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This is an occasional commentary on cycling and unrelated issues - 'blog' if you must - and will be updated from time to time.
Posted 11 July 2008:
I was thinking: Wouldn't it be good if there was a pop equivalent of BBC Radio 3? Since Radio 3 is the only BBC UK radio network without its own DAB spin-off, then how about this - Radio 3 Pop Extra! Basically it would play records in full without talking over them, not use backing music whilst the presenter (or DJ) is speaking, not have a low-brow breakfast show with rubbish wind-ups and the like, no shouting (or even shout-outs for that matter), play pop records from non-English speaking countries, play a mix of old and new, and generally treat the listener as an intelligent human being. I don't mean that this should play records by acts that think of themselves as important or clever such as that band that went onto Radio 4's arts programme only to walk out on it, just happy-goes-lucky proper pop. I'm sure this would be a hit!
Posted 30 May 2008:
I see Jill Ferguson, in her latest Letter from Partick, is attacking cyclists for going through red lights. However, she then goes on to suggest they dismount and wheel their bikes through the red lights instead! Now, as far as I know, there is nothing in traffic law to exempt a pushed bicycle from anything that applies to a ridden bicycle - they are still vehicles in the eyes of the law - so it is equally illegal to push a bike through a red light. The same applies with 'No Vehicles' and 'No Cycles' signs, and indeed I seem to remember that an MP tried to put forward an amendment to exempt cycles parked on cycle parking stands from waiting restrictions on adjacent roads (which ran out of parliamentary time so didn't become law).
And, Jill, what about motorists that go through red lights? Or ignore waiting restrictions, bus gates, speed limits, banned turns, drive onto and park on footways, restrictions on the use of horns, etc, etc?
Posted 27 May 2008:
The Eurovision Song Contest took place at the weekend, with the usual tired old calls of cheating and block voting. But when a proper popstar with a proper pop song is up against someone who once was a runner up in a talent contest, dressed as a holiday camp attendant, of course the proper popstar will win! Since I now have broadband I had the option to watch the contest online, without the witterings of Terry Wogan (or his Radio 2 alter-ego Ken Bruce), and this is what I did. So once I had rebooted the cable modem (and accidentally switched off the power to the computer!) this worked resonably well.
So well done to Dima Bilan, who incidentally is getting a street named after him, for his empassioned winning performance. If Terry Wogan doesn't like the contest any more then there is one simple solution - don't turn up next year, let someone else do it! There are plenty people who do like it, and if it wasn't for his constant sniping maybe this country would put in a really good song, rather than some pleasant enough but ultimately forgettable effort, and sung by someone big enough to have fans in other countries. Sugababes anyone?
Posted 14 May 2008:
I just heard a politician on the radio say that although house repossessions had been rising, they are at a record low. The interviewer never questioned this illogical nonsense. How can they be at a record low if they were lower before? And these people are in government!
Posted 3 May 2008:
What is it with journalists and politicians claiming the 10% (or 10p as they tend to call it) tax band has been scrapped? It hasn't - it has been doubled! If it had been scrapped, and the minimum tax threshold raised to the level of the former 10%/22% treshold, then there wouldn't be a problem with poor people paying more tax. So the politicians have ended up getting a kicking at the polls, even though the local council elections are nothing to do with setting national taxation.
Will the BBC ever report on science without "dumbing it down"? Has it ever occurred to them that most listeners have been through the British education system and in the process been exposed to at least two years of general science with many even going on to get O-Grade/Level or higher qualifications. Some listeners and viewers even have degrees in scientific subjects! But whenever a science story comes up in the news or as a subject for a programme, it is reported in such a simplistic way that anyone who is actually interested in the subject ends up getting little or no information out of it. Hoorah for Radiofax!
Posted 24 April 2008:
So the train fares are being simplified. From what I can gather, the Open tickets are to be replaced with Anytime tickets, the Saver tickets with Off-peak tickets, and the Apex tickets with Advance tickets. What could be simpler? Wait a minute - isn't that just a rebranding? And yes, the other day the local paper did scream "SHOCK TRAIN FARE HIKE" about the local train fares going up in May (as they usually do). I have been doing this page for a year now!
Also today I hear that MPs are getting upset about people complaining that they employ their partners and children as secretaries and researchers. I don't doubt that many are hard workers, although we know that some have been found to be just working the system, but what other job can you get without filling in an application, attending an interview, and competing with other well-qualified candidates, all funded by the tax-payer? And do these "employees" have periodic appraisals, and have to prove their worth? Anyone else wanting public money has to jump through all the appropriate hoops to get at it, such as psychometric testing or a competitive tendering process. Why should it be any different for them?
