mastodon 4.7.2A freelance highway engineer's adventures in time & space. The street is not too narrow, your imagination is too narrow.
I'm interested in making urban places safe and easy for walking, wheeling and cycling.
I'm currently trying to make a living running my micro-consultancy, City Infinity, and I also write for Highways Magazine.
I also dabble a bit in home-brewing and fruit growing/ foraging, plus I am a bit of a Lego addict and a fan of silly action films.
I'm based in London, UK.
This week's early starts have been me getting across London to look at school streets in Brent, and this morning, I caught this wonderful scene of people using a street in scheme I designed. As intended. ☺️
@CityInfinity@urbanists.social
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
I completely forgot to post these snaps from the Severn Bridge earlier this week.
We were on our way to the Lad's graduation and of course, I made him take photos, and we went this way to Newport because why not.
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Waiting for a relative at a health centre and of course looked at the unused token cycle park.
Stands too close to each other, too close to the planting bed and rusting bolt-down hoops. I'd lock my bike to the "shelter".
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
The legacy of Eric Pickles out in Little Clacton, Essex.
He stopped councils enforcing yellow lines with CCTV and now councils are using red lines because that wasn't affected.
Trouble is, you can drop off/ pick up on double yellows, but not double red.
So he's made it more draconian. LOL.
Anyhoo. Given I left home at 05:30 to get to site this morning, I've wound up work and am now enjoying some delicious Scottish produce.
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Vision Zero, but where we address the death and injury arising from motoring externalities as well as risky road layouts.
In the May edition of Highways magazine I hit the anecdotes about car parking and how there should be more honesty around what "free" actually means.
Digital edition free as ever.
A slight diversion on the way to Goes station to look at a roundabout within a roundabout.
This was natty. Traffic shuttling under signals with a little uncontrolled side road with cycling unimpeded.
The Department for Transport in the UK would faint.
A final snap from this trip, especially for the train folks and cycle track stans.
Harwich has opened another large section of retail park near the port.
Actively trying to kill off it's already fading town centre for a car-centric future.
The UK has a serious disease.
Well that's interesting.
https://sea-cargo.no/sc-connector-norways-largest-sailing-vessel/
Rounding off a busy week in New Zealand. Well, Liverpool. Well, actually, I haven't left London. 🍻
How was your week?
And that's us for another trip with a wander at Hoek van Holland Strand.
I hope you've enjoyed the snaps and look out for a couple of blog posts soon.
I'm pooped and very much looking forward to a couple of quiet days.
Anyway. Since when was Wolverhampton in Italy?
Cheers 🍻
How was your week?
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Another early start on the rails with the people who actually wake #London up before the office folks get going.
Pleased to report the #ElizabethLine is running just fine from the east this morning.
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Active Travel England has at last published its rural design guide;
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/designing-accessible-rural-active-travel
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Apropos to a conversation I had with someone earlier, I really don't think most people (regardless of mode) understand that a school street, using a pedestrian and cycle zone,
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Anyone in #London using the #ElizabethLine might want to check before they leave as is knackered out east.
Crossposted with @openvibe@mastodon.social
Yes!
So, in a pub in Hulst having a couple of beers, the landlord (who might have been drinking some of his profits) insisted we tried this. Good Lord.
A first for me. Train to Lakeside in Essex.
I have bussed here in the past, but a newish local bus service my end to get to C2C rail makes it a doddle.
In the April edition of #HighwaysMagazine, I ponder a move to "maintaining accessibility" as being a better approach to faults within walking and wheeling space rather than "making safe".
Oh and at Harwich, you have to cycle over the spiral car bridge over the railway which is fine if you have an engine. 😳
A busy but fun week and the first time sat out in my Summer evening spot for this year.
Cheers, how was your week?
Friday sofa time and for beer I've headed to.
Wait for it.
Kent.
Cheers 🍻
How was your week?
*** New blog post *** in which I revisit a village in Zeelandic Flanders and sing the praises of a bypass road.
https://therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com/2026/04/ive-seen-things-you-people-wouldnt.html
And back in wonderful Rotterdam for an early lunch at the Markthall.
Kibbling as has become our last day tradition.
And a photo of a Herring Boy to troll #TheDoodle. She's not a fan.
The Breskens to Vlissingen Ferry was very comfy and had a quick interchange with the train on the north side to take us a few stops to Goes.
Thank goodness. Today was a 31 mile monster day with a 35km/h headwind.
Time to find a beer.
Hulst to Breskens in what has been a brutal headwind all day.
Ferry to Vlissingen now and then the train to Goes.