“Nobody’s calling the police?” Brazen thief filmed stealing bike in broad daylight on London street… as onlookers laugh; Seaside cycling ban row; Milan v Napoli; Giro showdown on Blockhaus; Are rural roads better than cycle lanes? + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“Nobody’s calling the police?” Brazen thief filmed stealing bike in broad daylight on busy London street… as onlookers laugh
London’s bike theft stats aren’t great, as we all know – in fact, they’re pretty shocking – but this certainly isn’t a great look for the capital.
Last night, a video started doing the rounds on social media, appearing to show a thief brazenly using some heavy-duty bolt cutters to hack his way through a bike lock in broad daylight:
Posted by the Pickpocket London Facebook page (which, despite its name, isn’t a page promoting petty criminality), the clip has attracted over one million views and shows the apparent thief’s rather lengthy attempt to free the well-locked bike.
Unfortunately, details about the alleged theft (some have suggested he was just cutting through his own lock after losing his keys) are scarce, though it appears that the bike was parked on the Strand – which isn’t exactly the quietest part of London, if we’re honest.
And it’s that inaction which has baffled viewers on Facebook.
“Did you call the police or just film?” asked Ellen, while Sue called out the onlooker who can be heard ‘lolling’ in the clip, asking: “Just film and laugh? Really?”
“Nobody’s calling the police, no? Just watching and laughing,” added Miles.
But Tony asked: “What’s the police gonna do though? He’ll be long gone by the time they show up (if they do at all).
“And if you try to intervene you’re risking getting stabbed. Sadly, the risks are just too high for a bike.”
Unfortunately, Tony’s pessimistic take is supported by the stats. In February, we reported that new research by the London Cycling Campaign suggests that an estimated 40,000 bikes are stolen in London each year, with only around two per cent of stolen bikes recovered.
As part of the campaign’s survey of London cyclists, 74 per cent said they or a member of their household had been the victim of cycle theft, with 79 per cent of that figure reporting the police took no action or no action beyond contacting them.
Calling the crimes an “epidemic”, the LCC argued that reduced reporting of theft allows the Met to “trumpet falling cycle thefts”. However, the charity believes any reduction in reported thefts is rather the result of victims giving up on the police as a means of getting a stolen bike recovered or offenders caught.
“London’s bike thieves know they face virtually no likely repercussions,” Tom Fyans, Chief Executive of the London Cycling Campaign said at the time.
“Yet behind every one of the tens of thousands of cycles stolen in London each year there’s a story of someone losing a precious bike, losing their chance to get around London healthily, and for many that means an end to them cycling..
“The Met are letting Londoners who cycle down badly.”
‘I’m not anti-cycling at all. But…’ Row over seafront cycling ban in Weymouth erupts after local claims young cyclists are riding “no hands on the handlebars at excessive speed” in no-bike zone – but others say “99% of people” respect the restrictions
It feels like it’s been a while since we covered a good/bad old-fashioned cycling ban now on the live blog. And this one even features the classic caveat of the anti-cycling scoundrel: ‘I’m not ant-cycling, but…’
This week’s debate focuses on Weymouth Esplanade, which since 2018 has imposed a ban on people riding bikes between 10am and 5.30pm, from 1 May to 30 September (replacing the complete ban introduced in 2009).
It was kicked off by Jonathan, a “furious” letter writer to the Dorset Echo, who complained that “dangerous” cycling was putting pedestrians on the promenade at risk – after coming across one youth riding no-hands the other day.
“Walking along Weymouth Esplanade towards town one afternoon, I witnessed a young man cycling – no hands on the handlebars – along the promenade at excessive speed,” Jonathan wrote.
“He was in breach of the daytime no cycling restrictions which are currently in force up to and including 30th September.”
Taking aim at what he described as “kidult transgressors” on bikes and scooters, Jonathan continued: “The ongoing situation as regards cycling on the Esplanade is unsatisfactory, to put it mildly. Are Dorset Council accredited personnel in uniform employed, as part of their role, to enforce the restrictions?
