Road Safety

One of the institutions of British cycling is the British Heart Foundation’s London to Brighton Ride . With 27,000 riders heading out to cause traffic mayhem (the roads on the route are closed to proper, tax-paying traffic…) the ride’s about 60 miles, and the event has been run since 1980. But actually, it’s a...
Read more »

I really, really like the Superhighway Manifesto of the London Cycling Campaign that I posted about at the weekend. The trouble is, the odds are that the people in overall charge of traffic & transport in your (my) local authority don’t actually ride a bike as an everyday mode of transport. So the fine...
Read more »

Actually this is Oxford Circus. Until now, it’s been a victim of the "keep the people away from the cars by fencing them in" logic that traffic planners love. You know the sort of thing - put fences between the people and the cars, so the drivers feel that it’s "safe" to drive faster than...
Read more »

According to our local weather forecast, today was the only day of the week where the weather was predicted to be anything other than underwater-rainy. Now, I don’t mind riding in the rain, but it’s 16 miles to work. On Siegfried that takes just over an hour, which...
Read more »

This via a comment by Scubamatt on today’s Yehuda Moon strip: Man convicted in orange rabbit pedicab hit-and-run Friday, October 30, 2009 By The Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Mercedes driver testified he didn’t see the 6-foot-tall orange rabbit driving a pedicab because he was fumbling for a dropped cell phone. Pedicab driver Kate Altermatt...
Read more »

If you were campaigning to improve the quality of local cycle infrastructure, is this the sort of thing that you’d be demanding? Make my journey a pleasant experience and not a daily struggle for space. Give me and other cyclists priority over motor traffic. Include sections free of motor traffic. Stop buses, lorries and cars passing too close...
Read more »

Here’s a curious thing in British law - at road junctions, pedestrians have right of way over all other road users. No, really - click on the picture to go to the Highway Code pages about this. Anyway, over the last few months, I’ve started acting as if this were true. When cars are approaching...
Read more »

Cycling safety is a pretty emotive issue. If you want to start a bun fight though, you’ve got to use the H-word: Helmet People say that helmets are just another part of the Culture of Fear that’s used to dissuade people off their bikes, and into nice, safe cars. Others point out that if you fall...
Read more »

You’ve heard of "happy slapping"? Well how about "Happy Splashing"? We’re going to need a bigger wall.
Read more »

This from the front page of today’s Whitley Bay News Guardian: Hit and rund driver held on remand A man charged in connection with a hit and run which left a Whitley Bay father fighting for his life has been remanded in custody. Peter Rowell is accused of driving the car which collided with cyclist Alistair Barnett...
Read more »