Disqus - Latest Comments for alexhughes

Re: Spread your legs

alexhughes — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:18:20 -0000

Depends on your definition of a pace - Wikipedia has it as being 58.1 inches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... ).

0.5 miles = 31 680 inches, 31680/58.1 = 545 paces (approx.)

Walkit defines a step as being 69cm = 27 inches (http://walkit.com/faq/#step... ).

Or, to put it another way, 1 pace = 2 steps, or the distance travelled by one foot in a full stride.

(knew that degree in maths would come in handy one day).

Re: Friday Photo by Karen Strunks

alexhughes — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:39:35 -0000

According to Pevsner's Architectural Guide to Birmingham by Andy Foster, the paintings are by Paul Maxfield, and were part of the 1989 refurbishment.

Re: BiNS Postbag

alexhughes — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:31:02 -0000

I think Jane might be a bit confused - Watchmen may not be on at the IMAX (boo! hiss!), but it'd definitely on at the Cineworld on Broad Street - http://www.cineworld.co.uk/... - the AMC in Broadway Plaza - http://www.cineworld.co.uk/... and even the Electric - http://www.theelectric.co.u... - from Friday.

Re: Question CUL1

alexhughes — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:22:47 -0000

Hows about a cartoon gallery? OK, I'm kinda biased on this one, but why not? The Cartoon Museum in London has been a huge sucess, and there are other galleries around the country that have cartoon exhibitions, not to mention the rest of the world). The London museum has a permanent exhibtion of historic cartoons and other regular exhibits (currently on Giles I believe), along with discussions and workshops for kids and the like.

Just this week I discovered that Birmingham City University has a collection of cartoons by Larry (the late Terence Parks - http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/r... - and a native Brummie to boot) at Margaret Street. It's a crying shame that these aren't on permanent display somewhere in the city.

Re: 4.6

alexhughes — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:28:50 -0000

Looks like the Underground proposals are back again, Dave:
http://www.birminghampost.n...
...although I can't see any actual mention of undergound rail in the Big City Plan above (as hinted at in the Post article)

And then there's the propsals for a monorail...
http://www.birminghampost.n...

Re: 4.7.3

alexhughes — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:14:13 -0000

Would this involve sending all city centre routes all the way around the Queensway loop, or a series of smaller loops dotted around the edge?

Re: 4.8.1

alexhughes — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:03:55 -0000

20 minutes? Within the old Queensway 'concrete collar' maybe, but getting around the rest of the city centre on foot can often take twice that.

Re: 4.7.2

alexhughes — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:02:40 -0000

This could be eased by re-routing a few bus routes... part of the problem (as I see it) is that some routes (the 6 and 37 come to mind) go through that same bottleneck on Moat Lane by St Martins twice - once on the way in, and once on the way out. These routes run every 5-10 minutes peak time... thus putting more stress on an already overused pinch-point.

Re: 4.9.2

alexhughes — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:44:45 -0000

It wouldn't hurt to rethink cycle routes around the city in general - what few there are are patchy and inconsistent with respect to signage and road markings. May I add Five Ways Island as another example of a poorly thought out (and even more poorly maintained) cycle route. It's often not clear which side (certainly to many pedestrians) which side is the cycle side. Not to mention the inconveniently-placed billboards and other street furniture effectively blocking some of the ends. A consistent use of colour coding would be nice - it currently varies across the city centre between green, red and none at all.

As for cycle parking - how about a requirement of all car parks in the city centre to have free, covered and secure cycle parking?

Re: Birmingham: It’s Not Shit’s 11 – 11 – 11

alexhughes — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:43:13 -0000

...of course, this opens the possibility of the 11 route pub crawl. 11 evenly spaced pubs in 11 hours? Sounds do-able to me. Now to find 11 (decent) pubs as near to the route as possible.

Thinking about it though - you've missed a trick. You could have done the same for the 8 route next Friday - 08/08/08.

Re: Car Park Art – He An

alexhughes — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:08:37 -0000

Er, is He An one of the Asters of the Universe...?

(I'll get me coat...)

Re: Central Library, why not knock down everything else instead?

alexhughes — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:16:41 -0000

Noooooo! Don't give 'em ideas. The Central Library must go - it's just awful! Ugly, badly designed, badly built and falling apart. Have you ever tried working in there? The sooner we can get rid of this monstrosity, the better.

Re: Post Office Closures, Pat unaffected just yet

alexhughes — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:13:43 -0000

Can I add two more that have closed recently(ish - well, the last couple of years or so), but have not been replaced. The large 'Big Top' Post Office that stood near the entrance to WH Smiths, which closed due to a forthcoming redevelopment; and the one on Bearwood High Street which closed when Morrisons took over Safeways and closed it down. Neither was on the original closure list.

Re: We can has daysaver

alexhughes — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:27:52 -0000

Nice! All we need now is a Birmingham bus-passenger blog to chart the daily misery of traveling on TWM.