Please be patient if the live blog is slow to load. Try refreshing the page if it refuses to appear.
Live blog: A good bike ride spoiled; Zwift art; a fifth of Aussie drivers admit experiencing cyclist road rage + more
All the cycling news from this site and beyond…
Fri, Nov 02, 2018 15:11
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.
20 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
kil0ran 1 hour ago
I was a few bikes away from the fatal collision during Ride London a few years ago, I barely avoided the victim's dog which was running loose. Definitely one of those slo-mo adrenaline fuelled moments and I was only doing about 40kph. At lead out speeds it really doesn't bear thinking about.
open_roads 1 hour ago
@Xenophon2 "That’s a lot of batteries to keep track of, to the point that I have a dedicated charger with 3 m USB-C cable in my office, another one at home. Can’t imagine having to deal with another battery such as on the Flight Attendant." Top tip: In reality most of the SRAM stuff lasts a month or two even with pretty heavy usage. I just charge all the batteries on the last Sunday of every month and have yet to be caught out. The SRAM batteries are so cheap / small / light it's also worth keeping a spare in a saddle bag or similar.
ajuk.uk@gmail.com 2 hours ago
@chrisonabike There does seem to be evidence that 20 mph limits work on roads that already lend themselves to such low speeds, and I do think the lack of a 25 mph limit option is an issue for some roads. Speed limits should especially not be set very low in the hope that many or most drivers will only exceed them by a set amount because, not only is it not true that many people drive like that, the opposite can happen. Instead of targeting the drivers most likely to cause harm, you're putting the prohibition onto the behaviour of more sensible drivers and forcing the police to target them. The DfT guidance used to have a paragraph calling out this presumption. The extent to which road design and conditions at the time dictate traffic speeds is too stark to ignore. I've seen urban roads with signed 40 mph limits have lower average speeds than some roads with posted 20 mph limits. And yes, that road in Gloucester has signs openly inviting drivers to go faster, and almost none of them do: the non-compliance was about 2%. Compare that to over 99% non-compliance on some roads in Wales. What I'm mainly talking about is the increasing imposition of 20 mph limits on much higher-standard main roads. That's where you see extreme levels of non-compliance. In some cases, the average speed has even been known to go up after the limit has gone down. Showing such contempt just brings speed limits into disrepute and my contention is that drivers should take speed limits seriously.
ajuk.uk@gmail.com 2 hours ago
@chrisonabike There does seem to be evidence that 20 mph limits work on roads that already lend themselves to such low speeds, and I do think the lack of a 25 mph limit option is an issue for some roads. Speed limits should especially not be set very low in the hope that many or most drivers will only exceed them by a set amount because, not only is it not true that many people drive like that, the opposite can happen. Instead of targeting the drivers most likely to cause harm, you're putting the prohibition onto the behaviour of more sensible drivers and forcing the police to target them. The DfT guidance used to have a paragraph calling out this presumption. The extent to which road design and conditions at the time dictate traffic speeds is too stark to ignore. I've seen urban roads with signed 40 mph limits have lower average speeds than some roads with posted 20 mph limits. And yes, that road in Gloucester has signs openly inviting drivers to go faster, and almost none of them do: the non-compliance was about 2%. Compare that to over 99% non-compliance on some roads in Wales. So no, when speed limits match the road, compliance is much higher, but speeds are not. What I'm mainly talking about is the increasing imposition of 20 mph limits on much higher-standard main roads. That's where you see extreme levels of non-compliance. In some cases, the average speed has even been known to go up after the limit has gone down. Showing such contempt just brings speed limits into disrepute and my contention is that drivers should take speed limits seriously.
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@jaymack Yes...to an extent, and I'm happy at the moment with my twelve-year-old Dura Ace mechanical, but I must admit when I had Ultegra Di2 I did notice not so much the ease of shifting but the perfect trimming of the gears after every shift so that the chainline was always absolutely perfect and that did enhance the simple pleasure of being outside, for me anyway. At least until that day I forgot to charge the battery which died at the turnaround on an eighty-mile ride and had to ride a very lumpy forty miles home stuck in 50x14...
Rendel Harris 3 hours ago
@Daclu Trelub Well no, given that I object to the use of derogatory slurs against people with mental health issues I think I'll "bother" the person who's using derogatory slurs against people with mental health issues. Have a little think, if capable: if your mother or someone else close to you had dementia or mental health issues, would you be happy for people to be pointing at them mockingly saying, "Looks like she's a few chips short of a fish supper"? Stop it.
