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Live blog: N Yorks campaigner calls for infrastructure not prestige events, Addison Lee plans to put driverless cabs in London by 2021, sneak peek at the new Pinarello gravel bike + more

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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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24 comments

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Organon | 5 years ago
0 likes

The real debate here is how has Still Open All Hours ran for as long as Open All Hours? By eck they didn't make much telly in them days.

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hawkinspeter replied to Organon | 5 years ago
0 likes

Organon wrote:

The real debate here is how has Still Open All Hours ran for as long as Open All Hours? By eck they didn't make much telly in them days.

That's a tricky one.

Do we go by the time period or the number of series? The original ran from 1973 to 1985 although 1973 was just the pilot episode, so we might want to consider 1976 to 1985. Still Open All Hours has been running since 2013, so that's just 5 years. If we go by series, then the original only had 4 series and the new one has just started its 5th series.

I can see the arguments carrying on for a long time.

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Zigster | 5 years ago
3 likes

And I’d also rather not head but anything regardless of my mode of transport or activity.

Dowsett knew the reaction his tweet would get and was just being an attention whore.

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2Loose | 5 years ago
2 likes

If I headbutt something then I'd want to be wearing a helmet  - I'd stand with Dowsett.

Thing is, I'd rather not headbutt anything at all - Boardman for PM!

 

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davel replied to 2Loose | 5 years ago
0 likes

2Loose wrote:

If I headbutt something then I'd want to be wearing a helmet  - I'd stand with Dowsett.

Thing is, I'd rather not headbutt anything at all - Boardman for PM!

For 'headbutting', I hear you.

But most definitions of 'headbutt' don't include drivers rear-ending, t-boning or left-hooking you, and helmets are a weird fixation in relation to such situations.

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BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
5 likes

The scary thing is that many are saying, we don't want compulsion but compulsion via the back door by encouraging people to wear them, all the whilst utterly ignoring the stats both for professional racing types, amateur racers and the 'others', also ignoring that head injuries sans helmets riding a bike is massively less than walking, driving and most other activities.

Or maybe types like Dowsett think the 1.3million annually reported head injuries (A figure accepted by the head injury orgs in the UK) are totally false, the c.160,000 hospital admittances from such are also false OR that they are all cyclists?

Given that the official figures are c.3100 serious cyclists injured (and the majority caused by errent motorists) maybe he thinks somehow this number are all head injuries and that somehow even if they were this is a much bigger issue than 160,000 that are admitted to hospital.

As I've said elsewhere when you have a ratio greater than 1000:1 if just comparing the admittances alone to 50% of all (seriously) injured cyclists being to the head, to then only promote helmets for people on bikes is not only ludicrous, it's ignorant of basic stats, ignorant of studies that show the effects of helmet wearing.

It's insideous creep, sickening and a slippery slope of only making matters worse as we have seen in the UK, in France, in US, in Canada, in Australia, in NZ, basically any country you want to pick that has seen significant increases in helmet wearing or compulsion. Time and again this has been shown to be true.

So we get compulsary helmet wearing and if you don't, then what, NSW levels of fines that the police only focus on instead of killer drivers, and from that more injuries and deaths of cyclists who are then forced off the roads, more victim blaming by police, government, judges and cycling organisations?

DOWSETT YOU IGNORANT UNEDUCATED CUNT, YOUR WAY MAKES CYCLING MORE DANGEROUS AND PUTS ME AT MORE RISK, GO FUCK YOURSELF!

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burtthebike | 5 years ago
6 likes

Dowsett vs Boardman sums up the helmet debate; one uses myths, rumours and apocryphal stories, the other uses facts, research and data.  'Nuff said. 

Except perhaps from "shut up Alex until you have the faintest idea what you're talking about."

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peted76 | 5 years ago
3 likes

.. hang on a min.. the 'Grevil gravel bike'... all I can think of is G G G Granville the G G G Grevil G G G Gravel bike...

.

