"MJ Ray" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:[...] He asked me how I knew and I told him it was due to being a CTC
member. "Who?"
As someone who only got involved with the societies side of cycling in
the last year or two, I'm not surprised. Some CTC members *never*
expand the acronym on first use - you're not so famous you can avoid
it - and the same is true of some CTC publicity materials - see how
quickly you can find it on www.ctc.org.uk
Even once you know, a touring club is not interesting to many so-called
'utility' cyclists, whereas Sustrans is. Sustrans helps find off-road
routes for us and publishes useful research for persuading councils.
In my experience, Sustrans have been more responsive by telephone and
email, while CTC do stupid things like emailing MIMEd and Worded texts
that I can't read, even when asked not to.
Then you don't actually know the CTC. It is now called the CTC precisely
because it does far far more than talk about touring. It simply is the UK's
main cycling organisation for cyclists, especially utility cyclists.
Perhaps you aren't aware of the excellent insurance and legal help the CTC
provides to its members so that if they are injured whilst cycling, they can
have suitable recourse to professional help and financial recovery.
Perhaps you aren't aware of the vast amount of work the CTC does providing
cycle training - to provide the trainers and the courses for people to learn
how to cycle safely and with confidence.
Perhaps you don't know the the CTC is largely responsible for the
legislators in the UK knowing that the changes proposed to the Highway Code
were detrimental to the interests of all cyclists.
Perhaps you don't know that the CTC has a very good off-road section.
Perhaps you don't know that the CTC makes sure that cyclists who do not wish
to be effectively forced off-road by the ever greater provision of off-road
farcilities have their rights to cycle on road protected.
Last time I contacted my local Sustrans rep, he came out with a huge load of
twaddle about how cycling on a narrow shared-use cycle farcility with
strategically placed concrete bollards was supposed to be safer than cycling
on a wide, smooth road alongside. And how if I were to follow the Sustrans
suggested route to Fakenham from my place, I'd be doubling mileage quite
unnecessarily. Nice for a pootle, but nothing at all to do with SUStainable
TRANSport.
Quoted message said:On the ground, both CTC and Sustrans seem to do good work, as far as I
can tell from attending the local Bicycle User Group and Cycling Forum,
which I think is due mainly to having active local cyclists as their
volunteers. I've seen out-of-town representatives of Sustrans here
twice, but never seen any non-local CTC people TTBOMK.
Most of the time, Sustrans seem more clueful than Council or Police
reps, yet seem to have more credibility than most cyclist groups.
Sustrans probably could do more to inform their volunteers, but so
could we. If you don't know who your Sustrans volunteers are, make
a difference - adopt one today and tell them what they should know!
Regards,
--
MJR/slef
http://mjr.towers.org.uk/proj/cyclynn/
Oh how I wish Sustrans was not listened to by local authorities, as it seems
to tell non-cycling members of such places what non-cyclists think cyclists
want and need.... such as the painting of white outline bikes on footpaths
which miraculously turns them into shared-use farcilities, thus encouraging
cyclists, novice cyclists in particular, to think it's okay to cycle on the
footpath - period.
I have no time for Sustrans through experience of their supposed
'facilities'
Cheers, helen s
