MP insists route is safe for cyclists because…”I lived to tell the tale”; Poor example or fair enough? Police car stops in cycle lane; Quick-Step DS fined over crash; Amy Pieters still in coma; Wout van art?; Bike theft hotspots + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Poor example or fair enough? Police car stops in cycle lane
An emergency? Nowhere else to park? I couldn’t see the police around. The car was parked on the cycle track, Preston Road this morning. Sets a poor example @sussex_police, and at a point that’s a bottleneck even on a good day. What do you reckon @SussexPCC ? pic.twitter.com/KnGPNladkS
— Becky Reynolds (@Bexonabike) April 13, 2022
There is probably more nuance to the matter than a simple good/bad question suggests: is there an emergency? How serious is the emergency? Will stopping in a bike lane cause less harm than not immediately attending an incident? Etc. Etc. BUT…
Becky Reynolds snapped this photo on Preston Road, one of the main routes in and out of Brighton. She couldn’t see an emergency, obviously doesn’t mean there wasn’t one, and “couldn’t see the police around”. She said it “sets a poor example and at a point that’s a bottleneck even on a good day”.
I’d say we’re probably safe to conclude that if there is no emergency then yes, clearly this is a bad example, but what did other riders have to say?
This was there at lunch time with cars parked on the pavement all around with seeming impunity. They should park in the road. Not sure why pedestrians and cyclists should suffer when there’s plenty of space for cars
— Chris Todd 🇺🇦 #BuildBackBetter #FBPE (@ecochris_todd) April 13, 2022
Everyone loves an obstacle course 😂 in seriousness though this cycle lane is horribly designed and below capacity without cars in it
— Harry Pinder (@HPinder500) April 13, 2022
Truly shameful and embarrassing. Yet another example of how little respect there is for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists even among those whose job it is to protect it and enforce the law.
— Brighton Naked Bike Ride (WNBR Brighton) (@WNBRbrighton) April 13, 2022
So you couldn’t ‘see’ them? Maybe they were inside a building dealing with an emergency?
— Stuinbrighton (@StupotManch) April 14, 2022
I guess without the context it’s all speculation…were they at an emergency or enjoying a pizza lunch? I wonder if Sussex Police will comment and clear it up?
Elsewhere in Sussex…happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to…Dane Road pothole…happy birthday to you…
Saw this on a seaford notice board on Facebook photo credit sara Landless.
Happy 3rd birthday to this pothole in Dane Road in seaford 🎂🥳 @esccroads @seahavenfm pic.twitter.com/6RTHr4KhOC— Sussex Traffic Watch (@SussexTW) April 14, 2022
Your friendly reminder to never forget to take a banana out of your jersey pocket...
I feel like this picture should come with some sort of warning…
To this day I still think about the banana which fell out my pocket a couple of summers back…I like to think it appeared to another rider in a moment of bonk-induced need, but realistically it probably just got squished by an SUV and pecked at by a crow…
Would I have turned into Tom Pidcock with the extra 25g of carbs? Probably not, but you never know…that’s what I blame it on anyway…
"Still no clear picture": Amy Pieters remains in induced coma
SD Worx sports director Danny Stam has provided an update on Amy Pieters’ condition, but unfortunately confirmed there is “still no clear picture” of the Dutch cyclist’s future after a training crash in Alicante in December.
Pieters remains in an induced coma in hospital in the Netherlands, following surgery to relieve pressure on her brain four months ago.
“The difficult thing about the situation is that it is still so uncertain,” Stam told AD newspaper. “If she can lead a decent life, I hope she wakes up. There is still no clear picture of what we can and cannot expect. The doctors say ‘as long as she doesn’t do things on command, she’s not awake and we can’t wake her’.”
Wout van art?
Wout van Aert poses with some Wout van Aert art. pic.twitter.com/w7YfJMLqLX
— Iain Treloar (@IainTreloar) April 14, 2022
Next: a Mathieu van der pole or a Tom Pid…okay, I think I’ll leave that there…
Win over 300 quid's worth of Assos gravel kit with off.road.cc's latest comp
Apparently you can wear it on ungravelly surfaces as well, which is all the more reason to get your entry in! Click here to put your name in the hat, a winner will be chosen on Monday 25th April.
