Police launch road safety operation… by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge; Reaction to government’s Active Travel Strategy; Dauphiné sprint + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge
It’s a story as old as time, when we are obliged to wonder how well police are effectively utilising their resources.
West Mercia Police have confirmed they are supporting the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) “Two Wheels” campaign which aims to improve road safety for motorcyclists and cyclists. Thankfully I don’t need to run through the whole shebang, when Ryan has done a whole write-up on the hypocrisy of double-standards-ing of the operation.
But there was one nugget of the story that caught our attention, in Hereford. The best way officers could be deployed to promote road safety that they could think of? Patrolling a Victorian footbridge.
“Officers will be carrying out targeted patrols and engagement to:
Encourage safe, responsible riding and driving Educate riders on skills, knowledge, and protective equipment Promote awareness of the Highway Code and road user hierarchy Remind everyone to share the road safely.
“This morning, officers were out on Victoria Bridge, speaking with members of the public about the No Cycling Zone. 
Over 30 people were stopped and spoken to 
Cyclists were reminded to dismount and walk their bikes across the bridge 
Advice was given around the reasons for the restriction and the consequences of not following it
“We’re here to keep everyone safe – whether you’re walking, cycling, riding, or driving.”
It’s clear cyclists aren’t permitted to cycle over the bridge – and shouldn’t. But does an officer being there make a substantive difference compared to the multiple signs? Does their presence significantly reduce the danger risk to all drivers, cyclists and motorcyclists? Thankfully many Facebook commenters think not:
“How about they stop the people in cars and vans from shouting abuse at people trying to get to and from work on a cycle on the roads it’s really upsetting and unnerving.”
“Have they nothing better to do, it’s not the best way of using limited resources”
“Well if this action doesn’t resolve all these deaths then I don’t know what will, obviously a well thought through operation by the geniuses at Hereford Police.”
The mind boggles sometimes…
"The scale requires complete transformation of streets": Reaction to new Active Travel Investment Strategy
It’s been a frantic morning for our Ryan, after details of the government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, which we reported yesterday was “imminent”, have been leaked. But he’s done a sterling job, of summarising everything that you can read in full here:
The short version is that the government is pledging lots of money to focus on changing “everyday” travel needs. Specific targets include constructing 5,000 new cycling and walking routes in England by 2030, and 10,000 safer crossings. The £4.5 billion pledged to do it is a marked increase on the £3.78 billion last pledged in 2022, although when adjusted for inflation, the increase is around £90 million. But that’s enough of the details, you know where you can find them above.
Already, reaction is trickling in, the headline proposal being getting 60 percent of children walking, scooting or cycling to school.
Motonormativity man Ian Walker was among the first to look at the government’s new targets and said, “I shall watch this with interest. There’s no way to get 60% of kids actively travelling to school without disrupting current patterns of car-based mobility. This includes making all urban streets safer, not just those right outside schools.”
Martin Price, former chair of Better Streets for Birmingham, wrote “I suspect the big numbers will rely on existing urban grant funding that has to fund all modes [of travel].”
Active Travel Planner Mark Strong also crunched the numbers and tried to apply the travel habits to children in both rural and urban areas. Having identified 16 percent of children live in rural areas, he wrote “even if *all* rural under-18s are driven to school, reaching the 60% of all children using active travel would only push the target up to 71% for urban children!”
“This goal is very much achievable,” wrote John Munro. “If they don’t achieve it, it will be because the relevant authorities prioritized the existing goal of maintaining maximum convenience for car owners above all else instead.”
On the other hand, Bluesky user Rich wrote “The scale of increase they want requires complete transformation of streets/infra & I’m not sure the signs yet show that level of commitment.”
Meanwhile Peter Walker, who broke the initial embargo, wrote, “it’s interesting that part of the reason for focusing on schools is – and this is unspoken – that it’s harder for the anti-bike zealots to object to routes for kids.”
That may be true, but a government policy shaped around “anti-bike zealotry” might not be quite what the doctor ordered. Particularly when we know what doctors want is people exercising. Still, campaigns to get children cycling have worked in the past…
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome! We should say as well that we have reached out to Cycling UK for comment.
Dauphiné: Van Aert wins!
Expert work from the Belgian who, with a lead-out from Edoardo Affini, made no mistake to take his first win since that famous victory at Paris-Roubaix!
Hugo Hofstetter was an impressive second for NSN ahead of Bahrain’s Phil Bauhaus.
