Today's Bike Ride

[Graham Breeze]

So is all the A59 traffic being diverted through Otley and Ilkley for now? And how do the good folk of those towns feel about it? [I assume that some of the folk are good, even in those places.]

Yes.

I cannot and would not wish to speak for the (good?) folk of Otley but the generous, open hearted denizens of Ilkley are stoic on the matter.

The tail back today from Bolton Bridge (start of the road closure) to the first traffic lights one encounters entering Ilkley from the west was over a mile in the early afternoon on a Sunday ie no lorries.

The A59 bypass is needed but what is intriguing is why it has taken so long for the powers that be to decide to stop closing the road to fudge a repair every few years and then repeat the process again and again - but actually address the problem. If millions of tons of hill want to move into the valley concrete and steel wires are not going to stop it happening.