iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 03/01/2026

Always impressed by Lancs County Council's extensive gritting network and the gritter comes past every night that is forecast around freezing without fail. They also provide a lot of grit bins for residents to tackle footways and other areas. Always worth giving credit where stuff is done well!

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 29/12/2025

There's a few locations in London where the cycle track ends and cyclists are pushed out into a cycle lane because of pre-existing docks by the kerbside.

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 23/12/2025

This beauty is in my back yard now. Wasted on 2tph!

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 21/12/2025

The East Lancashire railway line is running services every 2 hours on Sundays now, and a large percentage of those appear to get cancelled or run late. I just don't know how you're meant to rely on a rail service with such a joke of a timetable.

Anyone familiar with cycling Chorley Road between Chorley and Pleasington? Looks like I can skip some of it using a quiet lane through Wheelton but after that I'm back on the main road from Higher Wheelton and across the M65 at Jct3 - is this section going to be particularly hairy?

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A little known feature of the Starling Bikes in Manchester (and Beryl elsewhere) is that you can unlock them simply by texting the bike ID to their number. Great feature for those with dumbphones or simply resent having to have an app for every single service.

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Between the two images above the town centre spent some time completely pedestrianised but was re-opened to the current layout in 2011 as people felt footfall had reduced without being able to park right outside 🤔

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Map layout. The images are Manchester Road. Through traffic should be using Broadway but some still insist on using Manchester Road, even though the traffic lights are massively deprioritised and you get stuck behind slow moving vehicles trying to parallel park.

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Nelson High Street many years apart. Hard to believe there were ever 4 lanes running straight through it and the public realm is much better although the current scenario of a mixture of through traffic and people trying to parallel park is still a little problematic.

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 19/12/2025

Been a while since I sketched one of these. What Whitewalls Roundabout, Colne could look like as a Dutch Style roundabout giving priority and safety to people walking and cycling.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 18/12/2025

Cycle tracks in Nelson coming along. Some of the details aren't quite there and there are a fair few gaps in protection/segregation from pedestrians but generally the road space has been reallocated and that's what matters.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 10/12/2025

East Londoners, I understand some of the stratford greenway is closed currently - is Google Maps giving the most up to date closures and diversions from the greenway to CS2? Is it signposted and easy to follow? Or should I just sack it off and just use CS3 as I usually would?

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 10/12/2025

The Oxford Road scheme in Manchester boosted bus speeds from the previous 4 lane (2 bus lane) layout by banning private motor vehicles using it as a through route and provided separate cycleways for cyclists. A perfect example of how to do it.

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 08/12/2025

A week's shopping, for two, easily fits in the back of my cargo bike. Pushed it a little bit this week though!

a longtail cargo bike with large panniers full of shopping in a supermarket car park.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 03/12/2025

For example. Sadly pedestrians still get staggered crossings as for large junctions the "all red" for cars required to allow straight across pedestrian crossings would take too long. Most of Europe lets pedestrians go at the same time as cars and turning cars must give way.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 02/12/2025

Loved riding along the brand new Chapel Street cycle track in Salford today. Lovely public realm, sustainable drainage, nice smooth cycle tracks, continuous footways across side roads, and Greater Manchester's first "cycle gate" junction.

chapel street in salford. a nice wide block paved footway in the foreground, a smooth attractive wide red cycle track, sustainable drainage with planting, and a much narrower and resurfaced roadway. A railway viaduct in the background

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 29/11/2025

Yes the AI bubble may well pop soon and past performance isn't an indicator of future gains, but even the 2008 and COVID downturns were easily ridden out if you held long enough. Below is the S&P 500 over the last 100 years.

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 28/11/2025

from the marketing materials. Fair play, I hadn't expected that. Suppose you have to give them that ability if they are to work in the UK.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 28/11/2025

I want to know which local authority this is that has enough well surfaced footways with properly dropped kerbs that these can move more than 100m. What does it do here?

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 27/11/2025

Looks like even back in the 2000 satellite image it had already been repainted as 2 lanes (3 at junctions) but you could see how it could have fit 4 narrow ones at one point.

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 26/11/2025

I see we're still playing the game. Apparently fuel duty will start increasing again from Sept 26. Wonder which date they'll say "lol jk" this time.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 25/11/2025

This was from one of the local facebook groups. Cheapest of cheap boiler (£650 from a plumbers merchant) and no idea how good the company is but it is possible to get an install for £1.5k. You're probably right a decent Worcester Bosch would be twice that or more.

LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 25/11/2025

Quotes for a full house heat pump with Octopus and Aira respectively. This is for a relatively well insulated relatively modern house and after the £7.5k government grant is deducted. Meaning the total install costs are £11.5-£14.5k. Madness.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 22/11/2025

The issue is even with modern battery tech you're still looking at low runtimes, and extreme bulk and weight vs a tank of diesel or canister of propane. They're getting better but this battery that I have would run a desk heater (600W) for under 5h. A proper 2kW fan heater for 1h.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 21/11/2025

This is an absolutely insane screenshot: two really important crossings of the Thames in East London and the lifts have shocking availability, one of which has been broken for over three years!

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 20/11/2025

I walked/cycled this way every day for years and only after a few years did I notice this walking/cycling direction sign in the skies!

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 19/11/2025

Outdoor temperature here has been chilly all day and now approaching -4 degrees C. The heat pump has used a measly 4.2kWh of electricity to keep the downstairs at a toasty 20 degrees C all day. Heat pumps keep you lovely and warm at extreme temps, despite what GB News would have you believe.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 15/11/2025

Running the power was a case of fitting a fused spur off the existing ring main below by fishing the wire behind the dot and dab plasterboard, keeping the twin and earth in the permitted zones. Obviously if you have solid walls you'll need to chase or surface mount.

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The issue is that unless we start proposing some main roads as one way, mature trees will certainly get in the way of pavements and cycle routes. Here's an example from Manchester where a compromise was found.

A thick mature tree takes up the majority of a footway width. The adjacent cycle track is also slightly squeezed by it. The adjacent roadway is two-way traffic and already minimum width for buses.

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I recently self installed a mini split AC/Heat pump to my house and I'm amazed by the results. I can now renewably heat the living room at over 400% efficiency, which is comparable to gas prices even with daytime electric prices: overnight electric prices beat gas by a factor of 3 or 4.

An indoor air conditioning unit over a TV

an outdoor AC/heat pump unit mounted on a stone wall with the refrigerant pipes running through a rainwater downpipe

an outdoor AC/heat pump unit mounted on a stone wall with a vacuum pump and manifold pulling a vacuum for install

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Only 6% of scheme users earn over £100k and only 6% of purchases were over £2k. The quote is not at all representative of the average scheme user - a vast majority earn under £50k. Even adding a 2k limit for example wouldn't actually save any money in the context of the figures they need to save.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 09/11/2025

The vast majority of scheme users had income under £50k. Most purchases were very modest. So the press release of a high earner buying a £4k bike for racing on Sundays is emotive but largely not the average scheme user. Restricting higher earners or large purchases would save nearly no money.

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No trains running today so just a casual 50km back from Manchester to Pendle. Only took 2h30 which I thought was quite good. Thank god for eBikes!

Old style signpost om a road with destinations such as Bury, Burnley and nearby

Map showing route from Manchester to Pendle

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 09/11/2025

Was nice to see this pleasant cycling Junction in Bury as a respite from the other 50km of car centric roads I rode along today.

A junction with wide red cycle tracks and crossings

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 08/11/2025

My first time using the Deansgate lane. Bloody brilliant. This used to be a 4 lane traffic sewer.

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LancsCycleSam @cyclesam.uk · 08/11/2025

Some photos of the Accessible Nelson scheme going in. Look how much wider the footways are going to be, and the new cycle tracks are taking shape!

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Not to mention elsewhere which is black tarmac with random green/orange chippings. How do they expect Electricity North West to have that on the back of a van ready to go? It looked amazing in 2016, not so much now...

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Try this orange! You can see some utility company tried and failed!

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This is what got me looking at the masterplan. Did you know they're about to start a highways scheme on this road that KEEPS and repaints that awful door zone cycle lane? I don't know if there's time to change it but I've just emailed eastlancsluf@lancashire.gov.uk urging them to do so.

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This long term masterplan for a gyratory in Burnley seems to take a leaf out of TfL's book to me: closing off one side of a gyratory to cars and making the rest of it two way is textbook TfL.

a masterplan for a gyratory in burnley. one side has been closed to motor traffic and motor traffic is sent round the other side on a new two way road.

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Its OK, I didn't want to use the footway anyway...

A quiet residential street. A large minibus entirely blocks the footway

A quiet residential street. A car almost entirely blocks the footway

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There's even an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT example of a Sparrow Crossing coming. I knew they'd catch on up here eventually.

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I hope the cycle lanes will be better demarked than in the artists impression but the render versus the old layout is night and day.

artists impresion of a street in nelson with nice paving, cycle tracks, crossings etc.

same location as previous image but a modern day street view. a gray dual carriageway with separate service road and no decent walking or cycling infrastructure.

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Pleased to see some good progress on the construction of the improved footways and cycle tracks through Nelson, Lancs. I wouldn't say the designs are fully LTN1/20 compliant with lots of locations where the cycle tracks become shared footways, but it'll be the first decent onroad route in E.Lancs.

Engineering plans of a main road in Nelson Lancashire with improved footways and cycle tracks added.

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