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Live blog: N Yorks campaigner calls for infrastructure not prestige events, Addison Lee plans to put driverless cabs in London by 2021, sneak peek at the new Pinarello gravel bike + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond as we start a new week
Mon, Oct 22, 2018 14:19
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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
Jakrayan 16 minutes ago
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
bensynnock 38 minutes ago
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
bensynnock 41 minutes ago
They might have to, but they won't. What they will do is pull out over the cycle path while they wait for a gap in motor traffic.
Safety 1 hour ago
"We have enough regulation." I agree with the exception being legally allowed to sell something which is virtually illegal to use. How many purchasers own a suitably large piece of private land?
Tradescant 5 hours ago
@jackcycles I'm not sure my grandchildren got that memo. Cycling should not be just for hardened road warriors.
DS2025 5 hours ago
Chrisonabike There are a number of police forces in England and Wales that are using portable testing equipment already... How effective it is another matter, I haven't looked into the results of failing (I would hope they just seize and crush the motorbike without any faff but I am sure there are appeal processes, promises not to use them on public roads etc).
KiwiMike 5 hours ago
Woah there - a precision-engineered European-made product, with unparalleled adaptability, is somehow a ‘rip off’? Compared to what - Temu? As per the article, most quality through-axles go for £50-60+, but aren’t adaptable and don’t provide any stand or trailer capability. If you want to balance your £3-4-5k suspension or carbon bike, or bikepacking setup on a budget product subject to highly focused stresses, fair play. Cycling’s a broad church.
Dnnnnnn 5 hours ago
@eburtthebike I've found Spanish drivers to be almost entirely excellent around cyclists.
neilmck 6 hours ago
I agree, the study was made after cycle paths that had been introduced in Berlin during the 70’s and 80’s caused a big increase in cycling deaths. It is an interesting study for cyclists to read in order to know what dangers exist at badly designed junctions. Here in Paris we have very few bi-directional paths. The ones I have cycled on have no building entrances or courtyards (so no cars crossing the path) and every junction is traffic lights to prevent accidents.
thrawed 7 hours ago
We have enough regulation. They're running a motorbike without insurance/registration and possibly without a licence, and the punishment for being caught with all that is pretty severe already. The problem is lack of enforcement.
24 thoughts on “Live blog: N Yorks campaigner calls for infrastructure not prestige events, Addison Lee plans to put driverless cabs in London by 2021, sneak peek at the new Pinarello gravel bike + more”
I do hope both Alex Dowsett
I do hope both Alex Dowsett and Chris Boardman have a punch up to decide this, it’s the only real way to find out who’s most right*
*that and graphs obvs. Everyone knows a graph always wins a debate.
I think we’re beyond graphs.
I think we’re beyond graphs. After St Sir Chris Lord Boardman’s latest vanquishing of the most recent addition to the Order of the Helmets, nothing less than a tapestry will do.
Just how small is the number Alex can count to, or are we really expected to believe that he hears multiple hundreds of stories per day. Also, loads of my friends tell me of the good times they have when pissed, countless stories. Should we make alcohol consumption mandatory?
I say this as someone who had a positive experience of a collision and a helmet, I still don’t think it needs to be compulsory…
Chris Boardman and Superman
Chris Boardman and Superman once had such a heated arguments about helmets that they bet that the loser would wear their underpants on the outside.
Cycling into Manchester (from
Cycling into Manchester (from the North West – Liverpool Street) is a joke at the moment. Roadworks on other nearby roads is forcing too much traffic into too small a volume of roads and the traffic lights at some junctions are just pointless as people just drive through them. Some cyclists too, sure, but absolutely shitloads of cars.
Chris Boardman was banned
Chris Boardman was banned from participating in time trails after the judge sentenced time to life imprisonment.
So if driverless cars a made
So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?
