Café replaces bicycle billboard with car… blocking bike parking in the process + more on the live blog

Rupert Lowe may like to bang on about "young foreign men" riding e-bikes. But the two blokes who tried to steal a young bloke's e-mountain bike while brandishing an angle-grinder the other day sound fairly local: "The two suspects, Mason Portlock and Luke Beale, both 18, have since been charged with robbery and possession of a bladed article. One of the men was also wanted in connection with separate offences of robbery, possession of an offensive weapon, and breaching a court order." I'm all in favour of strict regulation, and nicking anyone on an illegal machine. But, I suspect Rupert Lowe cares more about things he can pin (rightly or wrongly) on non-white folks, rather than solving the entire e-transportation problem.

The entrance to that shared space looks fun as well - appears to direct you towards a bunch of flowerbeds, with no explanation of which way you're expected to go round them. The most direct route to the exit requires doglegging onto the diagonal, past the entrances of the Premier Inn and the steakhouse, for extra fun dodging anyone coming out.

What are you going to do when you get to the top of the hill and have to go down again, though?

@Rendel Harris I admire your optimism. Alas, in this case no such charitable explanation exists - as far as I can tell, the "cycle lane" exists to direct cyclists from a shared space onto the busy, three lane carriageway. I'll post a streetview link separately, but the location appears to be Nottingham, on Maid Marian Way outside the Premier Inn.

@BrianP just wait until you read road.cc stories for a couple of weeks: you'll start to fathom it alright... ... although it won't make you happier, and indeed may even disincline you to cycle on the roads. In fairness a quick general review of cases of assault might also be depressing in terms of outcomes / actual penalties for any identified perpetrators. But on the roads I believe little changes until our current motornormative culture does. No matter what "top down" changes might be made. And indeed even those law changes / directions to police and courts won't be a priority for the politicians until the electorate change their view... Change - it's possible (see NL) but very hard, until it happens.

@ROOTminus1 was going with "sarcasm" but they should have gone with "road tax" and some comment about "unlike cyclists who aren't even making meaningful journeys" for full marks. Perhaps with a side of "and the fact this went to court shows that motorists are scrutinised for the slightest technical fault (like speeding, driving where not allowed)! And they're held to exacting standards, not even excused momentarily losing control under extreme provocation from these activists-on-2-wheels... (BTW that's only possible because they have car number plates / licences etc unlike cyclists...)"

No need with the Ellipse. Just build the same set of wheels for decades.

@rbrtribble /S right? Right? Otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen, Nigel is back in our midst under another pseudonym. How long before this account is removed for racist hate speech?

@Losd Even if there were "immense drawbacks", which you don't explain and I can't see, if you get fed up with Zwift or its system all you have to do is remove the Zwift Cog from the trainer and install a standard cassette and you can use the trainer with any app. Buying a cassette doesn't seem to come under the heading of "pay many times over".

@Losd Do enlighten us as to what these immense drawbacks are.