Posted 15 April 2008:
Today I waited for a bus outside Central Station. However, a lorry driver decided to park illegally outside a shop (and not in the loading bay nearby), which combined with the illegally parked lorry on the opposite side of the road, totally blocked the road for large vehicles, including the coach which turned into Gordon Street shortly behind the lorry. My bus then came along, and had to sit behind the coach, blocking the junction with Renfield Street. After a few minutes, the other lorry finished its deliveries and drove off, allowing the coach driver to try and get past the lorry in front of it. However, it parked up with its tail sticking out, preventing the bus from getting past. Eventually when some taxis had got out of the way, the bus driver managed to get around the coach and to a position near the bus stop.
During the time that the lorries were blocking the road, two traffic wardens walked past and did nothing. So much for my Council Tax funding the employment of these traffic wardens.
Posted 31 March 2008:
Trouble at the T5 Airport? Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!!!!!
Posted 29 March 2008:
What muppet invented the car-alarm? This morning I was rudely awoken by such a device. After it had been going off repeatedly for about 10 minutes I looked out my window and was there anyone breaking into it? No. Was the owner dealing with the problem? No. Ban them!
Posted 15 March 2008:
The supermarket had a product demonstration today. "Come and see the world's sharpest knife in action". In Glasgow. How ironic!
I never thought I'd see the day when newspapers were shrink-wrapped. However, the person in front of me in the checkout queue had a copy of The Daily Mail and it was indeed wrapped in clear plastic. What makes the situation even more dire is this Mail reader then needed to take a plastic carrier bag to put the thing in, and indeed struggled to get it in the bag since the paper didn't come ready-folded!
Posted 8 March 2008:
What are people like? Today I was overtaken on the approach to a roundabout by a motorist turning left at that roundabout. The car didn't even draw clear of my front wheel, so I was nearly squashed as the car made the left turn. The motorist then stopped to argue, claiming she hadn't seen me (why then did she not hit me in the rear rather than overtaking me on the outside?) and was most rude, refusing to accept she was in the wrong.
The situation above is bad enough, but the road surface at that roundabout includes a strip of block-paving across the entrance to the left turn, edged by kerbs with vertical up-stand, making it an extra hazard for cyclists.
Posted 18 January 2008:
This week has been an unusual one. Last weekend I travelled to London for the Russian Winter Festival, at which Fabrika were playing. After the concert I even got to speak (briefly) to Ira and Sasha from the band. However, during the course of the week there have been a number of strange coincidences and occurrences.
Posted 29 December 2007:
Why were all the Post Offices shut on Monday 24th? I had an unusual-sized letter to post and went to both a local and a main Post Office but they were both shut. I had to apply for a day's Annual Leave to be off work that day, but the Post Office treated it as a public holiday. And wouldn't it be good if Royal Mail had a flat-rate tariff instead of an increasingly complicated scale of weights and measures? Then I wouldn't need to go to the Post Office in the first place. How about if it fits through the slot in a post box then it costs X to post, otherwise its a parcel? Privatise the lot of them!
I went on my first long-distance train journey in a while recently. I had booked in advance and bought a reserved seat but no-one had bothered to put the seat reservation labels out on the seats. So it is as well I arrived early, unlike one young family who arrived at the last minute (as they are entitled to) and didn't get their reserved seats - one of them ended up sat on the floor for the first hour of the journey - and there were various minor arguments between other passengers over who should sit where. At least the destination screen was working (unlike on my connecting train into the city centre where the screens were blank) but the audible automated announcements consistantly omitted one station - Forres - from the stopping list, even though it was shown on the screens. I hope the blind passenger on board wasn't going there!
The return journey was worse. On arrival (again in good time) at Inverness station, the passengers for the train south were being kept on the concourse, while some woman shouted at us about a train that no-one else wanted to board. At ten minutes before the booked departure time, when the Edinburgh train finally made it onto the nearly unreadable departure board, she started letting us through the barrier and inspecting tickets, so we could form another queue to board the train. At six minutes to go, she gave up inspecting tickets and let anyone join the queue. At three minutes to go, we were allowed to board the train. The train left 5½ minutes late once the passengers had scrambled aboard. Two of the five coaches had been sitting in the station for longer than I was there. Why weren't at least some people allowed to board them? Megabus doesn't treat you like that! The connecting Glasgow train at Perth wasn't even shown on the departure screens. The next train was showing as in an hour's time.
