Live blog: Highways England ‘Get on your bike’ tweet backfires, drivers ignorant of mobile phone penalties, Toronto police overkill, Sagan spotted on new Venge? + more
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Mon, Jun 25, 2018 14:20
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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
Pub bike 6 minutes ago
@Clem Fandango I thought that it was Spouts Irrelevant Nonsense who were the support band for Contrarian Troll? No worries I always get Spouts Irrelevant Nonsense mixed up with Meaningful Journeys. Did you ever happen to go to a Contrarian Troll/Spouts Irrelevant Nonsense gig?
imajez 11 hours ago
It's far less about finding challenging trails, it's about finding trails full stop. Only around 22% of paths in UK are bridleways and thus legal to ride. Here in Sheffield/Peak District, only 11% of paths are bike legal. So you either ride footpaths or ride on road. Seeing that the biggest benefit of off road riding is no dangerous drivers, roads are often not a real option. Plus, most of the distinctions as to what is a footpath and what is a bridleway is purely arbitrary. Particularly as most paths to most places would have been used by by folk on horseback.
Clem Fandango 11 hours ago
No my friend you are, as usual, picking & choosing arguments to suit your current jab & forgetting to retain the receipts. How are we supposed to take you seriously Nigel when your alter egos and posts are riddled with such glaring inconsistencies? Meaningful Journeys? Saw them at the Astoria back in '97. They were supporting Contrarian Troll & blew them off the stage.
galibiervelo 11 hours ago
JUST Awful. Rest in Peace
galibiervelo 11 hours ago
JUST Awful. Rest in Peace.
chrisonabike 12 hours ago
Clearly "but priorities", but the poor granularity of some of the stats is another thing which works against improving transport safety.
chrisonabike 13 hours ago
Was this a Fifa-style offer eg. "We're planning to come and make money * anyway, but if you make it official you get a cut"? * Probably from venture capital but at any rate mostly not from people directly paying for a ride. Point being: the priorities don't align well with "contributing to the good of the place".
chrisonabike 13 hours ago
It was a lane, and indeed a "mandatory" one, and does have intermittent blocks and wands, although I'm pretty sure those don't make a cycle track unless continuous? (I admit that I'm hazy on the exact Uk definitions but I suspect the definitions are hazy also)? As you note lanes are out, but cycle tracks may be in, if you're in class 2 or 3. So the chap was out of order, but I am more inclined to blame the lack of provision first and then the rules. This was in a part of town where there's a massive space between buildings, not even filled by what was 2 lanes in each direction, with median...
Rendel Harris 13 hours ago
@belugabob Much of it down to effectively bribery I'm afraid, with no overall authority for controlling them London's councils struck individual deals - £1.3M with Forest bikes in Richmond, a staggering £93M over five years with Lime and Voi in Haringey, for example. Can't kill the golden egg goose!
20 thoughts on “Live blog: Highways England ‘Get on your bike’ tweet backfires, drivers ignorant of mobile phone penalties, Toronto police overkill, Sagan spotted on new Venge? + more”
Toronto cyclist was a bit of
Toronto cyclist was a bit of a dick, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t he be polite: “I think you’re wrong officer” rather than immediately going on the offensive? Politeness costs nothing.
FrankH wrote:
Yes, he was impolite but you must know that’s besides the point? Whether he was polite, or rude, you have five police officers misunderstanding the law at his expense. This isn’t an uncommon situation, and in many “developed” countries we are seeing cyclists treated as second-class citizens for no reason other than ignorance. It’s common from motorists to hear “get in the cycle lane” and cyclists battle punishment passes on a daily basis for merely minding their own business. When police officers are propogating this attitude it’s scary and alarming.
I have bigger concerns with the officers’ ignorance rather than the cyclists’ attitude.
FrankH wrote:
Absolutely right. What a world we live in.
simonmb wrote:
,
Yeah. Fuck you, you polite, little, diseased scrotum.
Ush wrote:
— UshCongratulations! You are the winner.
Only the fifth comment and you managed to drag the discussion into the gutter. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Simon E wrote:
Congratulations, you are officially a thick-as-fuck cunt. Give yourself a kick up the arse, Ms. Manners.
I think the cop was being a
I think the cop was being a bit of a dick. To detain him (i.e hold him under threat of assault and imprisonment) for no reason.
I supect the real crime he was stopped for was “cycling whilst black”.
Deeferdonk wrote:
Police officer was no WASP either. Stop playing the victimization card all the time as it may lose its purchase.
On a lighter note, it was
On a lighter note, it was good to see the support that the Toronto cyclist had. Big thumbs up to the members of the public that ensure that they were not merely passive bystanders. I think that probably had a big outcome on the result of this, which would otherwise plausibly have resulted in this man being beaten up and framed.
$127,000 salary for being a
$127,000 salary for being a traffic cop? Good gig when you can get it. You’d think there’d be a requirement to know the law for that sort of money…
jestriding wrote:
I can’t think of any other jobs where you can get away without even knowing the basics of your own job, let alone wasting time and resources on doing the wrong thing. Excepting politicians, of course.
I wonder if HE are ever going
I wonder if HE are ever going to learn? I mean, they’ve just had a new cycling strategy, including making sure that they consult, and that all new infrastructure is actually fit for purpose, but they still don’t consult and their infrastructure is a joke.
Obviously the police officer
Obviously the police officer hadn’t done his cycling rules homework but the cyclist got a chip on his shoulder and was pretty much begging for a confrontation in order to prove that he was the victim of police brutality (which, unfortunately, happens all too often but *not* in this case).
Boss Hogg wrote:
Because when you’re harrassed for no good reason, assaulted with the cop driving within 18″ and on top of that cops ignore you when people on bikes are mown down THAT is the result, you’ve had enough and it’s time to stand up for what is right.
Or maybe you think allowing those who supposed to keep the peace keep on doing the same old shit time after time with a pass through go and collect £200?
Get lost snowflake.
LA cyclist need to give out
LA cyclist need to give out some free ‘I parked in the cycle lane’ bumper stickers… er wait, what are the guns laws like in CA?
The cyclist was a complete
The cyclist was a complete dick, he was loving the whole process playing it up for his you tube audience thinking about all the likes and views he was going to get, he even made sure to get his own face included in the video on a few occasions for his big 15 minutes.
MaxiW wrote:
One comment, eh? Well, hello there, officer!
MaxiW wrote:
No he wasn’t. He would have been perfectly happy to go about his business if it wasn’t for the dickhead of a cop trying to unlawfully detain him. He had every right to call out the cop’s bullshit and if he wants to post it on YouTube, then why not? It’s about time incompetent police were named and shamed so they can go learn the actual rules that they are supposed to be enforcing. They have literally one job to do.
Love how all the police cars
Love how all the police cars end up parking in the cycle lane to “clear the road”, thus forcing the other cyclists that come along into the road.
Should have given themselves tickets for blocking the bike lane!
That Highways England ‘Get on
That Highways England ‘Get on your bike’ tweet is appalling – does nobody there look or even think before they send off their soshul meeja stuff?