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
mdavidford 4 minutes ago
It also tells you NOT to overtake on the approach to a junction or a bend, and specifically and repeatedly admonishes cyclists to take great care passing vehicles near junctions. The driver may well have seen the cyclist on the approach and reasonably assumed that they wouldn't make a suicide dive up the inside of the turn. They should have indicated, but I'm not convinced it would have made any difference to the situation.
mitsky 10 minutes ago
The clip states that Ben Cabango pled for mercy as the ban would require him to move his family. This is an "exceptional hardship" plea. Which was ignored. That is the most serious one I've heard of (having to move family), alongside others such as "losing job" etc. So if that sort of plea can be disregarded, why can't other lesser pleas?
wtjs 31 minutes ago
@the little onion Should have gone to Lancashire!
eburtthebike 43 minutes ago
"Ben Cabango has been hit with a six-month driving ban and over £1,000 in fines" Good. Every infringement of traffic law while driving a lethal weapon should be treated that seriously. Drivers routinely do things that they know are illegal, reinforcing the habit until it becomes natural, and aren't punished until they kill or injure someone. While punishment is part of the solution, as another thread on here says, we should make such behaviour socially unacceptable. As well as banning and fining criminals, we should also require them to be retrained and to pass a more stringent test. But, as ever, society loves their cars, and not much changes. Reminds me of the closing scene in 'How to get ahead in advertising' when he's riding a horse and listing the things that they can sell the gullible, especially cars. Great movie.
the little onion 2 hours ago
On the footballer being 'banned' after being caught on the phone - as I understand it, a straightforward phone offense is just 6 points* on the license, insufficient for a ban. In other words, the man has previous, so it can't be blamed solely on so-called 'vigilante' cyclists (i.e. upstanding members of the public). *cue football joke about the easiest 6 points that Swansea FC will get this season.
mdavidford 4 hours ago
I refer the Honourable Squirrel to the discussion of August 31st in Another Place.
mitsky 4 hours ago
@Smoggysteve Based on the clip being old, having been reported on previously with no apparent new information making it worth re-reporting now, and the "reporters" knowing what the resulting online commentary would be... Could they be sued/tried for incitement to violence?
bensynnock 4 hours ago
Highway code rule 182 specifically says to look out for vehicles coming up from behind when turning left. The van also did not indicate. The arrow on the road doesn't remove those requirements from the van driver, just because he has to turn left doesn't mean it isn't a left turn. Also rule 170 says: Take extra care at junctions. You should watch out for cyclists etc. Still, I would have expected the van driver to completely ignore the rules of the road and held back until after the junction.
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.