Corbyn v Johnson – the L-shaped cranks issue; ‘Safety first’ Xmas tree; Peloton shares drop further; #bikesatpollingstations (and #dogs); Christ(mas) on a bike; Israel Cycling Academy becomes Israel Start-Up Nation + more on live blog
SUMMARY
Morning
Think we’re going to have to pace ourselves a bit today. It’s already feeling like a gruelling day and it’s barely past nine.
A logical place to start for a cycling live blog on the day of a general election is with a round-up of where each of the main parties stands on cycling.
My colleague Simon MacMichael has done a nice rundown of the various policies and promises.
We know there are plenty of other issues, but it’s interesting to think about how cycling policy reflects the broader attitudes of each of the main parties.
#bikesatpollingstations
#bikesatpollingstations pic.twitter.com/93R331kyCm
— David Knight (@furnivalknight) December 12, 2019
Voted. #BikesAtPollingStations #BromptonsAtPollingStations #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/sdqIznnHwV
— Graham Boulton (@gboulton66) December 12, 2019
#BikesAtPollingStations pic.twitter.com/EEwqMSDBLy
— Cycle Sam (@MCRCycleSam) December 12, 2019
London's cycling commissioner's been down already
Voted! #bikesatpollingstations pic.twitter.com/wVwYzEH4zF
— Will Norman (@willnorman) December 12, 2019
#cargobikesatpollingstations
#bikesatpollingstations #cargobikesatpollingstations #GE2109 pic.twitter.com/fE90WSZh5d
— Rob Wilson (@mrrobwilson) December 12, 2019
voting for a brighter day #BikesAtPollingStations #cargobikesatpollingstations #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/rGNyxhKcbo
— Jack Thurston (@jackthurston) December 12, 2019
Very important election day sociological analysis
Early days, but I’ve noticed something while embedding #bikesatpollingstations on a website that throws a whopping great tantrum whenever it encounters non-alphanumeric characters.
People who cycle to vote are far less likely to deploy emojis than the average social media user.
#bikesatpollingstations fail
I was going to do a #BikesAtPollingStations photo, but I went at 07:00 and it was still dark. When the flash went off and my tyre sidewalls reflected back, I jumped and took a picture of my feet instead.
— Goth on a Brompton (@GothOnABrompton) December 12, 2019
Beryl offering free rides to polling stations
A reminder that British bike share company Beryl are offering users free rides to their polling stations.
Beryl operates in the City of London, Hereford, Bournemoth and Poole, and say they’re running the complimentary rides to “encourage riders to choose sustainable transport to and from their local polling stations.”
The promotion will be automatically applied to everyone with a Beryl account. Voters can make use of two rides with a free unlock and ride of up to 30 minutes each.
Doing the double
Maybe this can help us segue into another topic for a bit…
#BikesAtPollingStations
followed by #treebybike pic.twitter.com/NS0v9X0ERk— Nick Flynn (@nickflynnUK) December 12, 2019
Of course you don't *need* a tree
A lunchtime reminder of where the parties stand on cycling
As the UK heads to the polls again, we’ve highlighted the key active travel pledges as politicians chase your vote.
Israel Cycling Academy becomes Israel Start-Up Nation
The new sponsor for Israel Cycling Academy is Start-Up Nation Central, “a Tel Aviv-based non-profit organisation that connects companies around the world to Israeli innovation.”
The team will therefore be known as Israel Start-Up Nation for the 2020 season.
Our new name for season 2020. WorldTour, here we come! #yallaacademy pic.twitter.com/K8eZCtm0Hm
— IsraelCyclingAcademy (@yallaACADEMY) December 11, 2019
Here’s the kit.
Israel- Start Up Nation will be racing in a new kit: #yallaacademy pic.twitter.com/Wa9zkQQg4R
— IsraelCyclingAcademy (@yallaACADEMY) December 11, 2019
It's not just Beryl Bikes offering free rides to polling stations
Uber offering free Jump e-bike rides on election day: if you’re London-based and yet to cast your ballot, you can take advantage of two free rides of up to 12 minutes each to the polling station and back… https://t.co/tWmY0jjATV #cycling #GeneralElection2019 pic.twitter.com/kpoYgQtDyc
— ebiketips (@ebiketips) December 12, 2019
Or get a lift off Pedal Me
People already jumping on our free rides for Election Day promo – look up feed for code! pic.twitter.com/8YWxRaFmjR
— Pedal Me (@pedalmeapp) December 12, 2019
REE RIDE CODE FOR LIFTS TO/FROM VOTING: 7DEWQA
Please pre-book to avoid disappointment – we’re likely to be extremely busy.
