Cycling lawyer’s tongue-in-cheek post suggesting cars should be high-vis goes viral; “Even decent(ish) cycle infrastructure can’t protect you fully from lazy, inattentive driving”; Timmy Mallett’s cycle travels; Alpe d’Huez rumours + more on the live blog

Cycling lawyer’s tongue-in-cheek post suggesting cars should be high-vis goes viral; “Even decent(ish) cycle infrastructure can’t protect you fully from lazy, inattentive driving”; Timmy Mallett’s cycle travels; Alpe d’Huez rumours + more on the live blog

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We’re kicking off today’s live blog with some cycle lane chat… 


Cyclist using segregated cycle lane (Transport for London)

Over in Colchester there’s a conversation happening about cycle lane usage, with Colchester Cycling Campaign chair Stuart Johnson making the case for why the figures — obtained through a Freedom of Information request that show cycle lane usage on one popular route dropped by 44 per cent compared with three years ago — aren’t actually that bad.

In short, Johnson told the Daily Gazette and Essex County Standard, the baseline figure being used comes from a time when cycling levels were especially high — July 2020, when “people were furloughed, a lot of people were working from home, and traffic on the roads was mostly down, so people felt safer cycling on roads than they do now”.

“There happened to be good weather in the lockdown in the spring and summer, and the roads were so much quieter,” he added. “Unfortunately, what’s happened is that the amount of traffic has picked up again, so we are not surprised that the current numbers of cyclists are lower than they were in July 2020.”

Back then (the month of July 2020) there were an average of 478 users per day, however examining and comparing with a 479-day period between May 2022 and August 2023, usage fell to an average of 265 cyclists per day.

Again, Johnson defended the numbers: “Towards the end of August there were 300 cycling trips per day – we think that’s very encouraging because the routes at the moment don’t join up properly. The next thing is the need to make the lane permanent and make sure it joins up areas like Mile End and the hospital through the city centre.

“When people do actual surveys, like on YouGov, 77 per cent of people support measures to support cycling and walking. There’s a silent majority of people wanting to make our streets safer.”

You’ll get no arguments from us there…

In fact, research from YouGov in November 2020 found that the public overestimates opposition to new bike lanes by 50 per cent. In short, when asked about whether they support schemes to encourage people to cycle or walk, only a fifth (19 per cent) opposed them and a tenth strongly opposed them (10 per cent).

But what about 15-minute cities?



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