.

.

... WTF... is that Alex Dowsett, he's getting everywhere today!

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
2 likes

When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.

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davel replied to hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
5 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.

Chris Boardman doesn't cross the road. The opposite pavement comes to him.

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hawkinspeter replied to davel | 5 years ago
3 likes

davel wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.

Chris Boardman doesn't cross the road. The opposite pavement comes to him.

I was going to ask "why does Chris Boardman cross the road?", but no-one questions Chris Boardman's intentions.

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davel replied to hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
4 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

davel wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.

Chris Boardman doesn't cross the road. The opposite pavement comes to him.

I was going to ask "why does Chris Boardman cross the road?", but no-one questions Chris Boardman's intentions.

There is no 'Chris Boardman's intentions'; there is only 'Chris Boardman does' and 'Chris Boardman does not'.

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hawkinspeter replied to davel | 5 years ago
3 likes

davel wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

davel wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.

Chris Boardman doesn't cross the road. The opposite pavement comes to him.

I was going to ask "why does Chris Boardman cross the road?", but no-one questions Chris Boardman's intentions.

There is no 'Chris Boardman's intentions'; there is only 'Chris Boardman does' and 'Chris Boardman does not'.

I heard that Chris Boardman sleeps with a nightlight on - not because he's afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of him.

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Ratfink | 5 years ago
0 likes

So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?

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usedtobefaster replied to Ratfink | 5 years ago
2 likes

Ratfink wrote:

So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?

Only if the tech "sees" the cyclist, and that is the nub of the problem with driverless car in a nutshell.

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gonedownhill replied to usedtobefaster | 5 years ago
8 likes

usedtobefaster wrote:

Ratfink wrote:

So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?

Only if the tech "sees" the cyclist, and that is the nub of the problem with driverless car in a nutshell.

 

Would take my chances with the tech versus the average Addison Lee driver!

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usedtobefaster replied to gonedownhill | 5 years ago
1 like

gonedownhill wrote:

usedtobefaster wrote:

Ratfink wrote:

So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?

Only if the tech "sees" the cyclist, and that is the nub of the problem with driverless car in a nutshell.

 

Would take my chances with the tech versus the average Addison Lee driver!

Good point ...

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vonhelmet replied to usedtobefaster | 5 years ago
2 likes

usedtobefaster wrote:

Ratfink wrote:

So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?

Only if the tech "sees" the cyclist, and that is the nub of the problem with driverless car in a nutshell.

And in the case or Mercedes cars, whether it chooses to prioritise people inside the car or outside of it.

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
1 like

Chris Boardman was banned from participating in time trails after the judge sentenced time to life imprisonment.

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vonhelmet | 5 years ago
0 likes

Cycling into Manchester (from the North West - Liverpool Street) is a joke at the moment. Roadworks on other nearby roads is forcing too much traffic into too small a volume of roads and the traffic lights at some junctions are just pointless as people just drive through them. Some cyclists too, sure, but absolutely shitloads of cars.

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
8 likes

Chris Boardman and Superman once had such a heated arguments about helmets that they bet that the loser would wear their underpants on the outside.

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alansmurphy | 5 years ago
3 likes

 

Just how small is the number Alex can count to, or are we really expected to believe that he hears multiple hundreds of stories per day. Also, loads of my friends tell me of the good times they have when pissed, countless stories. Should we make alcohol consumption mandatory?

 

I say this as someone who had a positive experience of a collision and a helmet, I still don't think it needs to be compulsory... 

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davel | 5 years ago
6 likes

I think we're beyond graphs. After St Sir Chris Lord Boardman's latest vanquishing of the most recent addition to the Order of the Helmets, nothing less than a tapestry will do.

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peted76 | 5 years ago
2 likes

I do hope both Alex Dowsett and Chris Boardman have a punch up to decide this, it's the only real way to find out who's most right*

 

*that and graphs obvs. Everyone knows a graph always wins a debate.

 

 

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