Blaarmeersen Sports and Recreation Park Blaarmeersen Sports and Recreation Park is a green jewel beside the Watersportbaan in Ghent. This is where Ghent residents come jogging, and rowing clubs battle it out on the water. The Watersportbaan...

Most excitingly it included entry to an urban beach 5 mins ride away
visit.gent.be/en/see-do/bl...

Glamping & Camping - Blaarmeersen - Urban Gardens Ghent Urban Gardens is a campsite in Ghent, a stone's throw from the city center. Enjoy an oasis of peace with our camping and glamping formulas.

We car-camped here last year.
urban-gardens.be/en/ghent
There's glamping too. It was an easy cycle into the city with 9 years olds.

Summary of exchange with prof from another dept:

Him- great article. Driving standards in Leicester are v poor

Me - thanks

Him - but cyclists often just as bad

Me - but they don't kill 5 people a day. Or even a year.

Him - I'm not sure about that

Me - I am (link to road casualties GB)

🙄

Why do some killer motorists get short prison sentences? UK road safety laws are letting them off the hook | Sally Kyd Two court cases last month illustrate how confusion over legal definitions are feeding into a culture of poor driving standards, says law professor Sally Kyd

The law on dangerous driving is confusing because most have lost an understanding of what minimum driving standards look like.

(Not my choice of headline)

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A war on motorists, you say.

Oh good, I was losing hope when it came to support for transport policies

My anacdata is more than a year old. It's a bit tricky to draw proper conclusions from the numbers as they are self selecting. Nearly all were represented and presumably had a good idea about whether it was worth chancing their arm.
That's not to say I wasn't shocked though.

The only person not granted an exemption lived in London.

I once spent the day in magistrates observing back to back exceptional hardship hearings.
All but one were granted. The chair got unto heated discussion with a colleague and set out her view that being in Norfolk, a rural county without good public transport, any ban would be exceptionally hard.

Heather Avenue - a completely normal junction.

A driver driving over the kerb by some margin

Daniel Jacklin said "It's so annoying. I've only done it three or four times but no matter how hard you try, you either turn into oncoming traffic or hit the kerb."

The curious corner where one in FIVE drivers mounts the kerb Drivers near the junction at Heather Avenue and Cromer Road have shared their dismay over avoiding mounting the kerb or turning into oncoming…

Driving isn't for everyone.

www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/2598863...

Safer school runs – why Norwich needs camera-enforced School Streets School Streets schemes – timed road closures during drop-off and pick-up – could be just what we need to solve the school run problem

School Streets - could they be the answer to solving the school run problem? We take a look at what's involved.
www.norwichcyclingcampaign.org/safer-school...

Picture used in the RIS3 document - a driver fiddles with a mobile phone attached to the windscreen under the rear view mirror, in the swept zone of the windscreen

#HMG #DfT published the Road Investment Strategy 3 (#RIS3) this morning. Page num'd 13 of the pdf assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c426... , sectioned "Vision" has a picture of driver fiddling with a mobile phone under the rear view mirror.

It is an offence to put a device in this position.

There is a bit of a problem with the premise of this article. The number of fines given is for parking in general. The number given outside schools is practically zero.

Make it safer for families to walk and cycle to schools please! Use school streets or LTNs, and encourage a bike bus to make it fun. Then you give children independence and an appreciation of cycling that will stay with them for life.

The school run problem no amount of fines can fix Parking enforcement is rising, but school run chaos persists, revealing a deeper problem fines alone cannot solve

Parking enforcement is rising, but school run chaos persists, revealing a deeper problem fines alone cannot solve | Henry Durand, Local Democracy Reporter

Six Sheffield stands in a park.

Six Sheffield stands in a park.

Six Sheffield stands in a park.

Six Sheffield stands in a park.

Sixty (!) new bike racks have been installed in Eaton Park. They've done a nice job, ten banks of six Sheffield stands concreted in on levelled bases.

The LDRS system but for national outlets?
Unfortunately the system seems open to abuse with some local papers using the money to employ journalists to churn out highly politicised content rather than reusable informative content.

The Economist knows whats up

www.economist.com/britain/2026...

A long line of bollards along the kerbside and across the end of the pavement. Several vehicles are parked on the placement between you bollards and a row of shops.

The team of bollards did their best, but the sneaky drivers found a gap to squeeze through.

@worldbollardassoc.bsky.social

Nothing unites the comment section quite like selfish driving on the school run.

You can't offend drivers, the sky will fall in.

Yeah, they are very resistant to that idea. After the May elections there are likely to be a new bunch in, but they aren't known for their love of cycling either.

Yes you do!

I might reenact this one next.
I'm sure the neighbours would be ok with a shed on the street.

A tumble dryer in a cargo bike

A cartoon by Dave Walker of a washing machine being transported by bike

So I bought a second hand tumble dryer.
Turns out the box on my bike was almost the perfect size.

If anyone asks, @davewalker.bsky.social made me do it.

More interesting to me is how many people are willing to admit they don't know the answers to technical questions.

Reform voters are much more confident that they know the answer than other voters.

(I'm happy to admit I have no idea)

"If you have to wait... you can damn well wait!" 🚦

This was the strange response from a Labour Cllr to our Green motion for a 30-second *max* wait time at pedestrian crossings on Wirral. In a climate & health crisis, this "car-is-king" mindset is a relic of the past.

It’s time to up-end it.

It’s not like I’m hugely precious about my bike’s paintwork, but this sort of sharp-edged bike stand annoys the hell out of me. One day I will start a consultancy that will charge companies £10,000 for an identical report that just says, “Don’t fuck around, use standard Sheffield stands.”

Individually addressed letters through the post are an expensive business and we've had two from reform now.
There are spending limits in the final 5 weeks, but before that reform can spend away to their hearts content.