The Space Race

In the battle for space on our roads, one council's vision gives cyclists and other vulnerable road users - room to breathe

- 

During this year's scorching summer, I ended many of my I rides with a dip in a small, longneglected harbour near where I live.

Occasionally I had to compete for space with fishermen who chose to cast their lines into the harbour rather than the great expanse of the North Sea on the other side of the crumbling walls. As I attempted to avoid the tangle of nylon and hooks, surly faces frowned upon me, no doubt annoyed that my presence might be scaring away the mackerel.

I was already used to motorists and dog-walkers questioning my claim to space on roads and shared-use paths, and now I could add anglers to the list.

As a cyclist, it can often feel like we are unwelcome in our own society, but a ray of hope has appeared via a radical, almost-unheard-of gesture by my local authority, Angus Council. They've done something few other town planners in the UK have had the cojones to do: they have taken a great swathe of tarmac away from drivers and given it back to cyclists, pedestrians and wheelers.