"Just build bike lanes": Autonomous gondola pods are "here to revolutionise transport" — but not everybody's convinced; Shedgate 2: Cyclist forced to dismantle "beautiful" bike shed; Worrying drink driving figures; Ineos Hotspur? + more on the live blog

The live blog will be back same time and place tomorrow, potentially with Shedgate updates, an accurate translation for Wout's cryptic Strava caption and just about anything and everything else bike-related and worth procrastinating from work over...

See you then!

First it was Elon Musk saying he'd send traffic underground, now it's this transport tech company who reckon a network of autonomous gondola pods is the way forward... which is going down as well as you might expect...

Just build bike lanes Jesus fucking Christ https://t.co/CsypwqhShk

— Hannah 🚲😈 (@theeyecollector) December 21, 2022

Founded by former Google employees, Swyft Cities is, the company says, a way to "bring innovative mobility to public and private real estate projects". Selling the gondola dream as modular, sustainable, low cost and efficient (like, I don't know, a bicycle?) Swyft shows computer-generated images of what a network could look like by "freeing up land" and taking journeys to the sky.

Swyft Cities is here to revolutionize transportation and real estate! An innovative gondola system combines autonomous pods w/ lightweight, fixed cable infrastructure to move passengers efficiently w/ significantly lower cost-per-mile & less emissions than traditional options.👇 pic.twitter.com/AlZ6yucOML

— swyftcities (@swyftcities) December 20, 2022

In short, we're seeing a snarled up road below, and pods above. So, how did the good people of cycling Twitter react to this "innovative" transport solution...

Absolutely! We're big believers in multimodal and people having different transportation options depending on use case, distance, etc. Swyft Cities complements busses, bikes, walking & more to reduce congestion, create more livable spaces, etc.

— swyftcities (@swyftcities) December 20, 2022

We help enable denser, more walkable, bikeable, livable neighborhoods Each vehicle is completely autonomous, and takes you directly to any other destination on the system.

— swyftcities (@swyftcities) December 20, 2022

Bike lanes aren't *innovative* enough, everyone knows that! pic.twitter.com/AuNhLRZuHU

— James Lyon (@jameslyon77) December 21, 2022

Time for some of your comments on the day's events, starting with Shedgate 2...

hirsute: "I found the bins on the driveway more ugly and out of place than the shed."

EddyBerckx: "The bike shed looks great and you can guarantee that front garden looks neater than most in that road... especially if front 'drives' are allowed."

Let me introduce you to the rest of the street...

HoarseMann: "In the bike shed article on the Salisbury Journal link, in the comments someone has noted that there is a planning officer at the council with the same name as one of the complainants. This complainant refers to council policy 'CP57' in their complaint, which seems to infer a bit of knowledge about the process.

"Then another complainant explains they wouldn't have said anything before they were invited to comment! Does have a slight whiff of some insider knowledge of the planning process. All above board I would guess, even if that was the case.

"As someone else suggests, just plonk a battered caravan there instead."

Literally around the corner...

brooksby: "I can't see what's wrong with that bike shed anyway — looks neat and tidy, and it's way smaller than a parked car."

 Elsewhere on the live blog, Sniffer points out "I don't think Tao or Geraint are going to be pleased" about Ineos Grenadier 4x4's new partnership with the other north London lot...

While eburtthebike had some thoughts on the ingenious gondola...

"It may be a tribute to human ingenuity that so many otherwise intelligent people keep re-inventing the wheel with increasingly clever alternatives to the private car, but it's also depressing that they can't see the answer when it's been obvious for so many years. Swyft Cities are merely the latest in a very long line of transport systems looking for a problem to solve, when the solution is right in front of their eyes.

"It's rather like electric cars, they won't solve any of the problems of mass car use and will create serious problems of their own, but try getting the media to mention anything else. 

"Buses, trams, cycling, walking, all vastly better solutions than e-cars but are pretty much banned from the media. I listen to quite a bit of Radio 4 and yet again, e-cars featured on You and Yours, for the 3,000,001th* time; I still haven't heard them feature bikes.

"*An exaggeration of course; I added the 1."

> Staff bikes: Jamie's 2022 Specialized Allez Sprint dream build

It's the shortest day of the year, which is an open invitation to achieve the least possible; an invitation I have readily accepted.

— Ned Boulting (@nedboulting) December 21, 2022

On the plus side we're on the way back to those long summer evenings... just three months of indoor training to go...