City cycling: a new online mag for, you guessed it, city cycling!

Lots of bike-related stuff at the London degree shows: esp. the MA part of the Central Sant Martins industrial desin show. This is the website:CSM MAID 2005 -- it's a bit tricksy, but navigate to Diego Bello and his lockable bike stand, and Suchada Supantamart's NagaBike. Over at the RCA, there was an electric bike from Max Wehebrink (which doesn't appear to be on his website) called FiftyFifty.

Letter: Let bikes roam: "The present laws are divisive and are the cause of the friction between the two factions. At the stroke of a pen, the authorities could give cyclists the option of either using the wider road if they wish, or the pavements and promenades." Interesting point! Cycles seem to exist ina no-man's land between roads (the domain of the motorist) and pavements (the domain of the pedestrian).

Letter: Bike cycos: "Reluctantly, I was in Brighton recently and saw something which pleased me: A cyclist get clipped by a van." The Argus seems to be full of these nasty anti-cycling letters these days.

Letter: Five bike points: "To condemn all cyclists on the behaviour of a small minority is akin to saying all motorists force me off the road, cut me up, knock me off my bike, park on cycle lanes and pollute the very air I breathe," says Mike Smith.

Letter: Come and join us: "I was disappointed with Mike Ward's article. Normally, he writes a lot of sense (being an Albion fan) but I'm afraid this wasn't funny and reinforces prejudices some people have about cyclists," writes Howie Blanks.

Letter: If cyclists are bad, car drivers are much worse: "In response to Mike Ward's rant about cyclists, 'Psychopaths on cycle paths' (The Argus, April 12), he needs to relax a bit, take a holiday, do something he enjoys for a day," says Bob Courtney.

Letter: Brighton needs a safe network of cycle lanes: 'Networks of streets could be identified and blocked halfway along to prevent through-traffic but allow room for cycles to pass.' says Robin Clark of Patcham.

Ride a bike: a letter from Becky Reynolds.

Letter: Cycle wardens?: "The summer months ahead are to be dreaded as cyclists appear everywhere."

Letter: Hell in Brighton: "cyclists behaving bizarrely and, indeed, very dangerously" and women with tattoos! Whatever next?

Jerry writes: I've been cycling for over 20 years and spent four of those years messengering in Boston and San Francisco. My worst nightmare is being 'doored'. I've been doing a sticker campaign for a few years around San Francisco and am planning to bring car door safety awareness to the world. The site is still under construction, eventually I will have spots where people can post their experiences and share photos of injuries caused by cardoors....I like what your doing with your site and thought you might be interested!

Cheers from one side of the globe to the other...ride safe!

Here is the site: Your Cardoor is A Deathtrap.

I nearly got doored this morning on the London Road -- by a bin lorry (garbage truck)! I was overtaking it, then got hemmed in by another truck and was about to get squashed!!! -- but it only moved forward a couple of yards -- then the door opened! Fred

Changed the Blogger template and added an RSS feed, thanks to the rather wonderful FeedBurner.

Added Guest photos page 9, containing snaps from

Cycle link could be a bridge too far: Save Braypool South bridge!

Letter: Would-be cyclists put off by road dangers: from Ian Bullock

First published in the Argus on Monday 20 December 2004:

Letter: Would-be cyclists put off by road dangers

Adam Trimingham's piece (The Argus, December 15) is spot on. There are many problems with cycle lanes in Brighton and Hove as well as elsewhere.

Here are three examples:

1. The stretch behind the King Alfred in Hove, with all those little roads coming out on to the seafront, is positively dangerous. Also, the 90-degree turn coming east into the road down to the car park is difficult to negotiate even at minimal speed without hurting yourself on one or other of the metal posts.

2. Some of the old East Sussex cycle lanes which have been left in place are just a joke and one at least is potentially lethal. Coming into town along the A23 at the southern end of Preston Park, you're supposed to realise you need to cross over and then take the signposted route round the houses and eventually to Preston Circus. But there is a bit of old cycle lane left on the corner going up towards Ditchling Rise which - if you spotted it and misguidedly tried to use it - would leave you on the fast-lane side of the one-way traffic heading up towards Beaconsfield Road.

3. A major problem with Lewes Road - especially the notorious Coombe Terrace stretch and the new provision between Elm Grove and the gyratory - is routine parking in the cycle lanes on double-yellow lines. There seems to be zero enforcement of the parking restrictions.

Many people who have taken up cycling in recent years are genuinely scared of being on a busy road.

For them, not being able to use the cycle lanes properly because of parked vehicles is not just an irritation the way it is for me - it is a positive deterrent and must be even more so to those many folk who would like to use a bike but never quite pluck up the courage.

As for the "young outlaws" Adam mentions, they don't impress me.

I can remember the Forties and Fifties when half the police force seemed to be deployed catching cyclists riding without lights and cycling on the pavement, or jumping red lights.

So I can't see much derring-do in doing these things at a time when the constabulary are far too busy.

As long as you don't ride on the seafront, the chances of having to sprint like the late Reg Harris to avoid arrest are about the same as winning the lottery jackpot.

-Ian Bullock, Brighton

Rail ban mars London-Brighton ride - outrageous!

First published in the Argus on Friday 28 May 2004:
Letter: Let councillors ride in death trap cycle lanes

I was interested to see the letters from Dave Duggan and Councillor Craig Turton (Letters, May 21).

Coun Turton assures us that the council is committed to encouraging alternative transport but isn't it time he opened his eyes to the fact the reason people don't use the cycle tracks is that they are death traps?

Any serious cyclist can tell Coun Turton where the most dangerous places to cycle are - the metre of road nearest the kerb has the steepest camber and all the drains.

A pavement full of meandering and inattentive pedestrians with dogs and children running around is obviously not safe to cycle on.

The metre of road next to parked cars has obvious dangers from motorists throwing car doors open and people stepping out between cars.

So where has the council put cycle lanes? The ones in Preston Road are nearest the kerb. The one along the seafront, where Dave Duggan has had accidents in the past, is on a pavement which many people want to use for a quiet stroll.

A few years ago I witnessed an accident in Church Road outside Hove Library, when a motorist flung his door open and knocked a cyclist off. She had been cycling right next to the parked cars, where the cycle lane is now.

The overriding design consideration has obviously been "we can't take too much road away from car drivers can we." But isn't it time the people who design cycle tracks actually gave some serious thought to making them safe for cyclists?

Many of those we have at the present are barely as wide as a pair of handlebars so a large vehicle travelling close to the cycle track is likely to strike the side of any cyclist using it. They have limited signage to warn pedestrians or motorists that they should keep out. There is nothing to stop motorists from parking across them and they seem to start and finish without any consideration as to where cyclists should go next. In fact most of them are far more dangerous than just cycling on the road and dicing with the cars.

So, before Coun Turton and his colleagues on the environment committee spend any more of our money on narrow strips of red tarmac, they should get some bikes and try out some of these death tracks themselves. If they survive the experience, they may be better qualified to pontificate about safety and alternative transport.

-Ian James, Portslade

The Observer: Scandal of our deadly cycle lanes: "The dangerous road layout that has claimed one life in London is now being promoted across the country as a model of good design"