Ben (BicycleBenUK)
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ben.fiets.uk
Ben (BicycleBenUK)
@ben.fiets.uk
1.2K followers 840 following 1.3K posts
Introverted advocate/blogger on UK active travel. Self-employed podcast editor. Also sustainable public transport, nature, environment, Holland. Sometimes spins vinyl, dabbles in ham radio, badly plays piano.

📍 Nuneaton, Warwickshire
🌎 fiets.uk/links
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ben.fiets.uk
Why single out Uber Eats I wonder, and not include Just Eat and Deliveroo? Why a specific sign in addition to "no unauthorised access"?
Signage on the boundary of a residential building site. One large sign says "no unauthorised access beyond this point", but a further sign adds, "No taxis, no Uber Eats, no home deliveries beyond this point." That sign also includes the prohibition icons one of which is the Uber Eats logo in a red and crossed rounded. It's very clear that general access is not permitted. There is also fencing and an unfinished road and pavement.
November 21, 2025 at 8:40 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Do have to wonder what genius thought it'd be a good idea to allow a housing development to be built, immediately bordering an 60 year old estate, but it would appear with no walking or cycling links between the two - except by going out to the main road and back in, potentially on a long deviation.
Google Earth map with coloured blocks indicating two housing estates. To the south, a green block shows a 60+ year old housing estate. To the north, a red block shows an estate that has been built over the past five years. A blue line indicates the only route between the two - travelling out to the main road to the west (heading roughly north-south), and then back in to the adjacent estate. There are no cut throughs - not even narrow alleyways - to allow direct walking or cycling between the estates.
November 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Interval at the @daraobriain.bsky.social gig in #WarwickArtsCentre - very funny; having a great time!
Warwick Arts Centre stage, lit in a purpley blue with the show title, "Dara Ó Briain Re:Creation" projected on to the rear curtain
November 5, 2025 at 9:03 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Not sure the ladybird, which possibly hitchhiked from the supermarket, was too impressed with us carving the pumpkin today!
Macro phone camera shot of a ladybird on the side of an orange pumpkin. Taken with the flash, the image is more illuminated to the left with the ladybird casting a long shadow to the right. The top of the pumpkin has been cut off and a slither of pumpkin strand dangles in front of the ladybird.
October 29, 2025 at 7:17 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Back at the hotel after the gig - had a great time. Wonderful career-spanning songs, humorous interludes, and concluding with a meet and greet; a chance to say thanks, complete my signed vinyl collection, and get the CD of the new covers album. Never seen #NerinaPallot live? You're missing out!
Nerina Pallot on stage with an electric guitar at The Stables Milton Keynes.
October 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
ben.fiets.uk
All set and the seats are good! #TheStablesMK #NerinaPallot
View of a stage illuminated in blue. A Steinway piano sits with guitars alongside, awaiting the performance
October 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Off with Mrs BB to Milton Keynes to catch #NerinaPallot on her "All Roads Lead To" tour! This'll be good if the Birmingham show back in February is anything to go by! Seen a few clips from other shows too (I know, spoilers!) #LiveMusic #TheStablesMK
Tour poster for Nerina Pallot's All Roads Lead To 2025 tour. Nerina, wearing a red shirt, is playing a black piano in a side on photograph.
October 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Oh.

Seen this @warwickshirecc.bsky.social?

Bad Parking Nuneaton: www.facebook.com/100064590556...

#BadParking #PavementParking #Nuneaton #Warwickshire
Post from Bad Parking Nuneaton on Facebook, with a photo of a Warwickshire County Council branded white Toyota Yaris parked fully on a narrow pavement. The post reads: "😂 Thought everyone could do with a good laugh! The man driving this car was actually going around giving out parking tickets near Chetwynd School... while he'd parked on the path on Gypsy Lane himself! 🙈 Parents with pushchairs couldn't even get past and traffic built up. You couldn't make it up! 🚗🤣"
October 16, 2025 at 2:17 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Hmm. @warwickshirecc.bsky.social knows that driving speeds over 20mph are dangerous for children. So where are our 20mph limits + School Streets? Why is Higham Lane in #Nuneaton still 40mph despite a new school+homes? Where's the onus on drivers to slow down?

