Councillor admits “large wagons” keep hitting cycle lane wands… then claims painted segregation works “extremely well”; Baffled local questions where Clean Air Zone will go “when the wind blows”?; Lefevere’s €100m Remco price tag + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Lefevere sets €100m Remco price tag
Patrick Lefevere just now on belgian radio “I said I don’t sell Remco, maybe when I want to retire I sell the whole team to INEOS group, Remco’s contract doesnt allow a transfer, that would cost a team more than 100m euro to transfer him”
— Davy Depuydt (@DavyDepuydt) September 29, 2022
Your move, Ratcliffe…
"Are they going to put a big dome over Bradford?": Baffled local questions where Clean Air Zone will go "when the wind blows"?
Two days late, but this is too good not to share…
We’ve got another elite video to add to the pantheon of all-time viral sensations — Ronnie Pickering, clown takes a pratfall…you’ve got company… this lad from Bradford has delivered a belter…
This was actually broadcast by @BBCLookNorth today as part of an article on the Bradford clean air zone. Not a parody. Lovely stuff. pic.twitter.com/9eShniubq5
— antb 🏂 (@antbxsh) September 26, 2022
10/10. Absolute perfection. Everything about it is golden, from the conviction of the delivery to the fantastic final enquiry…”are we going to put a big dome over Bradford?”
Surprisingly, it seems the council has neither the budget nor the desire to build a dome to… ‘keep the clean air in?’
The Clean Air Zone, which came into effect on Monday is, the council says, “designed to improve air quality in areas where it’s worst and where poor air quality is impacting the most on people’s health. It will help people to breathe better and reduce other health risks too.” Shocking.
So why are some people upset? Well, you guessed it…”You will need to pay a daily charge to drive in the Bradford Clean Air Zone (CAZ) if your vehicle does not meet required emission standards and is not exempt.”
It won’t affect private cars but will see taxi drivers pay £7 per day, while non-exempt buses, coaches and HGVs will have to pay £50 to enter the city Clean Air Zone.
Anyway, the clip has gone viral and brought back memories of this classic…
and….. https://t.co/nlzLZuD8qE
— Jim McQuaid 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 😷 🇪🇺 #COVIDisAirborne (@jimmcquaid) September 28, 2022
Annemiek van Vleuten admits "doubts" over 2023 retirement
[📷: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com]
Annemiek van Vleuten has admitted having “doubts” over her planned retirement at the end of next season. The all-conquering star of the sport won all three of the women’s Grand Tour editions this year, plus last Saturday’s World Championships road race.
> From Coppi to Van Vleuten: Cycling’s greatest ever seasons
“Sometimes I start to have doubts, yes,” she told Jinek. “I would prefer to retire if I think ‘I’m starting to get weaker now.’ But this is really my best year ever. I will be 40 next week, which is really unbelievable. But it’s my driving force to get better. It’s not about winning, but the urge to improve myself.
“After that crash, I had completely said goodbye to the idea that I could become world champion, I had set myself 100 percent to be a servant for Marianne. It wasn’t until the last kilometre that I thought there might be a chance that I could go home with this jersey with my broken elbow. The first thing I felt the next day was ‘what have I done with my elbow?’ But then I thought, ‘yes, that elbow, but I am also world champion’.
“There’s still disbelief. I had completely parked the belief that I could win.”
Government accepts feedback, pledges to refer to collisions rather than accidents in statistics and data tables in line with road collision reporting guidelines
In response to feedback the Department for Transport has pledged to follow a proposal to “change the terminology used throughout the statistics publications and data tables to refer to collisions, rather than accidents.”
> “Language matters” – Road collision reporting guidelines launched
The department noted “no opposition to the proposal” and said it would implement the change from the 2021 annual publication onwards to “refer to collisions rather than accidents wherever possible”.
At last, road casualty statistics will be reported by the government as collisions, not accidents. Language matters, and a default presumption crashes are accidental impacts how we perceive their causes, and solutions.
