[Cycloid]

 

About 4 o’clock on Saturday afternoon 17th July a cyclist was in collision with a motor vehicle near the village of Goostrey in Cheshire, he died later in hospital,

The Congleton Chronicle, the local newspaper, reported the incident in it’s next issue. The article gave three paragraphs to the incident followed by seventeen paragraphs of anecdotal stories from local residents accusing cyclists of inconsiderate and reckless riding.

For some mysterious reason the whole scenario was overlooked by the ghost of 1950s cycling champion Reg Harris.

You can read the article Here:-

https://www.chronicleseries.com/goostrey-villagers-voice-safety-concerns-after-cyclist-dies-in-collision/

The website has a “Contact us” option to leave comments, which do go to the editor.

The Congleton Chronicle is a good local paper and has given good coverage to both cycling and active travel in the past. On this occaision I think they totally lost it.

The article also begs the question, “Do the adjacent parishes of Goostrey and Twemlow have the highest concentration of cycling haters in the country?”

Any comment on this post MUST restrict itself to the quality of the journalism, (and the local residents). This is NOT the time and place to discuss the sad death of a gifted cyclist. Please consider his bereaved family, and bear in mind thar this incident may result in a court case, which could be influenced by opinion and unsubstantiated allegations.

I ask the moderators to enforce this condition.

Topic

[Cycloid]

I sometimes use the public

I sometimes use the public footpath through the graveyard. I will remember your very personal story next time I’m passing through.

[Cycloid]

As usual a considered

 

Good ‘un Rendel,

As usual a considered response in the face of prejudice and bigotry.

[Cycloid]

Lots of inbreeding – they’ve

Lots of inbreeding – they’ve all got webbed feet

[Cycloid]

I concur with your technical

I totally agree with your technical analysis of those roads. I use the same lanes and have had incidents on all of them.

I’m not so sure I can agree with your L**ng B*st*rds conclusion. It’s just prejudice and confusion.

[Accessibility for all]

I cycle through Goostrey

I cycle through Goostrey regularly, usually 2-3 times a week.  I rarely use the Bridge Lane/Twemlow Road junction though, because that road can be a nightmare.  And that junction is awful to use, being right at the bottom of a valley, along a usually busy road used by HGVs.

The whinging in the article is complete bullshit.  It is identical in tone to the Great Budworth whingers, who also talked absolute bollocks.  Nobody is cycling along Bridge Lane at 30mph, not unless they have a 20mph tailwind or are in a huge group.  It simply isn’t that type of road.

I’ve also experienced some serious road rage using Blackden Lane, heading north, because it’s about as wide as a single van and motorists often queue there.  I’ve also had road rage on Hermitage Lane.

Goostrey is generally a very nice place to visit, and the Trading Post shop is a great place to get snacks and drinks.  But the morons commenting in that article are basically lying bastards.

[TheBillder]

brooksby wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Aren’t they all owned by Reach now?  The company which first aggregated all of its local teams into ‘regional’ teams and which has now decreed that all of its staff will work from home permanently…

You’re right, but the company name is “Retch”.

[PRSboy]

At least the editor replied. 

At least the editor replied.  I recently wrote to Autocar about some ignorant anti-cyclist comments in an article; my letter was not published, nor did I hear anything from them.

[Cycloid]

I Believe the reporter is

I Believe the reporter is John Williams a local resident and ex Daily Telegraph

[OnYerBike]

I don’t know about “worst”

I don’t know about “worst” (there is some seriously awful anti-cycling stuff out there) but certainly pretty terrible. The Editor’s reply isn’t much better.

Although the article doesn’t directly blame the cyclist who was recently killed, it does exclusively focus on cyclists being the problem. There is one very vague sentence that suggests the problem might be wider than just cyclists (“It is understood the Bridge Lane junction where the accident happened has been an area of concern discussed by Goostrey Parish Council because of the number of accidents in the vicinity, and an increasing amount of traffic using the lane.”) The article doesn’t mention any of the other issues the Editor mentions in his reply (HGVs, tractors, illegal waste dumping, road disrepair). 

Everything else is just cycle bashing (although there’s no mention of road tax or registration tabbards so not quite a full house on the anti-cycling bingo)

A few of the more glaring issues:

Why on earth does it matter if a cyclist is wearing black? 

With very limited exceptions (e.g. possibly the Royal Parks) speed limits don’t apply to bicycles. That said, I doubt many are actually going at 30mph, let alone faster. I particularly enjoyed Tony’s comment that the speed limit on Twemlow Lane (currently mostly NSL) should be restricted to 30mph, but the problem is still the cyclists who wouldn’t be bound by this hypothetical change. 

A club/group pays to hire out a car park for their own private use and expects to actually get private use of it? Shock horror. No complaint against the landowner who was evidently happy to agree to this arrangement.

The driver in a safe metal box who is traumatised by not killing someone – certainly the victim in this scenario. The cyclist who was nearly killed has no reason to be upset…

There’s also complete conflation/confusion of time trials, road racers, and leisure cycling. I assume the average villager thinks anyone who is wearing lycra must be either in a time trial (if riding alone) or in a race (if with others), whilst to be classified as a “leisure cyclist” one has to be dressed in tweed (or, at a pinch, Barbour).

[Cycloid]

Cheers Mate

Cheers Mate

[Captain Badger]

Cycloid wrote:

Hi Captain

Your Viewpoint is more or less the same as mine.

A cyclist dies,  a village blames the dead cyclist and the local paper facilitates the process.

This is the memorial to the dead cyclist.

 

I got further nonsense from Jem, a cyclist themselves – who’d a thunk it? Apparently this is balanced reporting of both sides of the “debate”. I’m not responding to them further. It’s like arguing with racists.

On a different note, a poignant and fitting memorial.

[Cycloid]

hirsute wrote:

Don’t know if it is the worst,

I don’t agree with you on this point, I think we have all seen much worse on petrol-head bloggs and Twitter. This is in a fairly respected local paper that would say it meets journalistic standards. I think this is about as bad as it gets.

As I said Above:-

Cyclist Dies – Village Blames Dead Cyclist – Local Paper Facilitates

[Cycloid]

Hi Captain

Hi Captain

Your Viewpoint is more or less the same as mine.

A cyclist dies,  a village blames the dead cyclist and the local paper facilitates the process.

This is the memorial to the dead cyclist.

 

[Waleskun]

I know Goostrey fairly well.
I know Goostrey fairly well. I’ve trained, raced and done TTs around there. My best friend is also from there although he now resides in the graveyard mentioned in the article. I’ve managed to get over and see him quite often and I’ve always managed to do it without a car. Even if I had driven and couldn’t use the village carpark there are plenty of other places to park really close by.

I ‘get’ frustrations with bad roads, speeding drivers, illegal dumps, HGVs and tractors. However using cyclists as a kind of proxy for dissatisfaction over these issues isn’t acceptable, especially attached to the death of a rider. The article is bollocks

[peted76]

Wow.. that article is pretty

Wow.. that article is pretty special.

I can see why the ‘reporter’ wouldn’t want to put their name to it.

[Author]

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