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Rowing cycle lane protest, Holmston Road, Ayr, ScotlandMan protests bike lane...by rowing on it
A man has protested the building of a cycle lane…by rowing in it.
Angry about the installation of a bike route on Holmston Road, in Ayr, Scotland, Andrew Russell set up a static rowing machine, dressed up in workout gear and a sailor’s hat, and commenced his rowing protest.
The blue painted, 600m kerb protected cycle route, installed in August, has caused public outcry and claims traffic will grind to a halt. While some figures show 600 people are cycling on the route per week, local councillors are nonetheless threatening to join forces to “rip it out” because they fear it will cause congestion and "accidents".
Cyclists wear something red and protest for better cycling in Sheffield
In a perfect piece of video irony, Russell tells the Daily Record: “I’m here because I think the whole thing was a white elephant, because if you look across the road they had a perfectly good cycle lane before, which they’ve now scrubbed out,” the moment a lorry towing a flatbed van thunders past on the road, beeping its horn.
The former painted cycle lane he gestured to would have placed those on bikes between fast moving traffic and a stone wall, with only a narrow pavement as a buffer, should they need to evade close passing vehicles.
Russell says he saw eight cyclists during an hour of his rowing protest, before adding he enjoyed the “peace and quiet” of the kerb protected cycle route.
Russell’s exercise protest is perhaps more ironic given the burgeoning health crisis in Scotland, with 31% of Scotland’s children overweight or obese. In 15 years, if current trends continue, 40 per cent of Scotland’s population will be obese. The problem has been called this generation’s tobacco crisis in terms of public health risk. Smoking is now banned in public places in Scotland.
Local papers reflect the somewhat hysterical local mood, stirred up following the bike route’s installation, variously describing the bi-directional, kerb-protected cycle track as a “giant” cycle lane, which will see a road “torn apart” potentially causing “traffic chaos”.
The Daily Record reports one councillor dubbed it an “accident waiting to happen”, though it’s not clear how protecting people on bikes from motor traffic would cause injury, unless someone weren’t looking where they were driving and blindly ploughed into the new kerb, injuring someone cycling on it.
Plans are afoot to extend the route, but community council chair, John McGuire was quoted by the Record as saying “I think we can all be agreed that won’t be happening.”
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
Latest Comments
- brooksby 18 min 47 sec ago
But it would be absolutely brilliant!
- Mr Hoopdriver 22 min 34 sec ago
I imagine if cycling became a protected charistic they'd find some other out group....
- rjfrussell 26 min 2 sec ago
there is an interesting article on one of the cycling sites- cycling weekly perhaps- that essentially says that breatheability in wet weather gear...
- peasantpigfarmer 30 min 42 sec ago
Don't know if you fitted the bars yourself Dave. They are poorly finished internally . Outer cables kept jamming internally. Slots and holes poorly...
- qwerty360 38 min 10 sec ago
Iirc the Dutch have research that found in most places legalization reduced incidents! ...
- Backladder 1 hour 56 sec ago
What's another 6 points when you already have hundreds?
- OnYerBike 1 hour 10 min ago
Not exactly a building, but car drives into swimming pool: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cp354g1x904o. (No footage of the actual incident, just...
- stonojnr 1 hour 15 min ago
Some kind of cycling vigilante you mean ?
- Bill H 2 hours 30 min ago
Funding the healthcare service is not a binary option between the NHS and whatever the hell you call the US system....
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41 comments
In California they eliminated a fairly well used bike lane because all the yellow street directional and dividing lines were "confusing" and plain unsightly to some of the locals.
Since Captain Bly's rowing is stationary, shouldn't he be ticketed for obstructing traffic? Or is it okay because it's bikes and not cars? So much for "all must obey the same traffic laws".
In California they eliminated a fairly well used bike lane because all the yellow street directional and dividing lines were "confusing" and plain unsightly to some of the locals.
Since Captain Bly's rowing is stationary, shouldn't he be ticketed for obstructing traffic? Or is it okay because it's bikes and not cars? So much for "all must obey the same traffic laws".
Did see this being constructed as I drove along in Ayr but haven't had chance to cycle on it yet.
Saw the end of it from Hillfoot Road - easy to see the bright blue colour!
Good reason to take bike down to Ayr!
