LancsCycleSam

I'll be honest so far I haven't bothered. I did send an email two years ago about a cycle and walk forum but the response was I'd have to set one up. Perhaps it's time

I'd be interested in contacting my local council members more so than I have so far. The council is now controlled by the group that is most concerned with Gaza, which is a noble enough cause but I'm not sure how it relates to bins and highways. I'll have to see what they say,

The infra for both is SHITE (awful cambered uneven pavements with frequent dropped kerbs) and essentially NO dedicated cycle infra in the whole of east lancs, but I've thoroughly enjoyed both. I think east lancs, despite the hills, could be an active travel haven with the right infra.

And I do enjoy running and cycling in east lancs, even on country roads. The vast majority (95%+) of drivers are respectful and safe. More so when running than cycling but honestly both modes have been a relative dream.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ride from Chorlton to Deansgate to MediaCity to Chorlton again for the GM Run: other than White City it was a European dream (other than the lengthy delays on Trafford Road from car-centric junction design). First time I'd cycled in GM since leaving. A revelation

Should I praise it as it's SOME cycle provision, or should I scorn it as its badly delineated shared use footways with seasoned cyclists staying on the carriageway?

I like to think I was always relatively constructive but I cannot honestly say it was interpreted that way 100% of the time. That said, Lancashire council are still delivering dual provision nonsense in 2025-26 so it's hard to say what is best.

Forceful bike campaigners can undermine UK cycle lane planning, report finds Study interviewing councillors and officials shows transport projects can be hampered by ‘toxic’ online debates

I am proud of the Hyde Road and Sackville St stuff (even if the latter was silly but correct, the former has been proven right over the years) but yeah especially in the recent news from the Guardian I can't help but see my past self as part of the problem.

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ma...

I've also found myself shockingly siding with the council on the Zoe Bread issue. And can see how annoying to them I must have been...

Perhaps a case of lost perspective. I do think it's funny but I'm not sure I'd be photographed in the same article now, in the grand scheme of things the council did act rather swiftly to get the bridge deck repaired all things considered.

I'll accept that this is a classic @apiln.bsky.social though :)

I accept the golden Twitter years (for me) of 2015-2020 were kind of an anomaly where I had even a minimal amount of influence, after all I didn't deserve that! This is just returning the natural order of things of ranting into the ether :)

I sort of treat it the same as a website in the 90s (or indeed a personal website now) where posts are for your own good and anyone actually reading them is a bonus.

I'll never forget going to a pub on an unrelated purpose and being asked "are you MCRCycleSam"? by a stranger though. Was so disproportionate to my following at the time 😅. Would never happen in a million years now :)

I'm not terribly unhappy about this, I'm quite happy living a quieter life in a rural town versus posting outrage about Manchester City Centre. I guess it's just a re-evaluation of social media in general: sure I used to get hundreds or thousands of likes, but to what end? They didn't matter.

Posting on Bluesky does feel like shouting into the void sometimes: my "tweets" quite frequently get less than 0.1% of the response they used to get on pre-X Twitter, if any response at all. I'd never go back to X but I do sometimes wonder the value of maintaining an account on here.

Reposting this blog post as we're getting on for two months since. Happy to report I'm still using the same phone for my day to day and still loving it. I'd say there have been very few inconveniences overall and well worth the time I've got back.

sa.mtate.me.uk/blog/on-digi...

Mastodon is similar in that there are relatively few people on there to engage with stuff. I'm guessing the market for niche social media sites with limited reach is low, and the market for X is ever shrinking as it becomes a right wing bot echo chamber.

I wonder if this is the beginning of the end of social media as we know it. Facebook/X is unusable for bots and shills but here there is essentially no engagement on anything.

There'll be a lot of people retweeting this while using GPS for every journey.

Last week I turned off a road I'd traveled a thousand times onto a new-to-me road, went along that for a bit in what I thought was one direction, and ended up back on the exact same road I'd turned off, just a few kms along. Really reset my mental map of that area.

I love it when a road leads exactly to where I think it'll go, and I'm always amazed when it leads somewhere unexpected that I recognise, and have to look it up on Strava later to see exactly how I got from where I was to where I ended up. Really gives a deeper understanding of the area.

One thing I also like recently is "vibe-cycling". I.e just going on a cycle and turning down roads I'm unfamiliar with but I think will lead roughly to the direction I want to go.

I do have a GPS app on my "dumbphone" for emergencies but it's hard to decipher in an unfamiliar location on the tiny screen after a couple of drinks.. Much easier to ask.

Did this last month after failing to get from the post-work pub to Farringdon (from where I knew exactly which trains to get back to my accommodation). The gentleman walked me to the entrance, turns out I was only a street away :)

I always look out for cheap ones at market stalls or charity/bookshops etc. Can get them for a bargain price although often 30+ years out of date: my Blackburn one has the small detail of not having the M65 on it....

However, I'm not sure it'll have a huge effect on the numbers of people working without the right to do so: I'd presume most illegal work is done via Deliveroo account sharing, or car washes who don't check visas etc?

Downing Street exploring options for ‘progressive’ UK digital IDs BritCard proposed by Labour Together as way to avoid another Windrush scandal and reduce visa overstayers

Not against a digital ID in principle but administering it through a mandatory smartphone app is unacceptable. There must be an option to use PCs or free hardware (think the old bank code generators) instead.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

My OS Map of Blackburn and Burnley doesn't have the M65 on... MIght be time to get a newer one...

I've got the AA modern central london pocket map. Folds up and fits in a pocket no issue. Think its more centred on roads but works well for walking