Live blog: More than 20,000 miles of GB roads need urgent repair, 2020 Road Worlds set for Netherlands and more
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Tue, Mar 20, 2018 10:19
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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.
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Latest Comments
JLasTSR 2 hours ago
I had actually cycled my first century the week before the accident. I got back on the bike straight away then a hip wore out and was replaced so I missed a lot of cycling in 2024 but I was back to my normal level in 2025 not so sure what has happened this year I am not as enthusiastic as usual I have been on the bike just not cycled far. I will have to do more as I will do a 50 mile ride in September the annual charity ride. Not sure fear is the problem exactly more a feeling that there is less enjoyment.in a bike ride than there once was.
GravelIsNothingNew 3 hours ago
What’s all this MTB palaver? The Tour de France was originally a gravel race. 🙃
Brompton rider 3 hours ago
@wtjs I've sent in 2 close pass videos to kent police, never heard anything back.
ktache 3 hours ago
@Rendel Harris I had wondered how they might be preparing to deal with the expected heat. Got to keep them as safe as possible. My excitement is building, always a nervy first week, too many crashes in the peleton and no amount of down gearing is going to prevent that. From my cloudy memory, the pogecar lad is very rarely caught out on the wrong side of a crosswind split.
Gm_Crop 4 hours ago
Rumor has it that riding the MMR gives you autism.
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
Well this looks ominous: real possibility of Tour stages being cancelled due to extreme heat. I'll put the link in a reply otherwise this whole comment will be quarantined - it's on the Guardian if anyone wants to search for themselves.
Sedis 4 hours ago
Having used the street multiple times since it was opened just over a month ago, I can report two issues which are preventing the improvements from working to their full potential. Firstly, there is no signage other than the painted bikes on the road itself, so there is nothing to indicate that cyclists have priority. The second is that the double yellow lines stop about two-thirds of the way down the road, meaning that from that point onwards, there are multiple cars parked half on the pavement and not in the designated parking places, reducing the width of both the footpath and the road to what it was before the improvements were made.
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
@MaxiMinimalist Really? So this applies only to drivers from Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Garonne and Vaucluse, drivers from the other sixteen départements that make up the south are fine?
Velophaart_95 4 hours ago
Yeah, it's great isn't it........
5 thoughts on “Live blog: More than 20,000 miles of GB roads need urgent repair, 2020 Road Worlds set for Netherlands and more”
It’s rather sad about the fatality involving a self-driving car – RIP and my condolences to the family. I have to say that from what I know about the technology, it’s perhaps not a surprise. The European motorcylist body FEMA has been warning about the risks from cars with semi-autonomous technology for some time. FEMA worked with some university researchers to study the shortcomings of semi-autonomous vehicles, following its initial concerns over the system used in the Tesla models. I’ve given a link to the study here but the basic problem is that the semi autonomous vehicle spot what’s directly in front of them, but not to the side. Now since motorcyclists often don’t ride in the centre of a lane due to issues such as road markings, metal access covers, potholes and asphalt joints, that’s a fairly serious problem. The same problem will hold true for cyclists too and there have been concerns over how semi autonomous vehicles will detect a bicycle also.
The fully autonomous vehicles under test tend to have more technology onboard than the semi autonomous ones, but questions have to be asked about the algorithms used for predicting the behaviour of other road users and also about how these vehicles scan for other road users. Being able to detect just the vehicle ahead is not good enough. They have to be able to scan the road ahead across several lanes at once and there is laser and radar technology that will do this, but whether it has been fitted to the Uber vehicle has yet to be revealed.
Here’s the link to the report.
http://www.fema-online.eu/website/wp-content/uploads/Final%20Report_motorcycle_ADAS_RDW.pdf
Agree about the pedestrian
Agree about the pedestrian fatality. RIP and condolences to the family.
Cant help thinking thought that if it had not been a dirty great SUV that had hit the poor lady but had been a normal sized saloon she might have had a chance of surviving the impact.
Maybe Uber should consider testing this technology in something that would have a slightly less devastating effect when something goes wrong, which by the way it appears to on more than one occaision.
This will be used to justify
This will be used to justify banning cycles from the road, same as jaywalking rules were brought in in the US in the 20s in response to huge numbers of pedestrian fatalities. Note that sheriff’s report mentioning that she wasn’t on a crosswalk? Inherent, endemic victim-blaming is the norm for US police forces when it comes to RTCs.
kil0ran wrote:
Yep, there is the risk that bicycles might only be allowed in dedicated lanes. There is concern that motorcycles will be banned in the future for similar reasons.
Regarding the Ozzy police
Regarding the Ozzy police story – respect to the police for straightforwardly admitting they got it wrong!