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Boris Johnson's cycling revolution "a gross deception", says leading anti-obesity campaigner; "Don't ride safely, ride like a bit of a tw*t",says James May; Vigil for Deliveroo rider killed in hit-and-run; LTN conflicts continue + more on the live blog

Welcome to Thursday's live blog, with Jack Sexty at the controls and Simon MacMichael checking in later tonight...
03 September 2020, 16:05
Boris Johnson's cycling revolution is a "gross deception", says leading anti-obesity campaigner
Boris Johnson (picture credit TfL).jpg

Dr Aseem Malhotra told iNews that the government is targeting the wrong things by telling the public simply to exercise to lose weight and continuing to "appease" the food industry. He says the focus should be on food if the UK's growing waistlines are to be curtailed. 

“I would tell Boris: you can’t outcycle a bad diet and we’ve got another 18 months at least before a potential coronavirus vaccine arrives, which we don’t yet know how effective it will be", says Dr Malhotra. 

“Our best defence to protect people’s health is improving metabolic health by changing diet. But there’s no money to be made from that, so there’s no focus on it.”

He also claims that you'd have to cycle "an unlimited amount" to lose weight, and shedding the pounds is all about diet: "One of the things people don’t realise is that exercise increases appetite. Even people who run marathons never lose any weight.

“Think of exercise as good for your physical and mental health, your bone structure, muscle mass, for your metabolic heath in general – but not for weight loss. The best way to lose fat is by changing diet.

“Boris needs to stop appeasing the food industry and stop these gimmicks where he’s focusing on exercising. Instead, he should be putting all his efforts saying this is a diet problem. 

"Yes, let’s get people more active, which is important for general health, but the really big elephant in the room is the fact that more than half of our diet is ultra-processed food. The Government should be taxing ultra-processed food and use that money to subsidise healthy food so everyone benefits from it.”

Do you agree with Dr Malhotra's comments, or have you managed to successfully outcycle a bad diet? Your thoughts below as per usual! 

03 September 2020, 16:33
"Bring your bike": Extinction Rebellion protesters block Mayfair, Trafalgar Square and Lambeth Bridge

Netpol, a police monitoring network, are also reporting on their Twitter account that police have kettled a number of cyclists on Lambeth Bridge, making a number of arrests. 

If true, it would echo scenes during the London 2012 Olympics when over 100 cyclists were arrested on the outskirts of the Olympic Park following a scuffle between police and Critical Mass riders. Five were eventually found guilty of public order offences in 2013, with a further three discharged and one found not guilty. 

03 September 2020, 14:45
"It didn't happen overnight": Is London going through what Amsterdam went through decades ago?

With animosity continuing to build over Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes in the capital, it's interesting to look back at images from Amsterdam before their cycling revolution began. Like London now, people were not happy about it then either, but eventually things changed for the better. 

Comments such as those above show that Londoners aren't going to change their driving habits overnight, with pressure groups such as OneWandsworth and OneOval springing up to protest against what they perceive as 'road closures', suggesting that LTNs are causing problems such as increased pollution and hindering the progress of emergency vehicles. It might be the case that congestion appears to have increased in some roads where LTNs have been implemented, but it's perhaps inevitable when some are not prepared to reduce their car dependency.

Plus, many of the schemes appear to be working just fine. Will Londoners be dragged kicking and screaming out of their cars, or are the LTN experiments destined to fail? Let us know your thoughts in the comments as always. 

03 September 2020, 16:22
Alaphilippe trolls the GC contenders by grabbing some extra seconds

After getting a controversial 20 second penalty yesterday and losing the yellow jersey to Adam Yates, Alaphilippe got a little bit of revenge by sprinting away from the GC group with 150 metres to go. His effort gained him back a second on Adam Yates, Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz and Bauke Mollema amongst others... definitely not eyeing up yellow then Julian? 

03 September 2020, 14:42
Lutsenko wins stage 6

The Kazakh dominated the stage in his biggest professional win to date - full story here

03 September 2020, 14:30
TDF: Alexey Lutsenko is away

The 27-year-old Astana rider looks like he's away, more than three minutes up on the peloton and now over 30 seconds clear of Jesús Herrada in second with less than 5km to go - will Lutsenko avoid disaster to take a solo victory? 

