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Live blog: Stop Killing Cyclists to hold major London protest, Jeremy Vine’s Psycho encounter, a shockingly close overtake, + more
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Wed, Oct 03, 2018 15:02
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
Sredlums 10 minutes ago
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
mdavidford 19 minutes ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 51 minutes ago
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
Rod Marton 52 minutes ago
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
eburtthebike 1 hour ago
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
Jakrayan 2 hours ago
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
bensynnock 2 hours ago
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
bensynnock 3 hours ago
They might have to, but they won't. What they will do is pull out over the cycle path while they wait for a gap in motor traffic.
Safety 3 hours ago
"We have enough regulation." I agree with the exception being legally allowed to sell something which is virtually illegal to use. How many purchasers own a suitably large piece of private land?
Tradescant 7 hours ago
@jackcycles I'm not sure my grandchildren got that memo. Cycling should not be just for hardened road warriors.
16 thoughts on “Live blog: Stop Killing Cyclists to hold major London protest, Jeremy Vine’s Psycho encounter, a shockingly close overtake, + more”
I do always wonder why only
I do always wonder why only private motorists are described as “hard working”: it’s never bus passengers or train passengers or cyclists. Aren’t *we* hard working too?
I’m quite lazy….do i have
I’m quite lazy….do i have to pay more fuel duty?
When I worked, often I was
When I worked, often I was quite lazy as well. Now I don’t work at all. Do I pay more fuel duty, or will we receive a tweet saying it’s another measure this government is taking to help leave more money in unemployed lazy people’s pockets?
Should have increased it and
Should have increased it and used the money to subsidise stopping up roads for motors in towns and cities everywhere and converting car parks into covered cycle parking.
yet more fuckwittery from the cons but Labour will do no better and has no cycle/active policy of any note.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
£9 bn a year that has cost the UK economy – £81,000,000,000!
The estimate for the cost to fix all of the UK’s potholes is…..£8.9bn
alexb wrote:
the state of the roads is utterly disgraceful at the moment. In London, which is supposed to be a global city and stinkingly wealthy, some of them are worse than third world countries that I know – worse even than Blackburn, Lancashire. You could fill Wembley Stadium with these holes.
I have recently started cycling after work to a regular event in North West London. To get there I cycle along Tottenham Court Road, and to get home I have to cycle along Chamberlayne Road, in Kensal Rise. You’d think a fucking aeroplane had crashed onto them, they’re so pitted.
And now that the evenings are drawing in they become even more dangerous as the craters are difficult to spot, even with lights, and with traffic all around me I should not be having to concentrate on the road surface while I cycle.
You can bet your life, perhaps literally, that they won’t be repaired anytime in the next six months, because of the approach of winter, so they’re only going to get worse. God knows what they’ll be like in spring if we have a lot of freeze/thaw cycles.
While writing this I’ve been asking myself, ok moaning is all very well, but what are you going to do about it? So I think I’ll spend a day photographing all the potholes with Fix That Hole, and bombard the councils with them. It may not get them fixed, but at least if I’m killed or injured the councils can’t turn round and say they weren’t aware.
Bloody hell that pass is the
Bloody hell that pass is the closest I’ve seen… to the point I’m not sure the driver even saw the rider and missed him by luck.
Re fuel prices, the price of fuel has gone up by over 30%, so the VAT take has risen.
It gets on my nerves that the cost of high value EVs (BMW i8 for example, £124k and you get a £2.5k rebate because its a hybrid!) is subsidised by us ‘hard working people’. Why aren’t bikes and accessories lower VAT rated?
PRSboy wrote:
Its not. The i8 gets nothing because it is over £60k. Theoretically expensive hybrids with very low emissions could get the grant, but in practice there are no cat 1 hybrids of any price and it is only pure EVs.
However, I do agree about VAT on bikes and bike accessories, which would make a huge difference, but equally I can bet most of the savings would be made by people buying £1k+ N+1 bikes rather than cheap commuters, and also I do understand that changing VAT rates is not simple, at least whilst we are in the EU (although I would keep paying a bit more for my bikes if it meant staying in).
John Smith wrote:
Ah, you’re right… not realised the i8 was excempt. That said, the Tesla S and the i-Pace get £4,500 rebate as they are cat 1, but are mega money. Should be a sliding scale or cap based on list price IMO, give a bigger rebate to cheaper EVs where there is a potentially bigger market.
Jesus, that pass was
Jesus, that pass was horrendous. Looks like the driver saw him at the last second as the car appears to swerve away. I don’t think even the most ardent cyclist hater could close pass that close on purpose. Just plain not paying attention.
My guess is driver was
My guess is driver was distracted, cyclist seen at the very last second. So close!
Surely the real hard workers
Surely the real hard workers are those working long hours on low pay to try and make ends meet, who can’t afford to fork out the initial investment of a car so instead, they have to use public transport – why not sort out public transport first?!
Pretty much everyone I know drives to work (single occupancy) this causes pollution and congestion. Why drive? Because the public transport and active travel infrastructure are appalling/non-existent.
I’m lazy and get the train
I’m lazy and get the train and cycle to work, so I guess it’s my fault. Sorry everyone.
Teresa May can only rectify
Teresa May can only rectify this by getting a good deal in the Brexit negotiations; no import duties on Campagnolo gear sets.
F**k me that was close. I
F**k me that was close. I just can’t cycle at night now, or at rush hour either end of the day, or at lunchtimes when pedestrians have their faces in their phones, or mid afternoon during the school run. Basically I ride between 1030 and 1130, unless it’s a weekend which is when the drivers who still have alcohol in their system are on the roads. Basically, I just Zwift.
Driver checking Facebook I’d
Driver checking Facebook I’d wager.