Search results for ‘ryburn

Gaslight Alert: “£200 Million To Improve Walking And Cycling Routes And Boost Local Economies”

Here we go again… The announcement of another pot of cash which will fund a handful of schemes across the country and have minimal impact on the lives of the majority of people in the country. Good for those who receive it but for those that don’t, simply gaslights us into thinking that the government are committed to transforming our country into one where active travel is the norm. (Remember Boris Johnson’s “golden age of cycling”?) There is a scheme near where I live in West Yorkshire – a disused railway that runs along the Ryburn Valley from Sowerby Bridge to Ripponden and Rishworth (see below) – that would be a great candidate for a slice of this cash but it’s unlikely to happen. Expect the money to be allocated predominantly in Tory ‘red wall’ constituencies. And when the beauty contest decisions are made later in the year, expect the same announcement to be made again. Meanwhile in The Netherlands they are putting their money where their mouth is (as they have being doing for decades) and have just opened an underwater bike parking facility in Amsterdam…

Le Grand Tour: Day 13 – Nogent-Le-Rotrou To Alençon (93km)

Today was the equivalent of a cycle touring spinning class. Well, mostly. Almost the entire route from Nogent-le-Rotrou to Alençon was off road and along a very long disused railway line. I almost felt guilty for having made all of those men work so hard 100? 200? years ago in building the railway line in the first. Now it’s ‘just’ being used by cyclists and walkers. But hey! At least it’s still in use…

Is The ‘Golden Age For Cycling’ Already Over?

As I have been doing ever since the lockdown started, today I went out for my daily exercise. It’s no longer my ‘permitted’ exercise as it seems that things are back to normal in terms of getting out and about, as long as we keep our 2 metres of distance. In the main, people seem to be sticking to that. This morning I set off on what would become a 20km walk to the Ryburn and Baitings reservoirs making the most of the warm day. There were a good number of people out and about despite it being Monday; I was certainly not alone. Then I looked online…

The Ryburn Valley Greenway

‘Greenways’, ‘Vias Verdes‘, ‘Voies Vertes‘… they are all the same thing – in English, Spanish and French respectively – and they have cropped up from time to time in this parish, most recently a couple of months ago when I had the opportunity of cycling along the Waterford […]