This was one of our https://t.co/DambbYZMUj recommendations https://t.co/WClSBUqAV4
— Laura Laker (@laura_laker) September 29, 2022
LIVE: Remco hears about Lefevere's €100m price tag comment
Remco Evenepoel when he hears that he is worth over €100 million to Quickstep and compares to his contract salary https://t.co/DpRWJmDTRQ pic.twitter.com/Ev5JFS28fQ
— Patrick Broe (@LanterneRougeYT) September 29, 2022
Lefevere:
Remco:
Make it stop
Tom Boonen, 2005 pic.twitter.com/EADRy8lvrR
— Cycling Pics That Go Hard (@cycIingpics) September 27, 2022
Anyone else now feel slightly ill?
Taking the piss
A motorist told Lavender Hill Magistrates court that the reason he was speeding, was because he needed the toilet urgently. Mr O’Reilly pleaded guilty to speeding at court on Monday after being clocked doing 36mph in #RichmondPark. He was given 4 points on his licence & £199 fine pic.twitter.com/v5SgVbVawn
— Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) September 29, 2022
Councillor admits "large wagons" damaged cycle lane wands... but claims painted segregation works "extremely well"
Here’s a brainteaser for your Thursday afternoon: if drivers of “large wagons” keep getting so close to a cycle lane that they knock down the wands segregating riders from other road users, how would a return to an unsegregated painted bike lane work “extremely well” and keep cyclists safe?
That’s the puzzle we’re trying, and failing, to find the answer to after a councillor’s response to a local rider suggested exactly this.
First, some context…
This is Vauxhall Road in Liverpool where the cycle lane wands are sparse and the parked vehicles are plentiful…
Constantly damaged wands snapped in half, cycle lane Vauxhall Road. pic.twitter.com/fvBNTBOITQ
— MERSEY ROAD WATCH (@UKCYCLIST) September 28, 2022
Similar happened yesterday Vauxhall Road pic.twitter.com/CUHNeiB21j
— MERSEY ROAD WATCH (@UKCYCLIST) September 25, 2022
Concerned about the situation, Mersey Road Watch got in touch with Liverpool councillor Joe Hanson whose interesting response has since emerged on social media…
“I agree with you the cycle lanes are in poor condition and part of the problem is large wagons hit the bollards, knocking them off the ground,” he said, presumably meaning the drivers of large wagons.
‘How about proper segregation then?’ I hear you ask… nope, there’s only one thing to blame here… yep, it’s those bloomin’ cycle lane wands getting themselves hit…
“I have questioned the wisdom of placing them on Vauxhall Road when the painted cycle lanes that existed before seemed to work extremely well,” the councillor concluded.
We got in touch with Mersey Road Watch who called the response “disappointing”.
“I reported to the council that the Vauxhall Road cycle lane, every day, has vehicles parked, driving in it, and all the wands are smashed and broken,” they told us.
“The councillor did not care and seems like he is actually happy with how the infrastructure is being used. Disappointing.”
We’ve approached the councillor for a comment on the situation…in the meantime here’s how the debacle has gone down on the blue bird app…
He’s never ridden in his life very likely
— MERSEY ROAD WATCH (@UKCYCLIST) September 29, 2022
We never ran #OpClosePass where there was a cycle lane as it effectively gave offenders a “faux defence” of “well if it’s dangerous, why is it designed like that?” which in light of the HC updates earlier this year is even more relevant than ever. #Murderstrips as they are more pic.twitter.com/uT2gK9USIQ
— Mark Hodson (@markandcharlie) June 20, 2022
If wagons keep hitting the bollards, it suggests that the bollards are very much needed to stop cyclists being hit.
— Pharmacist on a Pushbike (@PPushbike) September 29, 2022
Those naughty wagons. #absentdriver
— Gary James Ⓥ (@Tradescant) September 29, 2022
Jonas Vingegaard back winning bike races
🇭🇷 #CRORace
That was such a huge effort on that final climb! 🥵 pic.twitter.com/5cBfMOHrL2
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) September 29, 2022
This guy looks good, wonder if he’ll ever win a big one?