Huge Drum & Bass On The Bike crowds
"If it's a genuine emergency, then having an emergency vehicle parked in a cycle lane is fair enough": Your thoughts on police car parked in cycle lane
If a genuine emergency and if there are no other reasonable options. Here they could park in the main road lane quite happily and cause a minor inconvenience to motor vehicles
— Andrew Buss (@ambuss) April 14, 2022
Plenty of comments and reaction to this morning’s emergency services using bike lanes question…
OnYerBike said: “The police could have been dealing with an emergency, but even so it was a conscious decision to turn off the main carriageway and block the cycle track instead. They could have remained entirely on the main carriageway. They could have straddled the curb and probably wouldn’t have blocked either the main carriageway or the cycle track (from the lines, the edge of the cycle track appears to be set back from the curb).
“They could have blocked the pavement (not much better than blocking the cycle lane, although there is an argument that it would have been preferable because there is no legal impediment on pedestrians using the cycle lane, where as a cyclist cannot legally continue by diverting onto the footway). Or they could have parked right up by that pizza place (the bollard on the adjacent property wouldn’t seem to prevent that).”
brooksby replied: “All this really demonstrates is the police are just like everybody else. We all know that motorists will park up on the footpath, or cycle path, or anywhere rather than stay on the carriageway.”
mdavidford commented: “Even if they’re attending an emergency, why do they feel the need to park in the cycle provision, which is thereby completely obstructed, instead of on the main carriageway, where vehicles would have the whole other lane to use to go around it?”
More from Twitter…
I don’t have an issue with it. Not a great example but it’s easy enough to cycle around this car.
— Johnny B (@JohnnyBizzel) April 14, 2022
If it’s an emergency, people should exercise common sense and stop being so self important.
— Steve Walton (@steveswalton) April 14, 2022
And…
What an absolutely stupid tweet!
Do you know what they were responding too?
Would you rather they parked a distance away?
Or block the road rather than inconveniencing a few cyclists?
No doubt this will attract stupid comments from idiots about cops getting coffee etc.— Regie Butler-Card 🇬🇧🇺🇦 (@RegBC) April 14, 2022
Happy Thursday, everyone!
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl DS Geert Van Bondt fined £1,600 for role in Brabantse Pijl crash which brought down world champion Julian Alaphilippe
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director Geert Van Bondt has been fined 2,000 CHF (£1,630) by the race jury for causing a crash while trying to squeeze his team’s car past the peloton on the narrow finish straight at Brabantse Pijl.
Race officials reportedly waved Ineos Grenadiers’ vehicle through once the gap reached one minute, with Van Bondt quickly following to support Remco Evenepoel who was also in the lead group.
Van Bondt says he too was told he could pass the peloton, and was honking his horn when Cofidis sprinter Bryan Coquard looked over his shoulder, hitting the vehicle and bringing down several riders, including the sports director’s own rider — world champion Julian Alaphilippe.
“The leading group had a lead of one minute. Ineos was allowed to come forward from the jury and we also received a sign that it was allowed,” Van Bondt told Sporza.
“We honked the horn to the riders at the finish and it went pretty well until one rider turned around and went a bit off his line. He hit our car and then it’s no fun.”
Dan Martin defends Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director: "It was also rider error, not the car's fault"
The UCI comms would have told @Geertvanbondt it was safe to pass, then fined him when it caused a crash because of the narrowing through the finish straight. It was also rider error, not the @qst_alphavinyl cars fault.
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) April 14, 2022
Dan Martin disagrees with the jury’s verdict…
“Normally the team car asks permission to pass the race. It happens time and time again that the comms will say yes, despite it being unsafe to pass. But yes. Agree that they should have waited for a safer place,” he added later.
“The driver wasn’t looking where he was going in that situation. The Cofidis guy looked around and swerved into the car.”
The Cycling Podcast: Our friend, Richard Moore
Our friend, Richard Moore https://t.co/O0m8QqfPMC via @Audioboom
— The Cycling Podcast (@cycling_podcast) April 14, 2022
The Cycling Podcast has released its emotional first episode since the death of podcast stalwart Richard Moore.
London remains UK's bike theft hotspot
London postcodes are still the UK’s bike theft hotspots, with five of the capital’s areas in the top 10 postcode areas for bike theft claims in the last two years, according to Admiral Insurance.
