You have me raising and wondering about so many potential follow ups here - so much to say.
1. On charity parachute jumps - I did one , once, many years ago. My daughter did one too. In both cases, huge care and briefings were done - for me a whole day prior to the jump as mine was
not tandem - the 'chute opened on a line as I came out of the plane, but then it was to me to steer and land. I felt safe, I felt well briefed and in spite of the initial ramshackle site I quickly gained confidence in the instructor. But having said that, these charity jumps are the first experiences that people have of doing such a thing, and - no matter how much instruction - there is always a higher risk on the first time than subsequently; it could get riskier again later as familiarity breeds carelessness.
2. On cyclists, sharing road and track space, speed, etc ... the increasing cycling and exercise and more to come in the future will lead to increased conflict for space, and facilities being stretched. A little tangent, but you remind me of something local I was writing up yesterday, triggered by two events a couple of weeks ago. A longer / more complex quote that I would wish, but an example of a very real developing issue.
On Monday 24th May, at the Economic Development and Planning meeting, our attention was drawn to the issues of the riding of scooters (electric?) on the path from Heather Avenue to Dorset Crescent, with a request / suggestion that some sort of gate / limiter be installed to prevent the "anti-social behaviour".
On Tuesday 25th May, A PCSO rang my doorbell on Spa Road asking for a bucket of water to wash blood off the road.
How are these two linked? By the law of potential consequences.
The journey from Bowerhill, and the new Pathfinder Way developments into the centre of Melksham is somewhat over a mile - a longish walk, but ideal for cycling. Good paths run from Bowerhill down Pathfinder Way with good crossings over the A365 as far as Snowberry Lane roadabout, but inwards from there the road is busy, the footpaths narrow in places, and there's a blind brow over what used to be the canal. There is neither room on the footpath for a shared cycleway, nor on the roadway to seperate cycles from cars, buses, vans and lorries. The blood was human blood, from a cyclist who - in this case - was fortunate not to sustain life-changing injuries.
Instead of using the direct Spa Road, traffic cycle traffic headed into Melksham can travel more safely up Snowberry Lane, then via Heather Avenue to Dorset Crescent, and onwards via either Pembroke Road and Stratton's Walk, or along Clacker's Brook and into KGV Park depending on which end of the Town it's headed for. That's a much safer route for cyclists - sadly, there are some elements that make it less than ideal.
Possibly a topic split coming up here - but very real problems as infrastructure and waymarking gets stretched beyond design.
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