Barking mad: Cyclist and pet pup have a pop at bus driver for close pass; Gammons sending cyclists underground; Police say LTNs don’t slow emergency services; Rapha Black Friday Challenge; Dowsett hosting Zwift Hour Record workouts + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Department for Transport drop word 'emergency' from Active Travel Fund
The Department for Transport have dropped the word ’emergency’ from the second-round of the ‘Active Travel Fund’. Despite the hope that this may suggest a long-term commitment to cycling infrastructure beyond the pandemic, the second-round announcement did not include any new funding. Instead the ‘Active Travel Fund’ will release £175 million of the £250 million initially pledged back in May.
On the second-round of funding Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “It has been great to see so many people build cycling and walking into their daily travel habits. To support them, we know it’s vital to have the right infrastructure in place so everyone – cyclists, pedestrians and motorists – can use our roads.
“Whether you’re walking, cycling, driving or using public transport, people must have the space they need to get around safely.”
Hackney Police sergeant calls claims LTNs slow down emergency services "scaremongering"
A Hackney Police sergeant has asked people to ignore “scaremongering” online about LTNs and stressed that they don’t prevent emergency service vehicles from attending incidents. The inconvenience that LTNs cause for emergency service vehicles is one of the most common arguments wheeled out by anti-LTN groups, but sergeant James Higgins asked the public to: “Please don’t believe any scaremongering online.”
He said: “I’ve seen it myself online – there’s a lot of scaremongering that us, the local police team, won’t be able to get to help people, we won’t be able to catch suspects, there’ll be a victim in need and we won’t be able to get there because we’ll need to do a u-turn. That’s just completely false. Please don’t believe any scaremongering.
“We break down doors to get to victims to help them, we break down doors to catch suspects. I’m sure we will drive through this filter.”
LTNs have been the subject of heated debate in the past months. Anti-LTN group OneWandsworth blamed a segregated bike lane on the A24 in Tooting for preventing an ambulance to attend to an injured motorcyclist, despite the road being blocked by cars.
In August, this LTN in Ealing was vandalised with oil poured on the road and planters vandalised.
🌿🚸 This week, we launched a new School Street and traffic filter outside Harrington Hill School.
⬇️ Watch @MPSSpringfield police sergeant James Higgins explain why he supports the School Street and how the filter doesn’t affect his ability to respond to emergencies ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/W5Hy29iK6s
— Hackney Council (@hackneycouncil) November 12, 2020
Confused motorists rage about Active Travel Fund
The government’s announcement that there would be no new funding for the Active Travel Fund, only the release of already committed funds, should have gone down well with anti-cycling groups… Somehow the decision to release £175 million, which was already committed to the Active Travel Fund in May, has caused a storm for some motorists who can’t understand why they get stuck in traffic (despite the queue of cars bumper-to-bumper).
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps also announced today that councils wishing to use the fund would have to comply with more comprehensive consultation periods. So you’d expect motorists to be quite pleased with the day’s events….or not.
Mail Online reported the news as “another £175MILLION to fund new cycle lanes and road closures during pandemic despite congestion chaos clogging cities”…
Others decided the best way to deal with the news was to demand wearing a helmet and Hi-Vis compulsory when riding a bike…
Make it compulsory to wear a high visibility jacket when cycling and motor cycling. I believe this will reduce accidents in one stroke. It can be difficult to see these people, there is even one cyclist who lives near me that wears a camouflage jacket!
— Peter (@PeteJol) November 13, 2020
They already are. All cycle helmets sold in the UK must conform to BS EN 1708.
— nalladrah (@nalladrah) November 13, 2020
If this was the response to no new funding I wonder how they’d have taken the news if the government had invested more money into active travel…
GB announce strong squad for UCI eSports World Championship
British Cycling’s squad of nine who will compete at the UCI eSports World Championship on Zwift next month includes Dame Sarah Storey, Ed Clancy and Elinor Barker. The trio have won 13 Olympic and Paralympic golds between them and are joined by Megan Barker, Dani Christmas, Jenny Holl, Max Stedman, Andy Tennant and Robert Scott.
The inaugural eSports World Championship will be held on Wednesday December 9 with riders racing on Zwift. Both the men and women’s events will use the same 50km course, the Watopia Figure 8 Reverse with Hilly KOM Finish.
Stephen Park, Performance Director for the Great Britain Cycling Team said: “I’m really looking forward to the inaugural UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, and I’d like to commend the UCI and Zwift on this exciting collaboration.
