Mike Manger

Mike Manger

@mikemanger.info

Active travel advocate in Shropshire.

124 followers243 following124 posts

This from Shrewsbury's Residents Association traffic policy. How did people cope before cars?! I for one can't sleep without my passing traffic security blanket.

New pocket park in Shrewsbury. Secure bike storage, Brompton hire, benches and community garden brightening up this busy gyratory.

Mike Manger reposted

Very grateful that Powys/the Welsh Government decided a year ago to provide Sunday buses to Montgomery. Makes getting home with the baby so much easier. But it is hilarious that Monty (pop 1,200) has a bus every 2hrs, while just across the border Shrewsbury (pop 76,000) has no Sunday buses at all.

Next month Spain is bringing in some new laws to help protect vulnerable road users (Royal Decreto 518/2026). For motorists this means new overtaking rules and no tailgating cyclists. Local authorities can also more easily bring in two-way cycling on one-way streets.

There is also a fair bit on mandatory helmets/Hi-Viz for "professional cyclists"** and people using personal mobility vehicles (my translation might be off). It'll be interesting to see how this effects scooter hire schemes. ** aka food couriers, presumably the La Vuelta will be exempt

I've spent some of my summer trying to map some of Shropshire's Quiet Lanes on OpenStreetMap. A 2003 CPRE report suggests that there were 25 QL roads planned for Salop so I'm probably missing a few.🧵

Mike Manger reposted

🚨 BREAKING: The Government will shortly issue an emergency alert to all phones in England and Wales warning them not to light anything that can cause a wildfire

Interesting cycle track for riders to learn on. The layout is a stylised version of Stratford's road system and features crossings, traffic lights and matching road names. Photo credits Ken Lawler (Facebook)

I do wonder how well these schemes translate to the reality of having to navigate the actual road network. e.g. this monster 4 lane roundabout.

Mike Manger reposted

I made an animation which shows the effects of air pollution on pedestrians waiting to cross the road, along with what can be done to reduce its harmful effects: stepback.gregdev.com Thank you to @ianwalker.bsky.social for the inspiration for doing so during a conversation a couple of weeks' back!

stepback.gregdev.com'Step back' - air pollution at pedestrian crossingsEvery busy road produces a cloud of pollution you can't see. Where you stand in it matters more than most people might realise.

Controversial opinion but closing this park & ride isn't a big loss. Less than 10 minutes to drive to Oxon P&R. The "walk on" service is expensive and inconvenient. Takes a weird long route into town on Saturdays. Biggest issue is if they stop using it for the football parking.

Shropshire Live@shropshirelive.bsky.social

Shrewsbury Business Improvement District has expressed concern over the planned closure of the Meole Brace Park & Ride service, warning that the move risks making the town centre harder to reach for workers and visitors alike. www.shropshirelive.com/news/2026/06...

Mike Manger reposted

Major problem in the UK is that we really don't build *apartments* outside of major cities. We are desperately in love with sprawl, unnavigable suburbs, and car dependency. Most homes do not need to be the UK standard "tiny shitty semi detached" pattern.

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Thinking a lot about this section on street design. I like that there is a distinction for "riverside streets". It doesn't talk about trunk roads because they shouldn't exist in a town centre.

The design guide aims to phase out all car centric "traditional streets" in the town centre. In the distant future this would transform the busy A458 Smithfield Road (pictured), which runs alongside the river (not that you'd know it).

Listening to yesterday's Shropshire Council planning committee. £130k of Section 106 money towards rejigging a roundabout near a hotel development but nothing for active travel despite there being a strategy to improve infrastructure nearby.

For context, yes the fire station is nearby.. but Councillor Minnery's safety concerns still feel a bit hollow when the solution people are needling for is to remove the segregated cycle lane.

Shropshire Council deputy leader has confirmed that the Castle Street two way cycleway (in red) has being axed from Shrewsbury's Station Gyratory changes. Disappointing but not entirely surprised, the project seemed to be a bit of a hot mess. Lets do it properly next time.

For the record: I like Haughmond Hill. It's a nice place, especially in the spring with the bluebells. I can see the attraction of hosting it there over of a suburban recreation ground or doing laps around a cycle track. Just frustrating to see a lack of vision from the parkrun movement.

Kinda nice to see my local council using Open Street Map for some of its maps, especially when I can see some of the changes I've made make an appearance. Not so cool that they've failed to properly attribute OSM contributors in any of its images.

This new road got approved yesterday. It doesn't have a cycle path along it because the application is for "enabling infrastructure". Committee discussed when active travel provision should actually be defined with no apparent precedence set.

Mike Manger@mikemanger.info

Unfortunately the new access road (going south) looks like this. The junction is made extra wide because it is straddling a bus stop.☹

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It's hard to ignore the amount of greenwashing on the website. Are the "generous open spaces" there because the council wants them to be or are they there to help fulfil statutory drainage requirements for the big new road project they're trying to push through?

The developer's website also makes some vague claims about "improved accessibility". I REALLY hope they don't use dropped kerbs like they've done previously, otherwise it will be a nightmare to traverse over given how dense the off-road parking is in some places.

The layout itself looks ok with (I think) two modal filters for walking, cycling and emergency access. Disappointingly the council seem set on having the cycle paths going outwards to piggyback a new "relief" road instead of inwards to where the nearby amenities are.