Walked around
As mentioned in my previous post about Chimp Management I’d gone down to Manchester for the latest course which was held at the National Cycling Centre which also houses the velodrome and BMX track that were built for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Whenever I am in a new city I like to compare transport and travel facilities as both my partner and I get around town on bike and foot a lot and due to not having a car would use public transport links as an alternative.
I was impressed with Manchester’s extensive tram network having taking the tram back from Sport City to Manchester Piccadilly station. The tram ride seemed a bit pricey at £2.50 for a single journey. Edinburgh introduced a tram to the city roughly 2 years ago but it will require a network for it to really be successful. I also feel Edinburgh’s trams are bit too long – they seem longer than the trams in Manchester.
Free electric buses
The other very interesting thing I spotted in Manchester were free electric buses that would cover the wider city centre area. I thought that was pretty wow. There also seemed to be a decent amount of cycling infrastructure. I was surprised though that there didn’t seem to be many cyclists. My train back to Edinburgh was due to leave just before 9am which gave me the opportunity to have a walk around a small part of the city centre during rush hour and it was notable how few cyclists there were compared to the number you would find on the streets in Edinburgh at the same time of the day. There clearly seemed to be something missing and I suspect it are the links to get there as traffic didn’t seem all that busy in the immediate city centre.
Interesting comments
I roughly put the above observations on a Facebook post and got some interesting comments in return. Some were in favour of the trams, some were against or had comments of improvement. Other comments were complaints about improvement for infrastructure for cyclist and others were in favour of these. There was also a discussion about a congestion charge that had been put to the people of Manchester in a referendum. It was voted down.
Brompton Bike Hire
There was one comment that intrigued me in particular from a Facebook friend of mine who is a runner, an outdoor person and coaches kayaking/canoeing and gymnastics. I highlight these things as her comments were both against the congestion charge, against the cycle improvements and against the trams with everything being in favour of the car. The reasoning – which I can to some degree understand – being that she has be transport a kayak and lives on her own.
If the negative comments had come from a non active person then I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid but these made me think as I was of the opinion that in the main active people and people who support and work with in sport would be in favour of measures to improve sustainable and active.
For people working towards improving the sustainable transport infrastructure this is an interesting hurdle to overcome. I have in the past often wondered why when I am out cycling I sometimes get cars with bike racks on them – sometimes with bikes – passing surprisingly close, thinking that they should know better. But what if they don’t know what it feels like when being passed to close. There are a large number of ‘cyclists’ who neither ride on the roads nor commute by bike. They are either out on trails or on track and some of those probably have surprisingly little interest in sustainable or active transport.
The key word here is transport so the means of getting to work, getting around, getting to the shops. This isn’t sport related but active. Interestingly you’d think that people doing sport would want to use healthy and active ways to get around too if they were put in place.
Looks like the active people need equally convincing that sustainable active transport is a good thing just as much as the inactive people need to made aware of this. Travelling actively will go a long way to a better, healthier and leaner body.
Interesting observations. Another observation is that since starting ‘serious training’ I use my car more, in order to make training rides more effective ie lobbing the bike in the car and driving to the edge of town so as not to spend valuable ‘training’ time snarled up in traffic. It took me several months to get my head around this, as it goes against the grain – but maybe some of the Manchester people are doing the same?
There is definitely an aspect to this but you would still choose to do shorter ‘transport’ rides around town that are non sport related. I believe the cycling infrastructure outside the immediate Manchester city center is lacking and thus the cyclists are missing.
I’m a kayaker. I realise that that particular hobby of mine is a hobby and my choice to lug boats around on a car is secondary to how pleasant cities are to live in.
Having dinner with a friend of my wife in Amsterdam, he remarked “you can drive through Amsterdam… but it would be your own fault”. If carting boats about one really needs to understand that it’s your fault and not something a city council has to go out of its way to make easy for you.
I love that statement of your wife’s friend from Amsterdam ?
Ha, I have the same thoughts for cars with bike racks and very often it is mountain bikes.
As for the people transporting kayaks: why do you have to transport it in the first place? Isn’t there a boathouse? That way it would only be necessary to move the kayak when there is a competition or something similar.
Very good point especially in the case who commented on my FB post as this was referring to the national canoe center. I guess if you were someone that were to kayak in a different place regularly then it would be more of an issue.
I think you might be right about cyclists not making it into the city centre. On my last visit, I didn’t notice many decent cycle lanes around the city centre. Routes along the canal don’t seem well connected and some bridges have gates/barriers. Areas around the city centre, like Trafford, are like 6 lane race tracks. I had a quick look at the cycle parking hub under City Tower. What I could see through doors looked decent but car park entrance ramp and streets didn’t appeal to me. The blog Mad Cycle Lanes of Manchester, says the hub is quite expensive too. However, it’s something and Manchester City Council has introduced lots of 20mph streets in city centre. Transport for Greater Manchester has big plans for Oxford Road (main route from south to Universities). Trams had an off day recently but usually work well and being extended (again). Edinburgh should to ask them what the secret is!
Hey Karl, just been reading your blog. You know my stance on cycling in the city and commuting to work. I really hope the UK will look more towards the Netherlands regarding cycle infrastructure. My entire life (from age 5 to 30) I cycled to where I needed to be, never owned a car in my life. However, some cities in the UK make it really difficult for cyclists to commute safely to work. As you know I tend to add another 5k no problem whatsoever to my commute in Edinburgh if it means I ride on traffic free cycle paths (e.g. canal tow path). However, this is still shared with pedestrians. I would love the council to have a look at the Dutch cycle infrastructure and see that cycle paths not only have to be segregated from motorised traffic, but also from pedestrian traffic, to make it safer for everyone. Here’s a good example of what that would look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuOiKCBO1hU
(The video is shot in ‘s Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, but basically any city within the Netherlands looks like this. I’ve lived in Amersfoort, Leiden, Barneveld, Leusden Delft, Oegstgeest, Bleiswijk, and Rotterdam before I moved to the UK; all these cities have cycle infrastructure measurements where cycle paths are completely segregated from motorised traffic lanes).