Cyclists "drive motorists somewhat insane", claims councillor; LTNs 'need time to settle'; Tokyo broken bar probe begins; Kangaroo rescued by cyclists caught attacking cyclist; Brighton bike lane debate; Gravel champs reaction + more on the live blog

It's widely known that Yorkshire experienced a boom in recreational cycling after the 2014 Tour de France depart, and again during the 2019 UCI Road World Championships; and ahead of North Yorkshire County Council approving the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership Strategy for 2021-26, some opposition councillors have been sharing their opinions on how cyclists and motorists can co-exist. Not all of those opinions were fact-based, unfortunately... 

The Yorkshire Post reports that some members wanted to know what could be done to resolve "escalating" conflict between cyclists and motorists in rural areas, and the anti-cyclist bingo game began with the introduction of Cllr Stuart Parsons: 

Cyclists were “making themselves a great number of potential enemies and therefore dangerous situations by their approach to using the roads, especially when they are not road taxpayers when using it for their cycles," he claimed. 

"Cyclists do drive motorists somewhat insane, especially when they are travelling two or three abreast, which they seem to be doing more and more so. On these winding roads it makes it difficult for anybody to pass safely.”

Road tax and two abreast... not bad! 

The authority said it was already trying to educate drivers and cyclists on sharing the roads. Cllr Don Mackenzie saying that while some cyclists should learn not to “create obstructions on the highway”, cyclists had his sympathies because their vehicle only weighs a few kilograms as opposed to cars weighing up to two tonnes. 

Officers also shared statistics at the meeting to show that cyclists were "at fault for about 70 per cent and drivers 30 per cent of cycle collisions on rural roads", statistics that road.cc will be questioning further with an FOI request to North Yorkshire County Council. 

Some of the most memorable moments of the track cycling at the Tokyo Olympics weren't the world records or victories, but strange goings on and incidents such as the Danish tape fiasco, Charlie Tanfield being crashed into and the unfortunate Alex Porter losing his handlebars mid-ride. 

After some speculation, it turned out that the bars were made by Bastion Cycles rather than Australian team's bike supplier Argon 18. At the time Bastion said it was conducting its own investigations into the failure, and now AusCycling has released details of its own probe into what happened. 

The project lead will be Toni Cumpston, described as "an experienced high-performance executive with a record of success across multiple sports and international sporting systems". Interestingly the lead investigator John Baker is a mechanical and aeronautical engineer "with a particular focus and expertise in fault-finding and investigations, including several aircraft crash investigations."

AusCycling's CEO Marne Fechner said: ‘’At the time we committed to a thorough, independent, and transparent review of what happened, and we’re now well placed to deliver on that promise.

‘’Toni and John are leaders in their respective fields and have the blessing of the AusCycling Board and leadership to find out exactly what happened and what to do to prevent it happening again." 

Full findings are expected to be released before the end of next year - and we'll have a full story on this later today which is expected to be released before teatime. 

BREAKING: BP says it has temporarily closed some UK sites due to supply issues with unleaded and diesel fuel resulting from a national shortage of HGV and tanker drivers.

Get the latest updates: https://t.co/hkEnFm0n7N pic.twitter.com/VIwrAoPUAO

— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 23, 2021

The good news: a potential fuel crisis could mean quieter roads for cycling on! 
The bad news: small chance we could all freeze or starve to death... 

Grant Shapps at @CommonsTrans to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods opposition: "Sometimes they've tried something and immediately walked away from it perhaps actually because they don't realise it takes a while to bed in. You've got to allow things to settle before you U-Turn on it." pic.twitter.com/f9XLvsFubx

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) September 22, 2021

Further to numerous recent stories about councils ripping up cycle lanes and U-turning on LTNs, transport secretary Grant Shapps gave his opinion to the cross-party Transport Committee. 

