road.cc live blog: New short route for Velothon Wales, Riccardo Ricco talks all kinds of cobblers and more

Whilst extreme cases shouldn't make law, this case does demonstrate that the justice system is failing to protect innocent road users. If people continually to break the law, then either the crimes aren't being detected or the punishments are not severe enough. In the case of road law, it's both, and the chances of being caught driving dangerously are miniscule, and even if caught, the offender will at most be banned, which they can and do, ignore. So how to get dangerous drivers to reform? 1. Police on bikes. Just look at how many criminals cycling mikey has had convicted. A real police constable could do so much more. 2. When caught, immediate impounding of vehicle, rapid review by a judge, so the punishment immediately follows the crime. 3. No points on licence, no hardship pleading, just removal of licence. 4. Anyone caught driving whilst banned gets an immediate three month prison sentence, second offence a year, third ten years. I'm sure there are plenty of other good ways of making our roads safer by removing the incompetent and dangerous drivers, but it's a start.

Having visited Spalding several times, my greatest fear is entering some of the shops.

@This Wreckage oh, I'm well aware. They still do it here in the US.

@rgriffith7 I don't know where you live, but having ridden quite a bit in both the US and the UK, I'd take the UK any day.

@davids oh yeah. It's been a long day already here. I'll see if I can edit, thanks

@Sniffer great comment, I reckon five years (no parole) in prison for driving while banned will keep them off the road when convicted.

Obviously the law is not worried about the standard of driving by individuals with prior convictions. All accidents including eg: a touch of a bumper should be reported to the police and an interview with a traffic cop before driving away from the scene. Driving away from the scene of an accident after being involved should instantly receive a lifetime ban (no matter how long you have to wait for a a traffic cop to come). Liberalism in driving must not be tolerated.

Last year I designed the poster with a mouse. This year I thought I’d try something different and use AI. No brief, no rules, no budget. I don’t have a huge amount of spare time, but I’ve always been happy to put my hand up and help out. I looked back at previous posters (varying widely in quality, concept and execution) and wanted to do something a bit different. I had an idea, gave it direction and worked with AI to mock it up. Was I going to sit there for 8+ hours and scrawl away with markers or pull out the letterpress? Hell no! Is AI perfect? Absolutely not. Clearly not an acceptable “tool” to everyone either… but I enjoyed the process, liked what I created and was happy to contribute. Didn’t expect a cross poster to cause quite such a stir. I’m actually rather chuffed that something I knocked together in my spare time was enough to put someone off riding their bike. Trust it to be an illustrator. We can be precious types. But at least we’ve now established a standard and some consensus on what’s acceptable. The real test will be the next poster, and the one after that. That’s assuming people still have the time and enthusiasm to organise events once we’ve finished setting rules and raising standards for those volunteering to help. I look forward to seeing the creativity and effort that goes into them.

@kil0ran Don't you mean "Driving is a privilege not a right"?

@kil0ran as I understand it he drove while banned for a number of the previous offences. While I don't disagree that there was lots of evidence that he would continue to drive dangerously, and should not have been allowed behind the wheel even before this horrific incident, I think it is naive to think a lifetime driving ban would have kept him off the road.