This is what happens when a mountain biker designs their own custom titanium gravel bike

@kil0ran I'm sorry, but clearly you haven't read everything about this case. The bloke easily needed jailing for 25 years. It was indisputable intentional brutal murder (Followed by significant threats against the cousin in the car who was the main witness for prosecution). That doesn't stop the separate discussion on WTF he still had access to a car (or van) given his driving record (fixing this might have removed the ability to commit said murder, but he was a violent thug regardless). I would argue that we need to allow for banning owning/keeping a car; Banned and 'inherit' one = required to turn it over immediately (say within 72 hours) to appropriate authority (solicitor, Office of Public Guardian, Car Auction?) Keeper/owner then has significant legal risk of getting banned if they let a banned individual use the car. Also need significant modernisation of transfer of ownership - insist it is done digitally (if you can't do it online, you HAVE to do it at a DVLA office or post office) at the time, with the checks done as part of it. Don't do the change of ownership; then you retain owner/keeper liabilities in full.

@Jimmy Ray Will Unfortunately affray and ABH both have a presumption in favour of bail under the Bail Act 1976 whereby defendants will usually be bailed unless they are a proven flight risk or are likely to attempt to interfere with witnesses or the accuser. Additionally bail is almost always granted if it is regarded by the presiding authority as being likely that the defendant will not receive a custodial sentence at trial. So it's hard to say without knowing the exact details of the affray and ABH charges he was facing, if they were relatively minor, e.g. pushing and shoving someone in a pub argument, it's likely that he would not get immediate custody, most likely a suspended sentence, so that may be the reason for his being bailed. I think, although I'm not sure, his previous driving record wouldn't be a factor that would be considered when looking at bail for non-driving offences.

@kil0ran We test vehicles every year at a cost of (from memory) £65 so let’s bring in a 3-year or 5-year re-test window for the drivers... Not in Lancashire we don't- MOT and VED are optional in the land of Bent Coppers. This isn't from 7.8.26, when I last filmed WU67 BLF, but from the J France Facebook pages. So if the police arrange to not enforce MOT, what do you think they'll do about this projected tidal wave of non-retested drivers? The police are actively working against road safety- and against cyclists.

I think the headline should be something like 'should' , because the final sentence is unfortunately spot on. I'll give it a few hours before I read irrational hatred of cyclists (or anything else for that matter which can be singled out) :-(

@mitsky I wonder if there are grounds for the victims family to take legal action against the justice system for its failure to protect the wider society against a clearly dangerous individual. How he got bail in December 2024 with his previous record is unfathomable. How that case, as serious as it was, involving an individual with such a terrible track record, could be left untried for such a long time is unforgivable. Appreciating that courts are backlogged, but when prioritising cases for trial, surely the risk posed by the defendant, their track record etc. is taken into account? Assuming so, just how bad are the wrong 'uns whose cases were put first?

@Rendel Harris yup, unfortunately this is far too easily ignored because it's so abnormal (eg. murder charge due to very strong evidence of deliberate killing) and "you can't stop murders". Indeed it will likely reinforce people's current positions / beliefs that eg.: - Road crime is being tackled effectively and indeed "real criminals" who drive are severely penalised by the legal system ("see - they got him, bang to rights, and threw the book at him"). - Their own (better or worse) driving is of a relatively high standard and certainly doesn't merit the attentions of the law ("look at what the *real* criminals do").

@Bungle_52 Thanks, yes I am familiar with the various elements of the scheme and the local history - I refuse to click on the links for the local comic though! I would also agree that some parts do work well and the link to Bishops Cleeve is better - going through the racecourse and down Kayte Lane worked just as well though. One of my old commutes was over racecourse hill and it could could be a bit sketchy especially in the dark - will never forget being showered by the remains of two car sides mirrors one evening when they chose to pass at speed! My children do also benefit from some of the off road elements for their rides to school though it has to be said that most of that is historic stuff and where they have to use the new bits it is because other recent 'road improvements' have increased traffic capacity and speeds to the point that existing crossing points are too dangerous to use. Trouble is that two way cycle paths on one side of the road are just rubbish. You will always be on the wrong side at some point. In the dark you will end up riding into headlights in one direction often on the edge of the road. They even make a mess of cycle to cycle priority e.g. underpass at Arle Court roundabout, and everything seems to be done to impede progress. I simply do not understand how GCC manage to do it so badly! What's so frustrating is that they also refuse to listen to any advice or comments and just plough on regardless.

@flowboy no need to hold out for panaceas, nor give up because "change ... and that will take time..." "What works" in terms of infra / interventions is now *very* well tested and understood. (Indeed several starts were even made in different places in the UK, at different times, before being abandoned...) I think there's also some knowledge of the "human / political engineering" to facilitate change, albeit that's sensitive to local context. Certainly there's always the objection "but you can't get there from *here*" ... and that can be *incredibly* hard to overcome. But it has, in many different places in different countries (even if just looking at Europe). Even NL wasn't always as it is; it was on exactly the same "knock down the historic city / houses to make room for the motor vehicle" path as the UK. They just started a bit later and had a headstart in terms of existing walking / cycling infra. And hadn't lost cycling as a normal mode of transport by that point.

I fear this appalling case won't shift the dial an inch in terms of empathy towards cyclists or better driving around them. People are appalled, and rightly so, at the murder element of the case, i.e. the fact that the perpetrator drove for so long with the victim trapped under his car, even after he had got out and seen that he was still there. If the incident had stopped at the original point, i.e. when Mr Mullins was hit by Richardson speeding through the junction, it probably wouldn't have been reported anywhere apart from a few local news outlets and maybe on road.cc. People then would doubtless have come out with the usual garbage about it was probably the cyclist's fault and if it wasn't so many cyclists break the law all the time how can they complain? The next cyclist to be killed by a driver who just wasn't concentrating or didn't look properly or was only driving a little over the sensible speed for the conditions, without the murder element, will bring the same filth out again, I'm certain.

@flowboy Refreshing frankness. Several folks here will know the location very well, Bath being the road.cc back yard. Alas, Yorkshire has some "UK standard" fairly terrible cycle provision - and I believe non "motoring-focussed" design is generally rare. (I've only experience of Leeds and York, and that mostly decades back; though i do occasionally look up what's changed). For "what we could win" I recommend a perusal of what happens in The Netherlands (the Bicycledutch blog is a good starting point, or notjustbikes on YouTube for a Anglophone perspective). But what they have done in NL goes way beyond "cycle infra" - indeed that is just the tip of the iceberg of what results from a different transport philosophy. For more a more believable "what the UK could start doing right now" see parts of Scandinavia, or (closer) Paris, or Seville. Or ... parts of London!