Daclu Trelub 3 hours ago
@Rendel Harris Go and bother somebody else with your opinion.
jaymack 3 hours ago
I'm sure electronic gears, pedals, seat posts etc. are each a modern marvel but they all seem to solve a problem I've never encountered. However I have encountered others faffing while searching for batteries, cables and even a firmware update. All of which just gets in the way of cycling's simple pleasure - being outside
Rendel Harris 3 hours ago
@Daclu Trelub Yeah...that sort of expression is OK when being jocular about someone who's a bit dense or slow on the uptake, is it really appropriate for someone who quite obviously has mental health/dementia issues?
20 thoughts on “Live blog: A good bike ride spoiled; Zwift art; a fifth of Aussie drivers admit experiencing cyclist road rage + more”
From the videos we see from
From the videos we see from Oz, this isn’t going to surprise anyone, but the Guardian article doesn’t mention what the authorities are doing to correct this overt bias by drivers and makes it pretty clear that they are doing the sum of the square of sfa.
This isn’t just a problem in Oz, and as is evidenced every day in newspaper and web comments, the utter ignorance of drivers about road law is astounding, and must lead to questions about whether our current system of licencing is appropriate. If so many drivers are unaware of the law and put vulnerable road users at risk, the system isn’t working. Do we need regular re-testing, especially focussing on behaviour towards vulnerable road users?
From the Guardian (my
From the Guardian (my emphasis):
brooksby wrote:
I’m trying not to mention helmets, but I’m weakening fast.
[/quote]
[/quote]
I’m trying not to mention helmets, but I’m weakening fast.
[/quote]
In the conext that helmets are not the issue here I hope.
Supersam wrote:
I think its just very worrying that Australia mandated helmets to increase cyclists’ safety, and yet numbers of cyclist deaths are still increasing so drastically. Its almost as if wearing a helmet doesn’t have a very great effect on KSI statistics…
( 
)
brooksby wrote:
Given the drops in cycling since the mid 80s and going further back to the early 50s when cycling was ridiculously safe in Australia http://www.cycle-helmets.com/cycling-1985-2011.html# they have fallen massively, and yet their government is even more ignorant of the issues than ours which is going some!
There are now calls for a 5 year test period for adults to cycle sans helmet but stupidly only off road, those 17 and under will still be forced to wear IF and that’s a big if the proposed changes get approval.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
you do realise the issue is more complex than a did they or didnt they wear a helmet question???
nigerian prince wrote:
You do understand that we know that.
You do understand that saying “there might be other issues” doesn’t change the point that such a massive increase in cyclist deaths in a country which mandated cycle helmets ostensibly to improve cyclist safety is a bit concerning…
brooksby wrote:
It’s an anti-BTBS sockpuppet, created by someone who’s already anonymous on an Internet forum. And, despite their username, I haven’t seen any offers to inherit millions yet. Just rude.
davel wrote:
honestly I’ve had it with the vitriol on this site. It’s a sad place, for sad middle aged men shouting into the digital abyss. Fucking losers, the lot of you.
nigerian prince wrote:
You think this site is full of vitriol? Don’t ever venture to the comments section of the Mail Online then especially with that user name (then again it might blow their minds – on one hand Nigerian = non white immigrant, on the other Prince = Royalty)
nigerian prince wrote:
you do realise you’re now shouting into the digital abyss?
nigerian prince wrote:
I love a good flounce, but that was average.
nigerian prince wrote:
Goodbye and thank you for going.
burtthebike wrote:
Just think how much worse it would be if they hadn’t mandated helmets?
(Sorry, but not sorry)
burtthebike wrote:
I thought I’d leave that can of worms well alone…
brooksby wrote:
So one in four accidents led to a prosecution, or at least some sort of trial, of driving without due care and attention?
moved to Aus’ 5 years ago and
moved to Aus’ 5 years ago and my experience is some drivers really go out of their way to inform cyclists how much they hate them in a very threatening way – as well as attitude and distraction drugs and driving are a real problem and feature in many serious collisions – driving is an absolute right and driving at or a few km/hr above the speed limit is essential …if looking at urban cycling like to quote this study – experienced cycle commuters in Canberra review of video of daily commutes …from the summary:
“No collision events were recorded. A total of 91 potentially unsafe cyclist-interactions were identified. In the majority of events (93.4%), the behaviour of the driver led to the event. The most common event type was left turn (37.3%) which involved a driver turning left across the path of the cyclist, drivers turning across cyclists’ path from the adjacent direction (32.9%). Unexpectedly opened vehicle doors accounted for 17.6% of cyclist-driver interactions. In the majority of all events, a crash was avoided due to the evasive actions taken by cyclists.”
Bold added by me – original is large pdf here:
https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/217306/muarc322.pdf
like to think that very very slowly police are realising Aus’ is way out of step but maybe I’m too hopeful
Chilled out pup!
Chilled out pup!
I was just about to send you
I was just about to send you my account number, Alanis…