Posted 17 November 2007:
Today, once I'd negotiated the motorist double-parked on the immediate approach to a roundabout, I stopped at a Zebra Crossing to let a pedestrian cross. However, the pedestrian waved me across and said "Go on". Unremarkable at first reading, but then consider that this pedestrian was walking from a car park and was probably a motorist who'd parked there. Now reverse the scenario and put the motorist in a car approaching a Zebra Crossing, with me walking up to cross the crossing. Did she have a scoobie about the rules of a Zebra Crossing? Would she stop?
Posted 15 November 2007:
What is it with shops and plastic bags? After years of trying to avoid the supermarket bag-packers who will gleefully pack your shopping into twice as many bags as it really needs, I've now been doing my weekly shop using my cycle panniers, requiring one extra bag which then gets used as next week's bin bag. At least I've got the excuse that eight carrier bags won't fit on my bike. However, I've not been so lucky with city centre shops. One popular lunchtime sandwich shop insists you take a bag - even for one item - and will not allow you to have your purchase without putting it in a bag. I have taken my sandwiches (still in their plastic container) out of the bag and left the bag on the counter, but it hardly inspires me to use the shop in future.
Another shop is staffed by people who, almost as a matter of course, ask "are you sure?" when I state that I don't want a bag (again for one or two already adequately packaged items). Of course I'm sure, I wouldn't have said so otherwise! You would think I was costing them money by not taking a bag but actually it is the reverse.
Posted 5 October 2007:
Another trip to the Cowcaddens cycle route junction. Well, the road has reopened, with just a small section remaining barriered off. So why did it take this long? Who knows! The roadway is now covered in cobbles, two of the three cycle tracks have slippery paving slabs, one cycle track has been tarred. Two cycle parking stands have replaced the single stand outside the underground station, but the new ones are bolted to the ground, so are not secure for an unsupervised location. No signs as yet, and since the main cycle route (the Colleges Cycle Route) turns at the junction, it is important that cyclists are advised of the turning. Only the segregated use signs above the underpasses advise anyone that there are cycle routes.
Posted 13 September 2007:
I went to have a look at the Cowcaddens cycle route junction today. I found when I arrived that Dundasvale Road at that point has been COBBLED, with small modern trendy cobbles, including a sharp cobbled ramp up from the ordinary road surface. The cycle route to New City Road (that is on a slope and has been paved with slippery paving slabs) now has several skid marks evident. The cycle track alongside Garscube Road that has been tarred now has a 30° chicane in it at the point where it joins Dundasvale Road. Still not finished though.
I then wondered round to view another cycle route project nearby, this one at Craighall Road. This is basically the provision of a shared cycle/footway linking the Craighall Road to Sighthill Park path to the Dobbies Loan/Milton Street junction, and consists of Toucan Crossings across a couple of motorway sliproads where previously there were no formal crossing facilities, plus resurfacing (in tarmac, not cobbles!). However, there is no sign of any Toucan Crossings up at the canal bridge or at the Milton Street junction, which there would need to be for the scheme to make any sense, since it links the canal path to Milton Street and thence onward to join the Colleges Cycle Route at Port Dundas Road. Another oddity is that the Toucan Crossings of the motorway off-ramp (which obviously is one-way) do not automatically change to Green Man/Green Cycle when the road lights are at red. Instead, they will only change if you have pressed the button, which means you have to wait. So people will end up taking chances when they see the Red Man and cross if the traffic is stationary, not knowing whether it is about to start moving or will remain static for a while. There are also no Shared Cycle/Pedestrian Use signs, and I've not seen any Traffic Order up for consultation, for this footway conversion, which will be needed before cyclists can legally use it. Yet the Toucan Crossings above are already installed and working giving the impression that it is legal to cycle there!
Posted 29 July 2007:
Why is it that Tesco has its cycle parking in the smoking (taxi waiting) area? Surely the bosses there can equate cycling with healthy living, and hence the likelihood of not smoking!
Posted 27 July 2007:
An update on the Cowcaddens situation. The work appears to have halted, but the cycle track alongside Garscube Road has been completed with a smooth tarred surface, edged with flush kerbs separating from concrete paving, but the cycle track up from the underpass from New City Road has got concrete paving slabs which will be slippery when wet, especially as it is on a slope. Why not do both cycle tracks in the same surface?
The main section of Dundasvale Road at this junction is still fenced off with contractor's temporary fencing. I'm told that this section of road will be raised to kerb level, so there will be no need for dropped kerbs at the cycle route junctions. I'll believe it when I see it, and since there's been little or no activity within this area for a couple of weeks now, I might even take a guess that the contractor has quit.
