I've been away for a while, and look what happens while my back's turned: Barclays turn out to be the sponsors of the forthcoming Cycle Superhighways, which at least explains the blue colour.
The first two launch on 30 July. I suspect the experience of using them will be familiar to anyone who's waiting in a gradually shuffling line in their local branch to cash a cheque.
I talked about the Superficial Cycleways on a recent edition of Jack Thurston's excellent Bike Show, on London's Resonance FM. I'm not very impressed by them. I'd have suggested a more appropriate sponsor. Landsbanki, perhaps.
The Cycle Hire Scheme is also being sponsored by Barclays. This scheme I'm much more confident, and more positive, about - despite the revelation by the London Evening Standard yesterday that many tourist hotspots won't have a docking station nearby.
(They refer to 'the first map' of the docking stations, without ever giving details - do they mean the one by Cycle Hire App, which has been around for several weeks? Curiously, they illustrate the story with a picture of Gerri Halliwell riding a non-hire bike with a dog in a basket).
Anyway, it's good to have such a major sponsor on board. If the Superficial Cycleways themselves carry logos and ads for the sponsors, that's fine by me. It'll give me something to read while I'm jammed up in the lines of cyclists clogging the too-narrow blue strips at the lights.
The barclays blue paint they have chosen stays wet long after the surrounding tarmac. which is great for skidding and catching road water off your wheels in your face and up ones bum(if you don't have mudguards). And the tone of blue is so bright in sunlight, the eyes take a moment to adjust when looking up, you get a sort of after affect which is also distracting while cycling. So big thanks to boris for that one.
ReplyDelete