What will ‘Get Britain Cycling’? Can history teach us anything?
Presumed liability won’t Get Britain Cycling. Cycle training won’t Get Britain Cycling. Separated cycle tracks won’t Get Britain Cycling. Subjective safety won’t Get Britain Cycling. Health messages...
View Article“The remarkable manner in which new roads create new traffic”: a history of...
Sir Charles Bressey, 1937: “remarkable manner in which new roads create new traffic.” Transport academics tend to credit the discovery of ‘induced demand in transport’ to J.J. Leeming, a British...
View ArticleWhen CTC championed separation, 1975
All Change to Bikes, 1975 – click to enlargeThe oil crisis of 1973 sent shockwaves around the world. Use of cars dropped; use of bicycles rose. Bicycle sales almost doubled, with adult bicycles being...
View Article“Bother your biking crew, I’m half crazy, all for the sheer dread of you”
It’s 1893. Road locomotives, such as the newfangled motorcar, cannot be practically driven on the queen’s highway (they’re not street legal for another three years). The fastest thing on the roads is...
View ArticleJoin Motorholics Anonymous
Do you have an addiction to petrol? We’re here to help. Join Motorholics Anonymous. Our famous and long-established twelve-step program is a proven course of action for recovery from addiction,...
View ArticlePunishment pass, 1869
I’m currently putting the finishing touches to the chapter about the road rights of pedestrians, equestrians, cyclists, and motorists. The right to “pass and repass” on Britain’s highways is ancient...
View Article“Some motorists think roads belong to them – we need to change that,” says...
Earlier today I handed over a copy of my book to the UK’s minister for roads, Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough – and he was on-message straight away as you can see from the quote...
View ArticleJudge: “The motor-car should in law be regarded as a wild beast”
“A far higher standard of care should be demanded of the motorist by reason of his having brought upon the public roads a lethal instrument of great mobility and power,” a famous judge didn’t say in...
View ArticleThe Human Hen
“If a fast motor-car sees a man, woman, or child, a nursemaid with a perambulator, a dog, or a hen in its path, it makes a loud, rude, and alarming noise to tell the man, woman, child, nursemaid, dog,...
View ArticleDriving on pavements is illegal but parking on them isn’t, confirms Britain’s...
Five years after the taking of this famous photograph of a car parked on the pavement (sorry about those blokes blocking the view of the VW Beetle) it was made an offence for motorists for park on...
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