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
mdavidford 19 minutes ago
Checks out - where better to meet them than at her next court appearance?
belugabob 24 minutes ago
One of the stated reasons for her needing to keep her licence was "So that she could continue to meet with criminals..." 🙄
PoorInRichfield 31 minutes ago
@Smoggysteve I used the online gear calculator that compares what I have to what I want. When cross-chaining gears and duplicate gear ratios are removed from the 2x11 setup, a 1x13 with the correct cassette can nearly mirror what I have. The issue will be weather or not Shimano gives us more than one option for the cassette.
leedorney 35 minutes ago
As much as I can see the logic of 1x - 2 rings are better than 1, we all know that 😉
mattw 37 minutes ago
Lynda La Plante's (net worth: approx £25million) list of excuses was as long, as imaginative, and imo as fictional as one of her books, and she was also issuing threats to close down her business. It was interesting that she got a good bashing in the comments of both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegrunt. But is it not now the case that all new cars have an "Active Speed Control" system, that is you push a button and it keeps you to the speed limits?
tomlew 39 minutes ago
@Miller Pogi did not need R9300 to win. But he would've won on a -speed CUES, as drivetrains barely make a difference. Pogi did not need the new Shimano. But the new Shimano did need Pogi - for promotion.
tomlew 41 minutes ago
@Smoggysteve Not to mention cross-chaining and increased gaps between gears typical for 1x drivetrains.
mctrials23 47 minutes ago
@lesterama I would go so far as to suggest that there is almost zero chance this person wasn't using their phone at the time of the incident as well. How on earth can you not see someone for 8-9s if you are paying even vague attention to the road. It is of course the incompetence paradox as always.
wtjs 49 minutes ago
@lesterama how is it in any way possible that failing to spot a fellow human lawfully using the road, with 8-9 seconds to see them, could be anything other than dangerous Because it's not a 'fellow human' at all, it's an annoying cyclist who has deliberately put himself in harm's way instead of driving like respectable people. That's what the police, the legal system and even the government really think. The insincere pro-cycling sentiment in the January Road Safety Strategy has already been binned in favour of pandering to drivers and the hyper-junk press. They have solved the problem of bad publicity when cyclist-killing drivers are fast-tracked into the early release pipeline, by not sending them to prison at all.
Miller 51 minutes ago
Did Shimano really need to promote a new 13s group at the (male) Tour? Pogi thumped the opposition using a mere 12 speeds. But yes, the TdF is a shop window and if Shimano didn't promote 9300, it's not ready. As the article notes there isn't much space back there for 13 speeds with current hub standards so no surprise if Shimano needs a new freehub design. Perhaps they also want to support a 10t smallest sprocket.
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!