THIS VIDEO
This ongoing Video Diary by myself John Neal, sometimes known as John Longcroft-Neal, as the whim takes me.
TODAY’S SUBJECT is a closer look at the cycleway provision in Nuneaton particularly along the Hinckley Road and Longshoot which was allocated £1.15m for the project in May 2023.
GENERAL STUFF
I am retired from two careers of primary school teaching when I was deputy head of a Middle School and Primary School, and as a self employed Chalkboard Artist from 2002 until I reached the grand old age of 65 in 2016. Since I retired it’s like a second childhood but with more expensive toys.
SORRY BUT my website does no longer exist. Use these links below to buy my FOUR FULL LENGTH VIDEO $10.00 (approx £7.50) directly via Fastspring
1.a
’ Better Handwriting for Adults’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/betterhandwritingforadults
2.
‘More Handwriting for Adults’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/morehandwritingforadults
3.
‘Introduction to Chalkboard Art’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/introductiontochalkboardart
4.
‘More Chalkboard Art’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/morechalkboardart
I have also written a book ‘Cursive Handwriting for Adults’
published by Ulysses Press and can be purchased from:
AMAZON UK
AMAZON USA
My FACEBOOK Page https://www.facebook.com/Johnnealartist
I play guitar and write songs and have written about 14 songs for the local BBC radio station. I run a weekly (weakly) evening Acoustic session at a local pub and have been doing so for 14 years now. I also started an afternoon acoustic session in a quite large cafe in Nuneaton. Both premises were former songwriting clients of mine.
Much of the music I use on this channel is taken from epidemicsound.com free to use on Youtube for a reasonable monthly fee, and sometimes I suffer you with my own music.
Gear that I use:
DJI Mavic Mini 3 Drone.
Iphone 15 Pro for camera, generally front facing so I can see myself in frame. Super quality especially if I keep the lens clean.
Go Pro11
Gimble is a Q2 Smooth by Zhiyun, I ought to use this more often because it was expensive.
Canon G7mk2
Sony IC recorder
Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone
Rhode videomic to do voice over on computer
Video editing with Final Cut Pro X
Polarduck Mini Tripod for mobile phone. This is so good and under £10.00 I bought two.
Lamcou bendy leg tripod
Smatree Tripod / mono pod
Mono pod is a Manfrotto Compact MMC3-02 and is very useful for getting high angles that look like low flight drone shots and so easy to carry on my bike along with the mini tripod.
My bike is a e28 Estarli electric bike.
https://www.estarli.co.uk/
Money from ARTWORK SOLD will go to the MONA FOUNDATION
for details see https://www.monafoundation.org
I am a follower of the Bahá’i Faith and some of my philosophical ideas may show through in comments that I make, but, by and large, I’ll not make direct reference to my beliefs.
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/131048357093583
See www.bahá’i.org
To hear my Bahá’i INSPIRED SONGS, (and others) GO TO:
https://soundcloud.com/jrwren/sets/bahai-inspired-songs
I also enjoy gardening but lay no claims to have any expertise, and you might catch me out in the countryside of Warwickshire and nearby Leicestershire on a walk with my wife or on a bike ride.
Please comment below to inform further plans for my vlogs. I’d love to hear from you. If you don’t you will just get whatever bubbly ideas float to the surface of my slightly muddled elderly mind.
