sangano-pinerolo bike ride

Had a nice bike ride to Pinerolo, 20 km + return, large sections of cycle lane. I started off this morning at a leasurly pace, enjoying the early March sun warming up the air. I had a very thin-crust pizza in town, then made it back home, with a refreshing stop at Gelandro, the best ice-cream shop in the whole area. The ride was thoroughly enjoyable, had it not been for my rather sore bum I could have gone on another few hours.

I guess it's all a matter of saddle-training when you travel… admittedly the road was mainly flat, with no big hills to tackle, quite alright for my one-speed city bike. Anyway, I enjoyed my going so much that I want to do more of the same the coming weekends!

I saw a pretty large bicycle shop in Frossasco - I might go there to look for a decent TRAVEL bike sooner or later, when I finally get my head round to some serious bicycle travelling... something that always attracted me, but I never really got round to do.

no bike racks

In p. Castello there are NO bike racks. This town (Turin, Italy) is really appalling - it's very hard to find ANY bike racks near ANY public places, theatres, public buildings, museums, squares, restaurants, you do find SOME near schools and universities, but it's just a fraction of what's needed or what would stimulate the use of the bicycle - really sad for a town that 'prides' itself with being 'cycle friendly'. I'm afraid a cycle-hire scheme, although welcomed, is just NOT enough…

I PARK LIKE AN IDIOT

 

via bertola, torino, 20.03.2012 -- a classic

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and now for something more recent...

yesterday, may 8 2012, 5:10pm, via pio vii - another classic...

and this morning, 7:49am, same lane...

this is actually parked here most mornings. in the netherlands they would already have set it on fire, I believe...

sadly this shows exactly how much respect and consideration is given to cyclists in italy... :(

park like an idiot...

esempio di come vengono usate le piste ciclabili a torino : in queste foto via bertola, ore 18 circa, targa automezzo: DK864AS - complimenti tdc!

example of the way cycle lanes are used in turin, italy : here, via bertola, around 6.00pm, van plate: DK864AS - well done wanker!

MORE GOOD NEWS ... STILL FROM UK

September 28, 2009
Thousands more parking places created at stations – but only for cyclists
from The Times Online, Ben Webster, Environment Editor

The daily misery of hunting for a space in the railway station car park and being charged up to £20 for the privilege will soon be over for thousands of commuters — if they switch from petrol to pedal power.

The Government will announce today that it is creating 10,000 additional secure cycle spaces at stations as part of a commitment to “put cycling at the heart of transport policy”. Hundreds of stations will get cycle stands monitored by CCTV cameras or with cages accessible by swipe cards. Ministers have not yet ruled out reallocating spaces from cars to bikes.
In addition, ten main stations, Waterloo, Victoria and St Pancras in London, as well as Leeds, Sheffield, York, Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Liverpool Lime Street, will gain “cycle hubs” offering cheap repairs, cycle hire and supervised parking.

The £14 million of funding for cycle facilities being announced today comes after the commitment last year to spend £100 million to increase cycling in a dozen towns and cities. The Department for Transport has set a target of getting an additional 2.5 million people cycling regularly. It also aims to offer basic cycle training under the Bikeability scheme to half a million ten-year-olds across England by 2012.
[...]
Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, will say today that: “For too long we have hesitated to promote cycling — the greenest form of travel — as a mainstream form of transport. Yet more than half of all journeys — including journeys to work, school and college — are of five miles or less. If we made it easier and safer, more people would cycle. Just talk to the people already on their bikes. They sail past the traffic, they enjoy the exercise, they get a sense of freedom. And the cost in petrol? Nothing.”

Lord Adonis decided to invest in station cycle parking after visiting the railway station in the small Dutch city of Leiden. It has supervised parking for 6,000 bicycles [...]
The standard amount of funding for cycling initiatives in English local authorities is about £1 per citizen, per year. In contrast, Dutch cities such as Amsterdam are spending between £10 and £20 per year. [...]

source : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6851682.ece

AT LAST

At last I'm back on me bike! After a few days of un-biked commuting -sooo boring- I could finally get back pedalling, in spite of my back brake still not working. But, alas! better cycle with one break only than not cycle at all =>
There's no better sense of freedom than the one you get when cycling in town.
¡LA BICI ES LIBRE!