Ban sale of substandard e-bike chargers over fire risk, London council says
Hammersmith & Fulham councillor Frances Umeh has called on the government to ban the sale of substandard e-bike chargers, saying they “should never have been available for sale”. An investigation by consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First found that dangerous e-bike chargers were widely available online.
> Fatal Bristol flat fire was caused by “homemade electric bike”
So far this year there have been 57 e-bike related fires in the capital, an increase on the 47 fires last year, 13 in 2020 and 10 in 2019.
“We’re calling on the government to ban the sale of these dangerous chargers,” Ms Umeh told the BBC.
Sexy saddle appreciation post
Trench Tales is your one-stop Instagram shop for all the mechanical mishaps and tales of woe from working in a bike shop. They were the guys who brought you this all-time classic…
> Can it be real? Mechanic shares double cleat horror set up
Police hunt ladder thief with great balance
Plead guilty, lad. It’ll spare you the embarassment of climbing down when you see what evidence they’ve got…(I don’t know, it worked in my head, it’s been a long day)…
Nottinghamshire Police are appealing for witnesses to help find a man on a bike spotted on CCTV carrying stolen ladders. The suspect left the scene, a property in Queensway, Worksop, at around 12.30pm on 7 September 2022, admittedly showing quite impressive balance, if a quite unimpressive disregard for respecting other people’s property…
29 September 2022, 08:05
29 September 2022, 08:05
29 September 2022, 08:05
29 September 2022, 08:05
29 September 2022, 08:05
29 September 2022, 08:05
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Latest Comments
There you go again
Marginal margins.
The covid / post-covid boom is driven primarily by failures of capitalist strategy, causing over supply and price gouging. What we are seeing now is the correction. Most so-called ‘Western brands’ bikes are made in Eastern countries anyway - who have long been the leading manufacturers of carbon bikes. Now these makers are becoming brands / sellers too and Western brands have been put on notice. Inflation is driven by greed, not need.
@Benthic A125 motorbike can be ridden by a 17 year old can do about 75MPH; a legal e-bike that a 17-year-old cannot use can do about 15MPH.
The latest moral panic. "From August, the legal age to ride an e-scooter in Ireland will rise from 16 to 18" But, in Ireland you can still drive a: - moped from the age of 16 - 125 cc motorbike from the age of 17 - 3.5 tonne car from the age of 17 So that makes complete sense.
@mitsky I am seeing those Amazon ones in Manchester pretty much every day.
Quite. There's also a demand side story to accompany your eloquently written post, in that domestic demand has dampened from the captive COVID market of a few years back, and less international demand due to tariff-led policies and anti-dumping laws. On Chinese competition, I don't think it's necessarily Western profit-seeking behaviour which has caused increased Chinese supply and competitiveness as much as higher Chinese investment leading to higher quality output, innovation, and economies of scale. I don't know about Chinese frames as I haven't bought one and haven't seen one, but for wheels I don't see any inherent quality advantage for Western brands. Indeed, innovation seems to be coming from Chinese brands along with lower prices, just like we're seeing with electric cars. So higher quality and lower prices.
They should concentrate on the road users who do most of the killing and injuring: car drivers.
I've used the "why aren't you on the motorway?" one before, except here it would be "highway" or "Interstate." The other one I like is: "Get on the sidewalk!" (pavement) "On the side what?" "On the sidewalk!" "So it's not called a side-bicycle then?" Also one I've used a couple of times: "You're not a car!" "Neither are you!"
I've used Challenge, Vittoria, Veloflex and Continental tyres. What stands out for me regarding Challenge is how robust their supple tyres are. Usually there is a tradeoff there, but Challenge somehow manages to keep both.
47 thoughts on “Councillor admits “large wagons” keep hitting cycle lane wands… then claims painted segregation works “extremely well”; Baffled local questions where Clean Air Zone will go “when the wind blows”?; Lefevere’s €100m Remco price tag + more on the live blog”
What we need is small,
What we need is small, personal clean air domes for all (well, everyone that can afford them)
More like this?
More like this?