Admiral’s latest data shows that bike thefts are already 56 per cent higher in the first two months of 2022 than in 2021. The average number of bike theft claims over the last year was 25 per cent higher than the previous year and 40 per cent higher than the year before the pandemic.
The top 10 postcode areas for bike theft claims in the last two years, according to Admiral data:
- South west London
- East London
- South east London
- Bristol
- Edinburgh
- North London
- Cambridge
- Brighton
- Southampton
- Kingston-upon-Thames
Jumbo-Visma reveal Tour de France kit...inspired by Wout van Aert's muddy Cyclo-cross kit?
Calling your own kit ‘The Masterpiece’ is a recipe for some gentle online trolling…
The Masterpiece. 🎨
Inspired by Dutch Masters, created by Artificial Intelligence.#TheMasterpiece
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) April 14, 2022
Is it a masterpiece?
The inspiration for the new Jumbo-Visma jersey. pic.twitter.com/AKvcKr48Mb
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) April 14, 2022
The main man will be at Roubaix on Sunday, but sports director Merijn Zeeman said he won’t be there to win…”Wout had very extensive examinations before he resumed training. At the beginning of this week, the medical staff determined that he is fully fit and can continue his efforts at top sporting level.
“On the functioning of the heart, among other things. Wout’s health is in excellent shape. But after a week of isolation, top form is no longer possible. His run-up to Roubaix is poor and he will miss the reconnaissance on Thursday. All in all, it is anything but an ideal preparation. However, a rider like Wout can still play a role in supporting Christophe Laporte, Mike Teunissen or Nathan Van Hooydonck.”
MP insists route is safe for cyclists because..."I lived to tell the tale"
I’ll try not to strawman MP Rupa Huq’s tweet about a road in her constituency which someone said was dangerous for cyclists…BUT the Labour MP Ealing Central and Acton seemed to argue…it’s not dangerous because she wasn’t killed while using it…
Here’s where we began…
All was sorted by 3pm pic.twitter.com/G1NSDlOO4d
— Rupa Huq MP (@RupaHuq) April 13, 2022
To which someone pointed out: “Taxi on double yellows forcing the bus to pull out. Not safe to cycle there is it?”
Drumroll please…
Hi Simon, I cycled there and lived to tell the tale
— Rupa Huq MP (@RupaHuq) April 13, 2022
Needless to say there were more than a few people willing to point out that not dying isn’t exactly proof of safety. Simon speculated Malcom Tucker might well be having a word later today…
Others argued “I lived” is a strange bechmark for safe infrastructure, while many plugged in hypothetical scenarios where you didn’t die, so it can’t of been dangerous…survived an avalanche? Can’t have been unsafe. Lived to tell the tale of that time you fell out an aeroplane without a parachute? Yeah, not dangerous.
We learned a new phrase though, so maybe something good came from this. ‘Experienced cyclist bias’…
Your reaction is extremely problematic.
This is called the “experienced cyclists bias”.
This is why cities are dangerous for people: because of people who don’t take into account the fear that keeps 85% of the population from trying out the bicycle.
This kills quality living.
— Stein van Oosteren (@LCyclable) April 14, 2022
The bar for introducing safe cycle infrastructure is incredibly low isn’t it?
“I didn’t die”
— Jon (@Jontafkasi) April 14, 2022
Hi Rupa, this lady fell out of an aeroplane with no parachute and “lived to tell the tale”https://t.co/2I1pXinUlm
— rdekanter (@rjdekanter) April 14, 2022
It’s not the first time Rupa Huq has made an appearance on road.cc…
Last March, she made the claim that low-traffic neighbourhoods “have left women feeling unsafe”. The time before that it was when she used a video of a falling tree to argue against an LTN plan…
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham celebrates cycle hire scheme reaching 100,000km milestone
Andy Burnham has welcomed Greater Manchester’s new cycle hire scheme hitting the 100,000km milestone since its launch in November. There have been over 39,000 journeys taken on the bikes, with over 10,400 active users.
Bikes are currently available from stations along the Oxford Road corridor, at the University of Salford and at MediaCityUK. The use of the bikes has been closely monitored since the scheme launched and learning will be fed in as the roll out continues later this year when the scheme expands and bikes become available in Trafford.
