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65% of Motorists "Don't Have a Clue" About Emissions

One of the main arguments made by UK politicians, and indeed many cycling campaigners, is that people can be "persuaded" to cycle more once they realise its health and environmental benefits. Accepting UK road infrastructure as "immutable fact", they believe that people can be "nudged" in the direction of cycling through little changes in behaviour. So how open to ideas about environmental benefit are non-cyclists? Well, a good place to start, given the tiny levels of regular cycling in the UK, is with motorists.

A new study by car comparison site car buzz asked new car buyers what they looked for first in a new car. The result is summarised in the graphic above. Most were, not surprisingly, most interested in price, seating space, and running costs. Only 1% considered CO2 emissions important, and of these two-thirds did so to save money. Only one in ten expressed concern about the environment, ie just 0.1% of all surveyed.

This echoes an earlier survey conducted by the Environmental Transport Association in 2008, which found that 65 per cent of drivers “didn’t have a clue” how much CO2 they produce when driving. The survey also found that men are less worried than their female counterparts about the effect their driving has, with younger drivers being more environmentally aware.

But most UK cyclists are also car drivers. Might there be some sort of conversion to environmentalism once we mount the saddle? Although there is no definitive equivalent survey for cyclists available - most cycling-related attitudinal surveys seem to be asking non-cyclists "what would make you cycle?" - anecdotal evidence such as the proliferation of T shirts like this one would suggest that at least some cyclists rank environmental reasons as important. On the other hand, the few times cyclists are asked to say why they cycle, they come up with all kinds of other - often philosophical and contemplative - reasons. Helping the environment, it seems, is all a bit too altruistic for most people.

It is clearly a waste of time hammering on about moral reasons to get people cycling more. At the end of the day, cycling needs to be more convenient, cheaper, quicker and more pleasant than driving. Good quality infrastructure delivers this. But as long as our politicians gaze upon our urban roads without any awareness of how backward our urban environment has become, they will continue to declare that a UK cycling experience of necessity involves rubber knickers.

Contraflow Signage

Earlier this year, Cambridge Cycling Campaign succeeded in winning local council support for the setting up of trial "cyclist contraflow" signs in parts of Cambridge. And as one of Darlington Cycling Campaign's members pointed out to me today, Cycling England has been encouraging all cycling towns to make one-way streets two-way for cycling.

Here in Darlington we have already asked officers on a number of occasions to consider this. One area where this is perhaps more urgently required, however, is at the Duke Street exit of the Pedestrian Heart. Here, cyclists who leave the town centre are confronted with a particularly narrow road outside the Coop Bank, a road that is designed to be one-way for motorised traffic.

This picture shows the view from outside the town centre. This evening, on my way home from the station, I was cycling out of the town centre on this stretch when I noticed a car accelerating towards me and beeping his horn (at 8pm in the evening). He seemed in a great hurry. The reason soon became clear. He screeched to a halt before I was able to exit the narrow road into Duke Street to tell me off for cycling "the wrong way down a one way street".

Having obligingly opened his car door to tell me so, I hung on to it in order to inform him that, in fact, he was entering the Pedestrian Heart, an area in which cycling is allowed both ways. But this was not enough for my car-centric friend, who clearly believed he had the right to speed into the pedestrianised Skinnergate because the bollard had been lowered.

Clearly, there is an education job to be done here. And what better way than to introduce, as is the case in many other countries, contraflow signs on one way streets. The usual safety "experts" will of course argue that "for safety reasons" this just cannot be introduced. But why is this deemed so unsafe, and ONLY in the dear old UK? Because we continue to pander to bad motorist behaviour, rather than developing an expectation of care when driving in built up areas. Contraflow cycling contributes to this.

Look again at the picture above, and you can see a so-called "flying motorcycle" sign. This is supposed to signal a road that is two-way for cyclists, but not motor vehicles. But how many motorists understand this? Especially when there are time restrictions which run out in the evening.

Perhaps more pertinent in this case is the question - why do motorists, other than commercial vehicles loading and unloading, require access into Skinnergate at all? Their only possible destination is a couple of hundred yards from this exit anyway. Would it not make sense "for safety reasons", and indeed to save the NHS some money by encouraging a bit more walking, to simply keep motorised traffic out of the town centre altogether?