well good morning it’s John Neil here it’s Monday the 1st of July 2024 and I’ve got a question to ask I think of the worshire County Council [Music] hold it that’s enough for that well here I am on the Hinkley Road and as you can see there are people cycling by and nearly all of them are on this foot path so people do want to cycle along here and are trying to cycle along here but they don’t want to go on the road now my big question is this why is the not at least least a reserved Lane painted on the side of the road for cyclists just as you have on the Wedington road now somebody said well the road isn’t wide enough but I think that the road is probably as wide here as it is in the won road I don’t know what the regulations would be they surely should be saying oh it’s got to be so wide before you put a uh a cycle Lane on the side of the road I don’t know what to call it a reserve Lane I’ll stick with a reserve Lane um but if you have a reserve Lane I think they’re very good uh and really not expensive at all now what has happened here is they’ve resurfaced the road here as you can see it’s all quite nice and the white lines have been painted on again and they have not taken the opportunity to put a cycle Lane in even if it’s only on one side of the road that would do but they have done nothing at all and yet along this stretch of road and further up on the long shoot there were millions of pounds set aside recently for a proper cycleway built separate from the road and yet nothing has been done at all even though they’ve just recently refurbished the road here is the information off the internet so it must be true on the 19th of May 2023 active travel England announced funding award for local authorities Watcher County Council received 4.76 million of which 1.15 million is to fund this scheme construction must begin by the end of March 2024 and on the 1 of December 2023 watch County Council has paused development I want to know why well that is nine Paces across the road here on the Hinkley Road on this uh Crossing this this one here I happen to know that my stretched uh stride is a meter so whatever it’s N 9 M across nine strides across I’m now going to uh just measure the distance across the road further up and then over at Weddington where they do have a reserve L cyclist 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 M and a little bit further along still on the Hinkley Road 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 M and yet another cyclist on the path now here’s the puzzle this is the Weddington Road and it has cycle lens well here I am on the Wellington Road the traffic light here they go 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Road width here is uh 10 m and there is a cycle way which I would say is about a meter and a half to be honest all the way along here on both sides so my question is one question is at least why if they can put a cycle away like this uh on the Wedington Road why can’t it be done on the Hinkley Road and I don’t know well I’ve pulled on to Anchor Fields as it’s called opposite Wedington chippy good chippy by the way and oh it’s nice and quiet here so maybe I can just explain one or two other things as well got a paper here well you might have noticed on my bite I’ve got a paper sticking out the bag on the back and it’s yesterday no Saturday’s uh Weekend Edition in the Times newspaper and uh Janice Turner has a title here it says my summer affair with ebikes and the explosion of interest in cycling particularly with electric bikes is unbelievable because you don’t have to get hot and sweaty you can go quite a distance on them and it’s just so much easier riding an ebike than anything else but we need the infrastructure to make it work I read this though I thought well I’ve got to do another piece about this particularly as the wsh County Council I’ve just completely ignored the idea to put any form of facility for cycling along the inkley road and long shoot when there is some along the won Road so it can be done I just don’t know why they’ve not done it that is my big question for this video just listen to this uh lime is the people they’ve um lime they’ve got these green electric bikes and apparently in London all you do you pick one up um you pay for your your ride on it cycle where you want and then just park it hopefully sensibly and move on Lime came to London in 2017 and now operates in Milton Kings Nottingham and Derby and runs a scooter trial service in Greater Manchester Lim’s goal Network which began in San Francisco covers 280 cities on five continents London where it has 1.5 million Riders and serves 16 out of 32 bers is among its top markets along with Paris and Washington DC in Camden it claims 200,000 rides a month for commercial reasons it won’t reveal the number of its bikes in London although 30,000 bikes was a recent estimate that is considerable interest in cycling particularly in big cities now I say big cities um I’ve been into other towns in um England particularly in the southern counties I have to say I was in taon once and Cambridge it’s a wash with bikes all over the place there was um apparently the White County Council would say well they did a survey and asked residents up and down the long shoot and Hy Road whether they wanted provision for cyclists in some form or another and many of them sort of did but some objections was this that they don’t see many cyclists going up and down well of course you don’t because there’s no provision for cyclists therefore they’re scared off the ones we see are the sort of enthusiasts who bear are brave enough to get out and do it so if there was more provision for cyclists and I have to say cycle on the won Road where this reserved Lane is at the side makes me feel a lot lot safer funny enough I’m a driver as well I drive along that road and when I do if there’s nobody in that cycle Lane I can use it as well as a motor but if there’s somebody in it it gives me a clear indication of where the cyclist will be and where I need to be I just don’t see what the problem is so I’m really disappointed that warer County Council have recently resurfaced the hinley road and have remarked the white lines on it and have not even bothered to put a reserve cycle Lane on the side of the road and the size of the road seems to be adequate for it probably there’s a regulation about what they can or can’t do so I’m a bit puzzled really why why hasn’t it happened I hope that hasn’t come over as a rant but I just want the question to be answered and with some elections coming up and as a member of the public you see that there were allocations of over a million pounds for some cycle provision along the Hinkley Road in particular and nothing’s been done you begin to wonder that the powers that be and this case it’s a committee or whatever in uh the warshire County Council have decided not to do it yep just want to know why anyway there you go um any comments please put them down below and uh you know what you will see me in the next one okay [Music] [Applause] bye-bye now that’s what I call a giant hogly [Music]