“Amongst the talented Great Britain Cycling Team line-up, we have reigning Olympic and Paralympic champions, including Elinor Barker, Ed Clancy and Dame Sarah Storey, all vying to add another rainbow jersey to their collection.”
Alex Dowsett hosting Zwift group workouts ahead of Hour Record attempt, and signs new contract with Israel Start-Up Nation
Ahead of his next crack at the Hour Record next month, Dowsett will also be hosting Zwift group workouts for Zwifters to train with him during the run-up to the attempt. The eight workouts have all been designed by Dowsett himself, and he will be leading one per week with the first starting at 7pm on 18th November.
He said: “I’ll be massively appreciative of the support knowing that there will be others suffering alongside me, hopefully all working towards the glory of setting a new UCI Hour Record.
“In very rare circumstances do athletes share their training before an event, so I’m hoping many Zwifters will seize the chance to join me on my journey so they can feel a part of the attempt on December 12th.”
Outside of Watopia, it’s been announced Dowsett will continue riding for Israel Start-Up Nation until at least 2022 after signing a new two-year deal with the team. Dowsett earned the WorldTour newcomers their first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro d’Italia last month and will attempt to reclaim the Hour Record on December 12 at Manchester velodrome. Israel Start-Up Nation have strengthened their squad ahead of 2021 with the signing of Chris Froome as well as established pros Alessandro De Marchi and Patrick Bevin.
If you fancy joining in for the group workouts on Zwift, all the details are here.
Rapha Black Friday Challenge
There’s not going to be any Black Friday deals to be had at Rapha this year… instead they’ve set the challenge for cyclists worldwide to ride one million kilometres on November 27th to help raise money for World Bicycle Relief. If the target for the Strava challenge is reached, then Rapha will donate £120,000 to World Bicycle Relief, which which will be enough to distribute 1000 bikes for those who need them most.
More medal success for Team GB at European Track Championships
A European night to remember for @BritishCycling.
The 🇬🇧 team stormed to women’s team pursuit victory while @elinorbarker outsprinted her rivals to win the women’s elimination race 🥇
Report and reaction from Plovdiv 👇 📸 @swpixtweets 📸
— Team GB (@TeamGB) November 13, 2020
Team GB added wongold medals and one bronze on the second day of competition at the UEC European Track Championships in Bulgaria yesterday. The women’s team pursuit squad of Katie Archibald, Neah Evans, Laura Kenny and Josie Knight took gold, beating the Italian team by three seconds. Elinor Barker joined the team on the podium having missed the final to compete in the elimination race – where she also won gold.
Speaking on the team pursuit performance, Laura Kenny said: “That’s the fastest time we’ve done since Rio, so that shows the form that we were in going into an Olympic year.
“It’s good to know we are still moving forward, Josie (Knight) is here for her first European competition and that shows the way British Cycling moves forward too. I personally think we’ve got a lot more to come, we’ve got people sat at home itching to get into this team and that can only help us move forward.”
Ollie Wood also won bronze in the men’s scratch race to conclude another succesful night for Team GB.
Dr Peter Gammons, UKIP's London mayoral candidate, announces plans for an underground cycling and walking network
Dr Peter Gammons (@Gammons4London) is UKIP’s candidate for London Mayor, taking our fight to the Khanage left behind by Labour.
WATCH: https://t.co/52T2dMmlzn pic.twitter.com/XBreMfZdW3
— UKIP (@UKIP) November 12, 2020
Dr Peter Gammons (whose name is quite apt according to some on social media), has wasted no time in forming a revolutionary cycling plan for the capital. His ingenious masterstroke “to get London moving again” is to send cyclists underground…by converting a network of “over 2 million miles of unused tunnels, streets, and chambers beneath London”.
“I want to convert these disused spaces into walkways, safe cycle lanes, and create the world’s first underground ‘Pod’ transport system”, added Gammons.
It’s just as well nobody has thought of an underground public transport system in London before now…Gammons’ own website claims he is: “One of the world’s most famous and in-demand Inspirational and motivational speakers. It is historically documented that he has spoken to larger crowds that any other person in history, with crowds of up to 4 million people in a single rally.”
Gammons also wants to reverse what he has called a “war on motorists”, which he claims is being waged by the current London mayor Sadiq Khan – you can digest the full announcement here.
