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
SUMMARY
Our 2020 Tour de France content is powered by Zwift
zwift.com/uk
A school bus of bikes
“It’s brilliant! Once you start you can’t stop. You’re hooked.”
Public school students in Ireland have replaced school buses and personal vehicles with a “school bus” of bikes. 🚲 📚
🎥 @rtenews pic.twitter.com/4hwrLEXavY
— Jonathan Berk (@berkie1) September 1, 2020
Had any experience with the Fix Your Bike voucher scheme? We want hear from you
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@road.cc to tell us more.
Tour de France stage 6: an early breakaway has formed
The early breakaway:
L’échappée du jour :
🇫🇷 @remicav
🇧🇪 @GregVanAvermaet
🇪🇸 @jesushl90
🇮🇪 @nicholasroche
🇺🇸 @NPowless
🇮🇹 @Daniel87Oss
🇳🇴 @EBhagen
🇰🇿 @AlexeyLutsenko3 #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/KT39IbrwSW— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 3, 2020
Some big names are in there including Greg Van Avermaet, Nicholas Roche and Edvald Boasson Hagen.
Cycling UK launch 'AA for cyclists', offering bike maintenance tips, directions and more
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.”
Deliveroo workers hold vigil for rider who was killed in hit-and-run
Crowds of Deliveroo workers gather at The Spire in Dublin in a vigil to Deliveroo delivery cyclist Thiago Cortes who died from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run incident in Dublin on Monday. pic.twitter.com/Pqxq0QfQX3
— Conor McCrave (@Conor_McCrave) September 2, 2020
Very large turnout at Dublin #justiceforthiago vigil/rally in honour of Thiago Cortes, who died after a hit-and-run in Dublin on Monday night.
The procession took almost 15 minutes to pass; Brazilian community and Deliveroo workers joined by Just Eat and Uber Eats colleagues. pic.twitter.com/4wDU1H5Aal
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) September 2, 2020
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.”
Worcester cyclist films head-on traffic driving towards him in cycle lane
@LA_Griffiths @myworcester @BikeWorcester Please could you tell me where I need to take my complaint to regarding taxi ranking at Foregate St Station? You’ll see from the video, taken by me on my bike, cars are forced to cross into the bus/cycle lane on the other side of the road pic.twitter.com/cDOgGSmk5J
— Andy Foster (@Wusster) August 29, 2020
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.”
"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.”
TDF: Alexey Lutsenko is away
With 10km to go @AlexeyLutsenko3 leads solo with an advantage of 28 seconds!💪 GO! GO! GO! #AstanaProTeam #TDF2020
📷@GettySport pic.twitter.com/Ubg293iU8J— Astana Pro Team (@AstanaTeam) September 3, 2020
🏁 5km to go for 🇰🇿 @AlexeyLutsenko3!
🏁 Plus que 5km pour 🇰🇿 @AlexeyLutsenko3 !#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/IiDJqj56P9
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 3, 2020
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?
Lutsenko wins stage 6
🏆 🇰🇿 @AlexeyLutsenko3 claims the win! 🏆
🏆 🇰🇿 @AlexeyLutsenko3 s’impose en solitaire ! 🏆#TDF2020 #TDFUnited pic.twitter.com/ZAyEyJkkqY
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 3, 2020
The Kazakh dominated the stage in his biggest professional win to date – full story here.
Alaphilippe trolls the GC contenders by grabbing some extra seconds
Pas mal Julian Alaphilippe 👏 pic.twitter.com/LjFttMv9Va
— Papa Julian Alaphilippe 🇸🇳 (@PAlaphilippe) September 3, 2020
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?
"It didn't happen overnight": Is London going through what Amsterdam went through decades ago?
From car-centric to cycle-centric:
It didn’t happen overnight, it didn’t come easy but Amsterdam in recent decades did a great effort and became more beautiful, more lively and safer.
Currently the Haarlemmerdijk is open for cyclists only.#bikeAMS #cycling #livablecities pic.twitter.com/S6tNm3Khu0
— Thomas Schlijper (@schlijper) September 2, 2020
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.
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
— 🇯🇲ShengYeng Sabz🇯🇲 #BLM✊🏾 (@Sabrina_tweets) September 1, 2020
It’s stressful. They don’t want us to drive yet they’re saying we should also avoid public transport unless it’s essential..
— Kamba (@DJ_Kamba) September 3, 2020
Yes. It’s mad. The road out my house is being cut in half and blocked off so you have to go a long way round. This doesn’t mean i don’t have to use the damn car, it means I’m gonna use it more for the xtra distance! 😡
So many roads as well. The cyclist lanes are a joke as well— Mouneer El (@MounireljJ) September 2, 2020
Just on my way home and decided to take a short cut I know through Hither Green,
All the back roads are now blocked by planters putting traffic on the main roads at a standstill.
