Disqus - Latest Comments for DavidHembrow

Re: Rich nations urged to resettle more Syrian refugees to save lives

DavidHembrow — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:34:19 -0000

The numbers above do not seem plausible, at least so far as the Dutch (Netherlands) contribution is concerned. I live in the North of the Netherlands. Within 15 km of my home there are three centres for refugees which between them house approximately 2000 people. Across the Netherlands, there are 110 centres in total with a total capacity of 13500 places. This year, the Netherlands received about 32000 refugees in total, down from 58000 originally expected given the growth experienced over the last few years.

All figures can be confirmed at the COA website (government agency which manages asylum seekers). Their English language website can be found here: https://www.coa.nl/en/

Re: Austin plans two more protected intersections just outside downtown

DavidHembrow — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 03:00:45 -0000

Thanks for that reply. It certainly adds something that there's a different route for cyclists from that point, along the trail. But it also makes the choice of this type of intersection even more strange, because this is really now just a road crossing.

The Google Map view suggests that this too is a colossal road with much traffic on it, leading to other intersections of a similar scale, none of which are appropriate for this type of intersection which really only applies to smaller situations.

Quite apart from the problem of an unsuitable context for such an intersection type, there's also a problem here in that there's seemingly an attempt to tackle just a few intersections when actually the entire road network needs to be looked at and the purposes for individual roads need to be determined.

This process of deciding what each road is supposed to do and what form it should take needs to take place before trying to change individual junctions. Cyclists should see so few traffic lights as possible because the roads which they cycle upon should not always be the roads on which drivers drive. The pattern of traffic lights across Dutch towns looks different because of this re-organisation of roads.

Austin is attempting to take step number 10 before taking steps 1 through to 9.

Re: Fujifilm XF1 pictures and hands-on

DavidHembrow — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 11:18:00 -0000

We bought this camera in August 2014. By May 2015 it had already gone wrong with the very common "Lens Control Error" - a manufacturing defect. FujiFilm refuse to fix the camera under guarantee. Instead, they've quoted us twice what the camera cost to repair the camera, and even at that price they don't actually seem able to guarantee that they repair will work.

Avoid this camera. Avoid Fujifilm because if you deal with them and something goes wrong you'll have to deal with their technical support which clearly makes a habit of refusing to honour guarantees.

Details of what went wrong with our camera, as well as other peoples' experiences, here:

http://davidhembrow.blogspo...

Re: Austin plans two more protected intersections just outside downtown

DavidHembrow — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 08:24:46 -0000

I've written more, explaining what is wrong with both these designs.

Re: http://pedestrianiselondon.tumblr.com/post/17338360813

DavidHembrow — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 10:49:43 -0000

Almost, but still not aiming quite high enough.

You need good quality cycle-routes to auto repair shops as well. How else will the staff cycle to work ? How else will customers of the shop use the free bicycles provided by the garage while your car is being fixed ?

Re: EEVblog #750 – Special Mailbag!

DavidHembrow — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 10:23:03 -0000

Congratulations !

Re: Private: “We have to test the limits”

DavidHembrow — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:11:20 -0000

Shared Space does not work nearly so well as this article suggests. Watch this video to see what Exhibition Road really looks like: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Poynton has now been transformed for long enough to have actual accident statistics and these show that pedestrians are being injured ten times as frequently as they were before: http://m.wiltshiretimes.co....

In the Netherlands also, Shared Space is associated with a higher rate of crashes, injuries and deaths: http://www.aviewfromthecycl...

Let's stop this ridiculous hype and return to designing roads based on how they really work out.

Re: Groningen: The World’s Cycling City

DavidHembrow — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 11:14:11 -0000

Oh, that excuse. And yes, I've had heard it several times before.

In the Netherlands there are old cities and there are new cities. They all have high cycling modal shares. The very newest city in the Netherlands, and one of the newest in the world, is how about Almere. This city was constructed on the world's largest artificial island, land reclaimed from the sea during the second half of the last century. The first house was built in 1976. For the Netherlands, Almere has what is called a "low" cycling modal share. However, this actually means that over 30% of journeys under 7.5 km are made by bike so there are lots of cyclists in Almere just as there are lots in every other city in the Netherlands, whether new or old, and in the countryside between cities and towns. If it were in any other country, having nearly 20% of all journeys and over 30% of the shorter journeys by bike would be enough to make Almere a place which was seen as a beacon of cycling. It is only in this country that such figures would be referred to as a "low" cycling modal share.

Because people come up with these excuses again and again, I've a long list of the told and retold myths about the Netherlands and excuses that people make for why they think they can't have a high cycling modal share because their conditions are different.

