The Economic Cycle? Comment on the £23 Million Cycle City Plan

Bristol has won £23 million to create the UK's first 'cycle city' and Steve Ward of Car Free UK writes; Something went wrong, horribly wrong with cycling in this country sometime after the 1950s... Britain, preferring to follow developments on the ther side of the Atlantic more than those on the other side of the channel, decided that the Car was King....Pedestrians needed to be banished to underground warrens such as St James Barton; on the surface cycles needed to be pushed off the road onto pavements (an act that many people seem willing to participate in) and pedestrians had to push a button merely to cross the street. Bristol duly got its ring-road, much larger than anyone in the 1970s dared to imagine, and while the car was made king, its progress through the remainder of the medieval centre was consequently slowed to the lowest in the country. Somehow, despite all this awfulness, Bristol expects to spend £23m on cycling in the next two and a half years - about a forty-fold increase on spending to date. This would match the levels spent in the famous cycling city of Amsterdam....Having marginalised cycling as an extreme sport akin to snowboarding, and having criminalised cyclists as red light-dodging, pavement-terrorising fanatics somehow cycling is to become mainstream again. How? Full article.

| The Economic Cycle? | www.carfree.org.uk | Cyclists' Special - part one (youtube.com) | Cycle Facility of the Month - Ads on the cycle path (homepage.ntlworld.com) |

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"...one of the more bizarre demos in the history of Bath Animal Action..." and more News from Bath

The Bath Bomb Editorial Collective write; Last week saw one of the more bizarre demos in the history of Bath Animal Action, as they took the fight to Bath Racecourse. The cause was well known animal welfare activist Rolf Harris doing a gig after a night of racing at the course, which BAA considered a tad hypocritical bearing in mind the terrible death and injury and whipping rate of race horses. (A one in four chance of a race ending in death at Bath race course, and much higher national statistic, not to mention the fact that only 40% of purpose-bred horses are considered 'good enough' to race. Evidence indicates that many of the 'failures' are shot at the stables or slaughtered for meat). So opposed to animal cruelty is Rolf, that he even wrote a legendary song entitled 'Slaughter on the Ice (shall we do it you and I?)' in which he condones the murder of animal abusers. Don't believe me? You can check it out on the Rolfsters' Myspace! Members of BAA turned up on the night, joined by a two-strong counter demo to encourage Rolf not to do any more race course gigs and let punters know about the cruelty they support. Afterwards, activists headed inside, leafleting over 250 cars and, noticing a stack of pallets by the stage, one scaled the pallets and blasted Rolf's animal rights song at him through an MP3 player rigged to a megaphone, while the crowd were shown disturbing images of horse racing accidents. Security stood by, looking uneasy, and formed a line to try and prevent activists getting on the track (something they had no intention of doing!). Full article.

| Bath Bomb #11 | myspace.com/bathbomb | Other Bath News: Help kick foie gras out of Bath for good - contact the sellers! | Smash EDO film banned in Bath, but not by B.A.N.... | Bath Bomb #9 now online |

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Loss of pavement and cycle lane affect the residents of the local community, while cars in transit are prioritized above our quality of life

Angry in St Agnes writes: My son was rudely awaked from his nap this morning by a sound that had my partner shouting 'the tanks are coming, the tanks are coming', and only partially tongue-in-cheek. The whole building juddered and shook to the vibrations of a huge digger equipped with hammer drill, tearing up the pedestrian pavement and the bike lane on Lower Ashley Road in St Agnes.

As part of the road-works to Junction 3, plans include removing the bike lane entirely, and narrowing the pavement. I was kindly informed by one of the planners when I went along to the 'community consultation' that this pavement was classed as 'wide'. Odd then, that you can't get a buggy down it 90% of the time. Perhaps this is also due to the council being less than enthusiastic when it comes to rubbish collection in poor neighborhoods? But I digress...

The community consultation was an opportunity for local residents affected by the Junction 3 road-works to come and look at plans, express their concerns, and have them totally dismissed by the planners. Works began about a month later. I'm still waiting for the promised response to my written complaint - or perhaps they're replying by actions?

Lower Ashley Road is already one of the busiest roads in central Bristol. It is a vital artery not only for cars but for cyclists and pedestrians as well. However, being so stuffed full of cars, it will be fantastically dangerous for cyclists now that the cycle lane has been removed. It will be even more lethal, considering that the plans call for an extra lane to be added to the road (hence the pavement theft) which will be a left-turn feeder lane, making it necessary to cycle up the middle of the road if you do not want to turn left. Full Article.

UPDATE TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE: At about 9.30 am the Goon Squad drilled through a water supply line under Lower Ashley Road, cutting off water supplies to at least part of the street (total affected area unknown). When I asked if they were the ones who'd just cut our water off they said they'd done it 'because we didn't bring them any tea out' and that they were 'just waiting for a part', no ETA on when we might have water back.

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Should panic buyers at the pumps take a chill pill or is relying on petrol power just a panic economy?

The current oil price hike and the frenzied panic buying have brought some garages in Bristol to a standstill. But is there a better way? A way to live more sustainably? Peaky writes: Peak Oil is coming, maybe not this year, maybe not this decade, but within my lifetime... what can the community in Bristol do to ensure a peaceful transition to a post-oil economy? Full article.

| What is your peak oil plan? | Running on empty | Useful websites: Reduce Bristol's dependency on oil - promote sustainability! | Design, planning, policy for a changing world | Just for the love of it | Up a gum tree |

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