Lewisham Council are just as bat shit crazy as Islington,Camden,Wandsworth etc#gettheroadsopenagain— Des Powell (@dpowell248) September 3, 2020
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.
Let’s surf TfL’s traffic cameras around the Oval #LowTrafficNeighbourhood where, according to some locals, the surrounding roads are gridlocked since the #LTN was installed.
Oh. pic.twitter.com/kYuFXURD6J— always last (@lastnotlost) September 3, 2020
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.
"Bring your bike": Extinction Rebellion protesters block Mayfair, Trafalgar Square and Lambeth Bridge
Bring your bike, now occupying Lambeth Bridge #CriticalMass @CMassLondon @XRLambeth #ActNow This is a Climate and Ecological Emergency – see you in the streets #WeWantToLive pic.twitter.com/D8LzAv9XUV
— Extinction Rebellion UK 🌍 (@XRebellionUK) September 3, 2020
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.
Boris Johnson's cycling revolution is a "gross deception", says leading anti-obesity campaigner
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!
3 September 2020, 10:06
New integrated, disc-only aero road bling from Basso
Basso launches redesigned Diamante SV with a cleaner front end, disc-only frameset and bigger gaps for a claimed aero improvement
The Diamante SV has been redesigned with compliance in mind. Basso’s race bike now comes with a slight more relaxed geometry too.
3 September 2020, 10:06
3 September 2020, 10:06
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £2.49. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
46 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
@Wales56 Thank you for that. I visited Bristol yesterday. Bus and train. I was astounded by the number of cyclists even on the steep hills in a heatwave. Many people still drive though and the traffic was horrendous meaning a short bus journey from Temple Meads to the center took ages. Quicker than walking (just) but cycling would have been much quicker. The number of cycle paths does mean you need to be aware as a pedestrian but I was prepared for this after getting in the way of a cyclist on my previous vist a few years ago. Needless to say the train on the return journey was overcrowded (had to stand for the journey) and delayed and meaning missing a few public transport connections which made the journey take longer than needed. Even with these frustrations it was much more relaxing than driving. 20 years ago I would have driven without even thinking about it.
@quiff Should be on a new sub-tier website 'OffroadRacing.cc' :)
There you go, getting in a tangle over terminology again - you've written 'subtle', when what you meant was 'incoherent'.
…serves you right for seeking out such a cliche of a photo opp! 🙃 sunflowers, please 🙄
@quiff The police definitely can't park where they like (rephrase: legally they definitely can't park where they like, in practice…), if they are not on emergency response all traffic laws and regulations apply to them just as they do to the ordinary motorist. I have an ongoing battle with the Met regarding the bus lane outside King's College Hospital on Denmark Hill; every morning there will be three or four police cars or vans parked in the lane, often on the zigzags of the pelican crossing there, forcing buses, motorcyclists and cyclists to switch out into the busy main traffic lane. As a user of the hospital myself I know that very rarely do they have any police business in the hospital, they are usually getting coffee and doughnuts from the in-hospital Costa. The Met has admitted that they should not be parking there and promised to sort it out, but my dialogue with them has lasted more than five years now and every morning they are still there just the same.
@Cayo I’m very much pro-Police, but that particular issue only serves to normalise pavement parking Well, I'm very much anti-police, but not over trivial parking decisions while they're actually working against offenders, as opposed to sitting about thinking up reasons why they can't act over well-supported and evidenced reports of serious offending
This ancient topic has been revived at the same time as another topic questioned the competence of police 'experts'. On 2014 the police blatantly just 'made up facts', so the question arises 'are they any better now when they varnish up their reports with a load of pseudo-scientific bollocks?'
I attended this inquest & was appalled at the poor way that evidences was handled Venera was rammed from behind by the truck driver who had barely reached 12 mph The coroner was told that there was another (untraced) vehicle ahead of the truck that hit Venera as this traffic moved away Venera was a fit regular cyclist riding Stratford to City of London on fixed wheel - no evidence was presented to indicate her typical average speed for this journey (it woiuld have been significantly faster than 12mph!). No evidence was presented concerning the vehicle travelling in front of the truck The circulating traffic on the roundabout routinely runs the red lights cutting across cycle traffic as much as 10 seconds after the cycle traffic gets a green light - I have a picture of the green light for cycle traffic shining through the windows of a bus that has been driven through the red signal
re: occasions when police needlessly pavement park... You only need to watch Police Interceptors and the like to see how unbothered they are. Usually, when they pull over a motorist, said driver mounts the pavement (and cop often does the same), yet there's never any mention of the illegality* or needless manner of their parking. (*Highway Code infraction, even if not against the law in the location being shown). I'm very much pro-Police, but that particular issue only serves to normalise pavement parking.