But not like this?
But not like this?
The reply to “are we going to
The reply to “are we going to put a big dome over Bradford?” has to be “yes, the Government were persuaded not to demolish it but instead keep it as an exhibit for those from the shires to visit – as a warning of what could be if they don’t continue to support Liz Truss”.
The sensible reply to this kind of question is “Where should we put the congestion, then?“
The Simpsons got there years
The Simpsons got there years ago when the EPA put a giant glass dome over Springfield as the most polluted town in the world.
I’m just disappointed my
I’m just disappointed my Simpsons GIF didn’t embed into the blog properly…back in there now
Ah didn’t see that – great
Ah didn’t see that – great minds thinking alike again!
Rendel Harris wrote:
And fools seldom differ.
Cheek!
Excluding private cars from
Excluding private cars from the Clear Air Zone in Bradford reduces its effectiveness.
Indeed – reducing its
Indeed – reducing its effectvness to pretty much zero…
I can only assume this is some kind of box ticking excersise….
HarrogateSpa wrote:
Well, excluding private cars from the area would work well, but allowing them to continue using it with no penalty does seem self-defeating. Personally, it makes little difference to me if I’m breathing in private or business vehicle exhaust fumes.
Only Birmingham have
Only Birmingham have introduced class D CAZ. True, this Class C+ won’t make a big difference to improving air quality but it should at least see any polluting taxis removed from the roads and hopefully make freight companies think about how they cost effectively arrange drops in the area, which might have knock on benefits.
At £50 a pop, I wonder how
At £50 a pop, I wonder how many independent hauliers will accept loads in to the Zone.. which will lead to small business going under.
It will also be an additional tax on anyone that lives in the Zone as it will get added on to the delivery charge …
It’s likely to have far reaching unintended consequences.
When I was driving for a living, I’d refuse to take the Seven Bridge / Dartford (either way) / Forth Road / Skye because the toll was eye-watering for a C+E.
And that toll came out of my pocket and I then had to claim it back… and wait a month to get it back.
At £50 a pop, I’d certainly refuse to take a load in the Zone if I had to pay and claim back.
Oldfatgit wrote:
It would also create opportunities for someone to set up cargo-bike deliveries in those zones, so it seems like a good (dis)incentive to me.
Other ways of dealing with it is to have collection points outside of the Zone (or inside the Dirty Air Zone) and let residents go and collect their parcels themselves although the danger is that it could increase car journeys if the residents can use them without getting fined.
It’s not just about ‘parcels’
It’s not just about ‘parcels’ though, is it.
Yes, last mile delivery via cargo bike is a good and viable option … but there needs to be a hub close enough to that point for it to *be* an option.
Every single retailer would need their own hub – unless you think AO is going to share with Currys, DFS with Sofology etc.
Yes … I have seen the photos of sofa being delivered by a cargo bike – but that’s 1 sofa.
I’m risking running in to whataboutifery here, and I don’t want to do that.
As sad as it is, not everything can be done by a cargo bike and current logistical infrastructure is not capable of supporting hubs to allow decants on to small vehicles … but even decants have their own failings.
For every 45ft artic, you would need roughly 7.5 tonners or 14 standard vans and that’s no way better than 1 waggon.
Oldfatgit wrote:
I don’t see why there can’t be a shared hub, similar to how there’s shared logistics/delivery companies.
Basically, the issue is that we need to make massive changes to how people do things and move around the place, so there is bound to be winners and losers, the same as with any change. Attempting to change things and yet have no-one disadvantaged is a fool’s mission.
Personally, I think we’ve left it far too late and we’re at the stage of re-arranging chairs on the Titanic.
“Personally, I think we’ve
“Personally, I think we’ve left it far too late and we’re at the stage of re-arranging chairs on the Titanic.”
Absolutey.
The motor vehicle (in all its forms) has been absolute king for decades, along with its conspiritors the Petro-Chemical industry.
People see alternative transport as a threat to their way of living; they cannot comprehend that the car is probably the largest regular outgoing you have (although energy bills might have knocked that back now).
