HiT Transport
Hemel in Transition now has a Transport Group! Our activities are focusing on cycling for the time being since there seems to be a gap in activity on this in Hemel. We also aim to link with the Transport group in the Dacorum Environmental Forum.
HiT NEWS
Coming Soon! Cycle maintenance course in early 2011, probably over several sessions to cover different areas. Spaces are limited, so please contact transport@hemelintransition.org if you are interested.
USEFUL LINKS
CYCLING
The Tring and Berkhamsted Cycle Campaign aim to promote and encourage the use of bikes as an environmentally friendly and healthy means of transport. They campaign for safe, well designed and convenient cycle routes. We hope to work closely with them in the future.
The Nickey Line is part of the national cycle network route 57 and joins Hemel with Harpenden to the East. Other cycle network information and maps can be found on the Sustrans site.
Websites to help plan cycle routes include Map my ride, Cyclestreets and Bikely.
Local cycle training is provided by Angela of Dacorum Cycle Training.
Hemel Hempstead Cycling Club organise leisure rides at weekends as well as races and other events.
The Tring and Berkhamsted Cycle Campaign aim to promote and encourage the use of bikes as an environmentally friendly and healthy means of transport. They campaign for safe, well designed and convenient cycle routes. We hope to work closely with them in the future.
The Nickey Line is part of the national cycle network route 57 and joins Hemel with Harpenden to the East. Other cycle network information and maps can be found on the Sustrans site.
Websites to help plan cycle routes include Map my ride, Cyclestreets and Bikely.
Local cycle training is provided by Angela of Dacorum Cycle Training.
Hemel Hempstead Cycling Club organise leisure rides at weekends as well as races and other events.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
A number of bus services run around the area. Here is a map of where they go and a list of downloadable timetables.
London Midlands trains run from the midlands to London, passing through Tring, Berkhamstead, Hemel Hempstead, Apsley and Kings Langley. Here is a timetable.
DRIVING
If driving is a necessity there are ways of reducing the impact of car use. Try joining a car share scheme such at the National Car Share scheme or Liftshare. Also follow this link for some useful information from the AA on how to reduce your petrol consumption whilst driving if you have to drive your car.
TRANSPORT NEWS
This sign was put up on the Leighton Buzzard Road in February. The national press assumed that it was put up by a motorist, but it could just as well have been a cyclist, if the experiences of cyclists in Hemel in Transition’s Transport group are anything to go by!
The largest pothole in Hemel Hempstead is big enough to swallow up a bicycle. According to the Gazette, the pothole on Cambrian Way is 5ins deep, 28ins wide and 63ins long according to the Gazette. The danger presented to cyclists is obvious, yet the press has to date treated this as simply a motorists’ problem.
Herts Highways says it is spending £400,000 a week working through the massive backlog. Yet Dacorum apparently has no budget to implement its cycling strategy. Given that cyclists have to veer into the line of traffic to avoid a pothole, at the very least shouldn’t we be asking our councillors to press for potholes at the edge of roads to be prioritised?
FURTHER READING
A widely quoted statistic says something along the lines of “only 1 percent of the energy used by a car goes into moving the driver” – the implication being that, surely, by being a bit smarter, we could make cars 100 times more efficient? Read what David MacKay has to say about this in the online version of his book, ‘Sustainable Energy - without the hot air’ at : http://www.withouthotair.com/Contents.html
