The Three Valleys "Access" Barrier kind of typifies how retarded many transport planners are. Not satisfied with creating a system which subsidises all motorised users therefore stimulating demand and vicariously, use (if you don't understand this go back to school), there is some fucking geniuses out there who go one step further and say "Hey, let's make things more difficult for cyclists, that should reduce their numbers". In the space of 185 meters, adjacent to the Barracks, Pontefract, we have what was a perfectly cycleable track, where now the poor bike rider now has to stop three times to prise their bike through these barmy contraptions.
Let me state here and now, I do not endorse reckless cycling - "All users should pay the external costs of their activity", and cyclists who put other people in danger should pay for it. These barriers however have one ultimate effect on cycling; by placing constraints on passage without providing a cost-less alternative they will reduce demand for cycling. If that is a transport policy objective, OK, but if some dunderhead bunch of half-assed morons claim that they want to increase cycling levels by placing in such constraints, I might be wrong in labelling them such. They might just be outright liars.
These barriers appear all over the country, it might be something to do with how advanced we are. I have yet to see one in Holland, Denmark or Germany. I'm sure the freaky deaky Dutch will be just lining up outside Andrew Spittlehouse's office just craving his wisdom.
Now, cycling apart, let's just think about these things. A Maclaren Double Buggy has dimensions "approx (h x w x d) 110cm x 74cm x 79cm" When I sit in a wheelchair my shoulders are 56 cms wide and are 106 cms from the floor. Look at the picture and read the dimensions -
Approximate Dimensions of Three Valleys Barrier
Neither wheelchair users nor prams, nor any amount of shit can be taken through, even pedestrians cannot walk side by side. Can you imagine if car drivers were stopped every 10 seconds "just to maintain road safety"?
What about fourteen year old hooligans on unliscenced, unsilenced, unsafe motorbikes? Well the police are allowed to confiscate the bikes, so why don't they? Speaking about fourteen year old hooligans on unliscenced, unsilenced, unsafe motorbikes, why don't we see them on the M62?
Any person who caves in to accepting these barriers is NOT helping to promote reasonable transport policy. Any cyclist who supports them is an Uncle Tom. Dangerous cyclists should be fined. Illegal motorcyclists should be very temporary and these barriers should not be accepted
Sing this to the tune of "My Old Man's a Dustman"
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My dad's a transport planner |
(Oh and before you get more bothered about the insults than £2 million a year in accident costs in Pontefract, let's look at the bigger picture -
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Now I may be missing something here, but how is that going to stop motorbikes?
If a body professes to endorse general social welfare they should endeavour to bring about improvements, let alone make things worse. If they don't they should at least be held up for not doing so.
*Special thanks to Julia who told me me to placed the inverted commas around the "Access" in "Three Valleys Access Barriers". (It's an oxymoron without) (Like d-uh!).
P.S. (6th November 2011) A fence has since been built in the gap illustrated above. Does this help access for cyclists or pedestrians? No. Does it cover the sorry asses of the douchebrains who put the barriers in in the first place. Wahay! You bet.