Bringing the Arms race to Darlington

As one local cyclist yesterday commented on Twitter, apparently it is OK to incite violence towards cyclists. From the letters page of the Northern Echo:

READERS afflicted by pavement cyclists may be interested in a device my brothers and I made a few years ago for a TV programme. It consisted of a steel plate studded with spikes and hinged at one end which could be attached to a walking stick and folded up. On the approach of an errant cyclist on the footpath, a flick of a finger could deploy this mini stinger into the cyclist’s path. The resultant punctures to a bike tyre immediately transformed the rider to a pedestrian.

P W Anderson, Consett , County Durham

This declaration of cold war by the Echo has just been warmed up somewhat by a snappy response by blogger Karl McCracken:

The thing is, I’ve been thinking for some time that I need a sting in my own tail . Just as PW Anderson feels the need for a first-strike weapon against bicycles, I feel I need one against certain drivers. In this crazy arms race, I’ve realised that I need something to really discourage those drivers who think they can pass as close as they like - so long as they don’t actually hit you , there’s no harm done. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Could this be what is termed the "Green Economy" in action, the "jobs answer" to the proposed slashing of North East jobs by our new government? Whatever, we look forward to the Northern Echo's next joyful celebration of cyclist bashing.

PS Memo to Peter Barron : Many new cyclists use pavements, particularly alongside busy roads, when there is no cycle path. Discuss.

Blocked bike path on Borough Road

Another regular annoyance on my ride to work, is the red Astra that parks over the bike path exit on Borough Road.

This short length of bike path allows cyclists to legally bypass the No Entry on the northern end on Borough Road, and forms part of one of the main radial routes into town, as well as being on the Sustrans NCN14 route.

When heading into town, cyclists using the bike path alongside Haughton Road have to cross the entrance to Bannatyne's gym and then use the filter to get onto Borough Road. As shown in the Google Streetview below*.

View Larger Map

This isn't the easiest manoeuvre and is made harder by the fact there are also often pedestrians crossing in the same place, so cyclists have to watch where they're going while looking behind themselves back up Haughton Road for gym members turning left, forwards on Haughton Road for people turning right and into the gym car park for people heading for Haughton Road. Add in people sometimes driving out of Borough Road, or the access the the Bannatyne's HQ, which is also behind you, but on the left and behind a wall and you've got a situation that's not made easier by the parked car!

I've reported the car to the police via email, with the above photo (but with visible car reg plate) attached, so look forward to their response.

(*Incidentally, if you have a look up the bike path on the Streetview photo, you'll see that there's a family on the bike path. Doing the illegal, but safest, thing of using the pedestrian side of the segregated path to avoid them at the point they were photographed would have you heading for a bin.)

Reducing car use by promoting cycling - how is Darlington doing?

In his excellent blog, David Hembrow posts to a story about how many of the ten most likely measures to decrease short car journeys made in towns involve promoting cycling. (I'm reproducing the list below, but you should click through to his blog, as he provides links to real life examples of each measure.)

Here's the list, with bike-promoting measures highlighted:

* priority for cyclists at traffic lights
* make a town impossible to traverse by car (segmentation)
* providing good and safe bicycle routes
* improve accessibility of schools for cyclists in comparison to motorists
* decrease number of parking places
* parking at a fee/higher parking fees
* maintenance of bicycle parking facilities
* free/high-quality bicycle parking
* delivery services
* promote independent cycling by children

As you can see, six of the ten measures involve promoting cycling.

Now for a fun game. How many of these measures have been implemented in Darlington?

Priority for cyclists at traffic lights? No. There still isn't a single Advanced Stop Line in the whole town. At some tucan crossings in town which are not signalised (i.e. not synchronised with other lights to promote traffic flow) there are very long waits when there's no reason they couldn't change straight away.

Make a town impossible to traverse by car (segmentation)? No. Though it is impossible to traverse by bike, if you still to "safe" routes.

Providing good and safe bicycle routes? There are now some safe cycle routes (such as the ETC, the Riverside Route, the black path) but they often require indirect routes, have missing sections, require dangerous road crossings, are ungritted in winter or have long sections which would feel unsafe in the dark.

Improve accessibility of schools for cyclists in comparison to motorists? Increasing the numbers of children travelling to schools by bike has been one of the major successes in Darlington. However, this has been through soft measures like bike training, reward schemes and easy infrastructure like covered bike parking. I don't know of any schools where measures have been put in place to actually make it easier to get to a school by bike than by car.

Decrease number of parking places? Not in public car parks, though I think new building schemes have had the parking spaces limited. There are several resident only parking schemes around the town centre periphery.