Asked what his message is to councils and community activists who oppose low traffic neighbourhoods, Shapps said: "We're very keen to not just go back to the world how it was before, we had huge amounts of congestion, lots of pollution even before the pandemic. The pandemic has seen an enormous increase in active travel, such that the country has never seen before. 

"Sometimes they've [councils] tried something and the immediately walked away from it, perhaps actually because they don't realise it takes a while to bed in. 

"...You've got to allow things to settle before you do a U-turn on it." 

"What's often forgotten is that every car you take off the road because somebody decides to walk or cycle is a hell of a lot more road space, and actually helps everybody including the motorist." 

As we discussed in the inaugural episode of the road.cc Podcast with regards to the situation in London, Shapps' words and the general message from the government as outlined in its Gear Change document shows what an unusual time it is for local politics when it comes to active travel. Councils - often Conservative and Labour ones - have fought back against cycle lanes and LTNs on numerous occasions following (what they perceive to be) fierce opposition, while central government is heavily promoting active travel, and instructing councils to build infrastructure that will cut motor vehicle usage. 

Climate change is not a problem in far off parts of the world.
It’s on our doorstep.
It’s our problem too. pic.twitter.com/XUBYPAe0jf

— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) September 23, 2021

You may have heard or read something about Boris Johnson and Kermit the Frog this morning... which was actually an excerpt from the PM's speech to the UN last night ahead of COP26 in Glasgow next month, in which he said that Kermit was wrong to say it's not easy being green. 

Many politicians have been talking and tweeting about environment-themed things since, with Sadiq Khan reminding us that it's a local problem as well as global. This recent image from London where a solitary cyclist passes huge queues of traffic on Tower Bridge is particularly grabbing, with London's Mayor saying: 

"Climate change is not a problem in far off parts of the world. It’s on our doorstep. It’s our problem too." 

Happy World Car Free Day to all the drivers on Old Shoreham Road in Brighton.

Where since the cycle lanes have been removed traffic, congestion and pollution is EXACTLY THE SAME! pic.twitter.com/k1bCiGoMpy

— Adam Bronkhorst (@AdamBronkhorst) September 22, 2021

Following the removal of the Old Shoreham Road pop-up cycle lane in Brighton, some have taken to social media in an attempt to show that it hasn't exactly had the desired effect on improving traffic flow.  Adam Bronkhorst took the photo above on World Car Free Day yesterday, claiming traffic is "exactly the same" despite the cycle lane's removal last week. 

Do you have data for that?
I found it much easier to drive down during peak times and there are noticeably fewer cars taking the side streets to get to their destination.
As the above is true, that means lower levels of pollution & pollution spread.

— Rico Woj (@shortthought) September 22, 2021

Others claim the removal has reduced congestion on side streets at peak times, and that the photo isn't a true representation of the situation. What we do know is that the lane's removal has been extremely controversial, with The Argus reporting that Extinction Rebellion protestors attempted to block the council from ripping it up last week. Local Consersative coucillor Robert Nemeth was 'applauded' by another disgruntled social media user for supporting the lane's removal, simply replying "cheers" to the remark. 

We're hotting up towards the elite road races at the weekend, and with just exhibition events taking place today, tomorrow it's the turn of the young'uns to show us what could be a glimpse into the future of the pro peloton.

Ethan Vernon (above) goes for Great Britain in the U23 race after finishing 7th in the time trial, joined by fellow promising Brit Lews Askey. There's also a whole load of Dutch talent that could bag a win over the 160km course including the Van Dijke twins Mick and Tim and Jumbo-Visma's 19-year-old talent Olav Kooij. It starts tomorrow at 2.25pm BST. 

The men's junior race will just be confined to the Leuven circuit in Flanders, covering 8 laps for a total distance of 121km, and that kicks off at 7.15am tomorrow morning. Oddly there's no women's U23 event, meaning it's just a 75km junior event on Saturday morning before the elite women go in the afternoon. The elite men's road race is on Sunday.