What direction should transport policy take in YOUR town/city?

I am now a "moderator" on the "Car-Free Cities" community.

Why not share your views with my survey on "What one change would make folks cycle more and drive less?"

We all love cycling.

But what about taking it one stage further, and thinking about whether we should change the "Car-first" situation that exists in our towns and cities.

Does your town have a "pedestrianised" area?
How could it be made better?
Dou you use buses or trains much?

Do you prefer coffee shops to drive-thrus?

Why not share your ideas and experiences with me and a wider audience?

Go on and give us a try!

Update 23 Nov 2014
Another survey: What should YOUR local government concentrate on FIRST?
Are more cycle paths the best priority in your area?
Or would you prefer more trains, or better bus services, or something else?
Let us know over on Car-Free Cities

Phased out - how should signal-controlled pedestrian crossing be phased?

I first came across all-pedestrian phase lights in Edinburgh, Scotland.
There is a phase on the traffic lights (signals) where ALL vehicles lights are at "stop", and ALL pedestrian lights are at "go".
This allows folks on foot to cross as they wish during this phase.
I have subsequently come across the same phasing in Newquay, Cornwall, England.

I believe it was introduced after the success of similar schemes in Japan.

So, it is universally accepted as an improvement?

Apparently not.
In the "land of the car" (the USA), there seems to be moves to change some of the crossings back to "regular" phases.

Wikipedia also has a long piece on this issue here

How does your town/city rate for non-car infrastructure?

Map from "OpenStreetMap", but the annotations are mine.
Blue = schools for under 11s ("primary"), Red = supermarkets, Black = train stations,
Green = bus stations, Purplr Line = Bourg Walk bridge

For those of you that want to know what it is like living in a compact town ... (there is a scale, bottom left). To put it in context, the urban area of Aylesbury shown on the map above has a population of in the region of 75000. (new housing is still going up, so the census number from 2011 is like to be on the low side!)
This is where I live - Aylesbury. I live near the big "x" on the north-east side of town.
The blue dots are schools for the under 11s (three are "special schools" for those who, due to learning disabilities etc. need lots of extra support - and tbh, I think one of the three I have marked is for the older kids - so that's two for the younger kids).
The red squares are the supermarkets - EVERY major British supermarket chain is represented in Aylesbury. There are, of course, local, smaller, food stores on top of that.

Gotta be copyright of Chiltern railways, but I'm sure they won't mind me sharing their route map.
the map is about 7 years old, and there is now a second railway station in Aylesbury that is not shown.
It is Aylebury Vale Parkway, which is just a bit further up the spur that leads to Aylesbury.

The two black marks are the two railway stations - both connect to London (Marylebone), which is VERY close to Baker Street and the Madam Tussaurds waxworks venue. There is an alternative route that connects (via a change) to Birminham, and thus, to the rest of the country's rail network.

Map copyright Arriva, showing the Places one can get to with
an "All Zones" pass.

The green square near one of the railway stations is the Bus Station.
The purple line near the Bus Station is the "Bourg Walk", the $12.8 million walking and cycling bridge that was built a few years ago as the centrepiece of the town's cycle program.

Can I go to a recycling centre on foot or on a bike?

As a lot of you know, I live in Aylesbury, a designated "cycle town".
Things are slowly getting sorted out to make more and more things possible by bike.

But what about recycling?
A rider can obviously cycle to the bottle banks that are pretty common in the corner of supermarket carparks, and we have a fortnightly "mixed" recycling collection from our houses in the "blue bin".

But what about the bigger stuff, or the odd stuff?

There is a recycling centre on the edge of town (the Rabans Lane site), and another just out of town, on the other side (the Aston Clinton site).

Can I go there on a bicycle to do my recycling?
First place to look is the council website, as they own the sites.
And, indeed, there is much helpful advice available there.

But there is nothing on bikes!

So today I went to the Raban's Lane recycling centre and asked the staff.
Apparently folks arriving on foot need a (free) permit from Bucks County Council - indeed this is hinted at, but not explicitly spelled out on the pdf download the council have on their website.
According to the recycling centre staff a few folks DO already visit on foot, and DO have the (free) permits.

But what of bikes?

The helpful staff said that a cyclist, with or without a trailer, would be treated like a pedestrian, and would need a (free) permit,
The good news is that cyclist are actually allowed at all, as I have heard some distressing reports from other parts of the country that only motor vehicles are allowed into their local recycling centres, with apparently no exceptions or exemptions.

Solar Panels at IKEA

We were in IKEA (Milton Keynes) yesterday, and ...
... there was an in-store display about IKEA's tie-up with HanEnergy to supply domestic Solar Panels.

Their guide price was £5100 for a typical 3-bed semi, and the advisor there suggested that a 2-bed semi like ours would be closer to £4000, as it would only take 16 panels on the roof, rather than the 24 panels that the £5100 price includes.

That was about HALF what I thought the cost would be (and half what it was a few years back!)

Price is for panels and fitting, and all wiring etc. etc., so it should be a "fully inclusive" price!

Interested?
Visit their website here

Saving fuel with careful driving

The car we use for hypermiling - a 1300kg 1600cc turbo-diesel

Apologies for not blogging much on hypermiling for quite some time.
As I mentioned in my last post, I don't drive much, having  moved my workplace during an internal re-organisation in the company I work for.
This has left me with a one mile cycle to work, rather than a twenty-five mile (each way) drive.
Saving fuel with careful driving isn't the entire answer, but it is easy enough to do, and makes a real difference, at least until better transport solutions emerge in the future.

We still use our car for some journeys, particularly the longer ones.
Recently I made three long-ish journeys in our car, and it is these that I will share with you now.

Bresser solar/crank camping light/radio, with USB charging-output

The Bresser camping lantern has 6 LEDs and a small solar panel on top.
The black buttons on the front control the on/off for the light and the FM radio,
the radio channel scan (a simple "scan up" or "scan down" affair,
and the volume setting for the radio (up/down).
The light is decent enough, and the FM radio is fine, but not exactly high fidelity!
But, hey, it all works!

The crank handle folds out ready for use

At the back of the lantern is a crank handle
for extra power.

A regular smartphone/tablet USB charging cable will plug
into the USB "socket" cable that comes with the lantern.
Only downside is that you need to crank the handle to get
the lantern to charge the attached device, so it is a long,
hard job, best kept for emergency use. But it is nice to
know that you can recharge your phone if you need to!

A connection lead is provided with
a USB socket on the end