Re: Groningen: The World’s Cycling City

DavidHembrow — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 04:04:28 -0000

Kevin, if you read the small text at the bottom of the link you posted then you'll see that I'm a little skeptical about the 60% figure, as I am about everyone else's figures for modal share, especially when used in a marketing context. From what I can tell, the 59% / 60% figure refers to how people get to the centre of the city.

The problem with all these things is that it depends what you measure and how. For instance, where do you draw the boundary of the city, do you include people who's journeys start outside the city and end in the city ? Do you include those who start inside and ride out ? Do you include those who's journeys start and end outside the city but how come through the city as part of their route ?

The latter point is especially relevant to Groningen regarding cars because before the ludicrous 1960s plans for a city wide network of motorways was canned, some of them were built. As a result, cars pass through one part of the city without stopping.

There is also, as Clarence points out, the confusion between the mostly rural and sparsely populated province called Groningen and the city called Groningen (capital of the province), though that's not the reason for the doubt about figures for the centre.

Groningen benefits a lot from having a high student population (50K students out of a total 190K population) and this is also part of the reason why the modal share in the city is higher than average even for the Netherlands. However while the cycling modal share for the whole province is lower than that of the city it's still about 30%.

Re: The TFL 2-stage turn

DavidHembrow — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:23:53 -0000

It's a shame you've not seen or used a simultaneous green junction. They are one of very many things that you cannot learn about from the CROW manuals.

Your guess about stages is incorrect. In general, Dutch junctions are not so simple as that. Almost all of them separate out turning maneuvers so that if a driver has a green he/she can go without having to look at whether drivers heading in or turning from the opposite direction will clash. Therefore there's almost always a separate left turn lane with its own stage, and this can occur at the same time as traffic at the opposite corner of the junction is also moving, or as straight on traffic is moving or as a pedestrian crossing (even half of a pedetrian crossing where there is a central reservation) is green. It makes for quite efficient use of everyones' time.

You're way off the mark with regard to delays for cyclists due to SG junctions. Obviously they vary in different locations but in general they're actually very efficient. It's often the case that stages go something like main road straight on, main road left, bikes in all directions, side road, side road left, bikes in all directions.

i.e. cyclists often see green lights twice as often as motorists. It is a great advantage of this setup that it makes it easy to prioritise cyclists in this way.

Not all SG junctions do this, and not all of them do it at all times of the day. A lot of work has seemingly gone into individual optimisation. However it is quite common that we receive extra priority due to this junction design giving more than one green for bikes per complete cycle of the lights.

It's also normal that these junctions allow right on red (left on red in the UK) meaning that some percentage of cyclists arriving at the junction are always prioritised over all other traffic. No delay at all for them.

In any case your remarks about delays actually make no sense. Even if each stage occurred once in each cycle of the lights, including that for cyclists, then the delay would be the same on average for cyclists and drivers. It would not make matters worse on average for cycles than any other system of traffic lights which gave equal priority to each mode. In this sense it would be the same as any other junction at which cyclists could go in all directions in one go.

However, a two-stage design as proposed for London is always slower for the people making the two stage turn. That is where you need to look to see inefficiency and delays for cyclists and I suspect that is a good part of why they no longer exist.

I agree with you about how the lights here seem to work more straightforwardly than in the UK. Partly I think this comes down to separating out turns across other traffic. This simplifies things for drivers at the cost of a slight delay sometimes. However, there is something else. Delays are shorter for everyone. As I said above, it seems that there is a lot of individual optimisation at at least some of traffic lights.

The CROW manuals are good, but they're incomplete. Also they don't tell you anything about how a Dutch planner with Dutch experiences treats the information in the manuals. These things are taken not as gospel or as aspiration, but as bare minimum. The manuals also use very passive language and don't tell you which are the prefered solutions or what general practice actually is.

Spend a few years living here and you come to realise that only some of what is in the CROW manuals actually exists, and some of what exists is not in the CROW manuals.

Trying to apply "Dutch" standards to the UK just from those manuals will inevitably lead to something disappointingly inferior to the reality on Dutch streets.

My advice is to put down the manuals and start studying what is actually on the streets. CROW doesn't get you 50% of the way there.

Re: The TFL 2-stage turn

DavidHembrow — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 05:40:41 -0000

The solution isn't to have either ASLs or a two stage turn. They are both inferior. This is why I suggest what is now the most common arrangement in this are of The Netherlands for traffic light junctions used by bicycle - the Simultaneous Green junction. It's convenient, no two stage crossing, and it's very safe for everyone to use because all conflict with motor vehicles and pedestrians is removed.

It's used at both larger and smaller locations than this in The Netherlands. Why are we not discussing the best solution ?

