Live blog: Highways England ‘Get on your bike’ tweet backfires, drivers ignorant of mobile phone penalties, Toronto police overkill, Sagan spotted on new Venge? + more
All the news from the site and beyond as we start a new week
Mon, Jun 25, 2018 14:20
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
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.
20 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
Didsbury 23 minutes ago
@mdavidford Surely we have been Norman since 1066?
Didsbury 24 minutes ago
@mdavidford Surely we have been Norman since 1066?
chrisonabike 30 minutes ago
@belugabob true, but doing that and persuading most parents to drive their children to school entailed a hefty sacrifice of children - and not a few parents. (Luckily that was "back then" and we probably wouldn't tolerate it now... OTOH while "fixing things" should have much smaller casualty numbers, "during the transition" it could well increase...)
belugabob 45 minutes ago
Well, accommodating the motor vehicle required "transformation of streets", so we've proved that it's possible...🙄
Circles 2 hours ago
Yet another case of planning agreements made but never fulfilled, nor checked by the LA. Developers can do what they want, it seems
HarrogateSpa 2 hours ago
Yes let's see action. The draft CWIS3 was unambitious, and I don't expect the final version to be much better. The funding for active travel is disappointing, and there is little or no political will for meaningful change. I'm in favour of making cycling to school safe by building proper cycle facilities in towns and cities for everyone - not by putting in a few metres of cycle track to a school entrance then giving up.
60kg lean keen climbing machine 2 hours ago
I personally don’t see any reason in not going straight to Byrton if you are not a Garmin or Wahoo fan, or you want a value alternative to the big two. I currently run a Bryton 420 and in 4 years of owning and using it has been fab, if I had some cash or needed to replace then I now would not hesitate to buy a Bryton again.
mdavidford 2 hours ago
@Didsbury Which, of course, means we secretly want to be French.
HarrogateSpa 2 hours ago
It's unclear what is being proposed - just 20mph and traffic calming, or modal filters too?
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
All good and I agree with the drift but how does this actually work in an effective way? Phone use is *endemic* - because so many people simply don't see the issue with "just looked at my phone for a second" and we are all being *actively trained* to do this by the app sellers! In theory app, phone and vehicle purveyors could work together to help dissuade this, but the current system suits all and everyone can say "but we put a warning on our product and certainly don't force anyone to do anything illegal..." and point at the others. How do we change behaviour? It seems unlikely we can catch enough drivers with phones in their hands to do that (not because it's hard to spot, just having enough people to collect and process the evidence). If we sort that out we then have another constraint - making it stick. If a small fraction of those say "wasn't me, see you in court", as others note ATM the process is slow AND very expensive. Also given costs and limitations of road policing currently how would driving bans help? They're also minimally policed, and with little effective punishment?
20 thoughts on “Live blog: Highways England ‘Get on your bike’ tweet backfires, drivers ignorant of mobile phone penalties, Toronto police overkill, Sagan spotted on new Venge? + more”
Toronto cyclist was a bit of
Toronto cyclist was a bit of a dick, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t he be polite: “I think you’re wrong officer” rather than immediately going on the offensive? Politeness costs nothing.
FrankH wrote:
Yes, he was impolite but you must know that’s besides the point? Whether he was polite, or rude, you have five police officers misunderstanding the law at his expense. This isn’t an uncommon situation, and in many “developed” countries we are seeing cyclists treated as second-class citizens for no reason other than ignorance. It’s common from motorists to hear “get in the cycle lane” and cyclists battle punishment passes on a daily basis for merely minding their own business. When police officers are propogating this attitude it’s scary and alarming.
I have bigger concerns with the officers’ ignorance rather than the cyclists’ attitude.
FrankH wrote:
Absolutely right. What a world we live in.
simonmb wrote:
,
Yeah. Fuck you, you polite, little, diseased scrotum.
Ush wrote:
— UshCongratulations! You are the winner.
Only the fifth comment and you managed to drag the discussion into the gutter. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Simon E wrote:
Congratulations, you are officially a thick-as-fuck cunt. Give yourself a kick up the arse, Ms. Manners.
I think the cop was being a
I think the cop was being a bit of a dick. To detain him (i.e hold him under threat of assault and imprisonment) for no reason.
I supect the real crime he was stopped for was “cycling whilst black”.
Deeferdonk wrote:
Police officer was no WASP either. Stop playing the victimization card all the time as it may lose its purchase.
On a lighter note, it was
On a lighter note, it was good to see the support that the Toronto cyclist had. Big thumbs up to the members of the public that ensure that they were not merely passive bystanders. I think that probably had a big outcome on the result of this, which would otherwise plausibly have resulted in this man being beaten up and framed.
$127,000 salary for being a
$127,000 salary for being a traffic cop? Good gig when you can get it. You’d think there’d be a requirement to know the law for that sort of money…
jestriding wrote:
I can’t think of any other jobs where you can get away without even knowing the basics of your own job, let alone wasting time and resources on doing the wrong thing. Excepting politicians, of course.
I wonder if HE are ever going
I wonder if HE are ever going to learn? I mean, they’ve just had a new cycling strategy, including making sure that they consult, and that all new infrastructure is actually fit for purpose, but they still don’t consult and their infrastructure is a joke.
Obviously the police officer
Obviously the police officer hadn’t done his cycling rules homework but the cyclist got a chip on his shoulder and was pretty much begging for a confrontation in order to prove that he was the victim of police brutality (which, unfortunately, happens all too often but *not* in this case).
Boss Hogg wrote:
Because when you’re harrassed for no good reason, assaulted with the cop driving within 18″ and on top of that cops ignore you when people on bikes are mown down THAT is the result, you’ve had enough and it’s time to stand up for what is right.
Or maybe you think allowing those who supposed to keep the peace keep on doing the same old shit time after time with a pass through go and collect £200?
Get lost snowflake.
LA cyclist need to give out
LA cyclist need to give out some free ‘I parked in the cycle lane’ bumper stickers… er wait, what are the guns laws like in CA?
The cyclist was a complete
The cyclist was a complete dick, he was loving the whole process playing it up for his you tube audience thinking about all the likes and views he was going to get, he even made sure to get his own face included in the video on a few occasions for his big 15 minutes.
MaxiW wrote:
One comment, eh? Well, hello there, officer!
MaxiW wrote:
No he wasn’t. He would have been perfectly happy to go about his business if it wasn’t for the dickhead of a cop trying to unlawfully detain him. He had every right to call out the cop’s bullshit and if he wants to post it on YouTube, then why not? It’s about time incompetent police were named and shamed so they can go learn the actual rules that they are supposed to be enforcing. They have literally one job to do.
Love how all the police cars
Love how all the police cars end up parking in the cycle lane to “clear the road”, thus forcing the other cyclists that come along into the road.
Should have given themselves tickets for blocking the bike lane!
That Highways England ‘Get on
That Highways England ‘Get on your bike’ tweet is appalling – does nobody there look or even think before they send off their soshul meeja stuff?