> Andy Burnham urges residents to not chuck hire bikes in canals
“We wanted to create a cycle hire scheme in GM so that more people had access to an affordable, accessible and sustainable form of transport,” Burnham said.
“It’s great to see how the scheme has been received by the people of GM so far. Seeing the number of people riding around Oxford Road, the University of Salford and MediaCity on our iconic yellow bikes has been brilliant – and I’m really looking forward to more bikes becoming available in the future.”
Road tax meets Roubaix
Bloody cyclist. Why the hell don’t they stick to one side of the road. Hogging the middle of the road. No care for other road user. I bet they don’t even pay road tax, if they did they wouldn’t have to ride on crappy roads like this. pic.twitter.com/Xf7PadjUjN
— Dave Everett (@ShoddyCycling) April 14, 2022
Good on Edinburgh Council...
Good on the Edinburgh Council for promoting the sport of #cyclocross
— Gilad Judes (@giladju) April 14, 2022
Routes revealed for inaugural three-day RideLondon Classique
Women’s WorldTour action is returning to London this summer, this time with a three-day stage race (Friday 27 May – 29 May) as part of RideLondon’s new Essex route. The two extra stages will both be in Essex before the familiar city centre finale.
Stage one is 137km starting and finishing in Maldon, and features two laps of the Abberton Resevoir near Colchester before finishing with two circuits around Maldon. Full route…
Stage two is from Chelmsford to Epping, and is the hardest of the three, with eight climbs and 1,368m of climbing. Full route…
“This stage will be suited to the climbers, especially the final circuit in and around Epping. This circuit is very tough with short, steep climbs and it’s very fast in between the climbs, so there will be very short recovery times, which could play into the hands of the General Classification riders. It’s going to be quite a different experience to Stage One and a great prelude to the final stage in London,” RideLondon race director Scott Sunderland said.
Stage three is an 85.3km city centre blast, differing from previous Classique routes with a start finish on Victoria Embankment beside the River Thames. Riders will race the high-speed finale along some of London’s most famous streets, including Piccadilly, Pall Mall and The Strand. Full route…
The Classique is just one element of RideLondon 2022, with four mass participation events also taking place on Sunday 29 May. An estimated 25,000 people will take part in three challenge rides, the RideLondon-Essex 100, 60 and 30. Thousands more will participate in RideLondon FreeCycle, a free event that enables people to cycle around eight miles of traffic-free roads in central London.
Pro riders hit the cobbles for Paris-Roubaix recon
Two days until women’s Paris-Roubaix on Saturday. The men’s race follows on Sunday. In other words, cancel your plans, and book that spot on the sofa. Here’s the best of the pro peloton getting to grips with the cobbles.
Bonjour @INEOSGrenadiers 👋 pic.twitter.com/LGMK5Fq9d9
— Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix (@A_ParisRoubaix) April 14, 2022
The cobbles are coming! Paris-Roubaix is getting closer, and @WMNcycling is getting dialed for race day. Will it be wet or dry? #eTapAXS
📸 Dominique Powers pic.twitter.com/kQ0quOiIbh— SRAM Road (@SRAMroad) April 13, 2022
Recon 🙂 @Paris_Roubaix 🪨@INEOSGrenadiers pic.twitter.com/7a1lEuKTO6
— Michał Kwiatkowski (@kwiato) April 14, 2022
And one devious plan for Saturday night. Yep, the weather forecast is saying we should have a dry Roubaix…
Would it be illegal to drop 10 000 liters of water on Carrefour de l’Arbre Friday, and Saturday evening? 🤔 #ParisRoubaix
— Benji Naesen (@BenjiNaesen) April 14, 2022
We couldn’t possibly comment on that particular plan…
The last two lines...
The last two lines…👇🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/LEWYEhMI9N
— Brandon Lust (@AmericanFietser) April 14, 2022
Happy bank holiday, folks!