Belfast Council consider introducing pollution-busting bikes
A new pollution-busting bicycle could soon be part of Belfast Council’s fleet of city bikes. BelfastLive reported that the motion was forwarded at a committee this week to introduce the bikes, which purify air via washable filters housed in the wheel. The bike was designed by Kristen Tapping who is a student at London South Bank University.
Tapping claims the ROLLOE bike will be ready to use within the next two years. Air enters the wheel through a cyclindrical opening, is pushed through by centrafugal force and filtered before being released.
Barking mad: Cyclist and pet pooch have a pop at bus driver for close pass
@motorbikemilly ##cycling ##onemanandhisdog ##dogsoftiktok ##scottishtiktok ##foryoupage ##fyp
MotorbikeMilly as she’s known on social media has gained internet fame with videos like this one of the four-year-old Bichon Frise strapped to her owner’s bike. In the latest adventure, Milly and her owner Paul are on a pedal cycle rather than a motorbike, and stand up to the driver of a bus when they’re repeatedly close passed. Presumably the bleeped out swearing is from Paul, and not the pet pup…
13 November 2020, 09:09
13 November 2020, 09:09
13 November 2020, 09:09
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Some years ago (before there was a cycle lane) I used to commute on Sidmouth St. But only because I worked on the London Road campus, from anywhere else there are better alternatives. As a cycle route it runs from between two busy roads, neither of which are exactly cycle friendly. So it's hardly surprising that no cyclists use it.
The officer's comments unfortunately reflect the reality of UK law. While the Highway Code guidance indeed refers to 1.5m, that is not anywhere in the law. And the criteria in law for proving a charge of careless driving does in fact rest on whether the rider is being "inconvenienced", as the discovered several years ago when the Met prosecuted a taxi driver who nearly hit me when cutting into my lane from the left near Marylebone. The prosecution lawyer was a barely competent newbie who fumbled over his words. The court computer was barely capable of playing the video footage, which kept freezing and crashing. The cabbie had an highly assertive defence lawyer who immediately seized on this point, and argued to the magistraite that I clearly hadn't been "inconvenienced" because I had not stopped or swerved, and had carried on my journey. Never mind that didn't have time to do either of those things, or that I was centimetres from being hit - the magistraite acquitted him on those grounds. That is unfortunately the outrageous reality of actually prosecuting a close pass incident. I know it's popular to blame the police and the CPS for not prosecuting enough close passes ... but the fact is the law is inadequate, and if the driver has a good lawyer then they can likely get off most close pass prosecutions.
Let's not forget the protruding "side" mirror...
HTML rules are clearly only partially implemented
please can we have the ability to use bold and italics for emphasis back as well?
As a Reading resident and cyclist, I can say I cannot think of a single occasion when I have seen a cyclist using the Sidmouth St cycle lane, nor can I think of any reason I'd use it myself. It doesn't connect to any other useful cycle routes. I don't rejoice that some of it is going back to motor traffic but I can see why the council is proposing to do that. Reading could really do with a cycleway to cross the town centre west to east and east to west but I'm not holding my breath on that.
Giant are one of the most trustworthy brands out there when it comes to manufacturing components given that they actually own their own production facilities. None of that matters though when it comes to road hookless, I and most other people won't touch it with a barge pole. We're surely at a stage now where it's toxic amongst consumers and it's only a matter of time before the UCI ban it for racing.
Filling the road with one person per car is using the road space more efficiently, amazing, I never realised that.
I bought a Giant Defy recently and immediately sold off the hookless wheels at a pretty big loss and won't ever do that again. I'm not buying hookless for road ever. Giant in particular has very short list of what tires they test with their rims so it's way too restrictive even if I was going to ride hookless wheels. Which I won't. Very short sighted by Giant.
Insulting someone on the basis of their ethnicity, gender or sexuality is a hate crime, calling them fat isn't. It would be the homophobia, not the fat-shaming, for which he was charged.
23 thoughts on “Barking mad: Cyclist and pet pup have a pop at bus driver for close pass; Gammons sending cyclists underground; Police say LTNs don’t slow emergency services; Rapha Black Friday Challenge; Dowsett hosting Zwift Hour Record workouts + more on the live blog”
The Department for Transport
The Department for Transport have dropped the word ’emergency’ from the second-round of the ‘Active Travel Fund’ – and on the next tranche they’ll remove the word “Active” 😉
brooksby wrote:
Next tranche? With optimism like that, I’m sure you are a lottery player.
…or possibly just drop the
…or possibly just drop the ‘Fund’ bit.