03 September 2020, 12:13
"Don't ride safely, ride like a bit of a tw*t", says James May in brake maintenance video

The former Top Gear and current The Grand Tour presenter is considerably more bike-friendly than a certain colleague of his, and demonstrates further his love for the bicycle in this "boring bike maintenance" video for Drivetribe. It's not actually that boring if you're a fan of tinkering, as May explains to us rim brake aficionados how he believes setting your brake pads up so the front hits the rim first is preferable: "The leading edge of the block meets the rim first", he says. 

"...and then as the rubber compresses and the brake flexes very slightly, the rest of the pad comes into contact. That gives you very nicely progressive, modulated braking and much better feel. 

"Bicycles of course are all about feel. Nothing communicates with its user quite as feverishly as a bicycle does." 

He then shows us how to set your brakes up as he suggested, with the help of a British Airways Executive Gold membership card. May's grand finale is this gem of a line: "Don't ride safely, ride like a bit of a twat - it's more fun." 

03 September 2020, 10:41
Worcester cyclist films head-on traffic driving towards him in cycle lane

The footage shows cars coming in the opposite direction, and dangerously close, to Andy Foster, which he says is being caused by illegal taxi ranking on the opposite side. According to Worcester News, taxi drivers who park outside of designated ranks causing them to overspill could be fined up to £500 in the city centre; but a lack of enforcement is allowing the situation to continue. 

Cycling advocacy group Bike Worcester described the area as "an accident waiting to happen", adding: "The taxi rank system needs a review. It’s clearly not working."

Mr Foster said yesterday that after his complaint, Worcester Regulatory Services have promised "an increase in the number of enforcement visits to this area, at various times of the day."

03 September 2020, 09:54
Deliveroo workers hold vigil for rider who was killed in hit-and-run

Conor McCrave, a reporter for The Journal, added: "a colleague and friend of Thiago tells me he was a “friendly guy who would do anything for his community” - now his community want justice for their friend."

Thiago Cortes was hit by a driver on Monday, and later died of his injuries in hospital. Newstalk report that the driver failed to stop at the scene, and the car was recovered by Gardaí a short distance away. 

The 28-year-old Brazilian had only started working for Deliveroo ten days before he was killed, and his fiancé Teresa Dantas has appealed for information in finding the driver responsible. 

She told Newstalk: "If you did it, please come forward, be brave to do this.

"You were driving a car, you hit someone and you left him there to die. Just please face what you did, come forward - and if you know something, if you have any information, please call the Guards."

03 September 2020, 10:19
Cycling UK launch 'AA for cyclists', offering bike maintenance tips, directions and more
cycling uk pumped up

There's no tow truck and no fee, but Cycling UK's new service to improve the confidence of new cyclists will get more people back on the road, according to the cycling charity. The pilot Pumped Up service launched in Manchester and Birmingham today, with volunteers in the 'Pumped Up Crews' helping new cyclists feel more supported on the roads. 

The crew members can help with bike knowledge, maintenance and directions, and will be wearing bright t-shirts with the Pumped Up logo to make them easily identifiable. Cycling UK added: "The volunteer crews are in response to the huge increase in new cyclists since lockdown and aim to help the extra 1.3 million people who bought a bike since March feel more confident and happy on the roads."

03 September 2020, 10:29
Tour de France stage 6: an early breakaway has formed

Some big names are in there including Greg Van Avermaet, Nicholas Roche and Edvald Boasson Hagen. 

03 September 2020, 10:30
Had any experience with the Fix Your Bike voucher scheme? We want hear from you
Halford - Fix your bike voucher

The voucher scheme hasn't been without its teething problems according to numerous reports, so we'd like to hear from people who have experienced the scheme for themselves... so if you've had a bike repaired using a voucher, you want a voucher but didn't get one or you're a repairer signed up to it, do hit us up on info [at] road.cc to tell us more. 

03 September 2020, 09:41
A school bus of bikes
03 September 2020, 09:51
Our 2020 Tour de France content is powered by Zwift

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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46 comments

Avatar
Rick_Rude | 3 years ago
1 like

Diet IS key. You're wasting your time taking up exercise for weight loss and eating crap. Ok you may get fitter and stronger but you'll still look like crap with a stubborn layer fat. The only way you're eating crap and losing weight is clenbuterol or something else.

Think of how much exercise you have to do to burn that muffin off. DON'T EAT THE MUFFIN FATSO!!