When you go out swearing “just one beer”
The beer: pic.twitter.com/TLSbHXB55c— Ginevra (@ginevragarga) April 11, 2022
That’s the live blog done ’til Tuesday. Enjoy the weather and perhaps a beer or two. If you do stick to just the one, make it a Kwiato-sized tipple…
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Latest Comments
Another really weird review from road.cc. They take a product, use it for something it wasn't designed for and then mark it down. I've just upgraded my Boost to the Boost 3 and I can say it does the jobs it is designed for very well. I use it on rides in daylight for Saturday group rides and occasional all day epics. I feel that cars are more likely to see me and the significantly brighter day flash and doubling of battery life are significant upgrades, especially for longer rides. It's also so light that there's really no downside to using it so safety wins. I also use it for short 30-min commuting. The easy of detachment and robustness of the light here are key and it's perfect for this use case. For longer rides that involve significant unlit or off-road, such as along a canal path, at night I use the Exposure Strada RB. Again, road.cc, right tool: right job. It's also great that Exposure use common mounts for all their lights. I change the Boost and RB between multiple bikes using the mount with a red pin and it takes seconds to move from bike to bike or to detach for charging. The table for setting brightness is something I tend to set only once. Then the single button is a boon.
Yes, I can't wait: a duff BMC frame with a crap oval BB, and carbon rims set up tubeless and without a pressure -relief hole so you can pressurise the cavity and which would likely (to complete the disaster waiting to happen) be hookless/ mini-hook and explode with no notice
About time they got more of them out of cars and onto bikes. Do their fitness levels some good.
I cannot tell if they relate to my report or someone else’s Yes, that's the point - the aim of the pseudo - database is to shut the punters up and deceive them about how little the police have done. They know the deception scheme has been successful when people report on here that they have achieved successful outcomes from most of their reports. They haven't.
Mayor Adams perverted a lot of laws, hence the fact that he is no longer Mayor. New York cyclists have had an ongoing problem with members of the ultra-orthodox Satmar Jewish community in Williamsburg. They don't like people in cycle shorts and skimpy tops cycling through the neighbourhood. They used their political influence to get a cycle lane removed from a local highway. There was talk of a naked bike ride through the area but I think wiser counsels prevailed.
This is disgusting. Cycling is for everyone; no-one should feel intimidated out of the hobby. The kind of "men" who think it's ok to harass women would think twice about doing it to a man. If we are going to persuade large numbers of motorists to become cyclists then the issue of harassment has to be addressed.
I've a memory the poster may be Edinburgh-adjacent (is that right?) - in which case it *may* be possible as the shared use paths (former railways) (plus a bit of more recent infra) can allow you to do this. Highly dependent on your journey though. That's not the case most places in NL. There you may be using motor-traffic-reduced and slowed *streets* there but most roads have alternatives. But here in the north-west I can cycle for several miles in a couple of directions using them. Of course if I needed to eg. go east-west in the south of the city it's back to more usual UK conditions...
According to the website as seen on my mobile this is an outstanding deal - the price in the box at the top by the weight etc. is showing as £0.00 ! (sorry due to site redesign I can't post a screenshot - besides I'm ignoring the price points which *are* quoted later in the article and am off to claim my free machine...)
Thanks for bringing that to our attention. Then ... it will be easy to see that in the casualty numbers, no? And (albeit this is looking a decade back) indeed you can *see* the truth! https://robertweetman.wordpress.com/2017/09/29/a-year-of-death-and-injury-2016/ Do you mean is "we are used to *looking for the cars*" (or even "looking with our ears" - which is real) and thus cyclists are often surprising? Or is it "cyclists are in or space, we know that motorists are only on the roads"? * But ... it is true that cyclists are a bit less visible and quieter than motorists. And it is true that some cyclists don't make efforts to be visible. And indeed some are too relaxed about cycling in accordance with the law. The latter points are not good ... but then the damage caused by cyclists in a collision is on average much less than a with a motor vehicle. And while people often think that motorists are more likely to be motivated to obey the law because of legal consequences (because eg. "They've got number plates") that it's debatable. Unlike cyclists motorists aren't going to be motivated to proceed carefully because of worries about being injured or killed in a collision with a pedestrian... * Excluding all those motorists who reach year kill more people on the footways than cyclists do altogether...
The cross checking is limited but I do have the matching data fields on my own records which correspond with the police's data fields: 'Offence Date', Offending Vehicle Type', 'Reporter' ('Cyclist' for me), 'Location Town or City', 'Primary Offence'. If that isn't replicated in the database for an incident I have reported it tells me something is wrong with the database. If I have reported an incident and there are several matching possibilities then, yes, I cannot tell if they relate to my report or someone else's.
