Sky Ride

Today we took part in Southampton's Sky Ride 2010, one of about 10 similar events across the UK in which portions of cities are closed to traffic and turned over to cyclists (and, at least in Southampton, roller-bladers and skate-boarders).

In Southampton's case, the route took in the city's main thoroughfare ("The Avenue"), which allowed it to string together most of the parks that are scattered across the city ...


The route was about 10 km in length, and took us almost exactly an hour to complete. Not exactly an Olympic-qualifying time but it wasn't meant be - it's clearly aimed to be a comfortable jaunt around your home city, free of peril from cars. Actually, given the large number of Sunday cyclists and children, it would have been positively dangerous to try for a land speed record.


The ride started and finished in Hoglands Park, where the good work done on the ride could be quickly undone at any one of a number of fast food tents. To be fair, there were also a lot of tents aiming to inform people about other healthy endeavours. And there was even an ongoing interview between some MC and one of the UK's Olympic cyclists, Victoria Pendleton.

Anyway, it was good fun to take in Southampton car-free, and generally nice to see so many people out on their bikes. It's certainly quite a pleasing change from my daily commute.