General questions/observations/discussion

Cycling England is on the list of bodies to be abolished
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8021780/Quango-cuts-full-list-of-bodies-under-review.html

Cycling England is on the list of bodies to be abolished
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8021780/Quango-cuts-full-list-of-bodies-under-review.html

Seems likely it'll get absorbed into this new "Local Sustainable Transport Fund":

http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/415581

Cycling England is on the list of bodies to be abolished
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8021780/Quango-cuts-full-list-of-bodies-under-review.html

While cycling england may go many of its main projects (Bikeability, Cycling development towns) should remain.

Philip darnton the chair of CE and others have been working to ensure that these projects survive the cuts. Bikeability will still be funded for a few more years. Not sure yet about the instructor training bursary so if you are considering training as an instructor book onto a course before the fuinding ends

While cycling england may go many of its main projects (Bikeability, Cycling development towns) should remain.

"Bikeability is safe "says Norman baker Transport Minister as reorted in bikeBiz

Norman Baker told a meeting this morning that Bikeability is safe but he wouldn't say same for Cycling England

                                            Transport minister  Norman Baker has pledged that Bikeability, the cycle training scheme  delivered by Cycling England, CTC and other bodies, would not be thrown  in the flames in the forthcoming '[bonfire of the quangos'.](http://www.bikebiz.com/news/32912/Cycling-England-among-public-bodies-to-be-abolished-says-Telegraph)

He made the pledge before an audience of bike trade figures and train executives at the official opening of CyclePoint in Leeds. This is a bike parking unit at the front of Leeds station. It has space for 300 bikes, stored for £1 a day.

The Leeds CyclePoint is operated by Evans Cycles via £500,000 funding from the Department of Transport working with Network Rail and Abellio of the Netherlands, co-owner of Northern Rail.

The official opening was carried out by Baker; Anton Volk, CEO of Abellio; and
Pim Waldeck, the Dutch ambassador in the UK.

cracks me up how one comment made by Peter Lipman of Sustrans which blatantly nicked the title of Tom Wolfes ace novel has made it all over the media.....
any road up, long live Bikeability, (they made enough badges so we better use em now)

bikeability is even safer in London

From the Mayors Question time
"Question No: 2597 / 2010
Valerie Shawcross

  A cyclist asks me to ask you  'What plans does the Mayor have to fund Cycle Training in the Capital if the Governments spending review cuts the funding for Bikeability and Cycling England?  '

Answer from the Mayor
"Cycle training is delivered by the London boroughs and is funded by TfL through the Local Implementation Plan (LIP) process. The decision on whether to provide cycle training lies with the individual borough.

Cycle training is supported in my Transport Strategy. If funding is cut for Cycling England, TfL will continue to work with the Department for Transport to maintain the Bikeability National Standards for cycle training in London."

good news for London, fingers crossed that Ham face prioritises well for the rest of U.K, but I doubt it, latest I hear is the push ahead for high speed rail. Without sorting out the rest of the network and actually looking at sustainability- it just becomes a political game,
anyway,
back to training,
<<<<<<<<

In the pub last night chatting..... bloke at the bar saw me arrive with helmet and SPuD's, got talking and he was saying how he expierences wildly fluctuating levels of self-confidence as a cyclist on the streets of our faire city.

From being very comfortable with the whole 'primary postion' thing, to the kerb-hugging problem....it only taking one near miss, and he goes from primary to kerb faster than a fruit-fly.

Interested to know what advice other experienced cyclists/instructors would have given him... (btw he's booked some cycle training through his LA for a couple of weeks time).... over to the experts:

He sounds self aware enough to have engaged in this conversation with you bagheera. and he has arranged cycle training so he is addressing the issue of his percieved problem of confidence. i think that road confidnce does fluctuate and is affected by many factors such as stress, depression, fatigue and negative on road experience.

Once a person understands intellectually how traffic streams and how to move in (and out) of them, once a persons riding skills are practiced and instinctive and they understand how and when to communicate from a bike, moments of insecurity and lack of confidence will affect riding less.

Not a silly question Tiswas

Check out here for some ideas

This thread perhaps?
http://www.lfgss.com/thread43905.html

or pm me with their email/mob if they live/work in london and I'll arrange it.

Drilling Junction Turns 1 today in north London. As one trainee waited at the side road, in advance of the give way line - in a great position to see the traffic, but not blocking it - patiently waiting as a cyclist looks to be passing her on the major road when...

BANG he does an emergency stop just short of the side road and starts shouting the odds about how we are teaching the wrong thing to our trainees, as he claims it is illegal to go further out than the give way line. I attempted to get him to pull over and let the trainee complete the drill, so that we could discuss this, but he continued sounding off in the road, blocking my trainee. He even tried to take a photo of the approx. 10-year-old trainee. This I prevented, but allowed him the photograph the bike's position and he wanted to show the police. I gave him my name and encouraged him to contact my provider with any complaint or suggestions for how we could improve training techniques. It took four or five long minutes to get him gone.

When the group had finished the drill we did feedback and debriefed this interruption. All the trainees insisted that they needed to get forward to see what was on the major road. Great! One pointed out that if it was against the law to advance beyond the give way line, you would be unable to complete any journey.

My guess is that this guy was not fully focused on what was ahead of him, got sucked into the side road a little and slammed on the brakes. The anger must have come from his embarrassment and looking like a nervous rider in front of a group of kids. He was dressed all in black, on a black mono-geared bike and looked fairly sensible.

Hear ya^

doing a lot of L2 again at the moment, we had a maniac accelerate towards a trainee only to brake sharply again, then boot it off giving me the finger after I had shouted at him to slow down.

does anyone else find most school office receptionists really annoying? they think they know everything and know jack all.
Im setting up for this afternoon, and checking Ive got a good space to do L1 stuff,
(being careful its sportsday) so, ask her and get the ' dunno' response, so I have to explain we need a good space for uniterupted training, she puts me onto the head- as the teacher who orgainsied it is away, the head, a right middle class twat if there ever was one gives me 'dunno', so I just tell them I will turn up early and ensure we can have the space. This head is keen to get his face in photos with kids on bikes, but he hasnt moved a finger to promote cycling, and its taken them 2 years to even let kids 10+ ride in independently,
pisses me right off.

I am surprised at the number of schools promoting 'healthy eating and healthy lifestyles' where the staff do not, shall we say, lead by example. To say nothing of how untidy the staff rooms can be. No wonder they don't let the pupils set foot in them.

...to say nothing of the fumes of ciggarette smoke that pervade from just by the back gate of the school where the teachers go for a 'breather'

Because many teachers are those "perpetual student" types who have a problem with tidyness.

Own up, who was the cycle trainer who sat in reception in the wrong west London primary school yesterday?

not me,
follow up to that post above
we had 12 names on the sheet,
guess how many we actually trained?
6

ah, I thought it was next week, ah I forgot my bike, ah, my mum didnt sign the sheet, ffs.

office staff clueless on getting the groups sorted.
going back now to do first street lesson.
happy days

J - spot of moonlighting eh?

nope-funder requested it.

ah, funders. they're like unicorn poop these days so worth keeping them sweet.

Chief Inspector Ian Vincent of the cycle Safety Squad is keen to hear reports about aggressive drivers. These can be sent via this website:
http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/

Maybe it's a silly question but can you do cycle training riding a brakeless?

What was going on at Ealing Common tonight - saw a cycle training flag thingie at the entrance to the park.