Video: Pinch Point – excellent short documentary explores attitudes towards cycling in Cambridge

I think the headline should be something like 'should' , because the final sentence is unfortunately spot on. I'll give it a few hours before I read irrational hatred of cyclists (or anything else for that matter which can be singled out) :-(

@mitsky I wonder if there are grounds for the victims family to take legal action against the justice system for its failure to protect the wider society against a clearly dangerous individual. How he got bail in December 2024 with his previous record is unfathomable. How that case, as serious as it was, involving an individual with such a terrible track record, could be left untried for such a long time is unforgivable. Appreciating that courts are backlogged, but when prioritising cases for trial, surely the risk posed by the defendant, their track record etc. is taken into account? Assuming so, just how bad are the wrong 'uns whose cases were put first?

@Rendel Harris yup, unfortunately this is far too easily ignored because it's so abnormal (eg. murder charge due to very strong evidence of deliberate killing) and "you can't stop murders". Indeed it will likely reinforce people's current positions / beliefs that eg.: - Road crime is being tackled effectively and indeed "real criminals" who drive are severely penalised by the legal system ("see - they got him, bang to rights, and threw the book at him"). - Their own (better or worse) driving is of a relatively high standard and certainly doesn't merit the attentions of the law ("look at what the *real* criminals do").

@Bungle_52 Thanks, yes I am familiar with the various elements of the scheme and the local history - I refuse to click on the links for the local comic though! I would also agree that some parts do work well and the link to Bishops Cleeve is better - going through the racecourse and down Kayte Lane worked just as well though. One of my old commutes was over racecourse hill and it could could be a bit sketchy especially in the dark - will never forget being showered by the remains of two car sides mirrors one evening when they chose to pass at speed! My children do also benefit from some of the off road elements for their rides to school though it has to be said that most of that is historic stuff and where they have to use the new bits it is because other recent 'road improvements' have increased traffic capacity and speeds to the point that existing crossing points are too dangerous to use. Trouble is that two way cycle paths on one side of the road are just rubbish. You will always be on the wrong side at some point. In the dark you will end up riding into headlights in one direction often on the edge of the road. They even make a mess of cycle to cycle priority e.g. underpass at Arle Court roundabout, and everything seems to be done to impede progress. I simply do not understand how GCC manage to do it so badly! What's so frustrating is that they also refuse to listen to any advice or comments and just plough on regardless.

@flowboy no need to hold out for panaceas, nor give up because "change ... and that will take time..." "What works" in terms of infra / interventions is now *very* well tested and understood. (Indeed several starts were even made in different places in the UK, at different times, before being abandoned...) I think there's also some knowledge of the "human / political engineering" to facilitate change, albeit that's sensitive to local context. Certainly there's always the objection "but you can't get there from *here*" ... and that can be *incredibly* hard to overcome. But it has, in many different places in different countries (even if just looking at Europe). Even NL wasn't always as it is; it was on exactly the same "knock down the historic city / houses to make room for the motor vehicle" path as the UK. They just started a bit later and had a headstart in terms of existing walking / cycling infra. And hadn't lost cycling as a normal mode of transport by that point.

I fear this appalling case won't shift the dial an inch in terms of empathy towards cyclists or better driving around them. People are appalled, and rightly so, at the murder element of the case, i.e. the fact that the perpetrator drove for so long with the victim trapped under his car, even after he had got out and seen that he was still there. If the incident had stopped at the original point, i.e. when Mr Mullins was hit by Richardson speeding through the junction, it probably wouldn't have been reported anywhere apart from a few local news outlets and maybe on road.cc. People then would doubtless have come out with the usual garbage about it was probably the cyclist's fault and if it wasn't so many cyclists break the law all the time how can they complain? The next cyclist to be killed by a driver who just wasn't concentrating or didn't look properly or was only driving a little over the sensible speed for the conditions, without the murder element, will bring the same filth out again, I'm certain.

@flowboy Refreshing frankness. Several folks here will know the location very well, Bath being the road.cc back yard. Alas, Yorkshire has some "UK standard" fairly terrible cycle provision - and I believe non "motoring-focussed" design is generally rare. (I've only experience of Leeds and York, and that mostly decades back; though i do occasionally look up what's changed). For "what we could win" I recommend a perusal of what happens in The Netherlands (the Bicycledutch blog is a good starting point, or notjustbikes on YouTube for a Anglophone perspective). But what they have done in NL goes way beyond "cycle infra" - indeed that is just the tip of the iceberg of what results from a different transport philosophy. For more a more believable "what the UK could start doing right now" see parts of Scandinavia, or (closer) Paris, or Seville. Or ... parts of London!

He was then photographed by the cyclist who spotted him and reported to the police. He was fined £430, and ordered to pay a £172 surcharge to support justice services and £130 in costs to the Metropolitan Police He should have gone to Lancashire, where the police condone 'phone-driving', especially when it's done by the driver of a flash car- they refused to act against this

My guess, regarding the different media/public response to this case, is that KSIs by drivers are usually accidental even if the driving itself that led to a collision was well below acceptable/safe standards. Thus the general (non-cycling) public might think that they themselves may have driven like that (or know that they usually do) and putting themselves in the shoes of the dangerous driver in question will empathise with them rather than the victim. In this case, the reporting has detailed the full terrible actions of the murderer which most people won't be able to relate to.

@chrisonabike Yes around here they tend to 'encourage' cycling rather than support it!