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LetsBePartOfThe... | 3 years ago
3 likes

LTNs:  Please could motorists out there just stop complaining about their own congestion and pollution. Some motorists will need to continue driving for mobility reasons, lack of public transport capacity, or ( debatably) for the purposes of delivering microwave ovens. For the rest, please could they understand that they need to reduce: car use, car ownership, oversized cars, ICEs, idling. LTNs are incentivising that switch to active travel. Pressure on the remaining non-LTN road space is not an unintended consequence of LTNs. It is there to disincentivise car use further. They should take the nudge, and reduce their car use. Happily, their/our alternatives of walking or cycling will become more and more attractive - in relationship with every individual car journey that is deleted

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mdavidford replied to LetsBePartOfTheSolution | 3 years ago
1 like

LetsBePartOfTheSolution wrote:

for the purposes of delivering microwave ovens.

And, presumably, custom kitchens, refrigerators, and colour TVs?

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Captain Badger replied to mdavidford | 3 years ago
2 likes

Should have learned to play the guitar, if you ask me....

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wycombewheeler | 3 years ago
0 likes

I eat the same crap diet all the time, if anything I eat more when I'm cycling more. But cycling more tends to lead to lower weight. But this is the difference between 50 and 20p miles a week. 4 miles a day of commutting isn't going to make a massive difference to anyone.

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LetsBePartOfThe... replied to wycombewheeler | 3 years ago
0 likes

I agree .... for me there is a basal mileage of cycling which keeps my weight level, and there's an extended mileage that will affirmatively achieve mild weight-loss. I can make plans with complete certainty. For example I know that an upcoming 2-week holiday will lose me 2 kilos. This is due to having the time and enthusiasm to extend my daily mileage for that period. And I know in winter roughly what weight I will gain, due to lower mileage. My diet remains absolutely constant throughout - and is measured to be so. The only variable is the mileage.

 

 

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CyclingInGawler replied to LetsBePartOfTheSolution | 3 years ago
1 like

Back in the days when I normally commuted via a combination of the train and an 9-mile each-way cycle, my weight would remain steady until accident or injury put me off the bike, when I'd put on a stone (6.5 kg, if you prefer) and that would be my new weight until the next interruption, when the process would repeat. The only time I've lost weight through cycling was one spring/summer when I regularly skipped the train and commuted the whole 25 miles, either one way or both ways. My weekly average mileage went from around 90 fairly-flat miles to around 200 undulating miles (into east Lancashire). But as with most forms of exercise-based weight loss, it is extremely difficult to sustain it for longer than a couple of years at most (and I speak here from repeated experience). So you can out-exercise a moderately-bad diet for a while, but not really long term.

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MattieKempy | 3 years ago
6 likes

Everything about Boris Johnson is a gross deception. Why would a cycling policy with his name attached be any different?

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eburtthebike replied to MattieKempy | 3 years ago
3 likes

MattieKempy wrote:

Everything about Boris Johnson is a gross deception. Why would a cycling policy with his name attached be any different?

It's just that the eternal optimists amongst us are hoping against hope that this time he's telling the truth.  OK, the evidence of the past thirty years tends to confound that hope, but there's always a first time.

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 3 years ago
5 likes

'Driving in London is becoming stressful. Half the backroads have been blocked off, half the main roads have been reduced to one lane to accommodate cyclists and then half the other roads are full of temp lights that change back to red after 3 seconds. It’s beyond annoying'

what a dumb tweet. It's not even true. 50% of roads have been reduced to 1 lane to accommodate cyclists? Where's that? Dumb comment. 

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OldRidgeback replied to BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 3 years ago
4 likes

Lukas wrote:

'Driving in London is becoming stressful. Half the backroads have been blocked off, half the main roads have been reduced to one lane to accommodate cyclists and then half the other roads are full of temp lights that change back to red after 3 seconds. It’s beyond annoying'

what a dumb tweet. It's not even true. 50% of roads have been reduced to 1 lane to accommodate cyclists? Where's that? Dumb comment. 

Driving in London has been stressful for all of the 30 years I've lived here. I've owned a car for about 20 of these, but only use it when I have to. I'd much rather be on two wheels.

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kil0ran | 3 years ago
11 likes

That pavement parking consultation, like most transport-related consultations, heavily biased towards maintaining the status quo. The fact is that pavement parking is already an offence - "You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency" and they're consulting to, at most, enforce that law. They seem to think new law is required...