61 thoughts on “MP insists route is safe for cyclists because…”I lived to tell the tale”; Poor example or fair enough? Police car stops in cycle lane; Quick-Step DS fined over crash; Amy Pieters still in coma; Wout van art?; Bike theft hotspots + more on the live blog”
The police could have been
The police could have been dealing with an emergency…however every morning I ride past King’s College Hospital on Denmark Hill in London and there will be four or five police vehicles parked in the bus/taxi/cycle lane, including generally a couple on the zigzags of the pelican, too many police (and I’ve had this confirmed by a fellow-cyclist policeman) think that traffic laws are suspended for them at all times, not just when they’re on emergency response.
https://twitter.com/Rendel_Harris/status/1506259194529341446
Why are they parked there,
Why are they parked there, Rendel? Is there a police station near by that doesn’t have a car park?
No police station nearby,
No police station nearby, they’ll mainly be taking statements from people in A&E, which is that part of the hospital nearest the road lane. However there is ample safe parking available within less than 100m, they basically can’t be bothered with the walk.
I’m always reading articles
I’m always reading articles on Streetsblog NYC about the NYPD and their parking.
Apparently the police get a ‘placard’ which really does allow them to park pretty much anywhere (like a disabled blue badge in the UK). Except that the NYPD hands them out not just to police officers but to their family members, to their civilian staff, their civilian staff’s family members, that bloke who came to fix the drains this one time, etc etc…
If it’s a genuine emergency,
If it’s a genuine emergency, then having an emergency vehicle parked in a cycle lane is fair enough. But if they’ve stopped in a shop for a coffee, then no it’s not.
Like you I go past King’s College Hospital on Denmark Hill regularly and yep, a lot of police cars are parked up there whether or not there’s an emergency.
If the vehicle is responding
If the vehicle is responding to an emergency they ought to leave the lights flashing, no? A vehicle responding to a non-emergency call ought to obey the traffic laws but as pointed out above, police “are the law”…
Gad905 wrote:
Much as I enjoyed Sly’s movie
Much as I enjoyed Sly’s movie, more circumstances of the watching, but Karl Urban was a much better Dredd. The film was more British, more 2001.
ktache wrote:
It’s a shame that a younger Clint Eastwood was never cast as Dredd – he would have been perfect. Sly was always going to be too short to play him properly.
But you have shown the whole
But you have shown the whole face.
Dredd was all about the chin.
Clint’s would have been perfect, which we discussed as kids.
ktache wrote:
It was the only picture I could find
I had never imagined that you
I had never imagined that you could ever utter such a thing…
ktache wrote:
I blame the economy.
Ron Perlman would be a good Dredd, too.
Bring back Ron as Hellboy!
Bring back Ron as Hellboy!
brooksby wrote:
He did put the makeup back on (4 hours?) to meet with a leukemia patient
hawkinspeter wrote:
Oh, that is so brilliant! 😀
Karl never showed the face.
Karl never showed the face.
He got it!
hawkinspeter wrote:
IIRC, Dredd was actually based on Eastwood (c. Dirty Harry).
ktache wrote:
I liked the ABC warrior popping up in the Stallone version, and the overall humour, but the Urban one was definitely a better Dredd.
I didn’t. Too much fan
I didn’t. Too much fan service really with having the Angels, Rico and Hammerstein along with a really bad take on the Judge Cal storyline forcing Rico into the Cal role. Then having Dredd getting some humanity and a romantic clinch with Hershey?!?!. The city was a good take on MC1, but nothing else was Dredd.
The Urban one was a great take, and the sequel was going to have the Dark Judges, but the problem it had was it came out just after The Raid and too many reviewers took it as a clone of that.
OldRidgeback wrote:
I used to work there, I’ve never not seen a bunch of police cars parked there.
Emergency or not, parking in the very infrastructure that is there to reduce danger to cyclists, thereby increasing danger to cyclists is counter-productive, an emergency does not make that OK. It’s also quicker to park in the main carriageway than to move into the cycle lane and then park. The only valid excuse is if they’ve had to use the cycle lane to bypass traffic in an emergency and that’s where they’ve ended up having to leave the vehicle for expediency… this would seem like a rather rare thing though.
