The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Why an obscure reference to Chapter 7 of Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Pink Floyd's debut album from 1967 you might ask?  A good question, and one for which there is a good answer - Well,  an answer at least.

I suppose the Wind in the Willows reference is only fair given the fact that the A303 has been making passable attempts to imitate a river for the past few weeks and you can frequently find examples of Badger, Ratty, Mr Toad and other characters lying immobile and festering by the side of it. 

In this case though, the reference really is to Pink Floyd.  First, they are my favourite band and any excuse I can think of to listen to their music has to be leapt at.  Second. I was reading some Tweets from another STAG member, @tragicyclist - a keen cyclist.  He and his friends had been complaining about the lack of cycle lanes.  Although I ride mountain bikes,  I'd avoided a road back because the prospect of riding on the A303, to get out of the village, is terrifying.   However, for all sorts of reasons, I now have a road bike, and that got me to thinking of Pink Floyd and the Piper at the Gates of Dawn in particular.  The final track on side 2 of the UK version of the album is Bike.

I've got a bike.
You can ride it if you like.
It's got a basket, a bell that rings,
and things to make it look good.
I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.

That's all a very convoluted way of getting to the real point about this post.  If we are going to spend a King's Ransom dualing the A303/A358/A30 corridor, why not be really imaginative?  This is meant to be the Highway to the Sun, after all; especially when it is not being the Highway to Hell.

Why not take the opportunity of creating a purpose built cycleway and footpath at the same time?

It could be shared with pedestrians and, given the wealth of interesting things along the course of the A303, could make a walking or cycling holiday in its own right.   Now I don't mean painting a narrow strip down the side of the A303 and assuming that cars and lorries will stay out of it.

They won't!  In any event - mixing pedestrians and cyclists with traffic travelling at 70-90mph isn't a particularly bright idea. 

I don't even think it would be sensible to set a cycleway/pedestrian lane directly alongside the carriageway - too clos, too noisy and still way too intimidating.  What I'd like to see is something like the cycleways around the outskirts of Oxford and in many European cities.

A cycleway and footpath physically separated from the road by a grass strip and, ideally, by an Armco barrier to stop accidental incursions by motor vehicles.  We have a once only opportunity with the A303 and any dualing activity that might happen and we should make as much of it as we can.  What do YOU think?