Commuter diaries – Cycling is an Answer not a Question!

@mdavidford while it can, I think of nonsense as more of a "pick your own" (hence bunch-servings) affair rather than BS, which is more like to arrive by itself in a steaming mess, or pile/heap.

I thought nonsense came in piles, rather than bunches.

@EastLondonCyclingNut I wouldn't be keen to find non-cyclists in my shoes - there wouldn't be room, even though they're fairly "walking-friendly" SPD ones. Not sure if public hire bikes change much. But I do think ultimately things only change when there's a significant fraction of the population with "skin in the game" - either because they cycle regularly themselves or more likely because they know their friends and *children* / other relatives do...

"Christie continued to follow the victim and drove the van into the back wheel of the bike."

Generally, I get off my bike and walk in pedestrianised areas. Cyclists and pedestrians in close proximity do not mix well. I'd be pretty pissed off if cars decided it was okay to use a cycle lane because they didn't want to use an alternative, legal route.

@EastLondonCyclingNut I'm going for 'very suspicious' on this one- Trollfinder General Is this the increased sympathy where the driver attacks the cyclist causing serious injuries and is rewarded with the joke non-custodial sentence; or where the driver murders the cyclist in the most horrible manner and the Shyster Defence Barrister offers the mitigation that 'he didn't intend to do it and expresses remorse'?

@Rendel Harris Unfortunately the idea that subjective "lived experience" trumps everything else in every situation is now quite popular and widespread. I once had an extremely depressing conversation with someone who insisted my opinion on a matter - a matter in a subject on which I'm well educated and have spent a great deal of time carefully considering my positions on - was worthless, incoherent, and irrelevant since I was straight. No attempt to engage with the substance - I was straight, so nothing I said could possibly be correct. It got more depressing still when I pointed out that actually I'm Bi I just don't go around draped in a Pride flag at all times, and the numpty came back in to work the next day and had completely changed his mind and decided actually I was stunningly insightful - I asked how he could rationalise thinking the same argument was wrong one day and right the next despite the argument, the evidence, and the person making it being completely unchanged expecting some kind of attempt to obfuscate or explain, but nope he just came out and said "but I didn't know you were Bi then, now I do, so it's valid now". They live among us.

@mitsky afaik most 100 point cases are dodgy businesses where the keeper regularly gets 3-6 points for failure to identify because they make no effort to know who is driving pool cars. And either don't actually drive (hence not worrying) or are on company policy that covers anyone... I suspect the solution to this would involve seizing vehicles when they 'don't know who was driving'...

I think one of the biggest factors in increased sympathy for cyclists is the fact that so many people increasingly Lime and other hire e-bikes. It’s an easy and attractive gateway into cycling that suddenly puts non-cyclists in the shoes of cyclists, and naturally makes them understand their perspective.

This awful case is the nastiest end of the wedge started in 'jest' by the likes of Matthew Parris. I wonder whether he's proud of the part he's played in normalising violence against the vulnerable?