www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news/article...
Extract from a Warwickshire County Council press release announcing the launch of a new digital resource promoting road safety to primary school children: "Recent data shows a rise in pedestrian casualties, and with children among our most vulnerable road users, this resource provides timely messaging. Research also shows that young people cannot reliably judge the speed of vehicles travelling over 20mph due to limitations in children's early-stage visual processing, meaning that even when they are fully attentive, they may still fail to detect a fast-approaching vehicle."
October 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Who knew - no-one wants to get a chippy dinner home on the bike. It is absolutely essential that food is only ever transported by car. Nobody told me when I've been to my local by bike. I obviously should have joined the mass of cars jamming up the nearby roads and pavements!
Extract of a road.cc article showing local business objections to cycle provision: "Installing cycle lanes may be 'politically correct, but the reality is that when they impact parking provisions, it has a detrimental effect on local businesses. We do not have the climate to prioritise cycle lanes over cars," Alleddandro Varesse, the boss at the Blue Lagoon chippy told the Daily Record. Hayley and Ewen Logan, of Logan the Jewellers, added: "We have yet to hear of a single business or resident who supports this idea, keen cyclists included. Even they like to get their takeaways home while they're still hot."
October 13, 2025 at 1:39 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Why would you put the post here, intruding on the access path? It's not a big reduction in space (still over 2m) - but it's still in the way and just looks wrong!
Sign post with a blue roundel containing an outline of a bicycle and pedestrians, indicating shared use space. The pole is mounted to the right of the main path but encroaching on the space to an access path leading off at a ninety degree angle. This is part of a new housing estate which is clearly unfinished.
September 22, 2025 at 6:49 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Stupid big "cars" - as big as the electric camper van in the middle, and carrying no more than the little Skoda on the right.
M6 motorway with a Porsche SUV in the left lane which is as wide and tall as a VW ID.Buzz campervan in the middle lane. A small Skoda is further away in the right lane.
September 20, 2025 at 8:52 PM
ben.fiets.uk
This isn't leadership. This is pandering to a criminal, disgraced president and rolling over to accept US dominance at the expense of UK resources, and homegrown and European industry. The visit should never have happened, and the deal never made. Shameful.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Extract from an article on The Guardian: 'Starmer said that “with friends like the US” the UK could “help shape the future for generations to come and make people across the country better off”, adding: “These investments are a testament to Britain’s economic strength and a bold signal that our country is open, ambitious and ready to lead.”' https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/keir-starmer-150bn-investment-critics-donald-trump-state-visit
September 18, 2025 at 6:25 AM
ben.fiets.uk
Spotted on a long walk today. Bridge looks really concerning, with a risk of collapse? It's a CRT bridge but I can't see how to report to them; @warwickshirecc.bsky.social's website doesn't want to know, despite the lane being publicly maintainable. Put on FixMyStreet; hopefully it'll get attention.
Very significant cracking and loss of alignment on a canal bridge wall, to the extent that a gap has appeared through which one can see the canal below. Viewing the damaged bridge as viewed along the top of the sidewall. Cracking and movement is extremely clear with further damage evident looking down the exterior of the wall. Viewing the same bridge from the canal towpath, the extent of the cracking can be seen running from the top of the wall where it's most severe, but clearly running down to the base where other lesser but very clear cracks are showing. Close-up view of the bridge wall seen from the towpoath. There is the main crack running from the top down to the base and secondary cracks and movement running parallel on either side, including rather close to the bridge archway.
September 16, 2025 at 5:46 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Don't think much of the new Starling Bank logo - lacking vertical symmetry and losing the professional style. The latest company to employ a pointless rebrand it would seem. It's just a logo of course, but it doesn't scream "trustworthy finance institution" to me. #StarlingBank #Finance #FinTech
App icon edition of the new logo for Starling Bank, showing a cyan letter 'S' on a deep purple square background with rounded corners. The letter S is smaller at the top than it is at the bottom for some unknown reason, so it lacks the nice symmetry and professionalism that the old logo had. This doesn't look befitting of a serious financial institution.
September 12, 2025 at 10:16 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Maybe the worst of the flag nonsense I've seen yet - on lampposts, strung up across the street, and in one window not even a slim veneer of hiding the bigotry with a sign saying "Send them back!!" - but with a happy smiley face, so that must make it okay(!). A street to avoid in future I think.
Tacky, unsightly sight of union and St George's flags on lampposts, windows, and strewn across the street at eaves level on string. This is a narrow, terraced residential street lined with parked cars (none on the pavement which is slightly amazing and perhaps the only positive thing that can be seen). Otherwise, it's the display of bigotry, division, racism, facism etc. that is the association with the current trend of flying the national flags - it's certainly not patriotism or national pride. A St George's Cross is draped outside of a first floor window with drawn curtains, on a small terraced house. It's a ruffled, slightly askew display. Below the flag is a handwritten sign across what looks like two A4 sheets of paper. In capital letters, using red ink to mimic the flag, they've written the words "SEND THEM BACK!!" - but it's okay because they've put a little smiley face next to it(!)
September 12, 2025 at 10:25 AM
ben.fiets.uk
Also from today's walk - a (hopefully unfinished) cut-through to the towpath from a new shared-use path beside a new housing estate. A pity nobody thought to provide a cut-through to the estate itself though. Fence hopping or a long diversion for anyone living here. @warwickshirecc.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
ben.fiets.uk
This is a long-standing failure on the Coventry Canal towpath at Marston Junction. Here you can see it today versus 2023. I know money is always a problem but it needs fixing rather than just being left to crumble for years.
Crumbling towpath today, in 2025 Crumbling towpath in 2023. Brickwork is falling away towards the canal water.
September 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Good thing I didn't bring my bike up this way today. Side access is rightly blocked as the path is falling away, but the gate hasn't been left unlocked. Anyone without a radar key will be stuck or forced to lift a bike over. National Cycle Network route too. @walkwheelcyclet.bsky.social
Canal towpath access barrier with a U-bend filter to the left and a metal gate to the right. The left section is closed off with bolted metal railings as the path is falling into the canal. An orange and white plastic maintenance fence is also blocking the route. The gate is locked shut. Pedestrians can squeeze through a narrow gap but no chance for cycles, wheelchairs etc.
September 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Looks like the gullible, hard-right, fascist, racist, and/or xenophobic flagshaggers are out again in #Nuneaton; yet more lampposts being littered with flags. This is beyond a joke. I want *my* country back - a tolerant, compassionate, welcoming, diverse Britain. None of this divisive, hateful BS.
Nuneaton town hall with a small contingent of people parading the Union Flag and St George's Cross. It's not a diverse demographic - quelle surprise!
September 6, 2025 at 1:15 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Good way to highlight how AI image generation works - it's not clever; it's just regurgitating variations of what it's been trained on. Clock images often show 10:10 (or close to it), so that's what we get. #ChatGPT #AISlop #AI
August 25, 2025 at 7:10 PM
ben.fiets.uk
One would think the only people who have problems with "mythbusting"* are those who peddle myths that deserve to be roundly busted. This MP's views are surely more fit for Reform than traditional Labour.