Never doubt Wout! 🙌
The Belgian delivers a huge sprint to win the bunch sprint, for his first victory since Paris-Roubaix 💪 pic.twitter.com/L9eDP13UZo
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 11, 2026
Police chiefs accused of ignoring “massive imbalance” as new campaign brands road safety “a shared duty” as officers crack down on rule-breaking riders
“Car drivers kill around five people every day in Britain and seriously injure dozens of others. Cyclists, by contrast, hardly ever kill anybody else.”
This is the future our children want
It’s one thing focusing on getting children to school, but if adults can be convinced to travel actively, that’s surely more effective?
Bike parking at a small urban festival in Denmark
by
u/kaptajn-idiot in
bikecommuting
This Reddit poster said the festival organisers provided low fencing so cyclists could both lock their bikes to something and move through the space to find their bike in the middle of the parking.
Dauphiné: All to plan
Not too much to report from the Dauphiné, where live coverage got underway a little while ago. Six riders are up the road including former Tour de France stage winner Hugo Houle and Thibault Guernalec, who suffered a horrific injury in the off-season when he was hit by a driver.
The sextet have an advantage hovering around a minute and a half with just under 65km remaining. It’s all still going to plan for the unexpected race leader Alex Baudin…
👋 @Alexbaudin73 💛#TourAuvergneRhoneAlpes@MaillotjauneLCL pic.twitter.com/UZssScTfLg
— Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (@tourauverhalpes) June 11, 2026
21st century Obree
I’m actually quite fond of this comparison…
View this post on Instagram
And, just in case you need the context:
> Jan-Willem Van Schip’s manager blasts “inhumane” treatment over latest disqualification
Planner asks internet
Do you ever look at a piece of cycle infrastructure and wonder if the designer of such a thing has ever ridden a bike? Has a local authority, in a desperate plea for funding, mocked up a dreadful design without thinking what it might be like to use a cycle lane or a shared-use path? Reassuringly, it’s good to know that some planners are better than others…
“Hi all, I won’t be giving away too much information but I am an Active Transportation Planner with a London Borough,” writes one Reddit user.
“Looking for feedback from cyclists as I have a tricky section of a future shared use path that I am struggling to engineer around. Essentially we want to build a shared use path in a more ‘rural’ area, 90% of this path can be built to standards I.e. 3m minimum however there is one small (26m long section) that is 1.6m wide with no option to widen.
“Anyone have any examples of ‘pinch points’ on a shared use/ cycle path that they like/love or hate. Looking for good ideas or bad ideas to avoid, otherwise the options include a ‘cyclists dismount sign’ which I don’t want to do or abandon the path entirely. Thanks!”
Unsurprisingly, the top-ranked comment is short but sweet: “Just want to add that it’s great to be asked!”
So starts a rather nice conversation about the perils of current planning decisions, namely what the original poster describes as “the ‘anti- bike’ ‘it’s a war on cars’ ‘stop being woke’ brigade” who tend to hijack any public consultation. A cyclist themself, the planner is “just [a] fellow cyclist who wants safer and more efficient cycle infrastructure.
“The best designers are those that use this type of infrastructure daily.”
We couldn’t agree more, and today is a day where the internet delivers. Nearly 100 comments have been left for users expressing their concerns over “shared-use” paths, the difficulty in enforcing “cyclists dismount” signs. Among the two most popular positive solutions is one user who highlighted the benefit of additional lane markings, and another who recommended a small chicane to slow cyclists down through the narrow section.
Your own thoughts are, of course, more than welcome. But how good/refreshing is it for a cycle planner to go out of their way to consult fellow cyclists?!
Evenepoel prep ramps up
View on Threads
Imagine cycling to Villa Park or Hampden Park through Cannon Hill Park or Kelvingrove…
Hilly, Pog-friendly course unveiled for LA28
Everyone has a Remco Evenepoel opinion, I even managed to squeeze him into my latest medium-length mild take.
And where I earlier mentioned his commercial assets as a Red Bull athlete – a big part of that stems from the fact he’s actually a YouTuber with a new video out! In his latest production, we see the Belgian at altitude camp in Tenerife, training for the Tour de France having decided not to race a warm-up event between now and July. We get a glimpse into life in cafes, on yoga mats and, as you might expect, on a saddle. We also get some nuggets of data!
In a four-and-a-half hour “controlled threshold” session, we see Evenepoel performing repeated interval efforts between 8 and 15 minutes in length. His threshold on the mountain? 425 watts.
I think I could just about best that on a short sprint, for that to not even register as one of his most “explosive” days is a pretty good reminder of how utterly good at cycling elite cyclists are. And how my chances of turning pro get slimmer with each passing biscotti.
Dauphiné preview: Sprinters respite
The organising committee of the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles have announced that both the road race and time trial events will finish in Griffith Park, with the Olympics finishing up at the Griffith Observatory, nestled in the Hollywood hills.