Ratfink wrote:
Only if the tech “sees” the cyclist, and that is the nub of the problem with driverless car in a nutshell.
usedtobefaster wrote:
Would take my chances with the tech versus the average Addison Lee driver!
gonedownhill wrote:
Good point …
usedtobefaster wrote:
And in the case or Mercedes cars, whether it chooses to prioritise people inside the car or outside of it.
When Chris Boardman crosses
When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Chris Boardman doesn’t cross the road. The opposite pavement comes to him.
davel wrote:
I was going to ask “why does Chris Boardman cross the road?”, but no-one questions Chris Boardman’s intentions.
hawkinspeter wrote:
There is no ‘Chris Boardman’s intentions’; there is only ‘Chris Boardman does’ and ‘Chris Boardman does not’.
davel wrote:
I heard that Chris Boardman sleeps with a nightlight on – not because he’s afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of him.
.. hang on a min.. the
.. hang on a min.. the ‘Grevil gravel bike’… all I can think of is G G G Granville the G G G Grevil G G G Gravel bike…
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… WTF… is that Alex Dowsett, he’s getting everywhere today!
Dowsett vs Boardman sums up
Dowsett vs Boardman sums up the helmet debate; one uses myths, rumours and apocryphal stories, the other uses facts, research and data. ‘Nuff said.
Except perhaps from “shut up Alex until you have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
The scary thing is that many
The scary thing is that many are saying, we don’t want compulsion but compulsion via the back door by encouraging people to wear them, all the whilst utterly ignoring the stats both for professional racing types, amateur racers and the ‘others’, also ignoring that head injuries sans helmets riding a bike is massively less than walking, driving and most other activities.
Or maybe types like Dowsett think the 1.3million annually reported head injuries (A figure accepted by the head injury orgs in the UK) are totally false, the c.160,000 hospital admittances from such are also false OR that they are all cyclists?
Given that the official figures are c.3100 serious cyclists injured (and the majority caused by errent motorists) maybe he thinks somehow this number are all head injuries and that somehow even if they were this is a much bigger issue than 160,000 that are admitted to hospital.
As I’ve said elsewhere when you have a ratio greater than 1000:1 if just comparing the admittances alone to 50% of all (seriously) injured cyclists being to the head, to then only promote helmets for people on bikes is not only ludicrous, it’s ignorant of basic stats, ignorant of studies that show the effects of helmet wearing.
It’s insideous creep, sickening and a slippery slope of only making matters worse as we have seen in the UK, in France, in US, in Canada, in Australia, in NZ, basically any country you want to pick that has seen significant increases in helmet wearing or compulsion. Time and again this has been shown to be true.
So we get compulsary helmet wearing and if you don’t, then what, NSW levels of fines that the police only focus on instead of killer drivers, and from that more injuries and deaths of cyclists who are then forced off the roads, more victim blaming by police, government, judges and cycling organisations?
DOWSETT YOU IGNORANT UNEDUCATED CUNT, YOUR WAY MAKES CYCLING MORE DANGEROUS AND PUTS ME AT MORE RISK, GO FUCK YOURSELF!
If I headbutt something then
If I headbutt something then I’d want to be wearing a helmet – I’d stand with Dowsett.
Thing is, I’d rather not headbutt anything at all – Boardman for PM!
2Loose wrote:
For ‘headbutting’, I hear you.
But most definitions of ‘headbutt’ don’t include drivers rear-ending, t-boning or left-hooking you, and helmets are a weird fixation in relation to such situations.
And I’d also rather not head
And I’d also rather not head but anything regardless of my mode of transport or activity.
Dowsett knew the reaction his tweet would get and was just being an attention whore.
The real debate here is how
The real debate here is how has Still Open All Hours ran for as long as Open All Hours? By eck they didn’t make much telly in them days.
Organon wrote:
That’s a tricky one.
Do we go by the time period or the number of series? The original ran from 1973 to 1985 although 1973 was just the pilot episode, so we might want to consider 1976 to 1985. Still Open All Hours has been running since 2013, so that’s just 5 years. If we go by series, then the original only had 4 series and the new one has just started its 5th series.
I can see the arguments carrying on for a long time.