Re: The TFL 2-stage turn

DavidHembrow — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 04:46:15 -0000

The idea that you have of "a full Dutch style junction" is not complete. The best design these days, more convenient for cycling and safer, is the simultaneous green junction. This solution could so easily have been designed into the Stratford Road junction.

Re: My family’s school run by bike.

DavidHembrow — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:10:25 -0000

First of all, congratulations on taking your children to school by bike. It's unfortunately not all that common the UK, and sadly it never will be until there is good cycling infrastructure everywhere, but individuals doing this still get praise from me.

I've seen this "49% of Dutch children cycle to school" bandied about and I wondered where it had come from. The source actually says "of primary school children". i.e. children aged up to 11. No child in the Netherlands has to travel far to reach a primary school so walking is quite viable. However, when they reach secondary school the distances are often impractical for walking and cycling takes over. In this area it's normal for children to cycle up to 40 km a day to get to and from school.

It's quite common for more than 90% of children to cycle to secondary school in The Netherlands. The lowest secondary school figures are for Amsterdam, which is a bustling city with much aging and less than ideal infrastructure. In that city, just 53% of first year students at secondary school cycle. Because Amsterdam is quite large, this low percentage drags down the average for the whole country, but that average is still 89%. i.e. for much of the country more than 90% of all children cycle to secondary school. This is a very long way from your 49% figure.

Your link for your source from Denmark is broken. However, I preserved a copy of their claim here. You were not comparing like with like. Denmark only claimed that 45% of children of all ages "often" cycle to school. This is not remotely the same as claiming that 45% of them do so every day. In fact, Denmark is a very long way behind the Dutch so far as cycling to school is concerned.

I think it's not helpful to present figures in the way you have as this makes it look as if there is near parity. In reality, the Dutch policy for child cycling is far more successful.

Re: The end of another Tour

DavidHembrow — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 08:44:55 -0000

The problems you are reporting on are a result of the lacklustre infrastructure that Sustrans has supported. Shared use paths don't exist in The Netherlands because they were found to cause exactly the problems that you report, so why are you building this second best infrastructure already known to cause conflicts in the UK ?

You have overcrowding on your paths because they are too narrow and too widely spaced. A cycle-path in The Netherlands which was expected to deal with a large number of cyclists would likely be four metres wide. What's more, if pedestrians were expected there too, we'd have a two metre wide pedestrian path alongside.

Dutch cycle-paths support a wide range of users, including fast cyclists. Commuters don't all have short journeys to make and they don't all want to make those journeys at 10 mph. It's not completely unknown for there to be conflicts, but they are not common as they are in the UK. While it's necessary to slow down occasionally to accommodate other peoples' use of the cycle-paths, it's also possible to maintain good average speeds because the need to slow down is reduced by good cycle-path design.

I find this to be a very disappointing blog post from Sustrans. The problems that you are seeing are largely of your own making.

Re: Exhibition celebrates London bike boom

DavidHembrow — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 05:09:22 -0000

The pictures are nice enough, but "a rival to Amsterdam" ? Give me a break. Just a few weeks ago we were told that London was 40 years behind.

Re: Eyes on the Street: No Parking in the Low Post

DavidHembrow — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:40:00 -0000

Yes, sort of, but I think I may have mislead you with that blog post.

In the Netherlands this happens (or happened - it's a fad from the late 1970s / early 1980s) on streets where there is no through traffic - i.e. no through traffic by bike OR car.

Dutch woonerven have no straight sections of road, lots of blind corners etc. They are designed to make driving at speed impossible and though the speed limit is set at "walking pace" exceeding it by much of a margin would be difficult.

This is not a treatment for busy straight through roads with lots of on-road parking, which is what is shown in the video, and they wouldn't do it with a cycle lane going through as this is all bound to cause conflict.

The direct cycle-route through the area which is shown in the post you linked to looks completely different to that.

Re: What It Really Means to Go Dutch

DavidHembrow — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:59:01 -0000

I enjoyed the interview with Jack very much - but there was one question in the interview which might sounds as if it had been dodged. This didn't happen on purpose, that's just how it came out. I wrote a response to that question as well as going a bit further on the theme of "What it really means to Go Dutch" in a blog post which follows on from this interview.

Re: London Mayor Unveils Ambitious, $1.3 Billion Bike Plan

DavidHembrow — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 06:44:05 -0000

I have to say that I find this New York vs. London thing quite amusing. "London may soon take the lead" ? What "lead" ? Neither London nor New York has a high modal share for cycling, and neither city is doing remotely enough to achieve it.

Five days ago, London's "cycling czar" admitted that London is 40 years behind the Netherlands.

