11 things we’ve learnt this week

Scrapbook or it didn't happen?

This make me think of the early days of the bicycle - European countries which at the time still had prescriptive and quite restrictive views of female roles and appropriate behaviour and there were certainly outpouring of concern about the idea of women cycling. (Although I believe there was more acceptance of the zoo of "wheeled self-propelled contraptions" of the Victorian era). And ... maybe they were right in that perhaps this did lead (eventually) to some social liberalisation / young people mixing? Also thinking about an example the other way where NGOs working to help people have provided bicycles to eg. assist women bringing produce to market, only to find that these are all appropriated by men. (Perhaps a bit like "the man drives the car" which can still be seen to some extent in the UK). Of note is that Dutch women on average make more cycle trips than men. That's nothing to do with ebikes, but the efforts made (infra and built environment) to make driving not be the default for shorter trips. Plus women still do more of the admin / (child)care than men there.

Even better, there's a 4 hour rolling road block on this afternoon as the carnival parade travels through the town. Those on social media complaining about this work have known about it for months and despite what they may claim, they are not the silent majority but a vocal minority.

Indeed - and before *that* Abellio who had the franchise for Scotrail had bikes ("Bike and Go") at (a few) stations. At the time I didn't understand this, not being cognizant of the Dutch OV Fiets system which presumably this was based on. Unfortunately I don't think many others understood it either. Given the small numbers of people braving Scotland's unfriendly and inconvenient cycling environments it was a case of "too soon for the location". Didn't help that these were unpowered public hire bikes (so robust and heavy * ) and some of the places they were offered are hilly. Plus there's the UK expectation of people cycling on the road accelerating like a motor vehicle and flowing with the traffic. * Ones I tried were something like the Batavus Personal bike with all the trimmings, racks etc. They had been sensibly given them a large number of gears (7) for a hire bike and who knows what you could carry. But even just carrying me they were ponderous.

Yes, clearly it would have been preferable for him never to have ridden a bike and driven everywhere, then he could have ended up an obese, bitter and spiteful specimen stuffing his face with crisps and fizzy pop sitting in front of his keyboard in mummy's basement leaving stupid comments on other people's obituaries. That would have been a much better use of a life.

"The Voi bikes have been much more successful than their predecessor, the Just Eat Cycles run by Serco which ended in 2021." The predecessor to VOI bikes in Edinburgh was not - as your version says - Voi bikes.

Wow. It takes a very miserable person to come to a cycling website, read an obituary of a very sweet, smart, kind man, and think that it's a good opportunity to post some sarcastic drivel, with a smiley no less. I bet your mom is real proud of you. Good luck with your weird little personal vendetta, I guess.

@Dodonline "better off adding capacity to roads" is a well-documented means to increase the volume of traffic overall. If they are built, people drive on them. Take a look at Los Angeles or the US highway system.

@Jitensha Oni I see no misogyny in that abstract. Many communities around the world, particularly those focused on religious faith, demand that women act and dress in what others might see as outdated, unnecessary and restrictive ways. E-bikes might have benefits for such women.

@cooji The attempts I made in infant school at drawing a house were more realistic and convincing than the above image.