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eburtthebike replied to kil0ran | 3 years ago
4 likes

kil0ran wrote:

That pavement parking consultation, like most transport-related consultations, heavily biased towards maintaining the status quo. The fact is that pavement parking is already an offence - "You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency" and they're consulting to, at most, enforce that law. They seem to think new law is required...

Yes, but the vital word in there is "drive".  It doesn't say you mustn't park.  Now you and I both know that a car parked on the pavement didn't just materialise there, it was driven there, but unless a police officer witnesses it being driven, there is no offence.

A few years ago I came across a PCSO doing her rounds in my neighbourhood, and pointed out that a car was blocking the pavement, and she agreed to have a word with the driver to ask them to move it.  If she had done so and then witnessed the car being driven over the pavement, she could have arrested the driver, and I'm not sure why the police don't adopt this tactic.

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David9694 replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
0 likes

Because Mr Loophole - the friend of the little man - will appear and say "ah-ha!".

Pavement parking is a symptom of the pressure the roads are under from the excess car use we're now seeing. 

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FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
3 likes

Dr Malhotra's comments seem mostly fair.

I've lost about 35 kilos through cycling (BMI of 33 down to 23) and am living proof you can outrun a bad diet, but that's been achieved by going from zero to about 10 hours of structured and outdoor training a week. I won't make any grand claim about speed, but I'm certainly substantially stronger than when I started.

Your average utility cyclist is nowhere near that level of exertion and structure. Yes the more committed may see moderate gains, but to properly lose significant weight through cycling requires both consistency and intensity, neither of which are on most people's mind when they are just riding down to the shops for some groceries.

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Sriracha replied to FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
7 likes

Dr Malhotra's comments seem mostly self-serving - he is in the business of pushing diets.

People can choose to eat what they will, but if they want/need to cycle anywhere they have little choice about the infrastructure.

So I'm with Boris on this one - to each as they are able; let the government look to the infrastructure whilst people look out for their own diets. Nanny can stay out of it.

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FlyingPenguin replied to Sriracha | 3 years ago
1 like

There are a heap of other reasons other than weight loss to have more cycling and cycling infrastructure, but when positioned as a public health intervention (e.g. Prescribing cycling on the NHS), it's a pretty poor one.

One of the biggest risk factors for covid is obesity, if we want to do anything about that at a public health/nanny state level (delete as applicable to meet your political leaning), cycling is actually of limited impact for most people unless combined with major dietary changes.

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Rich_cb replied to FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
8 likes

There are a lot of studies showing that active commuting leads to long term weight loss.

There was also a recent study showing that cycle commuters almost halved their risk of cancer, stroke and heart disease compared to non active commuters.

If we could get more people cycle commuting (or cycling an equivalent ammount) the public health benefits would be enormous.

Cycling mortality study here:
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1456

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FlyingPenguin replied to Rich_cb | 3 years ago
1 like

I'm familiar with that study, but the issue is the selection bias that comes with measuring cycle commuting, never mind the data set used (which is actually acknowledged in the study).

In a covid context you're not really worried about those with maybe a few pounds to lose, it's those much further up the scale. Yes cycle commuting is awesome, should be encouraged, but those most likely to benefit significantly from the weight loss are those least likely to embrace it sufficiently to make a dent. For that cohort, diet and (at the top end) surgical interventions are what is required.

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NZ Vegan Rider replied to FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
1 like

I totally agree.

Dietary changes make more difference to one's health than exercise.

Both are ideal.

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TheBillder replied to NZ Vegan Rider | 3 years ago
3 likes

You totally agree with FlyingPenguin and so do I, but I don't agree with you... To be healthy one should be a sensible weight but also have a reasonable level of cardiovascular fitness. I lost 25 kg through dietary changes and then got fit by cycling. Doing it the other way round or simultaneously would have been really difficult as the fat to muscle changes would have reduced the rate of weight loss and hence my motivation.

I must say as well, riding up the same hill before and after losing 25 kg is quite an eye-opener.

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Sriracha replied to NZ Vegan Rider | 3 years ago
2 likes
NZ Vegan Rider wrote:

I totally agree.

Dietary changes make more difference to one's health than exercise.

Both are ideal.

But I don't need Boris to tell me what to eat; I can fix my own diet. However I can't fix the cycling infrastructure, for that I do need Boris. It's not that I disagree necessarily with Malhotra on diet, although he seems to be more interested in the opportunity to make money out of it.