Haven't tried Milngavie, but it does seem to extend further than Holmston Road. The lanes themselves seem a decent enough idea (although not fully convinced by Homston Road lanes petering out), but they all end where it gets too complicated for road infrastructure and tend to dump us out at the most incovenient and unsafe point.
Centre of Glasgow lanes are OK but pedestrians don't seem to understand them at all. Then again, with the widely observed 20 mph speed limit, cycling should be idylic in Glasgow... (must admit I completely forgot when driving in centre at the weekend - nobody else is anywhere near 20 so hard to remember).
Those lanes are a bit better than the on/off pavement lines used in Hamilton, but Holmston Road actually had two reasonably wide pavements that I'd have thought ideal for shared use. (Edit well at least before reaching the cemetary - narrows on that side)
The Kyle Academy drop off will be quite an issue as housing has been built up all round it so few opportunies to stop a car (regardless of the right and wrongs of that).
It's a pity that an attempt to put some cycling infrastructure in place has generated so much negative coverage when that will just reinforce more of the predjudice some have and add hype to the media stirring things up.
I'm not a fan of cycle paths at all - we should just get the cars and lorries off the roads - and this one looks particularly shit:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/road-bosses-admit-carried-o...
I'd be inclined to encourage the drivers to park in it, thus keeping them off the road, and forcing the cyclists back onto the road where they belong, obstructing decent folk.
I'm rather intrigued by the logic of some of the people quoted in the newspaper. On the one hand the cycle lane is going to cause congestion; on the other hand it has taken away the places where visitors could previously leave their cars. How does that work?
So thick people live in Scotland as well as in
England. Is there no escape?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/fears-over-free-protest-par...
Pondscum at the Daily Record trying to incite their barely-able to readership to block the cycleway. Typical bilge from them.
Fried Mars bar and double dipped chips with cheesey sauce pls.
Maybe he should set the machine up on the road next time, just to compare and contrast whether more congestion and accidents are caused
What I don't understand about the cycle lane, is why it is on one side of the road? Surely you build two protected cycle lanes either side of the road?
Cyclists coming towards the camera should really be in a different lane on the other side of the road. And you should have a full length protective barrier, rather than blocks with gaps between to catch your wheel on.
Also...for everyone south of the border the News we get here in Lahndahn in the Metro is far better informed, timely and politically astute than the Daily Record which is at best a sports comic with headlines and small words for the hard of thinking.
This is what we have to deal with ... if it's not the Glasgow Herald and the Scotsman it's this pish...no wonder this poor deluded neanderthal has got himself dressed up like a worrying halloween 'responsible adult' and got his fizzog on the news.
It's a sad story in itself, but the comments here are the funniest i've seen in a long time
And yes, the design of that cycle lane is rubbish like pretty much every other one in Scotland
All true Dutchie...that said I got t-boned in broad daylight on the CS3 on Cable St in London a few months back...cycle lane design in this country it a sop to the politicians conscience and at best an ill-advised afterthought. I ONLY ride on roads 4ft from the kerb and revel in the opprobium this brings
Has he been arrested for obstructing the highway? Cut and dried case with his confession videod for all to see.
The rowing machine seems a perfect symbol for bike-lane protesters. There's a good deal of hot air produced but nobody gets anywhere.
Is that a bottle of vodka next to him?
More likely rum?
This is part of the #bearsway meme
"I don't understand cycling -why not just drive to the gym for a spinning class?"
Insidious 'logic'.
Potentially causing “traffic chaos” or potentially reducing obesity.
I can see why it's a bit of a brain scrambler.
I bet he hasn't even got insurance for that thing either. It's a bloody discrace I tell you!
He must be off his scull.
It might be rather dangerous to protest poorly used roads by riding a bike trainer on the highway!
This guy must have a lot of time on his hands.
How would he like it if we cycled in canals to protest his protest?
Typical rowist. There's a perfectly good river running right next to the road, but he chooses to row in the bike Lane. It's an outrage and I expect that he hasn't even paid road tax on his rowing contraption.
Surely you mean ROWED TAX!
Nice to see the Village People still entertaining everyone.
How the hell would a bike lane cause congestion and "accidents"?
Is it not traffic that causes congestion and road user's mistakes that cause "accidents"?
No helmet or hi-viz; disgraceful! I bet he rowed through a red-light too
During the time I watched this protest, I didnt see 1 pedrestrian. Out with the footpath!
Since Mr Russell lives in Scotland, not North America then he will have been protesting against the the bike lane.
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