road.cc live blog: Free print & play board game, double world champion injured in car crash, Fred Whitton Classic, On the forum and more

@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?

@Rendel Harris I have read your comments for a good while. What I see is someone who preaches tolerance but is completely intolerant to any other views which don’t align to yours. Many of your comments are personal slurs. You post some very personal and nasty responses. If someone gets so upset at a throwaway remark such as bum chum, the issue is with you. It’s an off the cuff remark, not a bloody homophobic slur. Get a grip. You can be offended. That is your right. But it is also my right to say something which someone else may find offends them. The remark is not offensive, no, you find it offensive. That my friend is free speech, enjoy it while it lasts in this country. People who go on forums looking for things to be offended at should not go on said forums. It is liberal views such as the ones you regularly show on here which are the reason why this country is such a mess. So you are a rugby player? How did that go? Did you have to have counselling after every game because of the hurtful things you heard on the pitch? And you are happy for someone to use the C word, but apoplectic if someone uses a term you don’t like. Have i touched a nerve Rendel? Is there something you’d like to tell me? For what it’s worth I didn’t get nasty and personal. You did. This forum is sadly going the way many forums have, where the liberals shout louder than everyone else to drown out a different opinion, and the result is a left wing biased forum where any dissent is frowned upon by those who feel superior to others. Perhaps you’d prefer us to live in a society like North Korea, where the state monitors and punishes opinions expressed? Maybe not, because you would be dealt with soundly.

@Rendel Harris Rendel Harris November 7, 2026 at 10:41 am @mark1212123 Thank you for answering my question. Get well soon. Hugs xxx Oh my. I wont address you again Rendel. You are discomforted. Please, accept my sincerest apologies, for making you feel like you are. I will, of course, from time to time, maybe mention your leaden effects upon the cycling community.