Parking at a fee/higher parking fees? The hourly parking charge has recently increased in council car parks, though parking is free after 9pm, all day parking is still very cheap and the 3 for 2 offer is, I think, still running.

Maintenance of bicycle parking facilities? What bike parking facilities? There are some sheffield stands scattered about, but parking when quickly calling in to the town centre or visiting a school or other building is still very poor.

Free/high-quality bicycle parking? See above. Also, where is the secure parking for commuters to the town centre?

Delivery services? Pretty much all the supermarkets offer deliveries for internet shopping, and some offer the chance to have shopping bought in store delivered. Is there scope for an enterprising person to offer a drop-off point in the town centre for people to leave their shopping and then deliver it later in the day?

Promote independent cycling by children? There has been a lot of promotion of cycling to school, but is there any to encourage children to cycle to their friends' houses, to after school clubs or the cinema? If they did, would there be secure parking available or safe, legal routes?

Have I missed any brilliant schemes? Car use in Darlington has supposedly fallen, but how much of that is down to the recession or limited to the school run? How much more could it be reduced with the above methods?

The Forgotten Art of Political Rebellion

Darlington's Beauty and the Bike project includes a youth exchange with the German state of Bremen.

On Monday one of the project's researchers will be meeting Dr. Reinhard Loske, Bremen's Senator for the Environment, Europe and Transport, to discuss his work on improving Bremen's already good cycling infrastructure.

He also appears in the following video, advocating speed limits for Germany's motorway network. In fact, he is imposing these speed limits on all the motorways in Bremen State anyway.

In Germany, motorways without speed limits is gospel. Like America's freedom to bear weapons, the vast majority of Germans see fast driving on motorways as sacrosanct. Dr. Loske is not exactly the establishment's favourite politician, limiting their god-given freedom to burn fuel. But he understands when it's necessary to confront national orthodoxy - to rebel. Even when this means taking on the most powerful political lobby in Germany, the car industry.

Our own "national orthodoxy", as far as transport is concerned, also revolves around the car. To deny our citizens their god-given right to drive the kids 500 yards to school, to the shops, or to the local office, is not only too much for our politicians, but "corridors of certainty" are required to make the trip faster, easier, and more direct.

Heaven forbid the idea that we might disrupt this sacred tarmac by taking a square inch of road space away from the car to construct safe cycle paths. The only space available for such fanciful stuff round here seems to be pavements. If there is a definition of the political rebel that we need here in Darlington, it is the politician brave enough to state the obvious - road space, especially on our main roads, needs to be taken from cars.

The local authority have successfully encouraged many Darlingtonians to switch from car to bicycle. But a cursory count on the streets of the town will tell you that, unlike we seasoned cyclists, these beginners are very often seen on our pavements. The main roads are clearly regarded as just too dangerous.

Our "national orthodoxy" reaction to this, of course, is to curse and scream at those wicked cyclists - and we all know how easily this attitude spreads to include all cyclists. But the brave politician, the politician willing to reflect and understand, must rebel against this orthodoxy, defend cyclists, and state the obvious conclusion. These new cyclists need proper infrastructure.

So until the day we hear this on our own transport agenda, lets celebrate the art of political rebellion, German style.

...and by the way, we hope to invite Dr. Loske to Darlington in the future.

20MPH in Darlington Getting Closer

Darlington Cycling Campaign's policy of a 20mph speed limit for the town is a step closer to becoming reality.

Proposals to bring down speed limits in areas of Britain where there is a higher risk of accidents have been announced by the government.

Reductions from 30mph to 20mph in urban locations and 60mph to 50mph in the countryside are being considered.

Road safety minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the way people learn to drive and are tested is also set for reform.

The plans are part of a new strategy to reduce road deaths in England, Scotland and Wales by one-third by 2020.

Places such as Newcastle, Portsmouth, Oxford and Leicester already use 20mph speed limits in residential areas, and other local councils will be given new guidance to cut speed limits in residential areas and outside schools.

Darlington Borough Council have been introducing 20mph zones in selected residential areas, but have been hampered by a "can't do" mentality amongst local professionals, who for example cite the need for regular signage and speed bumps as a barrier to the wider use of 20mph.

CO2 Reduction More feasible With More Cycling Infrastructure

According to research bureau CE it is much more effective to reduce CO2 by improving bicycle infrastructure than by investing in a better flow of motor vehicles. It is however unknown how much CO2 benefit bicycle measures would provide. Therefore effects should be better monitored.