“The police, even if it is not strictly their responsibility, should intervene when cyclists and scooterists are in breach, take names and serve notice of prosecution for careless and inconsiderate cycling if that is justifiable.
“More ‘gentle’ cyclists should be ordered to dismount, and advised that any repeat breach might well result in a fixed penalty.”
He continued: “As a personal disclaimer, I am not anti-cycling at all. I hope to resume this activity at some stage, health permitting.
“As for pavement cycling, I would not expect school pupils commuting to and from school to endanger themselves and others by cycling on the roads so long as they are sensible and alert pedestrians to their presence.
“What I really object to are irresponsible types like the foul-mouthed youth who swore at me for my refusal to stand aside for him on Dorchester Road recently. I wish him no ill, personally, but he needs to learn more consideration for others.”
Jonathan’s call for a clampdown on cycling on the promenade sparked something of a debate in the Dorset Echo’s comments section, with some locals arguing that the letter writer was overstating the issue of ‘problem cyclists’.
One regular promenade visitor described incidents between cyclists and pedestrians as “relatively rare”, emphasising that “99 per cent of people” respect the peak time restrictions on cycling along the esplanade.
Back in 2022, you may remember, a local councillor in the Dorset seaside town called for an end to the seafront cycling ban, which he claimed placed people riding their bikes in the same category as substance misusers, aggressive beggars, street drinkers, and prostitutes.
“Including cycling under the same label as drug dealing, substance misuse, discarded paraphernalia, street drinking, aggressive begging, prostitution, and sexually related activity is wrong,” Roland Tarr, a local Cycling UK Right to Ride representative, said.
“I think we should be trying to look at it positively, and try to come up with a positive solution rather than just placing a ban.”
Tarr instead called for a new cycle lane to be installed along Weymouth’s sea front, which he claimed would benefit local families, mental health, and tourism in the area, as well as help the fight against climate change.
“Weymouth has one of the best cycling systems in the country… but suddenly you come to the seafront and there is a complete gap,” he said.
“The road is nasty… and really unpleasant to cycle down there. If you were a young family out for a cycle ride for the day, cycling around Weymouth, it would be illegal to go down that way.”
The councillor added: “We should be looking at how we can make a continuous cycleway, with a speed limit, which would allow people with their families to cycle through there.
“From a tourism point of view, this county must be identified as a good place to come for an ecological, ‘green’ holiday.”
Should low-traffic, low-speed shared roads be prioritised over cycle lanes in rural areas? Pilot ‘quiet road’ scheme in works in Ireland, as council says: “Innovation in rural mobility doesn’t always require major infrastructure projects”
Are cycle lanes always the answer when it comes to making people on bikes safer?
No – at least not according to a local council in Ireland, which is currently working on a brand-new ‘Quiet Road’ scheme, which it claims will create a “safer, shared road space” for pedestrians, cyclists, and local traffic in rural areas, without the need for expensive infrastructure projects.
Just in case you’ve never heard of them, ‘Quiet Roads’ are small, often narrow rural roads with low traffic volumes where active travel is encouraged, with the concept already proving popular in Denmark.
The proposed Quiet Road in Co. Monaghan, connecting the villages of Scotstown and Ballinode, will feature a 30kph speed limit, traffic-calming measures, a new red road surface, shared space signage, and flashing speed signs.
The road runs parallel to a wider road more suited to through traffic, which most motorists are expected to use.
“Innovation in rural mobility doesn’t always require major infrastructure projects. It can start simply with rethinking how existing road space is allocated and how road layouts can be designed to enhance safety for all users,” Robert Burns, the chief executive of Monaghan County Council, said in a LinkedIn post announcing the beginning of a public consultation on the project.
“The concept reflects approaches already used successfully in countries such as Denmark, where low-speed, shared rural roads help create safer environments for pedestrians, cyclists, local residents and farm traffic, while maintaining the character of the landscape.
“What makes this pilot particularly interesting is that it treats rural roads not only as transport corridors, but as shared community spaces.
“The successful design and implementation of the Quiet Road concept could significantly improve road safety and the comfort of pedestrians and cyclists on rural roads and support a shift to more sustainable transport modes like walking and cycling in rural communities.
