Transport

A few triggers lead to me thinking about local transport and sustainability. One was a journey by train from Chichester to Brighton, which took nearly an hour as it seemed to stop at almost every station on the way and even more on the way back. I think the number of stations is growing along the route! That makes it just over 30 mph, which I can almost do on my bike, with wind assistance, OK, only kidding.

The second trigger was the report on the BBC on electric bikes.  I have been looking into electric bikes for a couple of years now, and watched the price go down and the functionality go up. They are certainly looking attractive. I am not sure about the hire charge at the moment, I think £25 a day was mentioned, which given I can hire a car for £16 a day seems a bit much. You can certainly buy an electric bike for under £1000, one which does a decent distance and is not a bad weight, even one that folds into the car boot.

The South Coast seems a pretty good place for us to begin an Electric Bike Network. Although they say how the battery helps you get up hills, the quote of 40 miles on the battery is not when going up hill. along the South Coast, with just the odd hillock, and some pedalling by you, maybe you could be doing 40 to 60 miles in a day and not be worn out at all.

So I have got in touch with them and I hope to create an event where we bring people together, maybe in Chichester, to establish a core team to get the thing started, and once we have a ‘network’ from Brighton to Southampton we can add bits along the coast until we reach Lands End.

If you want to get involved just get in touch. And of course, all comments welcome.