BicycleBen 🚲🚶♂️🛴🇪🇺 @BicycleBen@mastodon.online
- 🌍 Website and Blog
- https://fiets.uk
- 🌳 Linktree
- https://linktr.ee/bicycleben
- Location
- Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK
Daily life by cycle despite a bad knee. Riding for fun, fitness, climate. Demanding 🇳🇱 #cycling infrastructure in #Nuneaton, #Coventry, #Warwickshire, and the wider UK.
Predominantly (but not exclusively) focused on #ActiveTravel and public transport to reduce car dependency and general #Sustainability.
May also cover #environment, #UKPolitics, #technology, #photography, #science, #space, #AmateurRadio, and other odds & ends that pop into my head!
Here from the Other Place (@BicycleBenUK)
Joined Apr 2022
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Right then - I am jumping on the #podcast bandwagon with the soft launch of The Fiets Podcast - my everyday #cycling and #ActiveTravel advocacy with a local focus on Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the West Midlands but also the wider UK.
Available on #Podbean, #Spotify, manual subscription, and coming soon to other podcast services.
Pinned post
When it's cold, the pollution from vehicle exhaust can be really obvious. Yet it's always there. Driving to school contributes to a toxic, dangerous environment. It shouldn't be like this:
Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council has put out a statement asking people to choose alternatives to the car in the upcoming #Sanctuary event on Saturday - but without enabling alternatives in the first place, asking people to use them is next to meaningless!
https://www.fiets.uk/2022-05-25/lack-of-cycle-routes-bites-bedworth/
(Another article on the same day as a podcast? This is very unlike me!)
I forgot my cycle anniversary this year! Three days ago marked five years since the start of my #cycling journey, something that was meant to only get me out of the house and maybe a bit fitter, but which has become so much more than that with the advocacy stuff!
Not wanting to keep new subscribers waiting too long, I've recorded and released the next edition of the Fiets Podcast. This time, talking about the award of money from Active Travel England to Warwickshire County Council for improvements in the south of the county, and thoughts on the Nuneaton-Bedworth-Coventry scheme.
Fill your ears at https://fiets.uk/podcast - don't forget to subscribe and share!
#Sanctuary is a mistake - burning a huge, intricate, wooden memorial to the victims of #COVID19, a respiratory condition made worse by poor air quality, while we're in a #ClimateEmergency and environmental breakdown.
How can Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Warwickshire County Council, and others involved seriously justify it?
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/in-your-area/councils-defend-100k-spend-bedworths-24038028
ICYMI - Years on from funding approval, just how far has the Nuneaton-Bedworth-Coventry cycle scheme progressed, and is it as "super" as originally reported?
https://www.fiets.uk/2022-05-23/state-of-the-scheme-nuneaton-to-coventry-via-bedworth/
On the blog today: 2.5 years after funding was approved by Warwickshire County Council for a Nuneaton to Coventry via Bedworth cycle scheme, there's been a noteable absence of news or information about what's happening. So, I found out!
https://www.fiets.uk/2022-05-23/state-of-the-scheme-nuneaton-to-coventry-via-bedworth/
It would also be nice to be able to walk and cycle eastwards from Anker Mills, under the railway and across to the Liberty Way football ground (even beyond) - a difficult area of town to access without a car. Surely it'd be possible to run a path under this bridge.
It would be lovely to see this river cleaned up and opened as a leisure route. I know a bit of this is due to happen, but north of George Eliot Gardens, the river is hidden away - even entirely covered by the Asda/retail park car park. Vastly underutilised and underappreciated.
Got a few miles in by going out with the camera, taking pictures along the rather unloved River Anker in #Nuneaton, tracing the route as close as possible (i.e., not that doable) between Anker Mills and Asda.
How irritating. My good knee is playing up today. Noticed a slightly painful twinge going up/down stairs; also there (to a lesser degree) popping to the shops on the bike. This is either a sign of being forty, or slightly overdoing the #cycling for my 400mi+ target (or both).
No proper bike ride today then sadly, I think - don't want to risk damage. Maybe a slow, gentle jaunt around town later, but that'll be it🙁A shame though; I was looking forward to my Sunday "expedition".
ICYMI: I'm jumping on the #podcast bandwagon with The Fiets Podcast, covering my everyday #cycling and #ActiveTravel advocacy. Available now on Spotify, Amazon, TuneIn, Podbean, or manual subscription, and coming soon to other services!
Right then - I am jumping on the #podcast bandwagon with the soft launch of The Fiets Podcast - my everyday #cycling and #ActiveTravel advocacy with a local focus on Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the West Midlands but also the wider UK.
Available on #Podbean, #Spotify, manual subscription, and coming soon to other podcast services.
Rear cameras can be a blessing and a curse.
Reviewing the footage of a close pass today, and it seems worse than I thought! On a two lane, one direction road, the driver in lane two pulls into lane one, where I am clearly visible. They undertake a car originally ahead of them in lane two and close pass me while doing so.
This is clear cut for an actionable report I think, so a blessing having the additional evidence. But to see the state of driving from behind, that's the curse.
Looks like that street should be a School Street. Close it to cars at school run times and permit counterflow cycling to give direct access to the school. "Problem" solved.
https://road.cc/content/news/police-take-details-children-cycling-dangerously-292833
When #Ford advocates leaving the car at home for short journeys, perhaps people should finally realise that too many cars is a serious issue for health and environment, and that #ActiveTravel is a valid option for many of these trips.
https://www.ford.co.uk/experience-ford/ford-blog/new-initiative-park-the-car
Local destruction due to drivers and their cars. Lucky no-one was standing close to (or in) the phone box at the time. This is a 20mph street😠
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/in-your-area/mangled-aftermath-two-car-smash-23970477
And yes, I know I'm mixing imperial and metric. I don't care!
Well, not enough to redo the toot anyway!
Legs are really on strike today, after a busy weekend - 40 miles riding on Saturday followed by 7+km of walking on Sunday including stairs up-and-down Kenilworth Castle. Only popped to the shop and they're screaming at me, "NOOO"!
Nice day in #Kenilworth including the #Castle + Abbey Fields Park. Sadly, the latter is a cycle-hostile space that would, if permitted, serve as a useful #cycling link. But it's prohibited on all paths I saw. Oddly though, the central swimming pool building has cycle racks 🤔
- 🌍 Website and Blog
- https://fiets.uk
- 🌳 Linktree
- https://linktr.ee/bicycleben
- Location
- Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK
Daily life by cycle despite a bad knee. Riding for fun, fitness, climate. Demanding 🇳🇱 #cycling infrastructure in #Nuneaton, #Coventry, #Warwickshire, and the wider UK.
Predominantly (but not exclusively) focused on #ActiveTravel and public transport to reduce car dependency and general #Sustainability.
May also cover #environment, #UKPolitics, #technology, #photography, #science, #space, #AmateurRadio, and other odds & ends that pop into my head!
Here from the Other Place (@BicycleBenUK)
Joined Apr 2022