Posted 14 July 2007:
What is it with Tesco that it keeps discontinuing items I buy? Now even the bread I buy has disappeared! Why should I buy cardboard white bread or bread so large it doesn't fit in my toaster?
On the way home I was cut up by a motorist driving a car... with a bike-carrying rack on the back.
Posted 24 May 2007:
Why is it that when someone does something they claim will improve the lot of cyclists, they end up making such a mess of the job that it actually achieves the opposite? Take the current Cowcaddens tarting up as an example. A repaving project is going on in the Cowcaddens area of Glasgow to brighten up the area outside some underpasses. However, high kerbs have been installed across two cycle routes, with no dropped kerbs, and slippery posh paving slabs are being installed on a ramp down to one of the underpasses. All this on one of the council's flagship cycle routes.
Why are people who don't cycle and who don't even know where cycle routes go employed to design schemes around such cycle routes? I will be keeping a sharp eye on the remainder of the scheme in case they block another arm of the cycle route junction with kerbs. Perhaps they'll install cobbles or something.
Posted 16 May 2007:
I think it is excellent how the new and prospective members of the European Union are embracing European traditions such as the Eurovision Song Contest so enthusiasticly. So why is it that so many western commentators are so critical of the eastern countries seemingly voting for each other? If Britain didn't treat the competition as a joke and actually entered a decent song, sung by someone interested in doing well, we might have a better chance. Instead we send Terry Wogan and his tired old jokes along with a group of no-hopers to fill the slot, and they return with nothing to their credit.
As for Serbia winning, it can't be because everyone likes Serbia outside of the contest. It wasn't that long ago that several of the other competitors were at war with Serbia, and only last year that Montenegro split up with Serbia, including a row than lead to Serbia & Montenegro withdrawing from the contest.
On the radio commentary, why is it that they play records instead of following the voting? Surely the voting is half of the excitement. And if Ken Bruce doesn't enjoy the competition any more why doesn't he let someone younger go? I'm sure someone like JK and Joel would find it an experience - Radio 1's Showbiz reporter (sorry I forget her name) certainly did - and would provide the listening public with a much better commentary that Wogan-sound-a-like Bruce, who wants to rebuild the Berlin Wall!
Posted 18 April 2007:
"SHOCK TRAIN FARE HIKE" Eh? The local train fares usually go up in May, and they've been going up at RPI+1% since the government changed it from RPI-1% some years ago. So no shock whatsoever.
Posted 9 April 2007:
What is it with the tabloid comics that whenever there is engineering work on the railways then they scream out "CHAOS ON THE TRAINS"? The engineering work this past weekend has been planned for months, has gone smoothly, buses have run as booked, and there has been no chaos. There is a need for the papers to inform their readers, but instead they choose to print alarmist nonsense. Don't buy them - that's my suggestion! Now, if only Google News Alerts had a 'No Tabloids' tick-box option.
Posted 5 April 2007:
I can't wait until the oil runs out. Neither, seemingly, can some motorists, who sit reading their papers parked, maybe on the footway, without any care in the world, with their engines running. The sooner we are rid of this menace the better! The council, meanwhile, has made a bylaw forbidding idling engines, happily accepting some environmental award or other, but does not actually go around fining motorists, even those that leave their engines idling around the corner from the City Chambers.
But is that a surprise when the same council happily lets motorists drive or even park in bus lanes, without taking any action? What is the point in making all these rules when there is no intention of enforcing them? Is it just a ploy to get money from the Scottish Executive's various public transport funds to spend on roads, the same money that wasn't spent providing Advance Stop Lines for Cyclists?
Posted 2 April 2007:
Driving to the recycling bins is never going to impress me but one such motoring self-delusionist had me speechless at the weekend. After emptying the newspapers from my panniers I held the lid of the recycling bin open for this person to deposit their... expanded polystyrene. EXPANDED POLYSTYRENE?!? Since when has expanded polystyrene been welcome in a paper recycling bin?
Is expanded polystyrene not made of oil, not trees? Why save up your expanded polystyrene, take it out to your car, drive with it to the recycling bins and put it in there when you could have simply dropped it into your dustbin outside your back door? What are these people like? Does the Council really need to start running courses to teach these people how to get through life? Will putting expanded polystyrene into the paper recycling bin save the environment? NO, IT WILL NOT!!! Get a grip!
And don't get me started on the people who put empty cardboard boxes out for the bulk refuse collection.
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