The latest news confirms what has been rumoured for some time, that the race organisers are planning a rather brutal course with plenty of climbing. The Olympic Games are, after all, one of the few big races that Tadej Pogačar has yet to win. In 2021 he was denied by a perfectly timed Richard Carapaz attack on the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, and then forced to sprint for the lesser medals, finishing third.
Then, in 2024 he skipped the Games entirely, blaming both fatigue and the non-selection of his fiancee Urška Žigart, despite her being the reigning Slovenian champion. With Pogačar’s contract only running until 2030 (by which point he’ll be 32) and him having hinted at not exactly stretching his career out that long, it might be now (then) or never for the two-time World Champion.
One bike, two boats, Red Bull doing Red Bull things
Maybe it’s the first sign that we’re not in the Dauphiné era anymore, as much as we deep down want to be, that we’re halfway through the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and have yet to have a single sprint stage.
Finally though, we should have a day for the fast men, although you have to wonder how many fast men there actually are in the race, given most teams are smart enough to look at a stage profiles before rocking up on the startlist. Wout van Aert is here though, and after a couple of ropey days earlier in the week, including being the first Visma rider dropped on the Team Time Trial, he was the fastest sprinter in the peloton behind the breakaway yesterday. A good Tour de France needs a Van Aert in-form, so fingers crossed he can be in contention today.
Other fast men include Dorian Godon, who has won consistently since switching to Netcompany-Ineos, and surely two of the great nearly men of this sprint generation in Bryan Coquard and Phil Bauhaus. We’ll bring you the race updates a little bit later…
Standard 'exclusive' claims Transport for London "covering up" cycling crashes - weeks after government released figures
I quite like the normal Red Bull ads to be honest. The 2-D, seemingly hand-drawn stories illustrating how the disgusting drink can give you wings. Reminds me of Rhubarb & Custard.
Na na na NAHH! Na na na NAHH! NAH ner ner ner NAHH!
But this is Red Bull, and eyeballs need captivating, just ask Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert or any members of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe (although Remco Evenepoel is probably a better bet than… Ben Zwiehoff – that’s an example, sorry Ben)
So of course we have a video of a bike flip across two moving boats. Because why not…
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With so many people using and looking at mobie phones whilst driving and other distractions, may I suggest you always wear Hi viz and stay at home.
The design of the "car" has played a role in this. SUVs and what the Americans call "trucks" are exempt from the pedestrian safety regulations which apply to passenger cars. Had the victim been hit by a car designed in the past twenty years he would have been "scooped" onto the bonnet and either over the roof or off to one side. Still a serious injury risk and potentially fatal but they have the benefit of those passive safety systems to improve their chances. With vehicles with such a high bonnet line as this Volvo has what tends to happen is the person bounces off the bonnet and falls on the road in front of the vehicle where they're then run over. This has happened time and time again and is becoming more of an issue as the numbers of vehicles exempt from the safety standards grows.
@Accessibility for all Reducing the speeds wouldn't have helped in this case as the driver was reported doing 65 in a 40 zone on the approach to the junction, his driving described by the witnesses as erratic and evidently had no intention to stop to give way even though he had been warned by the passenger who apparently shouted "bike" three times just before the collision. He would have likely flown through that junction even if it was traffic light controlled with a red light for him at the time. In my own experience the entire area i.e. east of Lymm towards Warburton and along Dunham Road all the way up to Altrincham and past into Hale Barns, all those wealthy, posh settlements around Manchester Airport are best avoided by road cyclists. A disproportionally high number of psycho drivers must for some reason live in that area because every single time I went there on my road bike in the past, I either got harassed myself or witnessed proper dickhead driving - speeding, close passes, overtaking into oncoming traffic or round a blind bend, accelerating towards pedestrians already crossing the road, you name it. I gave up road cycling in that area years ago and only use the local TPT these days.
In respect of the murder charge: based on him hitting Mr Mullins and making no attempt to help him (this killing him), how would the case compare to a hit and run driver who seriously injures or kills a cyclist, knowingly, and flees the scene without helping? Would this make the cut for a murder charge? Or is there something very different going on here that I’m missing? Genuinely curious because I don’t recall there being a murder charge before for this kind of thing unless it was premeditated. In fact, in my experience most cases like this seem to go the opposite way - where the driver can merely say the sun was in their eyes and get away with a slap on the hands.
@Rendel Harris...and there was me dishing out the praise!
@polainm He must also be an already hardened criminal. It wasn't mentioned during the court proceedings to avoid influencing the jurors and ensuring he had a fair trial, but he had been released from prison shortly before this incident and was couch surfing at his cousin's house days before. Just look at his face, he's only 35, but looks older than his victim who was 56. Must have spent half his adult life in prison.
