For Alwyn and other junk science sceptics and those who would stand up to the environmentalist bullies, let me commend Matt Ridley's eponymous article in today's Spectator.
(www.spectator.co.uk Unfortunately this goobledegook link business is beyond me)
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click here for spectator
click reply to this message , click the quote button on the lhs of the post button, this will show you the text layout you need ,copy to a spread sheet and modify and copy paste as required
hop this helps Mr Growler
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Growler,
I presume you are a fan of Junkscience.com? Thanks for pointing this article out.
Did you see this one showing Bjorn Lomborg with a custard pie in his face?
www.techcentralstation.com/1051/envirowrapper.jsp?...B
The enviro freaks are getting desperate as more and more people see the gravy train coming off the tracks.
Meanwhile our local council is spending thousands on trying to get their staff to cycle to work to save the planet.
BTW, did you hear of the chap in the Philippines who shot another who criticised his karaoke rendition of "My way"?
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Alwyn, the thousands of millions of pounds that must have been spent on cycle paths that no one uses or no one wants is bordering on criminal misuse. My local council is at present building one, in an area where no one cycles apart from the enthusiasts, because it is too hilly and it rains a lot. When are these people going to realise that most of us drive because we want to drive, not because there are not enough busses or cycle paths?
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Sorry to disagree but I would like more sensible cycle paths.
Before I go any further I would like to point out I am a committed petrol head. At one stage I was running a 2.8 granada, 7.2l Dodge Challenger and rebuilding a herald 13/60. I love big fast cars and driving.
But London especially is choked with cars. I know a lot of people that would cycle for the short trip to get the paper if they thought it was safe.
Yes I cycle to and I would challenge any of you to cycle thru central london, hyde park corner, Cromwell road and other such like and say no mor cycle routes.
I have a close shave most days and one day my cloak of invincibility will fail, please more cycle routes.Tom Shaw wrote:
>
> Alwyn, the thousands of millions of pounds that must have
> been spent on cycle paths that no one uses or no one wants is
> bordering on criminal misuse. My local council is at present
> building one, in an area where no one cycles apart from the
> enthusiasts, because it is too hilly and it rains a lot. When
> are these people going to realise that most of us drive
> because we want to drive, not because there are not enough
> busses or cycle paths?
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Its not a choice between cycle paths and roads. Its both we need and one shouldn't suffer because of the other.
I love motoring but also cycling and preferably the two should be separated.
Cycle paths are also of advantage to the motorist in making less congestion on the road.
The problems on our roads is simple. We pay enormous taxes which is spent not on improving them but on our Presidents latest whim.
Last week he was promising more of my money to some African country shortly before that he was offering to rebuild Afghanistan. bless him.
I can't afford all of that so will need my bike more than ever.
alvin
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Sorry to disagree but I would like more sensible cycle paths.
Before I go any further I would like to point out I am a committed petrol head. At one stage I was running a 2.8 granada, 7.2l Dodge Challenger and rebuilding a herald 13/60. I love big fast cars and driving.
But London especially is choked with cars. I know a lot of people that would cycle for the short trip to get the paper if they thought it was safe.
Yes I cycle to and I would challenge any of you to cycle thru central london, hyde park corner, Cromwell road and other such like and say no mor cycle routes.
I have a close shave most days and one day my cloak of invincibility will fail, please more cycle routes.
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Alwyn:
Oh yes, karaoke/videoke bar shootings are commonplace hereabouts. "My Way" is supposedly the song most generally supposed to trigger them off. Hardly surprising.
But we have to hand it to the Filipinos, they don't mess about, nothing if not macho compared with their wimpish country neighbours. When I was in Japan the S.O.P. for the average "sararyman" blowing off steam was to sing the song then vomit all over the floor.
Tut, need a motoring slant quickly. My neighbour has a videoke machine in his car and sings along to VCD's on the way to work.
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Growler,
Are you ex Military? Or is S.O.P. well known in civilian life?
BobH
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Hello BobH. I'm ex-aviation mainly with a few digressions during a long and mis-spent international career. "SOP" is a well-used phrase in the Philippines, hope I didn't befog anyone elsewhere by using it.
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One problem with planning for cycle paths is that the road lobby is so strong that it's impossible to place them where they are really needed. Councils allow a certain mileage to be built every year, but only where it's cheap, and/or politically acceptable. Hence, crap cycle paths. I'm currently campaigning to have a footpath along a long stretch of rural A-road transformed into a cycle path (only cyclists use it anyway, and they keep getting nicked). Will I succeed? I very much doubt it.
Chris
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Fifty or more years ago the A127 Southend Arterial Road in Essex was built as a dual carriageway with a cycle track either side, separated from the road by a reasonable width verge.
A couple of weeks ago the A130 Chelmsford-Wickford road in Essex was opened without a cycle track.
The fact is that long-distance cycling is in decline, but should not provision still be made?
Maybe the whole thing comes down to penny-pinching. Compared with (say) Holland, our roads are narrow and do not provide separate areas for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. In fact, the cyclists and pedestrians sometimes seem to be used as fodder to reduce vehicle speeds.
How many times a day do you have to stop or slow to let a vehicle through a narrow section, either because of a traffic calming, bus stop, lorry unloading or parked car?. If the system was properly planned in the first place then motorists, cyclists and pedestrians could all proceed at their optimum pace.
Maybe if road planners looked back to the 19410's and 50's they could learn something and set out wider roads with provision for ALL who may use them.
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There was a classic example near me:
A nearly four lane wide road coming in through the outer suburbs narrowed to one and a half lane's width each way, then, just before it narrowed to one tight lane each way, it suddenly bulged out for for a short way.
At that point there was a bus stop, and a pedestrian crossing.
And guess which was in the wide bit, and which where it went down to one narrow lane each way: you guessed it.
And then, no doubt at great expense, they narrowed the wide bit, so that pedestrians wouldn't have so far to walk when using the crossing!
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