I spent most of today cycling round Barking with B&D council cycling officer Nick Davies. Nick cycles himself; this is a real breakthrough in several ways, most importantly because he understands first hand what things need to be done to improve access for cycling.
I showed him around a large selection of the small scale improvements that have been on my list for years in many cases. The tour would have been impractical by any other transport mode. I didn't have to explain to Nick what the problems were as he not only saw them with his own eyes - crucially seeing as someone who cycles but is also an engineer, envisaging how to solve or alleviate the problems.
Not only did I not have to explain what the problems are, but I didn't have to explain why they ought to be put right because Nick understands how a pro-cycling policy has to be expressed as physical works on the ground.
Nick says many of the problems could be put right for relatively small amounts of £, so he intends making a start. This should help raise the conspicuity of cycle facilities in the borough (and therefore the profile of cycling) whilst at the same time actually improving conditions for cyclists - something which larger scale works don't always unequivocally achieve.
E-mail fan as I am, it would take tons of e-mailing, even with photos, to do the same job as we did in a few hours of cycling. And the weather was perfect.
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