The Wheels of Planning
The True Story of How a Passion for Cycling Derailed a Housing Development
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After two solid years of feverish sketching, measuring, and whatnot, the designs for the new housing development were finally bundled up and whisked off as part of a pre-application consultation. A veritable battalion of consultants and officers, armed with clipboards and opinions, stood at the ready, eager to chime in with their comments and, no doubt, a few helpful suggestions.
Among this throng, the local council’s Planning Officer was particularly keen. His eyes lit up at the sight of the cycle paths, which wound through the plan like a snake on holiday. You see, he also happened to be the chair of the local cycle club—a chap whose love for bicycles bordered on the obsessive. One could scarcely mention a road without him waxing lyrical about his preference for, and the joy of, two-wheeled travel.
But alas, fate, in its infinite mischief, had other plans. Just a day earlier as he was preparing to weigh in with his thoughts on cycle lanes and gradients, disaster struck! The man took a tumble from his beloved bicycle, landing in a heap and rendering himself completely incapable of commentary, let alone pedalling. The whole affair was thrown into chaos, the application delayed by several months, while he recuperated with what I can only assume were deeply bruised parts best left unmentioned!
And just when it seemed the universe had squeezed every drop of misfortune from his existence, there came the crowning indignity: the new approach road without a cycle lane, that type of thoroughfare that had caused him more vexation than a dog with a bone, was promptly named after him!
Style inspired by PG Woodhouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Woodhouse (1881-1975), KBE was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century, best known as the creator of Jeeves, the supreme “gentleman's gentleman.”
Bluepencil work with highway engineers from the very earliest stages of the design process and understand the importance of good connectivity and ease of non vehicular movement. All their layouts ensure that pedestrian movements are given priority over vehicles by creating safe and direct footpath and cycleway networks.