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Rich_cb replied to FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
1 like

The extreme cohort aren't really going to benefit from anything other than surgery and we just don't have the capacity to meet even a fraction of the demand.

Active travel isn't a silver bullet for the obesity crisis, nothing is, but it does bring demonstrable benefits in terms of weight loss and disease prevention.

Changing the diet of the country en masse will be incredibly difficult, the potential benefits are, I agree, huge but it's questionable how achievable those benefits will be.

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eburtthebike replied to FlyingPenguin | 3 years ago
2 likes

FlyingPenguin wrote:

There are a heap of other reasons other than weight loss to have more cycling and cycling infrastructure, but when positioned as a public health intervention (e.g. Prescribing cycling on the NHS), it's a pretty poor one. One of the biggest risk factors for covid is obesity, if we want to do anything about that at a public health/nanny state level (delete as applicable to meet your political leaning), cycling is actually of limited impact for most people unless combined with major dietary changes.

You are Dr Malhotra and ICMFP.

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eburtthebike | 3 years ago
9 likes

From Wikipedia:

"Aseem Malhotra is a "celebrity" doctor based in the United Kingdom, known for his controversial views on diet. He is best known as a promoter of a fad diet called the Pioppi diet and as one of the founders of Action on Sugar.  Maholtra's views on diet and health have been criticised by the British Heart Foundation as "misleading and wrong", and his public questioning of the need ever to use statins has been condemned as a danger to public health.[4] His diet, the "Pioppi diet" was named by the British Dietetic Association as one of the "top 5 worst celeb diets to avoid in 2018".[1]"

Like so many people obsessed with diet, he can't see any other cause or cure for obesity than diet, despite all the evidence to the contrary.  Not so much a "leading anti-obesity campaigner" as someone obsessed by diet to the exclusion of all else.

The real problem is the msm, which almost universally blames all weight problems and obesity on diet, and refuses to mention active travel as the most beneficial way to tackle them.  For instance "Inside Health" on R4 has an archive going back many years, and I recently trawled through them all to find mentions of cycling; I think it was three; and those three weren't exactly gushing about the benefits of cycling, more a brief aside.

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Secret_squirrel replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
8 likes

Thank you for comfirming my suspicions that he was a publicity seeking self serving shill.

I shan't waste any more of my precious typing time on him.

Losing weight is simply about using more energy  that you take in and exercise plus watching your calories is the best way of achieving that.  What you eat is essentially irrelevant for weight management.  Most diets only work because they help you limit your calorie loading, and they have to be relatively similar to your long term food choices if you aren't to backslide unless you are ferociously self disciplined.
Long term health management may be a different issue with some foods if you are eating deep fried mars bars every day...

Look at TCR and endurance riders.  They eat trash and none of them are lardies.

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poppa | 3 years ago
7 likes

The Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps famously ate what, for most people, would be a terrible diet, and highly calorific too (12000/day?), yet was not obese. So yes, clearly you can out exercise a bad diet.

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Cargobike replied to poppa | 3 years ago
3 likes

Not all of us have the time to train that Michael Phelps will have had while training for his Olympic medals, life sort of gets in the way, going to work, looking after the kids etc.

I've cycled all my life yet still managed to balloon to nearly 330lbs only a year ago, while now I am under 240lbs.

Have I managed to dramatically increase the distance and intensity of my cycling, or have I embraced a far healthier eating regime?

I don't think the Dr was specifically looking to undermine the benefits of cycling or any other physical activity, but if you don't focus on the calories in, then the exertion required to burn excess calories increases dramatically.

So no, the vast majority of us can't outrun a bad diet, especially as we get older, but a healthy diet combined with a liberal sprinkling of exercise can work wonders.

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NZ Vegan Rider replied to poppa | 3 years ago
0 likes

He was in good shape while doing all that training and eating that high calorie diet.

What we don't know is what that type of food was doing to his long term health.

Some foods are bad and should not be eaten.

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Crazyhorse | 3 years ago
17 likes

Re: Worcester cyclist. "The footage shows cars coming in the opposite direction, and dangerously close, to Andy Foster, which he says is being caused by illegal taxi ranking"
Er, no, it is caused by drivers overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic. They can clearly see the cyclist approaching who has priority. They have the option to apply their brakes and actually stop to allow the cyclist to pass - but chose not to...

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