ZELLA COMPTON: Cyclists should have been at the forefront of planners' minds

Surely if you’re building a new road, through countryside, and have space for wide verges, you’d make the effort to include more room for cyclists?

I’d think that was a fairly basic thing to do, but it appears not. Is there a bigger, grander scheme for those on two wheels which I am missing, maybe a high fly-over so that cyclists can travel at speed and in safety? I think not, but I’d love to be wrong.

We should be putting in speed cycle ways as a matter of policy. Cycle lanes which go up and down kerbs, find their way through a small alley only to disappear suddenly at a junction, wend around pedestrians and/or those that are shared by pushchairs don’t cut it for cycle commuters.

And it’s surely commuters that we want on bikes, isn’t it?

Shouldn’t we be showing our children that cycling is a healthy and safe option? Shouldn’t we be getting on our bikes ourselves, blowing the cobwebs out of our cycle helmets, and setting forth with purpose without an endless stop and start?

The new stretch is lovely to drive on, and I am sure the residents who live beside its previous route, who had the traffic queueing past their doors at all times of the day, are delighted by being able to breath and the lack of noise.

But I am really not sure of the cost to benefits for motorists. I’m not a rush-hour traveller, but through conversations I’ve heard, and comments I’ve read, it hasn’t decreased the traffic time very much at all.

We all know the clogging point is the Fareham roundabout which just doesn’t have the girth to accommodate the volume of traffic leaving.

Thus, it feels as if the new road is simply a better paved funnel to the pinch point.

But if more room were made for speedy cyclists? They could zip through the funnel, with speed and safety.

OPENING UP THEATRE FOR ALL BUDGETS

I am pretty thrilled that the New Theatre Royal is hosting a series of pay what you can afford shows.

This is a terrific idea that allows us all to experience different types of theatre, stories which we might not opt to spend our monthly allowance on normally, but we can afford to spend extra – or not – on.

It’s no secret that I am a great fan of the theatre, and will be indulging this Thursday evening in one such show: We are Ian (by In bed with my brother), taking place at the Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea.

It’s a throw-back to 1989 and looks to be quite mad. There might be tickets left, there might not, only you will know by searching on the New Theatre Royal website. See you there.

THE MIND BOGGLING WORLD OF COMPUTER PASSWORDS

In opening our eyes to the world, while marooning us in our houses, the internet’s also expert at causing pain when it comes to passwords.

This week my website is a nightmare of frustration as I can no longer quite recall where I put the handy instructions of a) how to log-in to the site, and b) how to rewrite the html when I get there.

I’ve even gone to the lengths of building myself a new site out of simple-to-use WordPress, but until I find the previous codes, the new site will remain forever hidden in a corner of the old.

There’s a business there somewhere I’m sure, holding peoples’ passwords.

Or, doing a bit of friendly hacking into dead laptops which may have stored the answers.