The CE-study 'Minder emissies door investeren in infrastructuur' has investigated several options to reduce CO2 emissions. These are measures to improve traffic circulation, change the modal shift and reduce energy use of vehicles. According to CE improving bicycle infrastructure provides the highest return of all 'mobility measures' studied.

Investments in (car) infrastructure primarily aimed at improving traffic flow prove to be ineffective in fighting climate change. Improved traffic flow does cause lower emissions per vehicle kilometre but in the long term also an increase in overall traffic, states CE.

A better bicycle infrastructure may contribute to a substantial CO2 reduction according to CE. CE works out that if, for example, bicycle policy in a town results in 2,500 people driving 5 kilometres less a day that would save 1 kilotonne of CO2. The maximum potential for the Netherlands might possibly be in the range of 100 to 250 kilotonnes a year. Improving bicycle infrastructure has many positive side effects on air quality, noise pollution and public health, besides climate effects. Various measures are feasible to improve bicycle friendliness by adapting infrastructure, like:
- construction and/or improvement of bicycle parking facilities;
- construction of bike paths or e.g. bicycle routes through residential neighbourhoods or town centres, preferably separate from car traffic;
- construction of bicycle tunnels;
- adjusting traffic lights and adapting priority arrangements at intersections and roundabouts. It is however hard to quantify the potential of these measures as there are insufficient evaluations which quantify the effects of improved bicycle facilities on the decrease in car use, CE states. Better monitoring of the effects on investments in bicycle infrastructure is therefore recommended.

A wealth of information about Dutch cycling initiatives and research available here, the website of Dutch cycling consultancy company Fietsberaad.

Dave Gorman's new car

Comedian Dave Gorman has just got a new car which isn't a car, it's a trailer for his bike.

Pedestrian Heart: Duke Street bollard broken (Update: No, it's not)

Cllr Mike Barker has blogged a couple of times about the broken bollard on Duke Street meaning that cars are ignoring the signs indicating that the street is closed to motorised traffic (Oi! Where's our bollard?, Protests Grow and Still no bollard).

I posted a comment on one of his posts that I thought I'd reproduce here:

Policing of traffic offences in the Pedestrian Heart is terrible (and it's pretty bad in the rest of the town).

For years, cars have been turning left into Duke Street from the car park behind Barclays Bank, in order to get into Skinnergate.

Since the PH work went ahead, vehicles repeatedly park on the double yellow lines in the contraflow bike lane in Northgate, which is supposedly only open to buses and bikes. Some delivery vehicles try to get around the double yellow lines by parking on the footpath side of the markings. The Boots delivery wagon parks right across the opening, so cyclists have to cross over onto the pavement to get past - an ambulance trying to access the PH in an emergency wouldn't be able to get in.

Delivery vehicles also regularly park on the double yellows on the bus loop below the steps up to High Row and cars are often parked in the little bypasses that cyclists are supposed to use to avoid riding between the No Entry signs on Bondgate.

But, mention riding a bike through there and the cries of anguish and potential deaths begin...

So, take care on Duke Street as there may well be cars about.

Update: It's back. I'd like to take credit, but I suspect it was fixed before I blogged that it was broken. As mike says in his post, you'll still need to be careful in Skinnergate, because of the cars illegally turning left out of the car park.

The average U.S. citizen completely ignores the regularity with which the automobile kills him, maims him, embroils him with the law and provides mobile shelter for rakes intent on seducing his daughters. He takes it into his garage as fondly as an Arab leading a prize mare into his tent. He woos it with Simoniz, Prestone, Ethyl and rich lubricants -- and goes broke trading it in on something flashier an hour after he has made the last payment on the old one.

By last week, this peculiar state of mind had not only sucked thousands of American oil wells dry, stripped the rubber groves of Malaya, produced the world's most inhuman industry and its most recalcitrant labor union, but had filled U.S. streets with so many automobiles that it was almost impossible to drive one. In some big cities, vast traffic jams never really got untangled from dawn to midnight; the bray of horns, the stink of exhaust fumes, and the crunch of crumpling metal eddied up from them as insistently as the vaporous roar of Niagara.

"The Last Traffic Jam", Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 15, 1947

[via Kottke.org]

An alternative to road pricing?

Copenhagen has been trying to implement road pricing (like London's Congestion Charge), but is being blocked by central government. So...

he has now proposed something City Hall calls 'Intelligent Traffic Control'.