We as a society have become so brainwashed that the very idea of not being able to drive, or not having a car, or even choosing to walk to the shops is *odd*.
Reading it again they are
Reading it again they are suggesting that local companies already have compliant vehicles and that they are trying to stop HGVs using the city as a transit route / rat run (which is fair enough). What they don’t say is how they expect legitimate drops by non local (nationwide) companies to be made? A hub would be obvious but would still have to cost more.
I was a tramper; I would
I was a tramper; I would start on a Monday morning and be home Friday night / Saturday morning.
I had no control over where I was sent to load / unload.
What I can say is you did everything you could to keep out of urban areas.
I know we always say that truck drivers should spend time on a bike … well we should spend time driving trucks – big feckers too.
Urban areas are a nightmare in an artic, and only slight less of a nightmare in a rigid with rear wheel steer.
Hubs are great, but you have cost issues, space issues, increased traffic issues.
The whole out-of-town shopping / retail park was supposed to reduce the amount of large trucks entering urban areas … but then, we the consumer decided that we wanted smaller versions in our towns and cities as well … so the trucks have to keep coming back.
We as a society have to decide what we want … do we still want a high street, do we want convenience stores so we can nip and get our pint of milk … if so how are we going to get the goods there?
HarrogateSpa wrote:
How about a dome over it to literally exclude private cars from the Clean Air Zone?
They tend to be missnamed,
They tend to be missnamed, less a clean air zone, more a pollution tax zone.
And yes, polluting private cars should pay.
When discussing trivia like
When discussing trivia like is Ratcliffe going to buy Evenepoel or not, don’t forget more important facts about where his money comes from.
3.2 million tonnes of CO2 emitted from Grangemouth alone in 2019.
1) Yes I know there are other
1) Yes I know there are other unethical cycling teams, but this is the British one that constantly gets coverage on road.cc and elsewhere.
2) No, individual choices, ‘there’s no such thing as society’, Loadsamoney won’t solve global heating.
3) We are either at or past the point of doing irreparable damage to the Earth’s climate.
4) Apologies for wanging on about this.
17 months old now but gives
17 months old now but gives the basics
No apologies required – thank
No apologies required – thank you for raising awareness.
Feel free to wang away.
Feel free to wang away.
Sponsoring a cycling team is just basic attempted green washing for this lot
To be fair, there’s a lot of
To be fair, there’s a lot of it about. It seems to be a growth industry in itself, from Persil banging on about ‘saving the planet’ by using their washing tabs to Amazon having the odd solar panel on a warehouse whilst Bezos blasts into space on a vanity project, etc., etc.
My own pet peev is the companies who like to appear to be an on trend green champion whilst selling their products wrapped in film that goes in the bin or in pouches that need to be sent around the country by mail in order to be recycled.
Clem Fandango wrote:
I don’t agree that INEOS are paricularly interested in green washing. Jim has so much money now he just pursues what he is intested in.
He likes running – sponsor Kipchoge and the Daily Mile
He likes F1 – Mercedes AMG
He likes cycling – Buy Brailsford’s team
He likes football – that will be Nice
He iikes Land Rovers – build a car.
He likes sailing – America’s cup. Got him into NZ when we were all locked down. Likes NZ that will be the All Blacks then.
‘Sports washing’ for UAE and Bahrain, almost certainly. You don’t need to like him or his company, but it is lazy thinking that he is doing it for ‘green’ credentials.
I don’t think he cares what society thinks of him. He is happy to be unpopular.
It’s the ‘wangong on’ without
It’s the ‘wanging on’ without suggesting any alternatives that is the issue.
What is your suggestion for replacing all the products that are manufactured at Grangemouth?
Even under current Net Zero targets we’ll still be using those products in 30 years when/if we eventually reach Net Zero.
What’s “Other” – that seems
What’s “Other” – that seems to be an important one? I’m guessing that’s where
squirrelshamsters in wheels are grouped?The entire funding model of
The entire funding model of the sport is flawed and until that’s changed, teams will be 100% dependent on sponsorship to function. Unless they’re lucky enough to have a flooring company or supermarket, the alternative is dodgy nation sovereign wealth funds, petrochemical giants, or oligarchs that just want to ride in the team car at Paris-Roubaix.
