Wales gets tough over green travel

[Lock]

Pretty cool of the Welsh if this goes ahead:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/09/wales-gets-tough-green-travel

Wales gets tough over green travel

Peter Walker
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 May 2012 09.00 BST

Wales is set to become the first country in the world to make it compulsory for local authorities to provide safe and integrated routes for walking and cycling as part of an ambitious plan to boost green travel and end the hegemony of the car.

A white paper launched on Wednesday morning by the Labour-led government in Cardiff will oblige Welsh councils and other authorities to identify, plan and implement walking and cycling routes, and how they can be integrated. The hope is that creating a network of safe routes will tempt people out of their vehicles.

Full article the link...

LocK

[amberwolf]

I don't see the key word in there, though. "Useful". Safe and USEFUL routes.... Many places make nice safe routes for non-car transportation, but they aren't useful because they either don't go anywhere near the places people are taking their cars to get to, or they are so short as to be useless, going only a mile or few, connecting only certain very small areas together. It's like that here in the "valley of the sun".

[veloman]

The best bikeway here in Austin TX (Lance Armstrong Bikeway) is about a mile long and heads to the west, where the least amount of bike commuters live/work. I think it was a matter of, that was the only right-of-way that was open to put a facility in, so it was done there. The rest of the LAB is nothing other than a combination of low speed streets, (though at the very east end they are doing a bikepath to connect to a bridge).

The portion of the bikeway in downtown gets used fairly well when there isn't a closure (there's been one since last year). You still have dangerous intersections to cross if you don't want to wait 1-2 minutes for a walk signal (which is absurd).

[csm]

Pretty cool of the Welsh if this goes ahead:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/09/wales-gets-tough-green-travel

While on that topic, I was curious what the current rules are for riding electric bicycles in Wales, and came about this gallery of pictures of the Prince of Wales riding an electric bicycle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishmon ... 299505682/


It appears, promoting an electric bicycle company based in Wales?? "Spencer Ivy Electric Bicycles"?
http://www.spencerivy.com/

I wonder if Prince Charles is a co-owner of this company.

[Lock]

Based in Wales? Most of the Spencer Ivy DNA seems German... I'da thought Prince and family would be run down if they showed up on bikes on the wrong side of Offa's Dyke... Anyway, doubtful they'd let him out of the driveway w/his skills...


Earlier thread "prince charles on ebike"
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30291&start=0

[bluegoatwoods]

Good for the Welsh!

It also sounds as though it will be meant to be truly comprehensive. It'll be 'useful' by definition.