“The Quiet Road concept, if replicated at scale, offers enormous potential to enhance road safety and improve connectivity within rural communities right across Ireland.”
Jonas Vingegaard breaks Blockhaus climbing record to land first GC blow at the Giro d’Italia – but it was far from a knockout, as Felix Gall showcases pink jersey credentials by limiting losses to Dane
For a few minutes on the Blockhaus, it looked like Jonas Vingegaard’s debut climbing assignment at the Giro was set to go perfectly to plan.
The Visma mountain lead-out duo of Piganzoli and Kuss did their job, the lead group decimated by the climb’s halfway mark, GC pretenders like Egan Bernal and Enric Mas scattered in the strong winds buffeting the Apennine monster.
Vingegaard’s attack, when it eventually came, also went to plan. Red Bull and Italy’s great young hope Giulio Pellizzari, full of exuberance and panache, was the only rider capable of hitching a ride with the Dane when he launched.
Until, that is, Vingegaard decided to ditch the trailer, accelerate, and go it alone with over 4km to go.
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At that point, you’d be forgiven for writing off this year’s Giro GC battle. The two-time Tour de France winner, long-delayed Italian glory in his sights, was gone, set to build a healthy, race-defining gap over his rivals.
Not quite. Decathlon’s Felix Gall, almost three years on from his win on Courchevel at the Tour de France (his last pro victory), wasn’t able to follow Vingegaard’s initial acceleration. But the gangly Austrian kept it cool, riding up to a rapidly fading Pellizzari, taking a breath, and then spinning away from the Italian.
Just as Gall showed his strength, Vingegaard – now, I mean this relatively – began to wilt, ever so slightly. Through the forest near the top, leaves rustling in the wind on either side of the road, the gap began to creep down second by second. 21, then 19, then 17. Gall was closing in.
But just not quick enough. Vingegaard punched the air as he crossed the line, his grand tour stage win treble secured and with it, a new record on one of cycling’s most mythical climbs. So much for the sense that he was struggling in the red zone, then.
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The rest of his rivals were also left as far down the mountain as you might expect. 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley lead home Red Bull teammate Pellizzari and fellow Aussie Ben O’Connor over a minute down on Vingegaard. Everyone else in the top ten ceded a minute and a half at least.
Except for Gall. The Austrian crossed the line just 13 seconds down on the Dane, his pink jersey credentials increasing with every metre he closed on Vingegaard. Blockhaus may, on paper, have belonged to Visma and Vingegaard, but Gall has succeeded in shifting the race’s overall narrative at least a fraction.
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The Giro, as Jonas Vingegaard is learning, is far from straightforward. Even when you’re winning.
As for pink jersey Alfonso Eulálio? He limited his losses admirably, as domestique deluxe Damiano Caruso winched him up the closing kilometres, and still holds a 3.17 lead on Vingegaard on GC.
Visma certainly took a few big swings on Blockhaus – but they haven’t landed that knockout blow. Yet.
The curse of the live blogger strikes
And… Eulálio’s dropped. Sorry for that, Alfonso. Still, you have six minutes advantage on GC, no panic yet.
Actually hold on, Jonas Vingegaard has attacked – and only Giulio Pellizzari can follow. Might be a long 5km for the pink jersey (and everyone else) now.
Boom, boom, boom
We’re not even halfway up the wind-ravaged Blockhaus, but Visma are completely decimating the field.
Wednesday’s stage winning hero Igor Arrieta, second on GC, was the first big name to pop under the relentless pressure, followed by his UAE teammate Jan Christen.
Just seconds later, the bigger shocks started, as both Enric Mas and Egan Bernal lost contact, Colombian champion Bernal confirming what we suspected earlier this week – he’s not going to be anywhere near the fight for pink.
And, before I even finish typing this, Derek Gee-West was dropped. I’m even struggling to keep up with Visma here.
You know who’s still there? The pink jersey Eulálio. Maybe Callum’s right…
Here’s a Friday afternoon read if I’ve ever seen one…
SD Worx’s Mischa Bredewold continues strong May by winning small group sprint on opening stage of Itzulia Women
The Giro isn’t the only race on today, you know.