@jaymack They did offer him manslaughter though but he declined to plead guilty. Without wanting to seem curmudgeonly, yes great that they preferred the most serious charges but hard to see how they could have done differently considering that Richardson got out of the car, saw Mr Mullins was stuck underneath and then got back in and carried on. That clearly moved it above anything that falls under death by dangerous driving.
@thrawed Agree - the UK winters are utterly grim; grey, wet & windy. Not the type of weather you really want to go out and ride. Everything get covered in filth, and takes time to clean it after a ride. Oh for colder, drier & crisper days which can be enjoyable to be out in.
@ymm In my view, lax sentencing of dangerous drivers, especially where cyclists are involved, makes the judge, jury and CPS complicit in UK driver culture. This driver is a sociopath.
@Mr Blackbird i reckon the libido is a bit overrated. I'd let that go rather than a limb or a nice bike.
21 thoughts on “Police launch road safety operation… by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge; Reaction to government’s Active Travel Strategy; Dauphiné sprint + more on the live blog”
Wow – some warm words and enthusiastic goals from the government about active travel
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/11/ministers-pupils-england-active-travel-school-cycing-walking-heidi-alexander
Now, let’s see some ACTION!
Yes let’s see action.
The draft CWIS3 was unambitious, and I don’t expect the final version to be much better.
The funding for active travel is disappointing, and there is little or no political will for meaningful change.
I’m in favour of making cycling to school safe by building proper cycle facilities in towns and cities for everyone – not by putting in a few metres of cycle track to a school entrance then giving up.
Well, accommodating the motor vehicle required “transformation of streets”, so we’ve proved that it’s possible…🙄
@belugabob true, but doing that and persuading most parents to drive their children to school entailed a hefty sacrifice of children – and not a few parents.
(Luckily that was “back then” and we probably wouldn’t tolerate it now… OTOH while “fixing things” should have much smaller casualty numbers, “during the transition” it could well increase…)
@chrisonabike – I agree, but my point was more about the reluctance/pushback involved, rather than the effectiveness/safety of any schemes that are/might be rolled out
Indeed – but alas I think this is an effective argument for very few folks indeed. As for push-back, what else could we expect *?
I think there are ways of selling this but we’re far more likely to see headlines about the problems, while the successes are relegated to footnotes, because at that point it just works and there’s nothing to see…
* Given that this time there aren’t politicians being persuaded to overlook thousands of deaths and the demolition of property by the billions from the motoring trades (and the excitement of being able to drive out with the bright things for a party at a roadhouse). Nor are we as tolerant of “accidents”. (And noting that publicity about the cases of a handful of people killed by cyclists continues to reach the media; deaths related to motor vehicles not so much).
@belugabob Arguably it’s easier this way – we don’t actually need to do anything to the streets except stop drivers driving down every scrap of tarmac. Where I live, a few well-placed bollards would make walking/cycling/scooting the quicker option and safer, while maintaining 100% vehicular access – just not allowing through routes in every direction.
yes, but people will still object – which was my point.
That rather ignores that the children of today are the adults of tomorrow.
Yes, but they’re copying the adults of today…
Obree had some actual talent in his legs though, in addition to his bike/aero engineering talent.
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he’s a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don’t get there without having some talent in your legs.
@Rendel Harris Hmm…. I stand corrected.
I still think Obree had a /lot/ more talent. And Jan-Willem today clearly has dropped in levels, relative to those he’s racing against.
RE: Police launch road safety operation… by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge
Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge.
https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
Harm minimization – at least they’re not driving…
@chrisonabike ‘Minimisation’ please!
‘Leasting’? That’s a whole 4 letters less.
@kinderje Are you aware that -ise endings are actually the newer form, having supplanted -ize (as used by Shakespeare, the King James Bible and Jane Austen, amongst many others) in the mid 19th century? Etymologically there is a far better argument for -ize endings for words with Greek and Latin roots than the -ise ending which arose from Victorian publishers imitating French verb endings. Both endings are now regarded as acceptable in British English, although the Oxford style guide recommends -ize. It is most certainly not incorrect.
@Rendel Harris Thanks for that – every day’s a school day.
I had actually put ‘Pedant mode off’ under my comment but it didn’t post and then as we all know, and are frustrated with, we can’t edit posts any more.
I will not correct anyone again – however, -ize still looks too American English for me. Cheers
This is like something from a kids’ activity book. “The editor has a bit of a hangover this morning. Can you help him match the headline to the correct story?”
Happens on a regular basis – seems to be one of the many exciting new ‘features’ of the new platform.