In so many ways…

…this is wrong.

From the 2020 vision blog. By the way, the UKIP is the ‘United Kingdom Independence Party’:

The local Cambridge Cycling Campaign sent out a questionnaire to the local election candidates asking about their views on a selection of key cycle infrastructure/culture issues. Many did not bother to reply, of those that did, most were ‘political answers’, but the UKIP’s Peter Burkinshaw sums up White Van Man culture of the UK;

Q. Do you have any other general cycling-related comments or points?

A. “Provision for cyclists is already adequate. Please remember that motorists are the people who pay to use the roads whereas cyclists are “freeloaders”. They are entitled to use the roads but not disproportionately”.

“If everyone cycled, as you suggest, there would be no roads to ride on”.

Wow. Narrow, patronising, and based on complete twaddle from the frst sentence.

If motorists had to deal with roads that suddenly became narrower, went via a roundabout route, avoided where you wanted to go, were dangerous to use, or  just stopped for no apparent reason, they would hardly call those “adequate”.

Motorists in the UK pay Vehicle Excise Duty, not road tax: The revenues go into the general government budget and are used as the government sees fit: roads are paid for out of the general public purse, which is funded by all taxes. So much for freeloading.

What is ‘disproportionate’ use of roads? Speeding? Congestion?

If everyone cycled, roads would last longer, be cleaner and more open and those who need to drive like emergency vehicles would be able to get where they need to go faster.

And I haven’t even started on indirect and healthcare costs.

So I made it up…

Yep, I’m afraid that the post I put up yesterday was an April Fools joke. Sadly, Ostfildern isn’t planning to invest in cycling in the future, even though most of the measures described are already being used within about 10 kilometres of here. Obviously my piece was a bit subtle- the local paper was less so, having a front page headline about the Mayor resigning over daylight savings time.

But if I’d posted the real news you wouldn’t have believed it either: Stuttgart and Ostfildern plan to build a new €200m bypass underground with junctions serving various villages and smashing their way through several nature reserves. The paper reporting this said that the Green Party were against this because it “May generate more traffic”. I think they “May” be right there.

But that’s Ostfildern: never mind that our dependency on oil is killing people and sending us headlong into serious economic trouble when the stuff runs out, and never mind that the rest of Germany is waking up to the idea that we can’t keep building more rat runs:, or that the  Neckar valley has the worst air quality in Germany (Way over the EU pollution limit) mostly because of motor vehicles. Here in Ostfildern we’re going to need more roads, roads, roads, for our fast cars and trucks.

What a depressing thought. The next post will be a bit lighter, I promise.

That was Spring.

Picnic time.

Last weekend was warm enough to go out without a coat, so we had a with a picnic with friends outside of the village to celebrate Spring arriving. The Xtracycle brought Daddy, Middle Son, Middle son’s bike (we were a bit late and had to hurry) and some drinks, and these were joined by olives and nice cheese, German bread, and other niceness prepared by Beautiful Wife. The boys were torn between hunger and wanting to play and eventually the chance to splash about in the stream was too much so they made a good effort at flooding the surrounding countryside with a dam of sticks, stones and leaves while the Grown-ups talked, and came over to help move big stones and logs that were too heavy. In the end we all ended up playing.

Last week I was able to ride without gloves on dry roads, enjoy the sunshine and the silence you get when you aren’t splashing through puddles for the first time in about two weeks. The birds were singing, the buds came out on the trees and the promise of spring, in all its glory, hung in the air.

Last night it snowed. At the time of writing it’s late afternoon, and it’s been snowing all day, except when it’s been raining.

Humbug.

Thunk, thunk…

Yesterday I went out on a couple of errands. No big deal, probably less then a couple of K’s. Suddenly I was hearing this “Thunk… thunk” sound coming from under the Xtracycle: quiet but persistent, the sort of thing that could mean nothing or could be the prelude to the wheel dropping off. At the next stop I did a quick check of the back end. I guessed part of the Xtracycle was getting get friendly with the wheel, or the brake was catching, but the Xtra was miles away from the wheel and turning the wheel slowly didn’t bring anything odd. I turned the pedals: nothing.

I got back on, rode uphill to the main road, down into the traffic, and suddenly there it was again. At speed it sounded louder and harsher, but only when I coasted: pedaling stopped it. Something on the freewheel then.

Now I had a choice: do it myself or go to the shop? I need the bike next week, and I’ll need to organise workshop time to fix it myself, which probably won’t work until Tuesday at the earliest. I decided I need to be riding, not fixing, and took it to the shop. I’ll pick it up on Monday.

Well, it was raining all day today anyway.