Cycle campaigning

Appears the twitter campaigning crowd are not impressed by the Sustrans virtual bike race, http://bigpedal.org.uk/

https://twitter.com/AlternativeDfT/status/433285282008272896

I think theyre saying that money should only be spent on infrastructure or lobbying for infrastructure instead of promotion.*

Interesting(ish) discussion. Lots of tangents.

• I think this possibly misses the point that the supporting funder probably isn't looking to fund infra or lobbying in this case, so no promotional event potentially = lost funding.
  
  

Anyone here got any thoughts on this?

more central grid consultation thoughts here:

http://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/the-central-london-grid/

closes tomorrow..

Appears the twitter campaigning crowd are not impressed by the Sustrans virtual bike race, http://bigpedal.org.uk/

https://twitter.com/AlternativeDfT/status/433285282008272896

I think theyre saying that money should only be spent on infrastructure or lobbying for infrastructure instead of promotion.*

Interesting(ish) discussion. Lots of tangents.

• I think this possibly misses the point that the supporting funder probably isn't looking to fund infra or lobbying in this case, so no promotional event potentially = lost funding.
  
  

Anyone here got any thoughts on this?

Give us some proof the twitter campaign ing crowd do more than blog and tweet. And ill agree they are a worthwhile contribution. Getting tired of sniping. Whingeing.show me your evidence of your culture change I have plenty of mine in last 9 years to show

Correct me if im wrong but schicksie and co were doing this years ago. Way before current crop of cybernauts

I dunno J, I really wish there was a simple way to convert the reams of negativity into a positive message. Thankfully twitter seems to be a relatively small & self contained discussion group. For now at least.

My evidence of culture change? Most recently 10%+ (36/~330) riders at a regional bmx race event arrived via my work programme. Might be sport not utility, but it's also them and their families engaging with cycling, who will therefore be more sympathetic to other forms of cycling now and in the future.

you've only ruddy well gone and upset the twitter campaign ing crowd.

https://twitter.com/voleospeed/status/434046421495709696

Blimey. Am left wondering what non-offensive collective noun I should use for a group of people who tweet cycle campaigning stuff that I may or may not agree with.

Twitter (and click through the odd blog post) is the only place I encounter these people in the main, and will remain so until we get more hours in the day.

I don't think there's owt unreasonable in that? Or am I expected to make an all or nothing commitment to following campaigning beyond twitter?

i like the way they make themselves feel better about themselves by pissing on this place. one issue forum. pfff, do they even memes thread?

They seem upset :(

Give us some proof the twitter campaign ing crowd do more than blog and tweet. And ill agree they are a worthwhile contribution. Getting tired of sniping. Whingeing.show me your evidence of your culture change I have plenty of mine in last 9 years to show

well, i know for a fact that several members of the 'twitter campaigning crowd' were absolutely instrumental in making the 'love london, go dutch' initiative happen, in making the various protest rides happen, in making the 'mayor's vision' policy shift (and associated increased funding) happen.

of course, you may disapprove of all these...

I think you may find quite a few of us are not pro segregation, and would rather the source of the problem was tackled instead. This can be done by better enforcement of traffic laws, speed limit reduction etc.

The loud emotive shouts of Danger Danger do not help encourage people to take up cycling.

i.e. actually cracking down on mobile drivers, especially with smartphone driving.

I think you may find quite a few of us are not pro segregation, and would rather the source of the problem was tackled instead. This can be done by better enforcement of traffic laws, speed limit reduction etc.

The loud emotive shouts of Danger Danger do not help encourage people to take up cycling.

sure, enforcement of traffic laws, and speed reduction, great - but eventually you run up against the laws of physics, and the limits of human attention.

assuming some driving errors, and collisions, will always happen (because no-one's perfect), even when you've reduced speeds to 20mph or so, kinetic energy is mv2, and, while you've got buses, coaches, delivery vehicles on the streets, you're going to have enough mass and energy in those collisions to kill an unprotected cyclist. so unless you want to shrink those buses down to bike size, you're going to need protected space on those roads if you want them usable safely by everyone who wants to ride a bike...

as for the shouts of 'danger, danger', one could argue that they're much less off-putting than the feeling of danger danger the first time a large vehicle cuts someone up, or passes too close...

[citation needed]

Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage" (Hi Res) - YouTube

^ SClENCE FACT!!!

That's Dancing James ^^
#dangerdanger

^^subjective fact!!

Give us some proof the twitter campaign ing crowd do more than blog and tweet. And ill agree they are a worthwhile contribution. Getting tired of sniping. Whingeing.show me your evidence of your culture change I have plenty of mine in last 9 years to show

Some of the twit-campaigners make some decent points and write occasionally insightful blogs, some are open and understand the value of many measures to get more people cycling, others seem to be INFRA only everything else being a waste of money.

One major issue I have with some of these people is the sniping and personal attacks of fellow cycling advocates rather than working together to campaign for lots of measures. (someone even made a cruel personal attack about my hairstyle!)

Another thing that bothers me is the constant dangerisation of the roads by some of them which will clearly put off non cyclist. Its as if those people are really anti-cycling

thx for the affirmation.
people like Charlie LCC whoved been riders for years, and leaders for years are doing the quality work, thats all Im saying,
are you in it for the longhaul ?

(someone even made a cruel personal attack about my hairstyle!)

I don't understand that, your hairstyle's top-knotch.

hair today gone tommorrow

In other news, http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/space4cycling-to-become-national-campaign-thanks-to-industry-support/016027 might be something to celebrate for some?

In other news, http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/space4cycling-to-become-national-campaign-thanks-to-industry-support/016027 might be something to celebrate for some?

...but not everyone:

https://twitter.com/carltonreid/status/434424769728245762

Who has been griping, is it the usual kerb nerds?

I didn't go looking, although did spot the @alternativedft sniping about the ctc's funding per head target, sparking a comment from Carlton about their seeming constant negativity.