Live blog: World Naked Bike Ride in London to take place tomorrow despite expected disruption, THE COOLEST overshoes ever, plans to pedestrianise London’s Oxford Street binned, BMC TT bike recall + lots more
All the cycling news from this site and beyond…
Fri, Jun 08, 2018 14:00
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £2.49. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn’t especially like cake.
9 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
Rendel Harris 11 minutes ago
Why don't the rozzers simply equip themselves with a cheap GPS speedometer, or even just download Strava or a similar app on their phones, and hop on the bike for a quick turn up and down the road, they would quickly be able to see if the bike speed was legal or otherwise.
Rendel Harris 15 minutes ago
@Pub bike Even in a ULEZ (as I – and I think you? – know, living in one) there is still a lot of pollution and there always will be as long as ICE vehicles are still in use. In London it's made a great improvement but the air quality on busy central roads at rush-hour is still pretty appalling, so mitigation measures are still needed. I didn't see her talking about unbuilt cycle lanes, why not plant trees alongside those that already exist? They can make a tremendous difference, a number of schools in my area have planted "living walls" to separate their playgrounds from the busy roads on which they are located and apparently they make a very significant difference to pollution levels.
lesterama 24 minutes ago
Warms the cockles of my heart that the illegal e-motorbike bros put their lung-health first with their black balaclavas.
Steve K 27 minutes ago
Children in cars should also wear masks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/12/children-risk-air-pollution-cars-former-uk-chief-scientist-warns
AidanR 30 minutes ago
I've ridden SPDs on the road for years, as I can't stand walking in road shoes with protruding cleats. Having a road system which is easy to walk in sounds very tempting.
Pub bike 43 minutes ago
@Rendel Harris Yet she then appears to talk about future measures: "Alternatively, surrounding plants and trees near a cycle lane could also improve the quality of air, whilst physical separation preventing cyclists riding in the same lane as polluting vehicles would also be beneficial.". What about increasing the size of the existing LEZ? More feasible than planting trees near as-yet unbuilt cycle lanes.
Rendel Harris 58 minutes ago
@Pub bike To be fair to the good professor, I'm sure as an expert in vascular medicine she would like nothing better than to eliminate pollution but she is offering her advice on how to deal with the situation as it is rather than as we, and doubtless she, think it should be.
OnYerBike 1 hour ago
@Pub bike Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee already have Low Emission Zones. They probably help a bit, especially for the sort of particulates that a mask could actually help with. But there is definitely room for improvement too - if your vehicle is compliant (most cars/vans from the past 10 to 20 years) then you can just drive in with no restrictions or charges.
RayG 3 hours ago
@mdavidford Agreed. The comment was to make them see how unrealistic their suggestion is.
mdavidford 3 hours ago
@RayG This is the wrong solution - if the problem is the nose, remove the nose.
9 thoughts on “Live blog: World Naked Bike Ride in London to take place tomorrow despite expected disruption, THE COOLEST overshoes ever, plans to pedestrianise London’s Oxford Street binned, BMC TT bike recall + lots more”
Cowardly WCC bowing and
Cowardly WCC bowing and scraping to their fuel burning overlords as per
roadmanshaq wrote:
It’s a dreadful decision.
Come up with a better plan, sure, but this is bad for the street, bad for the millions who use it (not just a few NIMBY locals) and bad for the city. Bad, bad, bad. And it’ll get worse when Crossrail starts pouring tens of thousands of passengers out of Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.
As I understood it the Oxford
As I understood it the Oxford Street pedestrianisation would have been just that – pedestrianisation, with no provision for cycling.
I’ve mixed feelings about
I’ve mixed feelings about this. Removing the buses and taxis is a good thing but removing cycling is bad; it is used heavily as an East West cycle corridor, there are no alternatives either side of this corridor.
What really needs to be done, as in many European cities, is a high quality cycle path along the street and motors removed.
Neither WCC nor TfL would ever consider doing this so cancelling the whole thing is the least bad option for cycling.
As a regular London cyclist
As a regular London cyclist commuter (100 miles plus every week) I wouldn’t want cyclist allowed onto a pedestrianised Oxford Street. The speeds at which some cyclists seem to think they are entitled to go at on shared paths etc, I think it would simply put pedestrians at risk.
Cyclists are no more entitled to any special dispensation than motorists are if the question is one of pedestrian safety.
perfect1964 wrote:
I think I agree. Central london when busy (in the city, and around it) is horrible for peds walking into the road without looking or caring…and there will always be a minority of cyclists who ride like car drivers – rushed and with no consideration for others. This (now scrapped) scheme would only mean one thingif cyclists mixed – people will turn even more against cycling in the capital. Not what we want.
Not sure of the solution…but proper segregated routes away from here would be best?
Oxford Street is a pretty
Oxford Street is a pretty miserable road to cycle down, not only because of the traffic, but also the sheer number of pedestrians. Even with a cycle lane (which wasn’t in the plan anyway), riding next to a largely pedestrianised Oxford Street would be hellish.
I use Mortimer Street instead.
srchar wrote:
Yep, OS to be avoided at all costs. Likewise Rye Lane on my commute home. I stick an extra mile on each way, just in keeping it as pleasant as possible. Always slightly baffled to see cyclists slogging it out down roads from hell when parallel gems exist. Colleague of mine does it, saying he’d get lost using my routes. Rode home with him on his route once and it was enough to put anyone off cycling in London.
I am a keen cyclist and as my
I am a keen cyclist and as my club demands it a member of Britsh Cycling so have insurance.
I work close to spitalfields and each week have a least one near miss with a cretin on a bicycle going far to fast on the pedestrian area.
If Cyclists wish to have other road users respect them some of them need to start obeying the highway code and laws relating to where they can ride bicycles. That said I no longer cycle commute because after being kocked off no less than four times by innatentive and arrogant car van and truck drivers I am fed up with missing club riding due to injury, I firmly belive the driving test should include on bike cycle training.
As for their pavement hog and unaware road based twits on bikes THEY do nothing to help their own safety ridng along texting, with headphones on or earbugs in, without lights, cutting up the inside of large vehicles, jumping lights etc is just begging to be killed in London.