Over in the Basque Country, the Itzulia Women got underway with a tough, hilly, and in the end very selective 121km stage around Zarautz.
On the penultimate climb of the Etumeta, Canyon-Sram’s Antonio Niedermaier blew the bunch to bits, before attacking solo over the top. She was eventually caught by a strong four-rider group, including British rider Lauren Dickson, Yara Kastelijn, Riejanne Markus, and late chaser Mischa Bredewold – who she promptly attacked again on the final climb up the Garate.
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That wasn’t enough to snap the elastic, however, and the leading five entered Zarautz with a handy 20-second lead over a strong chasing group. It was Bredewold who proved the strongest in the sprint, the Dutch rider continuing her strong May form on Spanish soil, following her stage win at last week’s Vuelta Femenina.
Kastelijn finished second, and Markus third, as Dickson took an impressive fourth and the ever-attacking Niedermaier was forced to settle for fifth, took seconds down.
Bahrain-Victorious chasing for pink jersey Eulálio as rain starts to fall on the approach to Blockhaus
Bahrain-Victorious’ sports directors must have been watching Callum’s mild take on Afonso Eulálio’s Giro chances in the team car, because they’re currently riding like they’re trying to win the race overall, patrolling the front in rainy conditions (a seemingly constant feature of this year’s Giro so far).
That work by Bahrain has reduced the gap to the four-rider breakaway, consisting of Jardi van der Lee, Nickolas Zukowsky, Tim Naberman, and Diego Sevilla, down to under four minutes, with around 50km of today’s mammoth 245km stage left to race.
It could be worse for the break, however – as a few kilometres back, a black cat raced across their path on a descent, giving everyone a fright. Let’s hope they’re not superstitious (or even a little stitious)…
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Oh, and speaking of bad luck, it’s apparently down to three or four degrees Celsius at the top of the Blockhaus. Welcome to the Giro, everyone.
Blockhaus Party!
I’ve had this afternoon circled for quite a while now. In about 60km time, the Giro peloton will tackle one of the Italian grand tour’s most legendary, mythical climbs.
The Blockhaus.
The steep, 14km Apennine brute, named after a nineteenth-century Austrian fort, where wolves still roam, and where – just like its French cousin Mont Ventoux – centuries of legends have been born.
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It’s also where Eddy Merckx was crowned as the new king of cycling at the 1967 Giro, the Cannibal taking his first grand tour stage win on the mountain. It’s where Spanish mountain goat Jose Manuel Fuente showed the world that Merckx was, in fact, fallible in 1972, and where Francesco Moser teed up his 1984 pink jersey triumph.
More recently, it’s where Nairo Quintana soloed to victory in 2017 (and where Geraint Thomas’s race was dashed by a police motorbike), and where Elisa Longo Borghini won her first Giro.
Will the Blockhaus also be the scene of Jonas Vingegaard’s ascent into Giro history this afternoon? Or will pink jersey Afonso Eulálio write the first chapter of an epic underdog story?
In any case, make sure you cancel any calls in the next two hours or so. This is going to be good…
Reckless Giro d’Italia spectators who hit riders tell police they were “trying to pull a prank”
An update on those two clowns from yesterday:
That’s Dr Ganna to you, sir
I suppose riding the Giro is as good an excuse as any to get out of attending a long, boring graduation ceremony.
So, Filippo Ganna made the graduation ceremony come to him this morning, the Netcompany Ineos rider presented on the sign-on podium with an honorary doctorate from the ISFOA university, in recognition of his Olympic gold medal-winning team pursuit achievements with Italy:
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I had to work three years for my doctorate. All Ganna did was ride around in circles for four minutes…
“With two drops of water we get a huge mess. I really don’t get it”: Jonathan Milan accuses Giro d’Italia organisers of prioritising “hype” over safety after chaotic, crash-marred Naples finish – but Brian Smith says riders “contributed to the drama”
Well, yesterday’s Giro stage was chaotic to say the least.
