Review begins into “sodding waste of money” cycle lanes blasted by Rupert Lowe as “central planning lunacy” + more on the live blog
Review launched into Rupert Lowe's favourite cycle lane
How times have changed! In scrolling through our archives for this story, I found a story from 2012 that wondered if Great Yarmouth would become Britain’s cycling capital, there was even talk of a velodrome!
That now all feels a very long time ago. I mean 14 years is quite a long time, but still, the rate at which attitudes have changed is remarkable. Today, Great Yarmouth has become the personal fiefdom of Rupert Lowe, the Reform UK MP who fell out with Nigel Farage and established his own party with an immigration policy even to the right of where the BNP once stood.
His Restore Britain affiliate in Great Yarmouth now hold the balance of power on Norfolk County Council, and have used their power to order council officers to review two newly installed cycle lanes in Great Yarmouth. For Lowe at least, this is a long-running vendetta.
Well, they’ve got their wish, with the Great Yarmouth Mercury reporting that the council has confirmed the review into the £500,000 Gorleston cycle lane “is currently under way and once complete, the findings will be shared with elected members before anything is published more widely.”
Disappointingly, the paper also quoted two residents, 83 and 64, opposing the scheme, although the latter, a cyclist himself, was mainly critical of the scheme’s cost rather than the final outcome.
So that’s something to look forward to, an effective use of council resources all round…
Red Bull & Jayco-AlUla unveil their Tour teams
The startlist for the Tour de France is coming along nicely.
Whilst we were all failing to sleep, the Australian Jayco-AlUla team announced their eight man roster and have opted to hedge their bets somewhat, taking Pascal Ackermann for the bunch sprints, Michael Matthews for the reduced bunch sprints, Mauro Schmid for the punchy breakaways, and Ben O’Connor for the high mountains, though there’s no mention in the team’s press release of any GC ambition for O’Connor who struggled to make an impression during the Giro d’Italia. In an age of the super teams, you suspect a stage win and presence in the breakaway will probably be enough for the team’s sponsors.
One of those super teams, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have confirmed that Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz will return to the Tour de France as co-leaders racing for the overall.
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The team can count on Jai Hindley as a super-luxury-domestique-deluxe, fresh from his third career podium at the Giro d’Italia, whilst Maxim Van Gils showed his worth defending Luke Tuckwell’s podium place at the Dauphine a couple of weeks ago. Mattia Cattaneo, Jan Tratnik are both strong on the flat and can climb, whilst the selections of Nico Denz and Tim van Dijke over purer climbers suggest the team will be targeting the opening Team Time Trial as an early chance to nab the yellow jersey.
Whether their team leaders will have the knack of holding on to it when the going gets tough is another matter…
Misleading headline of the week...
As click-bait headlines go, this one actually worked. On our cycling brains anyway…
Our thought process went something along the lines of:
“What?! This is bonkers, why the hell should cyclists be subject to… ah no ok. Fair play, lovely stuff.”
To be clear, cyclists an horse riders will not be subject to a lower speed limit than other road users. Rather the speed limit on the road has been reduced for all road users, for the benefit of cyclists and horse riders. Lodge Road in Cranfield, Bedfordshire will be designated a Quiet Lane and “aims to improve safety.” Kudos to their sub-editor though, that got us engaged…
That's some saddle work...
Impressive, although the caveat might have to be “The first person who BMXed Mont Ventoux… on camera.”
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Council fails to mark its own homework
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It's a typo with the units - when you round down, 8470 grams = 8.2 kibigrams
I think they have to be better organised to be actual Fascists.
A slightly odd way of putting it. 'Balance of power' usually implies sitting between two larger groups, with the potential of working with either one of them. In this case, Reform are three shy of a majority, and no-one else is close. They could, theoretically*, form a majority with any one of four other parties with minor representation, and Restore would be considered to sit politically to the other side of them from the other three. [* The Greens and the Lib Dems seem... unlikely, and presumably the Conservatives, who have one seat less than Restore, either refused or were considered a less amenable partner.]
@wtjs Seems to be some confusion about the weight also:
If Rupert Lowe is upset that cycle lanes are centrally planned, wait until he finds out about roads!
@Blackthorne83 Still at least the name isn't plastered on the frame in enormous letters so that "PEED" is the first thing you see when you pull up alongside. Oh wait... Maybe Bulhit.com and Asewipe.com were already taken?
I’d love it if the actual final report said “you know what, the cycle route is great” (And, whilst I don’t want to get too non-cycling related, but Lowe’s party is accurately described as fascist. An over-used word for sure, but meets the Umberto Eco definition. For a start, their official spokesperson said that non-Christians aren’t truly British, which is definitely Nuremberg race laws in style)
@bensynnock Poorly designed for who? If you're the kind of person happy cycling on a wide straight 50mph then this isn't for you in the first place. I'll take the "poorly designed" infra that doesn't involve getting buzzed by some wanker in an SUV, thanks.
@Aluminium can And how goes the friendship since?
If ... ... but since we've fixed it so everything says "the roads are for motorists ... and in fact being a driver is part of your status" what on earth would change the system from that stable point? (Exhortations, greater criminal penalties and even more policing - to affordable levels - won't). Without changes which physically limit things like speed and interaction with vulnerable road users drivers will keep causing damage - because cars are heavy and can quickly reach high speeds and drivers are humans. So... I think while perhaps the majority of *space* could be "shared" (as very low speed "streets" with no through traffic and little motor traffic at all) ... while there's any kind of "motoring" at all, never mind "mass motoring" we'll always need "traffic calming". Or rather "infrastructure that manages the danger due to motorists through physical design". And where speeds are much higher than say 20mph - separate space for motor vehicles, cycling and walking. Ultimately for safer spaces, nicer places we need a lot less driving.
4 thoughts on “Review begins into “sodding waste of money” cycle lanes blasted by Rupert Lowe as “central planning lunacy” + more on the live blog”
I’d love it if the actual final report said “you know what, the cycle route is great”
(And, whilst I don’t want to get too non-cycling related, but Lowe’s party is accurately described as fascist. An over-used word for sure, but meets the Umberto Eco definition. For a start, their official spokesperson said that non-Christians aren’t truly British, which is definitely Nuremberg race laws in style)
I think they have to be better organised to be actual Fascists.
If Rupert Lowe is upset that cycle lanes are centrally planned, wait until he finds out about roads!
A slightly odd way of putting it. ‘Balance of power’ usually implies sitting between two larger groups, with the potential of working with either one of them. In this case, Reform are three shy of a majority, and no-one else is close. They could, theoretically*, form a majority with any one of four other parties with minor representation, and Restore would be considered to sit politically to the other side of them from the other three.
[* The Greens and the Lib Dems seem… unlikely, and presumably the Conservatives, who have one seat less than Restore, either refused or were considered a less amenable partner.]