First Day Cover - Birds

FDC BIRDS, originally uploaded by lewisham cyclist.

Motorbikes and scooters in bus lanes

The Department for Transport wants to allow motorbikes to use bus lanes. The London Cycling Campaign is less keen

According to the CTC "per mile travelled, [motorbikes] are about 1.5 as likely as cars to be involved in collisions which cause serious injury to cyclists, twice as likely to be involved in causing them serious injuries and about three times as likely to be involved in killing them.

Hopefully Lewisham Council will get back to me soon with their plans for allowing motorbikes in bus lanes.

Buses tend to be patient and tolerant of cyclists and happy to warn me of problems. Cars are rare in the bus lanes that I use - possibly because of better enforcement (although they use the bus lane to undertake right turning vehicles). But motorbikes and cyclists don't seem to mix at all.

Cyclists use the bus lane to overtake other bikes, to avoid potholes and to move around buses at bus stops. Allowing a fast moving motorbike into the mix of buses and cyclists will only increase the risk of collision - especially as the number of cyclists and motorbikes increases.

lewisham roundabout

It looks fairly quiet on a gray Saturday afternoon in August.

But some day it will no longer be a cyclists' nightmare next to a scrubby patch of green and a concrete water culvert where all the public transport is isolated from the main shopping centre.

Some day it will be "retail, offices, hotel, residential, education, health and leisure premises, parking and associated infrastructure, open space and water features. " according to Lewisham Council And there are also alternative views.

I don't mind that cyclists aren't going to be relegated to cyclepaths but instead we will have advanced stop areas at traffic lights, but a share for cyclists in some decent bus lanes will be important.

More detail about the plans instead of huge inaccessible files next to some marketing gumph so that we can all make real decisions would be nice too.

picture from lewisham cyclist.

... and his even more thoughtful sister

flo, originally uploaded by lewisham cyclist.

what's on his mind?

(ex) pensive cat, originally uploaded by lewisham cyclist.

Smile and the world smiles with you

Cycling along in the pouring rain this morning.
A chap with an umbrella walks out in front of me so I swerve to avoid him then cycle on my way.
"SMILE!!!!" he shouts after me.



Also, I've now recognised some essential kit to keep at the office - old newspapers to stuff in my soggy wet shoes.

black mountain holiday

We went camping in the Brecon Beacons last week. A chance to hang up my cycling shoes for a few days in exchange for some walking boots.

Fresh air, exercise and decent beer. Lovely.

PPP

The BBC have recently posted an upbeat article on a US version of 'Public Private Partnership' PPP - Microsoft's state education revolution. I'm interested in this because of the three PPP schools being built in Lewisham



Presumably this means that there will be lots of competition for places at these new schools who will be able to take on the brightest pupils who can take best advantage of their new facilities.





Poorer schools might end up with more pupils with special needs or children who may not end up with the highest grades and so may not be able to justify the higher funding that a PPP school gets. These poorer schools may not be able to provide the same high standard of facilities for their pupils.





I have no political axe to grind against PPP. I would welcome initiatives that genuinely help children get better chances in their education. And of course some people will be always be luckier than others. That's life. But I'm concerned that PPP may come at a cost to children in poorer areas who may miss out on some of these great opportunities. Or maybe there are more private finance deals out there so that more schools in poorer areas can provide better opportunities for their children.

Dreamer's first crash

My first crash the other morning.

A car in the right hand lane of a dual carriageway without indicating, turns left across my lane
I brake, but not fast enough. The car loses a wing mirror and I get bruising down my right arm

"I'm sorry. I didn't see you."

Scouts First Day Cover

Must get my scanning sorted for the next issue - birds, 4th September

A typically wet day in the Lake District

As the weather was so foul, we decided to walk from Greensides Mines around Glencoyne Head to Aira Force, then back to Glenridding via the lake. The scenery would have been fantastic, but for the fact that we could hardly even see our feet. Even with 1:25000 OS map and GPS, we managed to get lost a couple of times. The weather only began to clear as we made our way down from the tops towards the waterfall.

The next day was completely different and we got some fabulous views from the top of Helvellyn. We got to see the Pennines, Scottish hills, the Isle of Man and even (with binoculars) Blackpool Tower.

Cycling on south London roads

Cyclists are road-users too.

When I first started to commute to work by bike a few months ago, I was very wary of busy roads, roundabouts and one-way systems. I would keep to the back roads and the shared-use pathways. I won't cycle on pedestrian-only footpaths nor would I run red lights or cycle the wrong way down one way streets. So I would get caught between being some kind of not-quite-vehicle and some kind of not-quite-pedestrian.

After a couple of months, I started to become a bit more confident of my strength and my cycling technique. That's when I came across John Franklin's book "Cyclecraft" that teaches about cycling as a full road user rather than cowering in a gutter or footpath.

I'm now much more confident about cycling on the roads and I'm happy to travel all around south London by bike. I navigate round most one-way systems and roundabouts but not yet Lewisham roundabout or Elephant & Castle. They're both still too hairy for me!

Occasionally, a driver will get fed up with me taking over 'their' lane, but most people just get on with driving and don't get ratty with me. Bus drivers are very tolerant of cyclists and often seem to make sure that I've got the time and space to get past - so I don't try to hold them up or knock down their passengers.

All in all, I feel much safer cycling on the main roads than trying to share pathways with pedestrians or navigating round the back streets. I get home quicker too.

local cycle shops

Whooooo! I can do Google maps: Cycle shops near Lewisham

Harry Potter stamps

I'm a bit of a closet stamp collector on the side - mostly first day covers.

Here is today's first day cover to mark the publication of the JK Rowling book.

The next new stamp issue is due 26th July to mark 100 years since the first scouts' camping trip.

Being a school governor

I was appointed as a school governor to a Lewisham primary school last year. I'm still not entirely convinced that it's the right thing for me, but I've enjoyed it so far and the school is a remarkable one.


Many of the pupils coming into the school are very vulnerable, but the school provides them with space to learn and develop. Some excellent teaching staff then help to transform the children so that they are at least as prepared for secondary school as their peers from other schools.


Even after being a governor for the past year, I'm still feeling my way around the whole thing and I'm not sure if I'm really contributing as much as I should be. We don't get asked to make loads of decisions, but the headteacher is accountable to the governing body, so I guess that we provide the governance. I've never been reticent about asking awkward questions so I guess that this could be part of the role of a school governor.

Time will tell if I'm really getting it right.