Pass notes: Cycle-friendly sign in Clapham

I was in London over the Jubilee weekend. No, not celebrating archaic hereditary privilege, but in search of excellent, cheap South Indian curries in Tooting.

En route to Chennai Dosa, a fine restaurant at the epicentre of the Asian quarter - and I use the word pretty accurately, in its seismic sense - we went past this sign in Clapham.

I've seen similar signs in Cambridge, but never here in York.

I'm happy to preserve some differences between us and the capital - it's quite nice having decent fish and chips, fresh air, lovely local pubs and plumbers who speak English and only charge a fiver for fixing your leaky tap the same day you call them - but this is one aspect of London I'd like to see more of up north.

Whose side are you on?: York's mystery cycle path

The Highway Code (Rule 62) is pretty clear about segregated cycle/pedestrian paths.

It says "you MUST keep to the side intended for cyclists as the pedestrian side remains a pavement or footpath", the MUST meaning that it's against the law if you ignore their sage advice.

Cycle on the pedestrian side and you could, in extremis, be found guilty of 'careless or inconsiderate cycling', and fined up to £1000.

So all you have to do is obey the blue sign. Such as this one (right), by Clifton Moor here in York. It clearly tells you to stick to the left-hand side.

Except the painted markings tell you the opposite. So, whatever you decide, you've committed an offence.

Follow the path round, off the north end of Water Lane through a housing development, and the painted signs do the neat trick of swopping sides at each end..

And what about pedestrians? They don't know where they stand. Literally. Though they'll probably stand in the middle, with their back to me, listening to their iPod. That's what they usually do.

Not half bad: Green light for bike-friendly Barcelona

It's dispiriting to compare our current chilly spring with Barcelona's. I was there in March and it was lovely.

It's dispiriting to compare Barça's cycling situation with London's, too. The Catalan capital has gone from having no bike culture to a thriving one in just a decade or so.

I know which capital I'd rather live in too, and it's not just because of the two-euro bottles of wine and Mediterranean beachside.

Partly Barça's bike-friendliness is due to the very popular cycle-hire scheme, 'Bicing' (right) - for locals only, sadly, so I couldn't have a go on one.

Partly it's due to the system of cycle tracks round the city centre (top right), taking advantage of those wide boulevards. A bit skeletal, but useful; outside it, Barça's cyclists thread in and out of pedestrians in the narrow streets of the old Barrio Gotic, and nobody seems to mind much.

Whatever the case, the cycling scene is strong. And none of this hi-vis-jacket-and-helmet nonsense you have in London: like York, it's full of normally-clothed people just getting from A to B on two wheels.

And one traffic light caught my eye (right). Not only does the pedestrian appear to be kicking the bike - perhaps he's annoyed with so much pavement cycling after all - but there's only half a bike.

Perhaps it's the missing front half of the traffic light in York I noted recently...

Water under the bridge - and over the cycle path

York is famous for many things: Minsters, sweets, horse races, FA Trophy victories.

It's also gearing up for the York Mystery Plays in August, the first such for decades.

But right now there's a more pressing York speciality on our minds: city-centre flooding on the banks of the Ouse.

It's not an infrequent state of affairs, as shown by the permanent sign just off the riverside path (right) ready to be deployed, rather wearily, whenever there's another period of relentless rainfall - or as it's called in Britain, 'hosepipe ban'.

For anyone doing the Trans Pennine Trail or White Rose Route, they either have a detour along Bishopthorpe Road, or some aquaplaning along the inundated cycle track (right).

Over the Millennium Bridge on the other side of the river, things are no better.

It's not as bad as it can get. Levels were a foot or two higher back in January, for instance.

But with more rain forecast for this week, it might be time to invest in an ark.

Which, funnily enough, is one of the scenes in that Mystery Play... somehow it's all now making sense.

Public bike pumps? I'll drink to that

A public bicycle pump has been installed near Waterloo station, on Kennington Road outside the Three Stags Pub, my old south London stomping ground.

This exciting news, and picture, comes from the SE1 website.

It's another inventive cycle-parking initiative from Anthony Lau. Other works of Anthony's I've blogged about before include the Cyclehoop (which converts lamp-posts and street signs into cycle parking) and a car-shaped bike rack (which has been doing the rounds of south London, sometimes taking locked bikes with it when it gets moved).

Putting the bike pump outside a pub is an excellent idea. If your tyres are a bit flat you can top them up easily, and enjoy a beer while you do so.

If only London's outrageously short-measure pub pints were as easily seen to. Living in York does have its advantages.

Gormless to Gormley: Biking the Angel of the North, and other statues

I was in Newcastle this week, with bike, obviously. I like Newcastle, and the way it makes me feel so over-dressed and under-tattooed.

More about the Toon soon, but first, the Angel of the North (right). Antony Gormley's iconic statue is three miles or so south of the Tyne bridges, a straight cycle down the A167 Durham Road through Gateshead to Low Fell.



The cycle route is barely adequate - a mishmash of on- and off-road lanes and tracks - so it's quite a bit better than the rest of Newcastletynesagegateshead or whatever the marketeers call it these days.

There's a path up to the base of the Angel (right), and a splendid thing it is too. Heavier than you think, good-looking in a lumpy kind of way, and ageing gently in the northern rain, it reminds me a lot of me.

But it's not my favourite Gormley. At least, not for its bike-interactive possibilities.



I was very fond of the temporary statues - simulacra of the artist himself - that stood naked on and around Waterloo Bridge a few years ago.

We were very excited by their potential use as cycle parking (right).



But the top Gormley statue for cyclists, or non-cyclists, has to be Another Place (right) at Crosby (just off the Trans Pennine Trail).

I think it looks rather better with a bike in hand. It helps me relate to the statue that bit more. Especially as it's standing in a puddle looking lost.

Water carry-on: Rum roadworks in York

Yorkshire Water are busy digging up York's bike lanes at the moment.

The Planets Trail is up somewhere between Mars and Jupiter (right), necessitating a five-sides-of-a-hexagon detour through the asteroid belt, also known as Bishopthorpe housing estate.

As I discovered yesterday en route to a job yesterday. It made me arrive five minutes late, despite travelling at six times the speed of light, according to the scale.



More worrying is this operation on Malton Road, the A1036, between Monks Cross and the Toby Carvery, where hungry cyclists can refuel on limitless hearty vegetables.

Not only is the cycle lane (but only the cycle lane) closed off on a fast, busy road where some cars pass too close anyway.

First breath of wind and some of the plastic barriers do their impression of a Saturday night stag party in Stonegate, collapsing chaotically.

This forces cyclists out even further into the territory too many drivers think belongs exclusively to them (above right). The carvery must be quite an attraction, because most of the drivers can't wait to get there.