The Great Big Reshuffled Bike Blog Roundup

This week, as you might have heard, the PM rearranged the cabinet somewhat giving us a new Transport Secretary before the old one had barely settled in. Bike Biz as ever were first off the mark to comment asking if the new mand would OK some shovel-ready cycling infrastructure (we won't hold our breath) while the blogosphere was quick to discover our new junior minister's dodgy driving history. Perhaps Kats Dekker's suggested improvements weren't all that wide off the mark after all.

Never mind rearranging the politicians, though, it's the roads we need to rearrange - with conflict built in to Cardiff city centre and more forgiving roads urgently needed. After all, Belfast has managed to redesign their roads to favour buses and not cause chaos, shock, (although the city is taking a major backwards step) while Kensington and Chelsea found its 'except cycles' have been a huge success. Less successful has been the Exhibition Road conversion to shared space (where the cars won't share and get all the space) - while Downfader dices with impatient drivers to find the Dani King Cycle Path is somewhat less than gold standard. Or you could just get rid of the cars altogether, as Kennington People on Bikes found at a great big 'playing out' on Picadilly. Cycling Weekly looks at the impact of decent design on cycling infrastructure - and Paul James provides a handy 'cheat sheet' on Dutch cycle provision. Meanwhile David Hembrow points out that the best way to stop vehicles blocking cycle paths is to make the cycle paths wide enough for everyone - while we wait for our politicians and planners to pick themselves off the floor at the idea, Bikeyface's suggestion might at least give the lane blockers pause for thought.

Is there a north-south cycling divide? If anything it was the northern bloggers making the running this week, with Kats Dekker exploring the Berwick to Edinburgh Sustrans routes and wondering when the cities will benefit from the same provision. Uberuce reflects on an unbelievable year in Edinburgh cycling while Pedal on Parliament asks Scots cyclists if they're ready to pedal on Postbox. Freewheeler gives York some critical scrutiny. Chester Cycling finds a path that *gasp* doesn't give way to a side road while up in Glasgow, Magnatom has a close brush with Tesco (or is that Tesco having a close brush with Magnatom?). Flying the flag for southern bloggers, As Easy As Riding a Bike has a look at car parks in Horsham (no really, it's more interesting than it sounds...)

If you can't rearrange the roads for bikes, how about putting them in the sky? (and the cars too, if some politicians get their way). As Easy as Riding does a little investigating into just how seriously we should be taking the idea.

Bonkers politics seemed to be in the air everywhere, though, with Tokyo seriously considering bike licence plates and Islington cracking down on bikes loitering with intent. Over in California, a three-foot passing law gets vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown - suddenly the only person making sense was Chris Boardman.

These days, you can't move in Copenhagen for visiting American politicians who do get it - but it would appear sometimes the Danish press can be as bad as ours, with the Danes discovering the art of kicking issues into the long grass and their police continuing to ignore the bull. And even in the Netherlands all is not perfect - although even a not very Dutch city like Rotterdam is still really quite Dutch when it comes to cycling. Which is good, because Dutch rationality is continuing to save children's lives.

Somewhat less rational was the charming Mr Nye who we've apparently all just misunderstood. Richmond Cycling Campaign invites him on a bike ride to see things from the other side while Cyclists in the City isn't surprised people 'hate cyclists'. Haters generally seemed in the air, with Cambridge cyclist attempting a classification, and Dave McCraw looking at how a single resident with an agenda can drive the news. But who needs cycle haters when cyclists seem happy enough to turn on each other? Or are people really after all inherently reasonable? We can but hope.

Meanwhile, though the Guardian points out it will take more than a nudge to get people out of cars and onto bikes, one scheme tries bribing people with points and prizes. Transport extra asks if we're marketing cycling to the wrong people - and if it turns out your kid would still prefer to be in a car for the school run, how about this?

With ibikelondon wondering if the liberation of women through cycling is a thing from the past, the LCC wants more women trustees to put themselves forward for their board

There were a lot of miscellaneous but interesting posts I couldn't shoehorn into a theme this evening so I leave you with the assorted implications of driverless cars, a thoughtful post on suicide by truck, a crowdsourced bike route map for Berlin and a resurgence in Icelandic self-reliance.

And finally, if you've ever wondered how your bike could be stolen on a busy city street, wonder no more