* Or, as others have said, "fact checking".
Post by Labour MP Antonia Bance on 18 August 2025, 23:10 - "Longtime followers across multiple platforms will know that my hatred of mythbusting (and disdain for those that engage in this ineffective communications practice that strengthens the myth rather than the bust) far far predates me being in my current job"
August 19, 2025 at 8:54 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Saw #StarlightExpress in the Troubadour #Wembley last night - brilliant fun. The original was my first musical in 1998 and now The Boy's first 27 years later. He was very apprehensive going in but mostly loved it! The big theatre is so much better than when we saw it in Wimbledon in 2006. #Theatre
Starlight Express stage at the Troubadour, Wembley. A very blue/purple arena with a main central stage and tracks running around "pods" (or carriages) of audience. The words "STARLIGHT EXPRESS" are emblazoned at the back. A skate ramp leads from the back of the main stage up to an elevated platform. A child's bedroom is setup in the centre. The audience are settling in for the performance.
August 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
ben.fiets.uk
How did Wickes know I'm moving house? I don't remember ever telling them. The only thing I've ordered online in recent months is a fence panel. Is this an example of cookie tracking and profiling in action, resulting in this highly tailored email? I don't like it!
Screenshot of an email preview in a mail client, with other email headers redacted. The email is from Wickes with the subject, "Ben, you're a House Move Hero." The shown part of the email is headed "Get ready to move Ben" and a paragraph follows: "Congratulations, you’re planning to move! We understand it can be daunting, but rest assured, we’re here for you at every step. From packing to settling in, our expert ideas and advice are crafted to make you the hero of your move. Dive into your next chapter, embrace the adventure and let’s make your new house feel like home."
August 8, 2025 at 5:38 PM
ben.fiets.uk
Don't think I've even seen a halo/sunbow before, so this was exciting to catch this afternoon! #sunbow #sun #halo
Halo around the sun in a blue sky. A washing line crosses the image and the edge of a house is in the bottom right corner.
August 6, 2025 at 8:33 PM