(Before the days of blatent angle grinder use) At my first job, my boss wouldn't allow me to bring my bike indoors, despite there being room. I had to lock it to the railings on a busy street. Came out one night to find it still there... but with signs of attempted theft. Unable to defeat the lock, they'd cut my cables (clearly with proper cutters), purely out of spite😠 Nothing missing - they'd just been petty. At least it persuaded my boss to relent: bike was indoors after that.
46 thoughts on “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”
Love love love the idea of
Love love love the idea of cycling buses – if there’s anything that make the idea of more cycling, better infrastructure and a step change in driving mentality this should be it.
Compact Corned Beef wrote:
We definitely need more of this.
(However, BooBoo would complain about all the congestion they’d cause with 5+ cyclists).
It is only the adult cyclists
It is only the adult cyclists who cause congestion because the children’s bikes are smaller.
hirsute wrote:
They only make a *little* bump if you drive straight over them
(Please don’t drive over them)
Riding two abreast and not
Riding two abreast and not pulling over to let the cars by….. tut tut.
Wish a Twitterer would put
Wish a Twitterer would put the “Styo” twit back in his box, with his ‘research’ about travelling in the wake of exhaled covid plumes.
Did they reply to the bus
Did they reply to the bus thread as I didn’t see it. However I did notice the one doubting thomas on it is a London Cabbie. What are the odds?
Anyone know why the cycle
Anyone know why the cycle lane on the bridge appears to be opposite priority then normal? Right hand side lane forward travel rather then left?
Shouldn’t make a difference really but just strange to see on Left hand side roads.
This is entirely speculative,
This is entirely speculative, but could it something to do with entry and exit to the bike lane? The forward lane can fork off/merge seamlessly with the main carriageway, whilst the oncoming cycle lane will necessarily have to have more convoluted access points anyway and putting it on the “wrong” side doesn’t make this any worse (and retains the simplicity for the forward lane).
Andy Foster from Worcester
Andy Foster from Worcester should take his complaint to the police; that is dangerous parking, which is a police matter.
eburtthebike wrote:
I doubt you’d get the police interested. It is not dangerous parking in the sense that the parked cars are not posing an imminent threat; rather the danger is caused by other drivers avoiding the obstruction and thereby endangering other road users.
Obstructing the highway is also a police matter and might be more pertinent here, although again I think you would struggle. After all, its perfectly possible for the drivers to avoid the obstruction by driving over the magic line of paint, and if there’s something squishy coming the other way that’s hardly a problem now, is it?
OnYerBike wrote:
I’m sure you are right, but that won’t be much consolation to the relatives of the dead cyclist. I would argue very strongly that the drivers’ parking is creating the danger and the police should be taking action.
Re: Worcester cyclist. “The
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…
But they were ‘forced’ to
But they were ‘forced’ to overtake. Waiting was not an option.
Also seems like that bus
Also seems like that bus could’ve made a better job of pulling in, and not left it’s backside hanging out, which would have meant that the cars would have been able to pass it without swinging in to the bus/cycle lane.
A 30cm high concrete curb
A 30cm high concrete curb should pursuade drivers not to cross into the bike lane.
I came here to say exactly
I came here to say exactly this.
Andy says “You’ll see from the video, taken by me on my bike, cars are forced to cross into the bus/cycle lane on the other side of the road”. This is only true if cars are not forced to stop by their drivers when it would be dangerous to continue.
Not a dig at Andy at all, and I agree it’s worth following up with the taxi firm. But those drivers were breaking the law by driving across the solid white line into a mandatory cycle lane, worsened by the fact that Andy was there and they still did it. They should be reported and the police should do something about those drivers.
The Olympic swimmer Michael
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.
Not all of us have the time
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.
He was in good shape while
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.
From Wikipedia:
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.
Thank you for comfirming my
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.
Dr Malhotra’s comments seem
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.
Dr Malhotra’s comments seem
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.
There are a heap of other
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.
There are a lot of studies
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
I’m familiar with that study,
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.
I totally agree.
I totally agree.
Dietary changes make more difference to one’s health than exercise.
Both are ideal.
You totally agree with
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.
NZ Vegan Rider wrote:
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.
The extreme cohort aren’t
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.
FlyingPenguin wrote:
You are Dr Malhotra and ICMFP.
That pavement parking
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…
kil0ran wrote:
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.
Because Mr Loophole – the
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.
‘Driving in London is
‘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.
Lukas wrote:
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.
Everything about Boris
Everything about Boris Johnson is a gross deception. Why would a cycling policy with his name attached be any different?
MattieKempy wrote:
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.
I eat the same crap diet all
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.
I agree …. for me there is
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.
Back in the days when I
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.
LTNs: Please could motorists
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
LetsBePartOfTheSolution wrote
And, presumably, custom kitchens, refrigerators, and colour TVs?
Should have learned to play
Should have learned to play the guitar, if you ask me….
Diet IS key. You’re wasting
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!!