road.cc live blog: Stop Highways England banning cycling on the A63, Froome racing is “super bad” for cycling says Tony Martin, Aussie speed awareness campaign pulled (and more)

For other good news from NL: children there are consistently ranked the world's happiest. Lots of different reasons feed into that but I'd suggest "independent personal mobility" might be a part. (And perhaps more quality time with carers than just an in-car sing-along while being driven to school, friends, leisure activities etc.)

@jackcycles blimey - that's two "fact"s in one post. You've nearly proved that under the Bellman principle! Away with you and have a look at e.g. the demographics before you "fact up" again. (You could even have a look at "how are they dying / being injured" but you can save that effort if you do the first). You can get e.g. the 2023 lot over at KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis - Publications - Cycling facts 2023 - in English. Page 30 would be a good place to start. Alternatively Bicycle Dutch has another one of his soothingly-intoned videos on this to go along with his presentation of (mostly that) data (article "Cycling Safety in the Netherlands: challenges and solutions"). Just the thing! Of course you could suggest pursuing the UK's "safety - or convenience" approach further: implement Vision Zero Cycling. Having no cyclists should lead to zero cycling casualties. Or perhaps restrict it to those in early adulthood who've passed a medical and confine it to velodromes (with low speed limits!) Then gloat at how much safer we've made cycling in the UK than NL!

@Tazwaz You're trying to apply some modicum of logic to someone who has a room temperature IQ and a healthy hatred of cyclists.

I compared the statistics here in France between cycling and walking. I was very surprised to discover that if you walk or cycle the same distance you are nearly twice as likely to die if you walk than if you cycle. However no one would suggest that pedestrians wear helmets. It turns out that walking and cycling are so safe we get these strange results when looking at statistics. So don't panic, wear a helmet when you cycle 50km and go as you feel when going to Tesco around the corner.

@mdavidford You mean "stolen bike lane" is treated like "stolen bike"?

I thought you just got a crime number?

@Dodonline I believe the non-expert you're defending was the one with the "cycle tyre more damaging than large commercial jet tyre" theory, so I suspect their professed opinion is usually to get a rise out of folks. And normally as helpful as "but a few years ago we were advised to smoke to 'help us cough' ..."

What doesn't help in these cases is that the road is often no longer closed, but nobody could be arsed to take the signs down. Or more likely, the signs are managed by a different crew and they can't come for a few days.

@tomlew Correct about the second part but Campagnolo improved rear derailleur design, he didn't invent it. There are numerous claimants for the title of inventor of the first mechanical derailleur going back long before Campagnolo, and even in terms of the parallelogram derailleur that was invented by Lucien Joy and marketed as Simplex.

@Dodonline No, their opinions are not just as valid when scientific testing has clearly demonstrated the truth of a particular proposition. If I say the earth is flat is my opinion just as valid as Professor Brian Cox saying it's round? The only abuse here was Nigel's standard attempt to slip in a derogatory remark about heavier people; I am simply pointing out that given his occupation it is unlikely that he (or I for that matter) knows better than the best riders and bike techs in the world what is best. The reason it used to be thought that high-pressure skinny tyres were best is because scientific testing was always undertaken in a laboratory on smooth steel drums, on which high-pressure narrow tyres do perform very well, but wider tyres with lower pressures have been found to perform better in real world imperfect road conditions.