Live blog: Deaths caused by drink-drivers on the rise, introducing the Podbike, Robocap, and more
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@jackcycles I'm not sure my grandchildren got that memo. Cycling should not be just for hardened road warriors.
Chrisonabike There are a number of police forces in England and Wales that are using portable testing equipment already... How effective it is another matter, I haven't looked into the results of failing (I would hope they just seize and crush the motorbike without any faff but I am sure there are appeal processes, promises not to use them on public roads etc).
Woah there - a precision-engineered European-made product, with unparalleled adaptability, is somehow a ‘rip off’? Compared to what - Temu? As per the article, most quality through-axles go for £50-60+, but aren’t adaptable and don’t provide any stand or trailer capability. If you want to balance your £3-4-5k suspension or carbon bike, or bikepacking setup on a budget product subject to highly focused stresses, fair play. Cycling’s a broad church.
@eburtthebike I've found Spanish drivers to be almost entirely excellent around cyclists.
I agree, the study was made after cycle paths that had been introduced in Berlin during the 70’s and 80’s caused a big increase in cycling deaths. It is an interesting study for cyclists to read in order to know what dangers exist at badly designed junctions. Here in Paris we have very few bi-directional paths. The ones I have cycled on have no building entrances or courtyards (so no cars crossing the path) and every junction is traffic lights to prevent accidents.
We have enough regulation. They're running a motorbike without insurance/registration and possibly without a licence, and the punishment for being caught with all that is pretty severe already. The problem is lack of enforcement.
In my experience with anything less than one of those serious mid-bike two-foot kickstands, a wall / tree / hedge is the better option, or the bike will sometimes show you the alternative and lie down by itself. Maybe I've got panniers that are just too large and the wrong balance of (too much) cargo though? And of course Edinburgh streets are great at funneling gusts of wind...
I agree there's a clear legal line * but I do see something here. Like much tech it's entirely opaque from the outside (without even invoking things like the VW emissions cheating).** I know in NL they have trialled semi-portable "test stations" to check max motor speeds. However with the latest "but there's no money" crisis I can't see that over here. Indeed it's hard to see the police being motivated to do any more roads policing, with this even further down the priority list. Hope I'm wrong... While I guess many of us *would* be fine with EAPCs as a means to attract "non-cyclists" ... perhaps there's an "attractive nuisance" element to this? We're ushering people into an apparently effortless, easy and minimal consequence mobility mode without the "learning experience" of managing a lighter, unpowered machine on roads. And it's still (busy) *roads* where the new power-assisted riders will often find themselves. Not like in more advanced countries where people usually cycle in much safer and more controlled environments. OTOH we should always balance such concerns against "but cars and full-power ICE motorbikes now" though! Number plates, licences and insurance aren't necessarily mitigating that well... * As soon as there are laws games will be played. How long can you be above the "continuous rate power" for? Can we have *multiple* legal motors on one machine? ** Is the power / speed actually regulated by software, and how long will that keep a child armed with the internet from unlocking it?
And maybe a planning obligation to have traffic Marshalls controlling access out of the site not obstructing the path and restricting it if cyclists are likely to be obstructed …one can hope
I'll stick to my low rider with Karrimor Kalahari dry bag panniers and Karrimor Kalahari barbag thanks.
7 thoughts on “Live blog: Deaths caused by drink-drivers on the rise, introducing the Podbike, Robocap, and more”
The very best that can be
The very best that can be said about helmet promotion is that it distracts from measures that really work to make cycling safer. As long as most people think that all you have to do is wear a helmet, nothing else will ever get done.
If helmets did work, perhaps they might have a point, but since all the long term, large scale, reliable data shows that they don’t, there is no point to promoting them. Let’s talk about the stuff that works, the stuff that the government won’t actually implement because they spend all the transport money on ego schemes like HS2 and new roads.
I’ve read the whole article
I’ve read the whole article from Applied Mobilities, and while it’s about the US experience there’s sadly much that resonates with policy here (starting with LAs who won’t let kids as much as climb on a bike in their Bikeability lessons without a crash helmet on, the teaching delivered by instructors who are often required to wear a crash helmet as a “good example”).
As well as persuading people that cycling is inevitably dangerous, the more time and energy we spend telling people that they should wear special safety gear to ride a bike, the more we tell anyone averse to wearing that stuff that they shouldn’t be riding a bike.
That Podbike could quite
That Podbike could quite easily become my new winter bike!
KendalRed wrote:
€4500 plus postage and very likely plus import duty+VAT, gonna be nearer £5k and that’s only for the base model. You do get 8% off retail if you pay €2700 up front however. Given the massive subsidies given to potential EV owners why can’t pedalecs like this get a big wedge off too as an incentive?
I’ve been looking for something that is pretty much gadget free, no fancy opening system or like the pod more mechanicals so you can stack it upright (which would blow over in a decent wind if parked up) I don’t want an internal computer just maybe a connection to a phone/device that can show you the charged state.
I just see these pods as being too over complicated, want wheels that can take tyres that you can buy from most bike shops and some space for a reasonable amount of luggage. It should also have a better range, 38 miles is really stingy/not that great given how aero the pod is meant to be.
The Schaffler is more like it but I’d want more low slung – it’s just too upright, it’s too heavy with 4 shock absorbers/4 disc brakes and there’s no space for luggage though I like how tight you can turn it.
As for the Iris E-trike, it’s doubtful there ever will be an end product, there are lots of negative murmerings about how he’s shafted people and other ugly stuff. I’d avoid it like a dose of the clap.
Somewhere, Clive Sinclair
Somewhere, Clive Sinclair spends every day ruing the fact that he was just thirty years ahead of his time. Still a genius.
Suprised that school kid hasn
Suprised that school kid hasn’t had his bike impounded by the school’s Principal (they never seem to be head-teachers at academies) for not wearing hi-vis & helmet and no school issued licence plates!
Good luck Kien.
That’s some bling levers,
That’s some bling levers, brakes and seat post clamp he has there
Good luck son, hats off to you for Jogle!
PP