After that idiotic round of ‘who could be the biggest prat watching a bike race’ with 50km to go, the finale in Naples was (as ever) a messy, crash-marred affair, as Dylan Groenewegen and his Unibet Rose Rockets lead-out man hit the deck on the city’s wet cobbles, bringing most of the big-name sprinters to a skittery halt.
XDS Astana’s Davide Ballerini survived the chaos to take a surprise win over Jasper Stuyven (though props to Paul Magnier for stopping, clipping out, and still managing third place. Man’s on fire).
Davide Ballerini capitalises on cobbled chaos! 🫨
The Italian picks up his first Grand Tour stage win after the rain came to cause trouble. pic.twitter.com/qtQLffRS45
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) May 14, 2026
However, one of the favourites caught behind the crash, Jonathan Milan, wasn’t too happy about the organisers’ decision to place the finish in Naples on cobbles and just after a sharp right-hander.
“Luckily I didn’t crash, I was able to stand on my bike,” the Lidl-Trek sprinter said after the stage. “But they crashed in front of me. It’s not their fault, I mean we know it will be super slippery if it rains on these kind of cobbles.
“I really don’t get why we have to try to find these complicated finishes. I really don’t get it, you know. We could think it could rain and maybe to be safe, like some years ago, we could go just straight.
“But no, with two drops of water we get a huge mess, and I’m just a bit disappointed because I was in a good position, I was in good shape and feeling good.
“But we have to try to look for these things, no? For a bit of hype maybe, sometimes. I really don’t get it.”
However, one pundit critical of Milan’s take on yesterday’s chaotic stage was former British champion Brian Smith – who reckons the riders need to take some responsibility when navigating tricky finishes likes the one in Naples.
“There are a lot of negative comments about today’s Giro finish,” Smith wrote on Twitter last night. “All towards the race organisers and nothing about the riders themselves. Yes, the rain had an impact. Too fast and pedalling in the corner did not help. After the first rider went many hit the brakes and fell themselves. Ballerini freewheeled and managed to stay upright.
“Milan was not happy because he did not win. Technical finishes, gravel etc are here to stay. Riders contributed to the drama by not adjusting to the conditions.
“Although I hate to see riders crashing, I thought the finish was good… Not everyone likes a drag strip straight finish.”
What do you reckon? When it comes to sprint finish routes, are you siding with Smithy or Jonny Milan?
You know you’re getting old when… you start thinking triathlon is a good idea
Yes, Alex Dowsett has really reached that stage of his midlife crisis. The Lambo will be next…
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Drum roll, please… It’s time to introduce Callum’s Medium-length Cycling Mild Takes!
You’ve all heard of hot takes, right? When internet people relentlessly attempt to outdo each other with increasingly outlandish views, condensed into doomscroll and lack of attention span-friendly bitesize snippets, on the big news of the day?
Well, we decided to put our own twist on that well-worn, somewhat hackneyed social media format – by handing Callum a camera and ordering him to come up with a considered, moderately juicy, slight nod-inducing opinion on a topic of debate from around the world of cycling.
And, for his first instalment, he’s come up with… Afonso Eulálio could win this Giro d’Italia.
> Medium-length Mild Take: GC favourites bet on youthful inexperience at the Giro
Hmm, yeah, I suppose he’s got a point. A nice lovely mild take there, no need for the milk, waiter…
How not to use a ‘Cyclists Dismount’ sign, #473
Another exciting example on Slateford Road (at admittedly one of Edinburgh’s most annoyingly conflicted sections of protected cycle lane).
— Jturner (@j-turner.bsky.social) May 14, 2026 at 12:31 PM
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@Surreyrider Take this comment down. Put it on moan.cc where it belongs.
I had a party at my place ten years back and a range rover driving friend asked me where he could park. (I share a driveway with my neighbour so he probably wanted permission to park behind my neighbour's car. Or to have me move my bikes out of my garage so he could use it) I was genuinely surprised and said what do you mean, there's 350 empty parking bays literally over the road at the library. WELL, over the road was a BIT OF AN EXAGGERATION. He would have to walk 30 meters from the nearest bay to my door. He was really unhappy with this outcome and drove off. Car brain was diagnosed.