That’s not the full story
That’s not the full story road.cc – Rapha are also giving all their staff the day off on Black Friday (all 470 of them) so that they can go and ride towards the million km goal with the rest of us – and it’s Rapha that’s donating the £120,000 to pay for the 1000 bikes for WBR.
To be honest I find it a bit of an outrage! What are the gum bumping, chip on the shoulder, club kit wearing “it wasn’t like this back in the day/how much?” w*nkers going to complain about with this incredibly charitable move by Rapha? Then again…I’m sure some toss*r will be along in a moment to tell us that the company has totally lost their way since they sold out to ASDA and that ‘La Col’ would have done this much better for half the price…
Do you think “Dr” Gammons
Do you think “Dr” Gammons changed his name by deed poll just to get in the news? Haven’t heard of UKIP for years, #gammons4london indeed… perhaps they are trying to take the niche that Screaming Lord Sutch left, didn’t they once propose lowering pedestrian crossing button so that hedgehogs wouldn’t get squashed as often?
he isn’t a proper Dr, he has
he isn’t a proper Dr, he has some dodgy ‘PhD’ from some non-accredited ‘university’ in the US. It has as much worth as “Dr” Gillian McKeith’s (if you remember her – TV health presenter who was subsequently banned from calling herself Dr, because her qualifications were dodgy).
Or to give her her full
Or to give her her full medical title – Gillian McKeith
He obtained his from Canon University Florida
https://canonuniversity.com/academics/doctorate/
All Doctoral programs have a prerequisite of 36 undergraduate semester hours or 24 hours of graduate semester hours in Biblical and / or Theological studies taken through CANON or transferred from other sources
Back in the days of Fergies’s
Back in the days of Fergies’s ManYoo and everyone was wearing Manchester United Shirts from the Far East to the East End, The Raving Loonies put it in their manifesto that they would make it illegal for anyone born south of Salford to support Manchester United.
UKIP, on the other hand, don’t have the nuance, intelligence, wit or compassion to replace the Loonies.
Can we not put the cars
Can we not put the cars underground instead? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-46622582
Also, I don’t normally think it’s fair to judge someone based on their appearance or name, but https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2020/11/12/ukips-mayor-of-london-candidate-is-called-peter-gammons-7-meaty-jokes/ 
Gammons4london
Gammons4london
You couldn’t make it up.
“One of the world’s most
“One of the world’s most famous and in-demand Inspirational and motivational speakers.”
It’s what he inspires and motivates me to do that worries me. Mmmmmm, roast gammon. Pineapple anyone?
London has 2 million miles of
London has 2 million miles of tunnels underground that could be used by pedestrians and cyclists? Err, no it doesn’t.
OldRidgeback wrote:
But it does! some Gammon told me….
To be fair, it does say
To be fair, it does say ‘tunnels, streets, and chambers’. After you have knocked off the cyclist and whilst they are insentient, you drop them in a chamber never to be seen again.
London may well have 2
London may well have 2 million miles of tunnels but I suspect they, much like Dr. Gammons, are mostly full of shit.
That bus driver needs a
That bus driver needs a serious attitude adjustment. Maybe a week at home with no pay for that series of gratuitous close passes.
Shocking. Lets hope they got reported.
its a shame the audio was
its a shame the audio was bleeped as Id like to have known the bus drivers rationale for driving like a complete see you next tuesday there.
Awavey wrote:
Quite, pushing a rider into the dooring zone. What a t0sspot!
Good job the guy with the dog
Good job the guy with the dog wasn’t wearing headphones or that could have been a nasty crash
You ar either a PBU or
You ar either a PBU or positioning yourself as a resident troll.
“GB announce strong squad for
“GB announce strong squad for UCI eSports World Championship”
What a B/S title. They biasedly picked from their core group of riders and denied the best British Zwifters the chance to take part by denying them the opportunity to join the testing pool for anti doping. I predict an embarrassing display, but that would be typical from British Cycling, totally incompetent
Gkam84 wrote:
Well no one thought anyone would notice!
Just noticed the Belfast
Just noticed the Belfast peice. Not only would the bicycle not be polluting the city, it would be cleaning up the pollution of the surrounding motor vehicles.
Now I’m all for not helping to destroy the environment, but having to put in extra effort when getting about to make up for the lazy pollution spewing motorists seems a bit much for me.
Why not put the filters on the exhausts of the motor vehicles, removing the pollution as close to source, and dropping speeds as there would be a large drop in power from restricting the exhaust flow?
Win win.