Only applies to passenger jobs within our operating hours (8-8 tomorrow).
— Pedal Me (@pedalmeapp) December 11, 2019
We don’t endorse any one party – though this is the only party leader who’s committed to using us for their ride to Buckingham Palace to start their government, should they be invited to do so, so far…
Not too late to get in there @BorisJohnson ! pic.twitter.com/KDS3xtMvNo
— Pedal Me (@pedalmeapp) December 12, 2019
The infrastructure buzz
The Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, Heidi Alexander, has a confession to make.
Something strange has happened to me in the last 18 months. I now have emotional reactions to pictures of kerbs and concrete – this one gives me a particularly warm feeling inside 🙂 https://t.co/EJMqC69OrC
— Heidi Alexander (@Heidi_LDN) December 12, 2019
"The wild"
The wild? If you did all your riding in an airbed showroom, you probably wouldn’t be all that concerned about possible blows to the head.
This is how the Hovding system would perform in the wild! pic.twitter.com/TOgGgTZtRu
— Fully Charged (@FullyChargedUK) December 12, 2019
Last year's Portuguese national champion provisionally suspended for anti-doping rule violation
UCI Statement on Domingos Goncalves and UCI Professional Continental Team Caja Rural – Seguros RGA https://t.co/VADwB0aso0 pic.twitter.com/D5jFMd4QPy
— UCI_media (@UCI_media) December 12, 2019
The tree clearly feels it's necessary to wear a cycle helmet
It’s attire is pretty hi-vis too, you’d have to say.
Rode in the local Festival of Lights, look how much my son loved it! from r/bicycling
Merida’s 2020 time trial bike “ready to slice the air”
[Adopts Jim Bowen voice] “So, Rohan, let’s take a look at what you could have won…”
You’ve already seen @MeridaBikes‘ lightweight #SCULTURA and aero #REACTOEVO in the new colours for 2020. Here comes the #TIMEWARPTT, ready to slice the air. pic.twitter.com/WHfOwNbuxE
— MeridaProRoadRacing (@MeridaProRoad) December 12, 2019
Heading to the polling station on your way home?
If it’s of any help at all, here’s our thing highlighting the various parties’ key active travel pledges.
Where do you stand on our L-shaped cranks article?
What do you mean you’ve never read it?
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Latest Comments
Maybe people do not have the capacity to look out for everyone on the roads because there are so many users squeezed onto small roads in the uk. Brains are not 100% functional, as we know they lapse. Maybe we should have a country wide chat regarding vehicle usage. Maybe radios, satnavs, fones should be removed from cars, or restricted to passenger use. Maybe we have to accommodate homo sapiens are a murderous bunch, so when someone's mown down it can be forgotten easily, after the 'ohmygod' ten minutes. Segregated cycle lanes, or a complete ban on the motor vehicle, lol. Essentially the human race is speeding up and the average cyclist cannot keep up. In the midst of these problems as we are, I personally have to not care about my well being if I wish to continue using bikes. This is a strange and interesting dilemma, yet it sits in harmony with the current zeitgeists twisting as they are.
"Illegal e-bikes" seems like a reasonable phrase to me. It's not strictly accurate if you're very pedantic (it's currently perfectly legal to own and even use such a bike in certain circumstances; it's the use of the bike on public roads that is illegal), but it's good enough. "Illegal (motor)bike" doesn't disambiguate between illegal electric and petrol powered bikes - illegally used dirt bikes etc have been around for decades, long before the current electrification. Whether or not that distinction is relevant depends on the context. In fact, without context, I think I would wonder if "illegal bike" was talking about normal pedal bikes that are somehow illegal (maybe circumventing anti-dumping laws or not complying with relevant safety standards etc.) "Electric motorbike" is technically accurate, but I would only apply it to Sur-Rons or similar - I can see that legally it applies to any non-EAPC ebike, but doesn't fit well with less motorbike-esque versions or homebrew conversions. It also doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal - it's perfectly possible to legally ride an electric motorbike or electric moped, and some people do. So to use "electric motorbike" to mean "illegal electric motorbike" falls into the same trap as using "ebike" to mean "illegal ebike". “Illegally modified e-bikes” is also inaccurate - firstly, many of them are not modified in anyway; you can just buy them like that straight from the internet. And again, there's no law against modification, or owning a ebike that has been modified to no longer be an EAPC. It's the use of an ebike that has been modified to no longer be an EAPC (if it ever was one) on public roads that is illegal. So of all options, "illegal ebike" seems like the least problematic.
