Consultation Exercise

For reasons that really make no sense (I had what counts as an afternoon off for me, I didn’t fancy working out the buses) yesterday saw me doing a 41-mile round trip ride to Notso Bigtown for a consultation about short active travel links.

I had one serious reason – Notso Bigtown has recently had a loud and slightly incoherent one-man campaign against plans to slightly tweak a roundabout to make it more cycle friendly, which started with the assertion that ‘signs and lines’ were all that was needed for cycle safety, veered into the alarmist (the war memorial was going to have to be moved!*) and ultimately involved the CEO of the coonsil being dragged into the resulting stushie. So I wanted to show a bit of support for the latest plans.

I do realise that heroic 40+ mile journeys in the interest of encouraging shorter trips impress nobody and are possibly even counterproductive if they reinforce the whole ‘eccentric cyclist’ stereotype. But you know, it was a nice enough day (adjusted for our current Jun-uary weather – I gather the North Atlantic drift has buckled and dragged cold polar air our way and all I can say is will someone please straighten it out again).

And the roads out that way are some of my favourites.

Once there, I had some good conversations, and it was worth it just for that. And, of course, I had to stop and refuel before I rode home.

I’m not going to lie, the ride back was a bit less pleasant, not least because of my current saddle issues, which in turn have meant I’ve got fewer miles in my legs than I normally would at this time of year. Indeed this was my first Eddington ride since September, and my undercarriage had some pointed remarks to make about it once I got off the bike.

I have a plan for that though …

Ooh… pic.twitter.com/2oftZWckeY

— Sally Hinchcliffe (@sallyhinch) June 12, 2024

* never mind the fact that it seems fairly disrespectful to have marooned your war memorial in the middle of a roundabout in the name of traffic flow in the first place, but what do I know?