road.cc live blog: Two extra stages for Vuelta, wedding bells for Becky James and more

Well that all blew up quickly! A pause to savour: "cyclists have a dislike for linguistic accuracy and authentic meaning." Apparently it's something to do with the cyclic muscle movements - ah, no, that would affect runners and rowers also. Circular motion of the limbs?

@mattw Yeah, and Oxford Street will be full of unicorns and rainbows by then as well. 🤣

@stulemanski Actually I think they do, as long as there is good behaviour. Complete cycle bans are vanishingly rare in the Netherlands, which is the best comparison. In 10-20 years time there will be a mobility track, and there will be no real problems.

@Rendel Harris That assumes training, expertise, and the time to do a proper job including full consultation. This does not happen, and then rapid assumptions are made based on "me". That also happens with cycling groups who campaign for something and completely ignore eg tricycles or other varieties of vehicle, in favour of standard cycles. Both lived experience and professional experience are essential. This week I have been looking at a brand new £50k 3m-wide path upgrade in my local Green Flag Park, where the Council have spent perhaps £3k installing a 3 ply chicane with 1.5m gaps and 1.5m spacing between barriers at one end of it. The path also includes a 1-in-9 30m long hill. I have since been talking to a lady who is a wheelchair user and has a fully-trained assistance dog which walks alongside, who is thereby prevented from entering the park she pays for with her Council Tax. Those dimensions are unusable for most small mobility scooters, never mind other mobility aid users, and are flat out unlawful, and not in accordance with several sets of Government Guidelines. Yet when I complain I expect to be stonewalled to the door of the Court in the hope that I will get exhausted and go away. At the door of the Court they usually capitulate, and will have spent 7-10k on legal letters and compensation and doing what they should have done at the start. That £3k could have been spent sorting out perhaps 10 other anti-disabled barriers around our Green Flag Parks. Every complaint so far I have made has been met with "Does Not Meet Threshold for Action".

@flowboy I'm not sure what your point is, FB. Unforfunately, in a world of insufficient resources and gutted Councils with no expertise (for example the near-vanishing of Accessibility Officers) due mainly to available resources being halved since 2010, the only things that will get a response are likely to be details supported by a credible threat of legal action. That's how it is. Even then they often rely on obfuscation via complaints procedures that can take 12 months and have no teeth.

@flowboy I'm not sure what your point is, FB. Unforfunately, in a world of insufficient resources and gutted Councils with no expertise (for example the near-vanishing of Accessibility Officers) due mainly to available resources being halved since 2010, the only things that will get a response are likely to be details supported by a credible threat of legal action. That's how it is. Even then they often rely on obfuscation via complaints procedures that can take 12 months and have no teeth.

@Rendel Harris I have recently come out. I have been called a lot worse. Sticks and stones. So are you saying I cannot call people like myself names? If a call myself and people like me, a ‘homophobic slur’ are you going to get the nasty words police on to me? If you are straight, then your opinions and fake anger mean nothing. Unless you are gay, you are clueless. So stop getting all worked up about a name. I can cope with it. If you can’t, it’s on you.

@No Reply, ah I see which PBU you are now. Tiresomely familiar. Rather than waste any more time on you I’ll leave it to the good judgement of road.cc readers as to exactly how much credence to give the words of someone who claims that calling someone a “bum chum” is not a homophobic slur.

I'm sure everyone involved is very well intentioned but I'm sorry Scottish Cycling, young people don't need "confidence", they need safe infrastructure. They need a national government that doesn't repeatedly fail to live up to its previous promises on active travel spending and then tries to obfuscate that fact, while diverting huge obscene sums of money to road building and blocking attempts by councils to implement congestion charging. They need local councils that are actually incentivised to deliver infrastructure at pace where funding is available rather than soft-soaping and slow-rolling constantly to try and avoid bad press from deranged anti-cycling wingnut columnists in local rags. Most relevantly, they need people with access to power and politics who're willing to advocate for those things, certainly far more than they need a Tour-themed rebrand of the ineffectual Bikability scheme which is what this initiative seems to amount to.

@Rendel Harris "Did you have to have counselling after every game because of the hurtful things you heard on the pitch?" Great question. For a rational, steady, logical, response, sadly don't hold your breath. I say "sadly" because most cyclists have a dislike for linguistic accuracy and authentic meaning. I don't think Rendel has a wish to "live in North Korea" though. He's only expressing disdain for a two word lump that resides along the lickspittle spectrum. North Korea seems like an incredible leap. Do you use a TV stick a lot No Reply?