Assassination Attempts

OK, so here’s the Prisoners’ Dilemma: Two guys are arrested on suspicion of being the pair behind an armed bank robbery. The investigating officer is cunning though, and separates them, making each an identical offer: Confess to the robbery, and thus provide the evidence to put your accomplice away for a long stretch, and we can...
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(You’ll have to click through to read the text of today’s Yehuda moon strip) Today on my ride into Newcastle, I had a passenger of a car lean out the window as he passed, shouting something or other (doppler - don’t you love it?), and pointing at his shaven head. He may have been indicating...
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What’s the correct thing to do when a driver’s lack of care puts you in their sights? It’s hard to tell if it was out-and-out bullying, or just a crap driver with no appreciation of the fact that bikes do move faster than a walking pace. This was on my way home from Newcastle this...
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So there’s this case of Daniel Rosier that went to court in Oxford last week. He cycled past a line of cars at a pedestrian crossing, but didn’t stop, and hit a pedestrian. THEN he stopped, and helped the child he’d hit, and looked after them ’till the boy’s parents arrived. Anyway, he broke the law,...
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Big day to day on Siegfried - dropping in to see Carlton Reid (excellent coffee - thank you!) on my way to the Team Valley, then across to a meeting near the Metro Centre, before heading home. In all, around 30-35 miles, and some ‘challenging’ hills. The last of these was on my route home...
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I’ve never taken part in a critical mass event. Heck, I’ve never even seen one first hand, so what I’m about to say could just be me talking out of my backside. I have a bit of a problem with the idea of critical mass. The anarchist within me says, “Yeah! Right on! Let’s really...
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Today was Day 3 of the BikeAbility instructors’ course I’m on. We did lots of practical stuff, planning lessons, role-playing teaching of the various road manoeuvres for level 2, etc on some quiet roads near North Shields. Then for the last half hour of the day, we headed out for a group ride, with everyone...
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I have a love/hate relationship with bike lanes and cycle tracks. Too often, they’re like the little girl from the nursery rhyme. She rode down the street on a bike that she’d borrowed, When bike lanes were good, they were very, very good, But when they were bad, they were horrid. OK, so I’ll probably wait a long...
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Coming to probably quite small screens on a desk top near you: *UPDATE* The full version of this video is now featured on this blog post, along with details of how I feel Nick Clennett, Gateshead Council’s Head of Transportation and Highways has let us down with the sub-standard bike facilities around Gateshead College’s Baltic...
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The question posed today by the Fat Lad, which I picked up via The Bicycle Diaries was, Are dedicated bike lanes protecting you from cagers or treating cyclists as 2nd class road users? It’s one of those subjects like the ‘H’ word that’s sure to generate a stack of opinions, usually backed up with Science. Real...
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