Cycle helmets to become law?

x360 wrote:the problem with cycle helmets is they only protect the top and back of the head which is good if you get hit from behind, but the good old fashion face plant into the ground it aint gonna do jack. And I have the scars to prove it. it should be personal choice.

Spirit wrote:I was at that meeting. It lasted about two hours and the guest speaker was there to talk about how the excellent cycling infrastructure was brought in around Jersey. Cycle helmet use made up about 1% of the talk. In fact, the Press reporter left the meeting before the talk even started.

Guest Speaker, Deputy Daniel Wimberley, wasintroduced and welcomed to the meeting. The idea to invite Daniel Wimberley, founder of the Jersey Cycling Group, was as a result of GBG committee member Andrew Linehan returning from several cycling trips to Jersey with his family during 2009 with glowing reports of the cycling experiences in the other isle.
Daniel’s speech was very informative and thought provoking and his belligerence had resulted in many aspects of cycle facilities being ahead of Guernsey’s. However he did state that the topography of Jersey provided some certain advantages than Guernsey with many of Jersey’s valleys and roads emanating from the south of the island providing gentle gradients to the upper parishes. This factor and the south coast cycle path from St Helier westwards gave the basis for a very usable cycling network. A summary of his speech is below; -





1.
Danieland his wife Anna were founder members of the Jersey Cycling Group in 1992.
Together they run Jersey Cycle Tours which, as the name suggest, runs guided tours of Jersey for English and continental visitors and the business also involves the hiring of bikes.


2.
Daniel paid tribute to Mac Polard in Jersey who initiated the concept of the Green lane cycle network and he was also successful in getting through the mandatory speed limit of 15mph for all the identified green lanes. This was a crucial success and one that favourably changed attitudes of other road users towards the vulnerable road users.


3.
Daniel pointed out that the message of improving facilities for cycling has been hard going and at times it felt that no one was listening.


4.
Another step forward in public perception was during National Bike Week of 1997 when the JCG created wall to wall publicity in the Press throughout the week. He reiterated that soft PR whereby all opportunities to photograph or write about cycling should be maintained as much as possible.


5.
The “Terry the Train” saga gave further continuous opportunities to shout for the protection of cycle facilities in Jersey.
“Terry the Train” is one of the tourist road trains that decided that as part of its route it would drive along the south coast cycle path west from St Helier presenting a danger and inconvenience to cyclists on that path. Daniel pursued a long campaign to change this and gave him many opportunities for press articles referring to same. In the end it was decided that “Terry the Train” and cyclists do not mix.


6.
In the late nineties Daniel had a meeting with Alec Le Suer, the head of European Marketing for Jersey Tourism. Daniel explained that the claim by Jersey Tourism brochures that Jersey was ideal for cycling was not correct and in fact that many Europeans would have found the facilities far worse than the ones they had left at home. There were at the time very few little in the way of cycle route signs, few cycle parking facilities and no designated cycle tour routes. The “Tourist Development Fund” was used to create the cycle tour routes. The fund committed £250k to the project and JCG was paid to research these routes and create a network and photograph every junction proposing the appropriate signage.


7.
Daniel illustrated on a slide a map showing the favourable topography of Jersey with the valleys from the south emanating like fingers up to the upper parishes.


8.
Currently 99% of Daniel’s hire cycle customers are happy to say that Jersey’s cycling facilities are great.


9.
The disused railway had become a very popular cycle path but not without the usual struggle for acceptance. It had been long known as a walkway but Daniel used to use it as part of one of his tours. This avoided his group using a main road but it was pointed out to him that he was breaking the law. His well know determination and negotiations over two years got the law re written and now the shared use see walkers and cyclists both using it without any problems.


10.
The Tourist Development Fund had just financed a new cycle route to Jersey Airport and a further £500k is pledged to create a cycle path along the east coast of Jersey.


11.
Daniel introduced discussions on the best type of cycle parking. The less aesthetic squarer ones were better for parking cycles against then the rounder ones.
Jersey has had a continuing programme of installing cycle parks throughout St Helier and the more they install the more are used. At present official figures report that 900 cyclists commute into St Helier daily which statistically equates to 675 car parking spaces saved. Francis responded that one of GBG’s flops was to have allowed the removal of the cycle parking at the east side of the market development in Guernsey without pursuing the claims by developers that these would be reinstated at the end of the project. Guernsey has a diminishing cycle parking facility in St Peter Port. Francis further reported that the cycle parking facilities at the St Sampsons High School had been set at 200 but had been increased to 250 by demand. This was presumed because of the cycle contra flow in the area successfully encouraging cycling to school by the pupils there.


12.
A slide was shown of an aerial shot of a car park in central St Helier. It had a capacity of 580 car park spaces and illustrated the capacity for land saved by the 900 cyclists currently cycling into the town centre each day. The car parks have an enormous land value and Daniel was surprised that currently Guernsey offers free parking and doesn’t seek to recover some of the value attached to the parking facilities in Guernsey.


13.
Jersey’s current transport strategy under negotiation has been drafted with a stated aim of reducing car use in St Helier by 15% in five years at a target rate of 3% each year. There is a huge potential of encouraging cycling for environmental factors, health er population, less land use for car parking etc. but it is for governments to have the desire to tap into this potential.


14.
There is statistical data in Jersey which suggests that over 50% of people would consider other forms of transport than the car.
Deputy Peter Sirrett suggested that this left a question as to why they don’t and Daniel responded that it did illustrate that there is an aspiration and positive potential for getting people to change their long term transport options.