I’ve seen lazy police drivers park in cycle lanes waaay too often, too many of them clearly think the law does not apply to them and increasing danger to cyclists is fine. Prime example was Reading Road a couple of years back, massively wide road, massive spaces for leaving a vehicle between pavement and houses and loads of driveway space everywhere, yet they chose to park in the cycle lane… I saw the exact same thing in the same place a couple of weeks later, took a picture but didn’t end up bothering to report it in fear of reprisals.
Even if they’re attending an
Even if they’re attending an emergency, why do they feel the need to park in the cycle provision, which is thereby completely obstructed, instead of on the main carriageway, where vehicles would have the whole other lane to use to go around it?
Exactly. if on an emergency,
Exactly. if on an emergency, double yellows wouldn’t apply either and the hi viz would mean it wouldn’t be hit by another vehicle. Instead it causes more clashing with two groups of vulnerable users in a slight gap.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
Is this trolling after the point by EDIT Surrey / Durham police yesterday?
Quote:
Erm, no. We’d rather they inconvenience a few people in cars, rather than block the cycle track, as they have. It would have to be spectacularly bad parking to ‘block’ the road – they’d have to be perpendicular to the flow of traffic, or stopped straddling the two lanes, or something.
As long as they can slide
As long as they can slide over the bonnet, does it really matter where they park?
Depends on whether there are
Depends on whether there are any convenient cardboard boxes and old newspapers…
The police could have been
The police could have been dealing with an emergency, but even so it was a concious decision to turn off the main carriageway and block the cycle track instead. They could have remained entirely on the main carriageway. They could have straddled the curb and probably wouldn’t have blocked either the main carriageway or the cycle track (from the lines, the edge of the cycle track appears to be set back from the curb). They could have blocked the pavement (not much better than blocking the cycle lane, although there is an argument that it would have been preferrable because there is no legal impediment on pedestrians using the cycle lane, where as a cyclist cannot legally continue by diverting onto the footway). Or they could have parked right up by that pizza place (the bollard on the adjacent property wouldn’t seem to prevent that).
All this really demonstrates
All this really demonstrates is the police are just like everybody else.
We all know that motorists will park up on the footpath, or cycle path, or anywhere rather than stay on the carriageway and risk slightly inconveniencing their fellow motorists…
This. For all the “but are
This. For all the “but are they responding to x?” I think it’s 90% that “police park like everyone else parks”.
Thing with the police is yes, they’re not all road law experts or advanced drivers. But a) they are driving as part of their job b) they are trained – don’t think you just start policing having been something else c) that training should cover the basics of laws generally d) they should be expected to have to deal with basic road safety whatever else they’re doing.
To go further on this;
To go further on this;
There aren’t any loading restrictions, so it would be legal to stop for loading or unloading or park with blue badge ~2m to the left (from cameras POV); But (with the exception of police exemption) it is illegal to park or drive on a cycle track (n.b. this is a cycle track not a cycle lane afaik as it isn’t part of main carriageway)
So really the police should be stopping 2m to the left on their exemption unless they have specific reason to block the cycle lane
Clearly it isn’t dangerous to block the road (else there would be loading restrictions) while cycle lanes are generally installed for safety reasons so the default should be to park on the carriageway (in absence of specific reason, e.g. an ambulance parked to block cyclists from crashing into a patient/paramedic on the cycle track…)
Wether or not the old bill
Wether or not the old bill were on a shout, you’d think they would have left the BOLAS on.
Blue / Blinking – they have
Blue Officers’ / Blinking Orange – they have it either way.
ktache wrote:
Bleedin’ Old Lazy Arses?
Blinking Orange Lights of
Blinking Orange Lights of something or other (can’t remember what we all settled on as the canonical definition).
ABSOLUTION!
ABSOLUTION!
On Dan Martin defends…
On Dan Martin defends…
Nobody was blaming the car. Might have been blaming the car’s driver a bit, though…
On the police car in the bike
On the police car in the bike lane, like with police officers speeding or any other traffic offence its simple:
If its an emergency, and I am not saying this wasn’t, flashing lights should be on and sirens used when appropriate to warn other road users of hazardous but necessary behaviour.
If it is not an emergency, obey the traffic laws you are there to demonstrate and uphold or hand in your resignation. You are putting other people at risk without any possible justification.