And so it came to pass that upon a certain day Saul was riding to Damascus and a blinding flash struck the shades from his eyes and lo a voice did cry out, "Saul, Saul, thou ridest a Dogma yet verily thou art clad in MTB sunnies, and this, as thou knowst, is against my law." Thereafter Saul was sore afflicted until he was guided to that place where road.cc is pure and bought the same glasses but verily they were stamped "road use" and there was great rejoicing through all the nations, especially in Surrey.
@mdavidford I remember riding the Death Valley double century one year when it reached 114F (45.5C). Someone told me it was 114, I just remember it being way too hot. On the climb up to Shoshone there were bodies on the side of the road sick with hyperthermia. None of us should have been let out of doors that day.
I must also confess to similar accidental *ahem* damage when I worked as a carer, pushing wheelchair users into town, and being forced to squeeze our ways past cars illegally parked over drop kerbs at crossings. I'll tell you this for nothing, the steel wheel brake mechanisms on a chair fare a lot better than the paint and plastic of a modern car bumper
Good to see you back Perce!
I must confess I have ridden into cars that have been driven across a bike lane right in front of me (not the car's fault). Not hard enough to damage my bike, but hard enough the leave an expensive dent in the door panel. I'm always videoing and my brakes squeal loudly but I just can't seem to come to a complete stop in time. Sorry.
(Ignoring the fact it says off-road.cc at the top and bottom, but yes it is indeed the road.cc domain)... ... if you wish for further hill-martyrdom I can recommend a review of a tent they've done which mounts to a motor vehicle - zero bikes involved.
One day last week, a Tuesday I think it was, just like St. Paul on the way to Damascus ( don't know where he was travelling from. Jerusalem?. Seems a long way. Perhaps he had a donkey. ) I had an epiphany - there was a blinding flash of light and I suddenly realised I didn't have to read articles I didn't find interesting even though other people might. I'm sleeping a whole lot better now, well, apart from the oppressive heat.
Strangely out of character for Silca. …Outmoded. Need high flow for tubeless. They’ll clog.
35 thoughts on ““Nobody’s calling the police?” Brazen thief filmed stealing bike in broad daylight on London street… as onlookers laugh; Seaside cycling ban row; Milan v Napoli; Giro showdown on Blockhaus; Are rural roads better than cycle lanes? + more on the live blog”
Is there anybody else only being served either the top or bottom halves of embedded videos on this site?
Yup – been that way for me for ages. If you stop and start the video while it’s playing, it switches between top and bottom half. To get the whole thing you have to pop it out to picture-in-picture mode.
@mdavidford Thanks, works!
@mdavidford Took me a while to work this out. I thought maybe it was just how the kids filmed content now, or another “feature” of the new site. Would be nice to have an update article / forum post on how that’s going…
@mdavidford browser and/or system graphics drivers bug(s).
But Tony asked: “What’s the police gonna do though? He’ll be long gone by the time they show up (if they do at all).
I would say if there’s a crime in progress, it’s still worth trying. In that part of central London, I think there’s a good chance of some beat bobbies not being too far away, and if there’s a chance of catching a crook red-handed (and with a supportive call handler), you might get a response.
(As an aside, another reason to get a good bike lock – a couple of extra minutes might be the difference between the police turning up in time, and the thief riding away scot-free on the stolen bike).
@OnYerBike
There’s an extremely good chance of a response being quick as Charing Cross Police Station is about 150 yards away from where this incident is occurring.
Have you changed your user name, wtjs?
@STiG911 I had my bike stolen by a tradesman in a company branded van working for a company whose main HQ was next door to our Borough Police HQ. Despite multiple prompts the police never bothered going next door to investigate who it was.
