Justin.greenhalgh@stfc.ac.uk

Fully agree with flatbadger. I was that cyclist. There was an surprising amount of blood from a face cut but fortunately I fell towards the verge and missed a large tree. They only fixed a short length and I did have a go at them later about another section about 50m down the road – which after about a couple of years they did fix. AS you both say, the whole trench needs doing and it seems daft to do it a few m at a time. Austerity, I guess. I’ll add my voice to the tumult. Is this a recognised cycle route, in addition to be being a road we all use?

Hi Flatbadger,

Thanks for this useful reminder. AFAIK we do indeed use Mr Pill’s farm track with permission which may be withdrawn, and I try to be extra polite in the vicinity for that reason. For the first few years after it opened, I used to drop a thank you card and a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine off to him, sometimes claiming the money back from HarBUG. Would anyone like to take over that duty?

Justin.

I’d love to know how to true a wheel having changed a broken spoke.

Strikes me there is lot of work to do in the Wantage and Grove area if we want to make this complete. I’m struggling to see how complete it aims to be – where can I get a copy of the original Science Vale cycle map (the one that sustrans have been commissioned to update)?

I would suggest that, under option 1, rather than simply assert that a study has been done, you consider attaching the study.

PS – it might be helful to include somewhere a reference to making provision to maintain – not just build – cycle infrastructure.

Cheers – Justin.

Hi Mike, Welcome to the Wantage cycle paths. If you think the bit down Harcourt road is bad, consider what you would do if you approahced the junction that way. I *think* you would have to
1. find the cyclist’s button hidden behind a chestnut tree
2. wait in the road where there used to be a mark showing a cyclist’s waiting area, but in practice what you findt there is a transit van
3. When the lighs change, cross the A338 , cross the pedestrain part of the pavement and cyle up the completely overgrown cycle path in the hedge, trying to avoid the seat in the bus stop which is also on the cycle path.
4. Cross back over the A338 at the crossing, and carry on to Grove (whre you cross the main road again).

And don’t get me started on the cycle provision on the other route between Grove and Wantage (past the aeroplane)…

Funnily enough, we surveyed the facilities a few year ago for the “wantage and grove healthcheck” (which all came to little in the end). One of the things I did was to stand a the A338/harcourt road junction in the morning to watch the kids navigate the junction in the easy direction (from Grove to Wantage). Very few of them use Harcourt road; the ones that do, go up the pavement on the left (north side) of the road. The rest go straight on at the junction, along the A338 – most of them going the wrong way up the cycle path on the right hand side (west) of the A338. I asked a few of them why and they just said it was flatter and quicker to go that way.

I guess we have to accept that councils can clock up brownie points for installing n miles of cycle paths no matter how badly designed, and the idea of a hierarchy of provision is in all the planning guidelines but hasn’t made it into teh administrative mind.

Meanwhile, what I do on Harcourt road is to cycle on the road both ways. coing down teh hill on teh way home, I go pretty quickly to avoid holding people up too much, signal right and dive over the road at the bottom, tehn go the wrong way up teh cycle path on teh east side of teh 338, taking care at all teh driveways, til I join the proper cycle path beyond the crossing. I think that’s what most most people do.

Anyway, rant over – off to read the Sunady papers!

Justin.