Patrick9-32 wrote:
If only we could apply that same level of responsibility to our esteemed leaders
hawkinspeter wrote:
They took responsibility – they said something like “while we didn’t think we were doing wrong – so much so that when asked we said we hadn’t gone to any parties – we accept that the police have a different view”. If that’s not statesmanlike I don’t know what is.
Anyway haven’t you heard there’s a Covid /
Brexit/ cost of living crisis, a war on somewhere else and we’ve only got a couple of years before an election? We need these men delivering badly for Britain!chrisonatrike wrote:
I think you’ll find that Covid is all over and done with now – that’s so 2021.
Once everyone was a bit bored
Once everyone was a bit bored with it…
I just don’t understand how
I just don’t understand how previous generations managed to get through the tedium of smallpox.
ktache wrote:
They didn’t have many TV channels back then, so they had a much higher boredom threshold
They all went for a quiet
They all went for a quiet drink in the staffroom at the end of their shift.
Thought I’d share this from
Thought I’d share this from my commute home yesterday.
Eyes down for anti-driver bingo.
Why do all drivers always overtake at pinch points, not givning 1.5m space and drive on the opposite pavement in order to get past. They can’t even be bothered to get their car MOT’d (for 4 months)
I bet you didn’t expect a NIP
I bet you didn’t expect a NIP for a public order offence when you shouted out the numberplate !
It’s reported to Northants
Haha, I missed that entirely. Probably get a NIP for cycling too slowy into a headwind up a steep hill as well.
Sorry I squashed you under
Sorry I squashed you under the wheels of my juggernaut, but I LITERALLY cannot see what is in front of my bonnet.
Well, they have to get their
Well, they have to get their kids to school safely somehow…
It is such a dangerous couple
It is such a dangerous couple of hundred yards.
sorry, are you talking about
sorry, are you talking about the hiab lorry? Can’t see anything else there. It’s an empty road
Don’t worry, the danger posed
Don’t worry, the danger posed by the size of this vehicle is totally mitigated by the reduced 50mph limit that applies to them on single carriageway country roads.
All drivers of these vehicles are aware of this fact and adhere to this reduced limit in the same way that van drivers do.
Just imagine the fuel bill…
Just imagine the fuel bill…
Quote:
I’m confused, she’s been there and lived to tell the tale. Therefore, according to Ms Huq’s own criteria, LTNs are safe
“If it’s a genuine emergency,
“If it’s a genuine emergency, then having an emergency vehicle parked in a cycle lane is fair enough”
Reminds me of when I used to use my utility trike as my business vehicle for repairing bikes, and one location was really only accessible by a dropped kerb leading to a lane. The council put in the dropped kerb, and when it was blocked by locals parking, they put in white lines, and when that didn’t work, double yellow lines; that didn’t work either.
One day, trying to get to a customer, I had to do a detour because there was a police vehicle blocking the dropped kerb, on the double yellows and the white lines, and obstructing the pavement; no BOLAS. I tried ringing 111 but gave up after ten minutes. When I contacted the local press with a picture, the comments on the story were almost completely negative about me complaining.
what was that ‘drum ‘n’ bass’
what was that ‘drum ‘n’ bass’ ride all about? Lots of smiling faces – it looked like fun. Is it a regular thing?
Well dub on a bike meant no
Well dub on a bike meant no-one got anywhere, dubstep on a bike caused people to fall off and grime on a bike is only for cyclocross.
A Google will show you this chap’s been at it for a bit recently. It’s nice to see the enjoyment even though as a grump old git I sometimes get twitchy at the youth pulling wheelies by pedestrians. Kids going to be kids I guess and better on bikes / wheels up knives down.
Anyway the idea of cycling about with a group – often with some tunes – has a long history! Like in many cities there’s a monthly one in Edinburgh. Often with music or at least lots of bell-ringing and frequently a Sinclair C5 or two.
I understand drill on a bike
I understand drill on a bike used to be popular back in the days before carbon.
True! And heavy metal on a
True! And heavy metal on a bike is still dominant in most of the developing world and with Dutch traditionalists.
Does someone here write for
Does someone here write for newsthump ?
https://newsthump.com/2022/04/15/man-seriously-injured-after-opening-his-kitchen-tupperware-cupboard-without-wearing-a-helmet/