@open_roads Despite multiple prompts the police never bothered going next door to investigate who it was
Being ‘too busy’ to deal with is the over-riding police priority, and there really is no upper level to the idleness/ bentness they’re prepared to deploy in protecting drivers. This is the last sighting of Marcus Wright Carpentry Transit HN21 VXB engaged in a job at The Old Garstang Police Station (no longer connected with the police). It was there for 3 days (not overnight) and I told the Neighbourhood Policing Team at the New Garstang Police Station about it on the first day. It could well have been there yesterday, but I had to go off in the opposite direction. I didn’t have to repeat yet again the details of the MOT and VED evasion, because I told them about those when I last saw it at OGPS on 29th April. It’s a mile from NGPS to OGPS, so the police apologists on here will think it quite understandable that they condone the offences and were too busy to travel all that way, especially when they view MOT evasion as such a trivial matter even though it’s designated a ‘criminal offence’. In January Marcus Wright parked it illegally for a continuous 2 days 150 yards from NGPS- again, no response.
@wtjs I made the mistake of writing (insert offence here) after ‘being too busy to deal with’ above. However, I placed the insert inside ‘<' and '>‘ and the system deleted it. I wonder if it will delete them inside ”?
@STiG911 It’s actually nearly a kilometre away, the incident is right outside Somerset House and the police station is at the other end of the Strand. In any case, in my experience you’re highly unlikely to get a satisfactory response from a central London police station, they are generally wrapped up in counterterrorism, large events policing et cetera and tend to be quite disdainful of “petty” crime; usually just a case of here’s an incident number for your insurance and cheerio.
@Rendel Harris And I think Charing Cross are mostly tied up talking to the Independent Office for Police Conduct: https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/news/charing-cross-investigation-update-gross-misconduct-findings-nine-officers-further
@Rendel Harris and I think Charing Cross are mostly tied up talking to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (sorry, no link because moderation)
Bristol is obviously a bit of a village compared to that London, but on an occasion when I saw a man smash a bottle and walk of holding the stabbing end, the response was pretty damned quick. Likewise in Swansea when a fight broke out over a van-to-van scraping incident.
@slc Perhaps when reporting an ongoing bike theft you should tell the call handler you think the thief has a firearm?
RE the Giro finish, I agree with Brian Smith. Had it been dry I think it would have been an epic sprint with the best going wheel to wheel with few lead outs exploding off a slow speed out of the corner up to the line.
As it was with the damp conditions it ended up being a damp squib but it doesn’t mean it was wrong to design that finish.
Parts of Dorchester Road in Weymouth are shared use pavements so refusing to allow a cyclist to pass could be obstruction. Also, Google maps shows a number of vehicles parked in the cycle lanes so maybe cyclists have to mount the pavement to get past them.
On quiet roads, there are many of them on Guernsey, which if you’ve ever been you’ll find is a very pleasant place to cycle.
@bensynnock And on the photo of the quiet road it shows the driver unable to stay within the white lines.
It is possible there’s something out of shot approaching in the other direction, and they’re only moving over to pass.
And in the photo above the one you mention, provided by Co. Monaghan, shows the white dashed lines providing maximum space for drivers of motor vehicles and leaving zero space for anyone else.
So more of the same, then?
When did it come to mean this, anyway? Used to be it referred to a quick, off-the-cuff, first impressions assessment of something, as contrasted with an in-depth review or analysis. That made sense – it was a take on something that was metaphorically ‘hot’ – off the press, out of the oven, from the mould, etc. This new usage to refer to the trotting out of tired old stereotypes, predictable clichés, and conspiracy theories that are, at best, lukewarm, makes no sense whatsoever.
No need to rub salt in the wound by spelling his name wrong.
Just filming and laughing… Then your bike is stolen, and you no longer laugh. Is it collective stupidity or individual cowardice that prevents people from calling the cops or stopping a thief?
@MaxiMinimalist Not stopping a thief in London is not cowardice; I would, and have (always been lucky in that they’ve done a runner when challenged), but I’m a fairly sizeable chap and I would certainly think twice if there was more than one perpetrator. Bike theft is a scourge but so is knife crime and it’s not reasonable to expect members of the public to risk getting stabbed to protect property.
I used my highly advanced MS Paint skills to illustrate the sign’s real meaning.
