the motorway (over an old railway line) and finally to Walworth Grange. From Walworth, we headed back into Darlington via the Brinkburn Nature Reserve and Greenbank Road.

Many thanks to Own Wilson for leading the ride, despite his bad knee.

Given the pace of this ride, I’d considered entering the 50 mile Tourist Trial, but it was last Sunday. The 70 mile ride on the fourth of July may be a touch too far for me.

If you’d like to have a go on one of the guided rides remaining this year, there are still a few to go. Next up is the Cycle Treasure Trail through Skerningham Woods, meeting at Asda, 11:00am on Sunday July 25th, for a ride of around 1.5 hours. Free entrey, with prizes for all.

Both contributors to Bike Darlington will be taking part in the Midsummer Bike Ride, starting tonight, Wednesday 16th June, at 7pm outside the Dolphin Centre.

A report and, possibly, pictures tomorrow.

BBC News: Cyclists win rush-hour challenge: “Cyclists have proved the fastest rush-hour commuters in a city centre challenge between walkers, drivers, cyclists, a bus and a wheelchair.”

A less scientific experiment last month discovered thatbikes are faster than cars in Darlington.