Live blog: More than 20,000 miles of GB roads need urgent repair, 2020 Road Worlds set for Netherlands and more
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Tue, Mar 20, 2018 10:19
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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
jackcycles 8 minutes ago
Pardon me! Mr Rahman.
jackcycles 9 minutes ago
On the blog post about the Tower Hamlets mayor, road.cc write "From a strictly active travel perspective we’ve not been a huge fan ever since he decided he needed a chauffeur-driven Mercedes to drive him around the 7 square miles he represents." I'm pretty sure that the precedent for this goes back to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Lord Khan was exposed as taking a convoy of chauffeur driven limousines for trips to take his dog for a walk, when there was a field a few metres from his house, under the guise of "security". It therefore hardly seems fair to try to impose two-tier security on Mr Luhman to stop him having the same level of amenity. In fact, it sounds like he's traveling economy class compared to the Lord himself.
Paul J 19 minutes ago
@PoorInRichfield Except the 1×13 has even thinner sprockets again than the 2×11, which will wear a little quicker. And, despite the thinner sprockets, the 13 will be slightly wider - combined with the single front ring, your chain will be pulled out to greater angles in your higher and lower gears. Again, a bit more friction, a bit more wear.
Smoggysteve 21 minutes ago
@PoorInRichfield 1. I never mentioned cross chaining. 2. "a 1×13 with the correct cassette can nearly mirror what I have." Shimano generally do at least 2 or 3 cassette variations. Especially at 105 / Ultegra level. So that probably wont be an issue. And since thay aint cheap, having 1 cassette that can cover everything from potentially 10t to 36t like Sram do but with the added capacity to have a1:1 ratio or very close to it is something that many people would find very appealing
perce 33 minutes ago
@Clem Fandango I agree. Didn't left wing power grab get in trouble by trying to pass themselves off as female morris dancers? I seem to remember they changed their name to fluffy morris for a while which indirectly led to the now infamous morris dancing wars of the early eighties.
mitsky 40 minutes ago
@mattw Good idea on the active speed control system. As I've said on other topics... "We have the technology... We just don't have the political will to make it happen." It could also be tied to the driver's insurance. IE, the more it is used, the lower the premium.
mdavidford 1 hour ago
Checks out - where better to meet them than at her next court appearance?
belugabob 1 hour ago
One of the stated reasons for her needing to keep her licence was "So that she could continue to meet with criminals..." 🙄
PoorInRichfield 1 hour ago
@Smoggysteve I used the online gear calculator that compares what I have to what I want. When cross-chaining gears and duplicate gear ratios are removed from the 2x11 setup, a 1x13 with the correct cassette can nearly mirror what I have. The issue will be weather or not Shimano gives us more than one option for the cassette.
leedorney 1 hour ago
As much as I can see the logic of 1x - 2 rings are better than 1, we all know that 😉
5 thoughts on “Live blog: More than 20,000 miles of GB roads need urgent repair, 2020 Road Worlds set for Netherlands and more”
It’s rather sad about the fatality involving a self-driving car – RIP and my condolences to the family. I have to say that from what I know about the technology, it’s perhaps not a surprise. The European motorcylist body FEMA has been warning about the risks from cars with semi-autonomous technology for some time. FEMA worked with some university researchers to study the shortcomings of semi-autonomous vehicles, following its initial concerns over the system used in the Tesla models. I’ve given a link to the study here but the basic problem is that the semi autonomous vehicle spot what’s directly in front of them, but not to the side. Now since motorcyclists often don’t ride in the centre of a lane due to issues such as road markings, metal access covers, potholes and asphalt joints, that’s a fairly serious problem. The same problem will hold true for cyclists too and there have been concerns over how semi autonomous vehicles will detect a bicycle also.
The fully autonomous vehicles under test tend to have more technology onboard than the semi autonomous ones, but questions have to be asked about the algorithms used for predicting the behaviour of other road users and also about how these vehicles scan for other road users. Being able to detect just the vehicle ahead is not good enough. They have to be able to scan the road ahead across several lanes at once and there is laser and radar technology that will do this, but whether it has been fitted to the Uber vehicle has yet to be revealed.
Here’s the link to the report.
http://www.fema-online.eu/website/wp-content/uploads/Final%20Report_motorcycle_ADAS_RDW.pdf
Agree about the pedestrian
Agree about the pedestrian fatality. RIP and condolences to the family.
Cant help thinking thought that if it had not been a dirty great SUV that had hit the poor lady but had been a normal sized saloon she might have had a chance of surviving the impact.
Maybe Uber should consider testing this technology in something that would have a slightly less devastating effect when something goes wrong, which by the way it appears to on more than one occaision.
This will be used to justify
This will be used to justify banning cycles from the road, same as jaywalking rules were brought in in the US in the 20s in response to huge numbers of pedestrian fatalities. Note that sheriff’s report mentioning that she wasn’t on a crosswalk? Inherent, endemic victim-blaming is the norm for US police forces when it comes to RTCs.
kil0ran wrote:
Yep, there is the risk that bicycles might only be allowed in dedicated lanes. There is concern that motorcycles will be banned in the future for similar reasons.
Regarding the Ozzy police
Regarding the Ozzy police story – respect to the police for straightforwardly admitting they got it wrong!