The "ambitious plan" that you report on is a proposal for London to spend a third as much as the Dutch spend per capita each year and to do it for just ten years. That's no way to "catch up" on being "40 years behind".

That's just for London. The Dutch are doing this over the entire country. So what will be the position of the UK and London in another ten years ? Will they then then be fifty years behind the Netherlands ?

And in New York you think that what London is doing looks advanced ?

Re: Violence is Deeply Rooted in American Culture: Interview with Henry A. Giroux

DavidHembrow — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:43:42 -0000

In your article you state that there were 638 murders by firearm in Great Britain in 2010. That is much higher than the real figure.

In 2011, there were actually just 39 murders by firearm in the United Kingdom (note that Great Britain is a subset of the United Kingdom, so this is a figure for a higher population). I think it's quite possible that your figure "638" should in fact be "38".

Re: The Bicycle Revolution in Paris, Five Years Later

DavidHembrow — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 03:53:47 -0000

This example of Baffling people with large numbers is very similar to the equally misleading publicity from London.

The figures are not good for this, or for any other bike share scheme. 138 million trips over five years on 23000 bikes equates to about 3.3 trips per day per bicycle, or roughly 75000 trips each day. The city has 2.3 million people living in the area served by the bikes, and they account for just 0.13% of the trips that this part of the population makes. The figures would seem even worse if we considered the whole metropolitan population of 12 million people.

Move on. There's nothing to see here. No bike-share scheme anywhere in the world has had a major influence on modal share, including the one in Paris.

Re: What's the big deal with 3D printing?

DavidHembrow — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:10:05 -0000

I know exactly how they got themselves into trouble, and I'm happy to see that justice has been done. I don't think Apple is "good" at all. In fact I can't think of any other modern company which has used the legal system in such an immoral way, and which has tried so hard to stifle innovation by their competitors.

I hoped that the result of this court decision might result in journalists starting to realise that Apple does little more than repackage other people's technology (there are Samsung made parts in Apple's devices, but no Apple made parts in Samsung's devices) and that they're not the great innovators that their marketing makes them out to be. However, sadly the author of this unrelated article still used it to hype the company.

No-one from the Independent answered my question before. Is this paid product placement ? If not then what on earth is it ? To use an article to hype up a company which makes a product which isn't even connected to the subject of the article itself is surely not quality journalism.

Re: What's the big deal with 3D printing?

DavidHembrow — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:38:25 -0000

An interesting thing about this article is how it has nothing at all to do with Apple Computer, yet the author has managed to mention this company, its products and it's ex CEO no fewer than five times, in one case fitting them in three times in one paragraph, and in another using one of their products as if its price is a standard measure.

What's going on here ? Is this paid "product placement" as seen all too often in modern Hollywood movies ? If so, we should be told so that we know that articles are not as impartial as they purport to be.

In any case, other computer manufacturers exist, they make equally good products, and those other companies haven't been told by the courts that they must run advertisements to apologise for wrongly accusing their competitors of copying:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/t...

Re: http://pedestrianiselondon.tumblr.com/post/26969550090

DavidHembrow — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:48:15 -0000

The problem with bollards is that they're responsible for a vast number of injuries in the Netherlands. Seriously. A good proportion of those one-sided crashes which older people die from are due to bollards. Many towns are reducing their numbers to the minimum.

They do still play a useful role in some circumstances, though, where drivers will otherwise be interested in taking a shortcut which is for bikes only, so there is also work going on to make them more obvi0us in various ways. It's something I've been thinking of writing about.

Re: http://pedestrianiselondon.tumblr.com/post/26969550090

DavidHembrow — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 10:51:20 -0000

It may be pedantry, but I feel I must point out that pedestrian guardrails are not solely a British phenomena. They used to exist on city streets in the centre of Assen and I have photographic evidence of them. However, they're not there any more, having been removed some years ago when the streets were made rather more civilized.

Re: Burrows on the Bicycle (part two – laid back)

DavidHembrow — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:07:04 -0000

I had the pleasure of working with Mike Burrows on a few events in the UK, and have raced and toured with him too. A genuine and decent guy.

The Fietselfstedentocht in Friesland is another cycling event that you might be interested in. It's 240 km long with 15000 participants. People line very much of the route, especially where you pass through villages and towns. I did it two years ago, riding a bike that Mike Burrows would approve of.

Of course, running of marathons and this sort of cycling are a bit light-weight for you, there are other challenges. The ice-skating Elfstedentocht, takes almost the same route and has about the same number of participants. The 1963 edition was particularly difficult, with just 69 out of 10000 starters managing to get to the finish, due to rather harsh conditions and a temperature of -18 C. There's quite a good film about it.