It involves setting up sensors that measure air pollution in Copenhagen and the levels of pollution they report will regulate the traffic heading into the city.

If the pollution levels are too high on any particular day, all the traffic lights on the main roads into the city will turn red and stay red longer than normal. The time the traffic lights are green will be reduced by 10 percent.

More genius from Copenhazanize: Intelligent Traffic Control in Copenhagen.

Filming on the road

Magnatom is a Glasgow bike commuter who films his commutes using a helmet-mounted camera and then posts the clips to YouTube.

The Way Motorists See Cyclists?

Try this awareness test....

In this compelling new three-part series Kris visits two towns and a city – Marlow, Boston and Durham. Each is a traffic black-spot. Can Kris persuade people her idea of going car free for just one day a week is a runner?

Professional trouble-shooter and creative problem solver, Kris Murrin is on a mission to stop traffic for just one day in three of England's most congested locations. King Canute tried to stop the tide rising, but Kris has to convince local councils to get behind her campaign and then change the behaviour of car users who rely on their vehicles to get from A to B daily.

Kris's journey starts in the Buckinghamshire town of Marlow, where car ownership is one of the highest in the country. Her aim is to get one in five cars off the roads to simultaneously promote healthier lifestyles and encourage a greener way of life.

She is no stranger to challenging situations and has canoed down the Amazon, climbed to the base camp on Everest and competed in some of the toughest yacht races in the world. But Kris has got her work cut out trying to convince parents to ditch their cars for the school run here.

Kris' second challenge lies in the Lincolnshire town of Boston, where road traffic is already a serious issue and obesity rates are the worst in the country. Boston is a town whose council is dominated by 'Boston Bypass Independents' rather than main party politicians, so how will Kris persuade the locals to give up their cars for the day?

Kris' journey concludes in the City of Durham, where she is encouraged by the enthusiasm of the local council. They already provide several services to get the residents of Durham walking, cycling and using public transport and Kris hopes to build on this positive car-free thinking.

Can Kris change the motoring habits of road users in Marlow, Boston and Durham? Watch The Woman Who Stops Traffic, Channel 4, Tuesday 26 February 9pm.

- Channel 4: The Woman Who Stops Traffic

Update (11/02): The final part, about Durham, is on tonight at 9pm.

Dangerous Roads

The top four stories on The Northern Echo website at the moment are all car-related and all negative:

* Four-car collision causes traffic disruption
* Sneezing man rescued from burning car
* Two seriously injured after tanker and cars collide
* 118mph Police driving instructor’s speed shame (also the front page story in today's paper)

Thankfully no-one was killed in any of these incidents.

How come nobody remembers these stories when trying to decide how to get somewhere, yet they remember any story about trains being delayed?

At least when the train is delayed you get to have a chat and are given free papers and drinks.

School car-exclusion zones

While searching for articles about 20mph zones, I came across a Northern Echo article about a car exclusion zone set up a five minute walk from a school in Durham - Pupils launch car-exclusion zone.

It's not clear from the article whether it is all cars which are excluded from the zone, or if it's just a voluntary/suggested zone for parents dropping their children off at the school. I'd guess it's the latter.

I wonder what difference this would make to Darlington's traffic patterns if it were implemented across all schools in the town?

Cycling in Europe - Conclusions

So there it is, cycling in the Netherlands and Germany can be just as variable in quality as in any other country - although the standards by which quality gets judged tend to be much higher than those in the UK.

What really puzzles me is this. Is traffic engineering in the 21st century really a science, or is it just a political football? I ask this honestly of the traffic enginners of Darlington, and of the politicians who rule them.

This trip clearly demonstrated that, when planning for cycling (as, we are told, Darlington, Cycling Demonstration Town, is doing) a raft of traffic measures is at the disposal of traffic engineers to consider, whenever a new scheme is developed. These include - all of which have been clearly illustrated on this blog:

*priority to cyclists at crossings with side roads
*cycle rings around roundabouts
*scrapping of centre lines on narrow roads to enable cycle paths to be created
*20mph zones
*shared space projects
*cycle paths that use both road space and pavement space at different times, depending on space availability
*making car driving in urban areas more difficult, to get people out of their cars
*cycle streets
*one way streets for motor vehicles that are two-way for cyclists

I genuinely ask - do these traffic engineering tools ever get considered in a town like Darlington, or are we victims of car-induced brain death in this department? Would it not be useful to at least have a traffic planning process that required engineers and politicians to explain why they have rejected such solutions, rather than never even having to consider them?