Many other sports’ teams have income from gate receipts, stadium events, share of broadcast rights distribution and so on. With the TdF as an example, the ASO get the TV money, sponsorship for leader jerseys, the publicity caravan, town hosting fees, etc, the teams don’t see a penny of it.
mark1a wrote:
To be fair, out of the monies received ASO have to pay for all the organisation, security, prize money, TV crews etc for the race. Last time I looked they made about £10M in profit from the TdF, not small potatoes but even if they took no profit at all and gave it all to the teams that would be less than £500K each, hardly enough to pay a star rider’s salary for the duration of the race, certainly not a whole team’s. Sadly cycling just isn’t popular enough globally to attract the big TV money, e.g. NBC only pay $8M for exclusive USA rights to the Tour. I can’t see a time when World Tour teams are not primarily funded by sponsorship, nor a way it could be achieved.
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‘Councillor admits “large wagons” damaged cycle lane wands… but claims painted segregation works “extremely well”‘
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A Lay Bah councillor. A LAYYY Bah councillor!
.
Shewly shumfink ronk here.
.
Like
Like
.
your spelling and
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formatting,
.
perchance?
.
Same with his misspelled
Same with his misspelled swears he used to do. At least we know the “boy” in his username is actually related to his mentality.
“These cycle lanes are a woke
“These cycle lanes are a woke scheme, wasting tax payers money and will hardly be used. Utter nonsense and sheer stupidity.”
Daily Echo Bournemouth/Poole.
Made me laugh.
hirsute wrote:
I find it interesting the way that “woke” has been appropriated as a term of abuse. It actually means that you’re aware of discrimination and abuse and oppose them, but it now seems to be an insult of some kind.
Sure, like Progressive or
Sure, like Progressive or Liberal, who are really in fact bedwetters calling for all sorts of harsh laws, banishment by cancel culture, Social media bans for any opposing opinions or “disinformation”, enforcement of Lockdowns and punitive measures for wearing masks, police resourcing to attend to people who post memes on Facebook, etc.
You must be the last one who thinks that is what Woke means now.
“Abortion laws”
Harsh laws like abortion laws.
Yes, #FakeNews by bedwetters
Yes, #FakeNews by bedwetters / banishment by cancel culture, enforcing lockdowns and wearing masks…
What did woke originally mean, could you remind us?
Is this Godwin’s law in 2
Is this Godwin’s law in 2 steps?
Not at all unexpected, leaping to being labelled as KKK by one of the several Extreme Left posters who seek to dominate on this site.
What Fake News are you talking about anyway?
I use and support more bike lanes and infrastructure etc. btw.
Roulereo wrote:
— RoulereoI know what it means, and I’m interested in why you think differently, and define it as completely the opposite of its actual meaning. Would you care to explain your lack of comprehension?
That lad with ladder – looks
That lad with ladder – looks like a rung’un. With balance, strength (aluminium there, not carbon fiber) and tolerance of discomfort like that though surely a future in cycling sport beckons? EDIT – looking at that again I think he’d steal it as a climber.
chrisonatrike wrote:
In his profession he’ll work hard, and he’ll never stop, he’ll climb his blinking ladder till he gets right to the top.
“Government accepts feedback,
“Government accepts feedback, pledges to refer to collisions rather than accidents in statistics and data tables in line with road collision reporting guidelines”
Brilliant news. A small but signifcant step moving away from the notion that collisions are “accidents” and therefore unavoidable. Just need to wait a few decades now while this controversial idea becomes accepted in the courts and drivers are held reposible for their actions. A step in the right direction for a change.
Re removing the wands being
Re removing the wands being safer. The councillor may be correct. Removing the wands means that cyclists will be able to follow Mark Hodson’s advice (on his twitter feed) and ride just outside the lane (murder strip) which will improve the safety of those brave enough to do it.