road.cc live blog: Monday morning catch-up. Clarkson claptrap, clueless councillors and more
Some stories you may have missed over the weekend
Mon, Nov 20, 2017 08:29
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
rookybiker 1 hour ago
I've used Challenge, Vittoria, Veloflex and Continental tyres. What stands out for me regarding Challenge is how robust their supple tyres are. Usually there is a tradeoff there, but Challenge somehow manages to keep both.
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
Well, many of them are more correctly "emit elsewhere". However as we do successfully move away from "coal, oil, and latterly gas and wood" the fraction that is actually emitted does go down. So overall, welcome. (It's complicated... the renewables business is just business like any other so we aren't keen to discuss all the resources being used / new places that get trashed. Example being how much steel (mostly still "dirty") and concrete we need for the new infra. And of course where humans can, they will, as much as they can afford, so Jevons Paradox applies).
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
RE: Royal Mail 4-wheeled "bikes" - hadn't they been trying to ditch the bikes for ages (like society overall)? When they did they dumped them in favour of vans plus those trolleys. Overall if this means it ends up more "micro-van" rather than "walking plus full size vans" I guess a degree of pedalling is an improvement? When Royal Mail and parking came up before someone said they can ditch their vehicles where they want (if they have to/within reason... but nobody's going to do anything about it). The real issue is all the other commercial deliverers do that anyway. Plus most of the rest of the population...
mitsky 3 hours ago
@david21 Such as this one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY6fhhmen8w
MaxiMinimalist 3 hours ago
Will Royal Mail release facts and figures that really matter - costs of acquisition, costs of maintenance, impact on productivity, depreciation, loss of residual value? Zero-emission vehicle means carbon emissions are released upstream.
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
RE: Royal Mail 4-wheeled "bikes" - should be worried in case they get Fujitsu to manage the routing and logistics...
Smoggysteve 4 hours ago
One thing that's missed out is upgradability. By which I mean, what is the benefit of upgrading my bike? Over the last decade or so , we have had, electronic gears, disc brakes, fully intergrated cable free designs, more aero frames, there has always at lease one reason to eye up an upgrade. Lets use the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9. What is the difference between that and the SL8? its so marginal. same can be said for so many new releases. the upgrades are so marginal and when they are always boasted about in ridiculous terms like a 5 seconds saving over 80km averaging 45kph. its preposterous to the average mere human non pro rider. Its like the evolution of the iPhone. the leap in every new model was always worth the cost of upgrading. bigger screens, higher resolutions, better camera etc etc. but now each new model is almost identical to the last and people stopped upgrading every year, to maybe ever y 2-3 years instead with the new contract etc. In the last 4-5 years, with the exception of a few radical bikes like the Factor One or the Colnago Y1RS etc, upgrades are not worth the expenditure. Especially when people are more prepared to buy Chinese instead. Why spend 5 figures on a top end Dura Ace clad superbike from a marquis brand when you can get a very good alternative from China for almost half the price? Its happening in bikes, phones, electric SUVs. Big brands took the piss and now they are paying for their greed.
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
Not a reply to car drivers but one I do like using on the fairly regular occasions some mean-spirited grumbler complains about bikes on trains (almost invariably when the train is less than half full and the bike is neatly tucked in the legitimate bike space!), muttering, "You've got a bike, why aren't you riding it?" to which I like to reply, "You've got shoes on, why aren't you walking?"
Terry Hutt 4 hours ago
My favorite rude driver retort was when I had two teenage children and there were four cars in my driveway. Driver: Get off the road! Me: How many cars do you own? Just the one? I own four. Get off my road!
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
@Bungle_52 The ones I have seen don't, as I said they are not much wider than a large cyclist with MTB bars so they can safely (and I presume legally) park on pavements when making their deliveries without obstructing pedestrians, given that, in London at least, segregated cycle lanes almost always run alongside wide pavements. If they were to stop in cycle lanes that would be annoying, although at least they are narrow enough to ride around without having to use the road/pavement, unlike the motorised vans.
9 thoughts on “road.cc live blog: Monday morning catch-up. Clarkson claptrap, clueless councillors and more”
Currently sitting in a car
Currently sitting in a car dealership waiting area, Daily Fail and (behind) the Times have just been dropped onto the table. Against my better judgment, picked up the DF,,, inside is a piece with Clarkson saying driverless car nearly killed him. Which means in a parallel universe…
CygnusX1 wrote:
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with driverless cars: no judgement.
davel wrote:
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with driverless cars: no judgement.— CygnusX1
I don’t understand. Is it a problem that it only “nearly killed him” and it should have definitely killed him?
hawkinspeter wrote:
That would be one measure of intelligence progression.
There is truth in what
There is truth in what Clarkson says… paraphrasing; shared cycle/bus lanes are dangerous, and given the choice he’d ban buses due to NOx and particulate emmissions. Hard to argue with that…
PRSboy wrote:
“shared cycle/bus lanes are dangerous” – no they’re not
“he’d ban buses due to NOx and particulate emmissions” – do busses pollute more per passenger per mile than cars then? If the car journeys were replaced by bus journeys the efficiency would be greater as would be the ability to increase investment in better busses…
“Clarkson’s been telling his
“Clarkson’s been telling his fans once again that only poor people cycle” Not exactly.
What he said isn’t exactly wrong either. Busses are ridiculously overpriced (£4 for a return ticket that takes twice as long as my car to get from one side of Bristol to the other – no thanks, I’ll drive).
I fully support removing diesel buses and replacing them with electric ones. Or, as should have been done in Bristol rather than Metrobus, create an electric tram network – go look at Geneva!
Cycling also provides free travel for millions worldwide who can’t afford to run a car.
My Canyon Ultimate is way more than twice the cost of my car though – and my Whyte Wessex is nearly twice the price, so, you know.
Quote” Clarkson’s been
Quote” Clarkson’s been telling his fans once again that only poor people cycle”
No he didn’t. He said if you can’t afford a car, buy a bicycle. Not the same thing at all.
The article says that
The article says that Clarkson is 57, which seems rather young to be having dementia to this extent.