@Jem PT Scottish Gaelic - under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, public bodies (including the police) have certain duties regarding "promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of the Gaelic language."
@Jem PT Scots Gaelic for Police. And yes, it does seem very similar to the Scots English. ;)
I would use "illegal motorbikes", as there is never such a thing an illegal non-motorised bicycle.
What's with the bi-lingual 'Police' on the Scottish Police van?? (Or is the lower line 'Glaswegian'??
@stulemanski "... if drivers decided it was okay..."
Really? They lost me at "SUV".
@mitsky in theory there's a purpose, being it should mean steps to doing something about this can be skipped if they do this again or penalties could be higher etc. Since in practice nothing of consequence happens however (and certainly not like them immediately being banged up / car crushed etc - plus of course there might be a long period before anything might happen under the current system) it's simply "don't do it again, or we'll tell you not to do it again, again"...
@flowboy "Shared space" - this is a thing that some urban planners / designers got wildly enthusiastic about *. A couple of UK ones still do, long after the Dutch ones abandoned this as being dangerous and unpleasant for people not in motor vehicles. The take-home is it doesn't work well for humans. Safety is not best served by creating uncertainty. And motor traffic dominates as normal, except under very specific conditions **. Plenty on that online (see eg. David Hembrow's "a view from the cycle path" blog for that mostly in NL, Aseasyasridingabike for some UK examples). * I can only conclude they love being able to have more of a blank canvas to create on, so they can be more free to play with "blue sky" designs. Also perhaps they like the "cleaner lines" to spaces without all the paint, signs, marked areas for different modes etc. ** There is in fact an opportunity to have "sharing" and indeed "clean lines" - that is by having a genuine "home zone" / "play street" / "woonerf" (Dutch term). But that requires this is not a) still principally a space for motor vehicles, which in turn means b) those areas should not be permeable for driving through, and everything should promote very low speeds and indeed not much driving (or even parking) there.
10 thoughts on “Corbyn v Johnson – the L-shaped cranks issue; ‘Safety first’ Xmas tree; Peloton shares drop further; #bikesatpollingstations (and #dogs); Christ(mas) on a bike; Israel Cycling Academy becomes Israel Start-Up Nation + more on live blog”
Loving that Peugeot. I had
Loving that Peugeot. I had one in a similar paintjob, though mine probably never looked that good.
Oh, and whatever the weather, get out and vote.
I always walk, the polling station has never been far away enough to ride.
Oh, is there an election on?
Oh, is there an election on?
Kendalred wrote:
I’m surprised they allow people to park their bikes that close to polling stations.
Every remembrance sunday, they prohibit bike parking anywhere near the cenotaph here in the centre of Bristol, citing the risk of terrorism…
Quote:
Here’s a hmmm review about a
Here’s a hmmm review about a bicycle touring movie-
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/12/the-bikes-of-wrath-review-cameron-ford-charlie-turnbull-cycling-documentary
ktache wrote:
I’m not sure they’re very impressed with it:
I’ve just been to vote for a
I’ve just been to vote for a party that won’t win a majority tonight, but does have a clear policy on the biggest issue of the day; which sadly isn’t active travel. We shouldn’t leave that up to party policy, it should be agreed between all parties and run by commity. Was I wasting my time; probably. Will I be able to complain later? Inevitably.
I am definitely a fan of the
I am definitely a fan of the ‘banking my right to complain’ approach!
Compact Corned Beef wrote:
I voted Green, so I’m pretty sure I can complain about the result tonight.
Compact Corned Beef wrote:
Good on you for doing your democratic doody!