What this variation in cycling provision also suggests is that a grading of cycling provision - independent of country - is both appropriate and possible. The cyclist priority roundabout in Ijmuiden would get 5 stars, the cycle paths on country roads in Friesland only 2 or 3.

Similarly, our (current) right to cycle through Darlington's town centre feels something like a 4 star hotel, with no dangerous vehicles, plenty of space, and only the sudden changes in direction, and ongoing obliviousness, of pedestrians to consider. The ring road, on the other hand, could be classified as the equivalent of a whorehouse, with cyclists the unpaid prostitutes.

Just as houses are now subject to an eco-grading when they are sold (well, at least 4-bedroom houses at the mo), maybe we should introduce the same scheme for roads.

Ah well, back to the joys of the little island.

After the overnight in Sneek, a wet morning's cycling to the town of Drachten, comparable in size with Bishop Auckland, and with a Shared Space project on its inner ring road. Ten miles out from Drachten, the road - and cycle path - are closed for road works. What do we get instead? This specially constructed, temporary diversion for cyclists. This was in a small village, and it even had a nice lady at the end of it to stop traffic so that we could cross a busy road.

The Shared Space concept is one that is gaining increasing support across Europe. In Drachten, the project is based on the removal of traffic lights on the busy inner ring road, and their replacement with roundabouts, and junctions like the one in this video.

A bit like a zebra crossing for cyclists and pedestrians, but without the beacons! We used the crossings ourselves without a hitch, but what we noticed was that a routine was established by cyclists whereby they signalled their intention to cross with a wave of the appropriate arm, and local car drivers were waiting for the signal. In other words, local customs had developed to deal with uncertainty.

The one car that failed to stop was a Polish-registered vehicle. The cyclist in question, however, was alert to the possibility and probably stopped in time when he registered that the Polish driver was dreaming rather than looking. This, we conclude, is the hub of the problem. Like Poles, most British car drivers also currently dream in these situations, safe in the assumption that they have absolute right of way.

How can we change such behaviour to something more appropriate to urban driving? After so many years of motor dominance in our urban spaces, we are still trying to develop cycle routes in towns like Darlington on the assumption that the motorist should not be disturbed. Yet in contradiction, there is now said to be a hierarchy of traffic modes that puts the disabled, pedestrians and cyclists above motorists in terms of priority.

This theoretical commitment now needs practical application to tackle the major barrier to urban sustainable transport development - British car driver behaviour. Rather than run away from the issue, we badly need politicians, local and national, who will show leadership, and start the long haul towards more considerate - and aware - urban driving.

Cycling in Europe 4 - Friesland Surprises

You sometimes forget when visiting a country like the Netherlands that it is made up of towns, cities, regions, each with their own unique identities. Crossing the 30 kilometre dyke on the Ijsselmeer reminded us of this fact.

South of the dyke is Holland proper, not to be confused with the rest of the Netherlands (cf with use of "England" for "Great Britain"). North of the dyke is Friesland, a largely rural area famous for its cows.

What immediately struck us as cyclists was the change in traffic treatment. Where previously we were given clear priority of crossing motor traffic - at side turnings, for example - in Friesland the approach is more tentative.

Crossings like the one in the picture ask cyclists to give way to car traffic - and car drivers take the hint by driving faster, and with less awareness of what is going on around them in much the same way as Brits.

The first major town we passed through after the dyke, Bolsward, proved to be typical of the region. Here, the town centre has a 30kph (20mph) speed limit, and little or no separate cycle paths. With cycling as popular here as in the rest of the Netherlands, the streets are loaded with brave cyclists and rather aggressive motorists - though thankfully far fewer than in Darlo.

The layout of Friesland roads became apparent as we continued on to Sneek. Small country roads typically have no central line, but instead are narrowed either side with non-mandatory cycle paths, to both warn motorists that cyclists may be round the next corner, and to give them less of a feeling of the open road. Here is one example.

Is this a chicken and egg problem? Does good behaviour follow clear traffic measures that give cyclists priority, or are such measures not possible where motorists are typically possessive about their road space? Perhaps the clue lies in the politics of the different regions, though little can be gleaned from the electoral arithmetic of the 2006 Dutch general election.

But it does make sense, that if strong political leadership is forthcoming, anti-social driving behaviour can be challenged. And what is clear from this experience is that national patterns of behaviour can and do vary. Darlington pundits take note - stop hiding behind the "we are British, we can't do it" excuse for inaction.