Assassination Attempts

The papers today are full of this - a bike lane that takes up half the road: I was particularly impressed by the Daily Express’ title for the story: BIKE LANE WIDER THAN THE ROAD THIS must be Britain’s craziest cycle lane – wider than the rest of the main road. The new super-size lane...
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On the BBC’s  Jeremy Vine programme this Tuesday , there was a short piece at the end of the show about a van driver who’d been fired as a result of his inappropriate behaviour towards a cyclist. It seems that his van was wired for sound by his employer, including cameras looking forward, at...
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Here are the two sides of the coin on this one: Mixing motorised vehicles and people on bikes makes no sense. The former weighs 20-50 times as much as the latter, and the driver is protected from the consequences of their actions by a steel exoskeleton. We need to keep these away from people on...
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When I was 12 years old, I first started riding to school. It was five miles each way, along some relatively busy roads. Yet there weren’t so many cars on the roads, and drivers seemed to have a whole lot more awareness of other road users. I can’t think of a single instance of...
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This weekend I was in That London for my oldest friend’s birthday party. An evening of booze and banging techno - I participated in the former, while enjoying observing the effects of the latter. Anyway, I took the train down, which left me with the problem of how to get from our house to Newcastle...
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So after getting myself into a bit of a mess on the bike, I decided not to go for a particularly long run - just an extended cool-down of about four miles. All was well until just after the turnaround, when I was dragged back to reality by a blast from a car horn. Looking...
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That green area behind the car is the cyclists’ waiting area, reserved for bikes, in front of the advanced stop line, where the car should have stopped? The car has stopped, blocking the pedestrian crossing? The driver made a valiant effort to beat the lights (racing past me in the filter lane), but...
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This via Tom Vanderbilt : According to the BBC , Mrs Williams’ Renault Clio was clipped by the lorry and twisted sideways, trapping it under the front bumper. The vet, who works at a practice in Garforth, was not injured in the incident …. A police spokesperson said an investigation into the incident had ...
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(n.b. this post is safe for Wife to read. I was in no danger during this incident, and merely witnessed the results) Coming home from my long ride on Sunday, I chose the route over the top of Byker and down the Foss Way to Walker. This is a great road for tired legs -...
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Pedestrian refuges / traffic islands - put there for your safety. On the one hand, they mean that pedestrians can cross roads one lane at a time. And drivers, get a greater perception of their speed, which hopefully means that they slow down. The trouble is, that there isn’t always room for a car AND...
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