@andystow tbf that is top tier MS Paint skillz.
Makes sense at last! The picture arrived with me 3 hours later than the comment!
So, if the police WON’T do anything about bile theft, should we then allow citizen justice for thieving scumbags with bolt cutters in their hands, like this?
Air rifles would also be effective but non-fatal (unfortunately)
Bike, theft, obviously….
@Rocinante Bile *donation* (by all columnists and in social media) obviously…?
Another day in the world of mass motoring, another young tearaway just going a bit too far:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c9v37gz70l2o
Obvs. he’s a wrong ‘un and this has nothing to do with lawful driving (the vast majority of considerate careful drivers) / can’t stop bad people from doing bad things / he’ll grow out of it / removing the possibility of reform (with a lifetime driving ban) would be counterproductive / self-driving cars will fix this …
You missed out ‘youthful exuberance’ and ‘otherwise law-abiding’!
As far as bike thefts, the only time I ever got polis to respond in the moment in Edinburgh was the time I shouted “oi” at a couple of scumbags with an angle grinder and they waved it at me while screaming “eff off”, so I was able to call 999 and report a robbery in progress and say I had been threatened with a weapon. The half dozen cops that showed up mainly spent their time being angry at me for “wasting their time” and “misrepresenting the situation as serious criminality”(when I pointed out everything I’d said was factually correct and that threatening passers by with a deadly weapon while involved in the commission of a crime would solicit a significant response including the deployment of taser-trained officers in literally any other context they piped down a bit, but remained grumpy and generally uninterested in doing any sort of “policework”) – after seeing the object being robbed was “only” a bicycle they didn’t even bother to chase the scumbags as they legged it.
On a prior occasion I called 999 to report but made the mistake of telling the operator explicitly that it was a bike theft. I was told to call the non-emergency 101 instead. When I did that, they said I had no standing to report the theft because I wasn’t the owner, but graciously promised to contact me to act as a witness if the owner ever did report the bike stolen, then promptly rang off the call before taking any of my personal info.
They simply don’t give a s***.
As for the “quiet roads” – wonderful, so we’re now getting to the point of proposing as novel solutions the same concepts that the Netherlands tried 25 years ago and are now working hard to replace with better stuff. It’s not clear if it’s the article or the people pushing this but there seems to be a conflation of two completely different kinds of solutions there; narrow country lanes which have been properly filtered and re-tarmac’d in colour so that any given stretch has only a handful of houses or farms along it, making them functionally a cycle path that permits resident and farm vehicle access to specific areas only are a great solution for quickly building out a viable network for cycling in rural areas especially when combined with dedicated cyclepath shortcuts along the edges of farmland so cyclists get a more direct route, but they require a lot of political will and probably not a few compulsory purchase orders and are absolutely not equivalent to taking a wide high-speed two-lane rural road and painting some lines on it – the Dutch are clearing those failed experiments away as quickly as resources allow in favour of proper segregated lanes so it seems mad to *start* building them here now.
On “quiet roads” and cycle lanes (not separate paths) – agree it seems insane to simply ignore the successful experience of others.
But it’s “people”, isn’t it? Even in “pure” science and technology “culture” can still be a factor in slowing change *. And here it’s not engineering. In fact we’re trying to sell something which to many people doesn’t appear to be what they want! Worse – on the surface it appears to be a reduction in their convenience. And also their status, if we suggest they might travel other than by driving.
When “nobody else is doing it” that is a massively hard sell. (People *will* do inconvenient and expensive things *if* they amount to “getting ahead” or “keeping up with the Joheses”).
So sometimes it seems like “we can’t get there from here”. And that evolving through (what are now seen as) the mistakes of others might be the best we can hope for. Because the alternative – apart from “do nothing” – is “look! We invented our own version!”
And while the eg. Dutch ideas aren’t always perfect most of the cycle infra ideas developed in the UK’s more motornormative environment have turned out to be pretty crap…
* Like the joke about the phases of scientific acceptence: “That idea is not true. OK maybe it’s true but not relevant.
OK, perhaps it’s true and relevant – but it’s not new!”