Car-free bike rides can be a gift, believes Rob Ainsley
While in Northumberland for a future Local Knowledge route recce, I discovered it’s great to cycle around. Mostly it was as expected, with its coastlines, collection of castles, rolling farmland and friendly people. Many places have an olde-worlde feel – long stretches of National Cycle Network Route 1, for instance, untouched by modern road surfacing.
But there were a few surprises. The artisan hut in Amble Harbour Village selling ice-cream for dogs. The sign for the village of Snitter that had been amended by someone with toilet humour and a marker pen. Seahouses’ fame with German visitors, thanks to it being featured in a school’s English-language book. The German family I met on hired e-bikes were quite upset by what a driver shouted at them. He wasn’t being rude, just giving directions, but they were distressed he’d used a transitive verb intransitively.
The most pleasant surprise was finding that local buses take bikes. Not just special routes, such as access to Hadrian’s Wall, or Otterburn’s splendidly rideable Ministry of Defence ranges, best explored when they’re not actually shooting, obviously, but local double deckers, in the normal luggage area.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 2018 من Cycling Plus.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 2018 من Cycling Plus.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
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