Live blog: “Selfish” cyclist 'holds up' truck driver; Bike clamping in London Bridge City; Crap bike lanes; Watch a handcycling LEJOG world record attempt documentary; a near miss for a pro + more

Came across this
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/part/3/chapter/2/crossheading...

In this section “motor vehicle” means a mechanically propelled vehicle or a vehicle designed or adapted for towing by a mechanically propelled vehicle.

A bicycle often falls under the term vehicle in legislation, so that suggests the chaining of the bike is illegal.
But it seems it would have to be an ebike if you wanted to argue it comes under the act.

was told by a UPS driver that I should move out of the way for him on a single track road just after he forced me off the road 

Re: Irish Trucker. 

Comments have now been turned on for the video. On a quick scroll A couple are from cyclists about the bike thing but alot are about him being shit at his overall job anyway in other parts of the video. I suspect the thanks to the Garde might have been for somewhere else in the Video but I was pissed off watching 2 mins of his drivel for me to watch another 52 to be certain. 

Edit: Also, the camera is right in from of the driver as well judging by its location when traffic was coming towards him so that was definitely a close pass and I suspect the cyclist was telling him about it when he shouted his drivel back. I think someone needs to report the video to the Garda as Police have done people on self filmed videos in the past. 

The worse bit of the eejit lorry driver is that he did close pass by not adjusting his speed. A lift off the accelerator 10 seconds before would have allowed a greater distance after the cars passing the other way had proceeded for a text book overtake. Punishment pass by a professional HGV driver and the Police apparently approve...

As others have alluded to the "Irish Truck Driver" doesn't swear at the cars in front of him that bring him to a stand still. The logic fails me: Cyclist slows me down while I wait for a safe place to overtake = sweary rant about cyclists..... Motorised traffic brings me to a standstill = what's the problem! Unfortunately this is the attitude of impatient motorists that put the lives of cycists in danger. Clearly some better education is required.

“There’s absolutely no reason why that cyclist can’t be on the canal,”

By the same logic

"Theres absolutely no reason why whatever freight the trucker is carrying can't be on the railway".

Or is that different?

Why are the council getting involved in policing private land?

"On this lock I was told to phone a number to get it released, and the tag giving these instructions had the branding of the local council on it. "

Also hold on. Why the hell are the council enforcing the bike parking if it's private land anyway?

I'm surprised the owners of said 'private land' were granted planning for such a development without provision for cycle parking

Here in the US (in some states) a bicycle is considered a "vehicle" but not a "motor vehicle".  It meets the Oxford Dictionary definition  of a vehicle; "something used to transport people or goods, esp. something used on land or roads".

If that is also the legal definition in the UK, then the guidance note would seem to indicate that there need to be signs prohibiting parking in order to leagally "clamp" a bicycle.

See: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9155/guidance-unpaid-parking-charges.pdf

That being said, if I were a regular in an area where I knew that people were using crappy cable locks like that to interfere with using my bicycle in a legal manner, and if permitted by law, I would tuck my cable cutters into my cycling bag and that cable would go in the bin.

Check the legality of this advice before you act.

The Irish HGV driver has really got me annoyed.

I wound the footage on far too far and found myself at 29:00 minutes watching the self entitled little prick parking his HGV in what appears to be a cycle lane. He said he was held up by the cyclist, but as others have commented he didn't slow down. As for the overtake, if that camera was in the centre of an HGV, then the guy could enter himself  on this site for Close Pass of the Day.

Somebody needs to point that out to the Garda officer who supposedly allowed this to be posted, strange too that the comments section of his posting is turned off.

Idiot

I'm a little confused by the Irish video.

"Forced onto the wrong side of the road" - isn't that what we call "overtaking"?  I'd thought it was a pretty basic driving skill, and would expect a professional road user to know how to do it.

And

"Held him up" - err, how? I didn't notice him slow down AT ALL, not even as he was approaching said cyclist.  Admittedly, things would have got pretty interesting if another car had been coming in the other lane as he reached the cyclist, but any problems there would have been of his own making.

I had a look at this bike lane recently, at a new housing development near Harrogate. I've written a bit about it here.

My best guess is that it's for people who are fine about cycling along the A61 with no cycle path, but too frightened to stay on the road at the roundabout. I reckon that's a small demographic.

Having sat for over 2 hours, stationary, on the M11 last night due to drivers causing a serious collision that completely shut the southbound carriagway and almost certainly as a result of criminal driving standards by at least one of them. I really have no time for drivers who complain about being held up for a few seconds by cyclists doing absolutely nothing wrong in using the public highway.

I enjoyed the text at 22:20 raging that the cyclist has forced him into the wrong side of the road.

Then, the very next clip at 23:34, he's forced onto the wrong side of the road by a car and yet, strangely, it doesn't seem to bother him at all. Funny that.

The Irish driver really needs treatment for his anger management issues, and he might benefit from studying the law, as in it is perfectly legal to ride a bicycle on any road they aren't banned from.

This is my submission -  actually quite a nice 2 way protected cycle lane alongside the A56 in Manchester, but if like me you wish to continue along the A56 at this point (rather than continuing along the cycle lane which now follows the side road off to the right)  it spits you out in an awkward location:

https://goo.gl/maps/5kffxU6PUyZzDaJ98

There's actually the remains of some green paint just in front of the island in the middle of the side junction, so you're supposed to hop over to there, but then where do you go?

1. Carry on along the pavement on the right, and eventually get back onto the road somewhere after the railway bridge (perhaps using the pedestrian crossings just outside of Deansgate station .

2. Ride on the wrong side of the road until you can get past the island protecting the right turning traffic and merge with the two lanes of rush hour traffic heading into Manchester centre.

3. Use the refuge for traffic turning right the wrong way. You have to navigate quite a large turning angle due to the kerbing from a standing start, soneed to pick your gap in a near constant stream of two lanes of traffic.

Personally, I opt for number  3. 

Unless it is signed that there are restrictions on parking bikes, they are on shakey ground, even if it is "technically" private land. If there is no marked boundary, with signage informing it's a private area with private operating rules, then immobilising a bike without warning could be treated in teh same manner as bike theives that add an extra lock to your bike, so they can come back later and cut yours off (sometimes with a crappy old bike still attatched to their lock so it "looks" like an accident. Label or not, I'd be tempted to buy a bolt cutter and cut it, rather than risk the bike vanishing overnight. 
I suspect to test the legality they will have to impound a lawyer's bike and then they'll soon find out of it's legal, but I'm pretty sure simply impounding private property with no warning signs or notices would be illegal, under som eportion of the law.

I walked past that second one of Julien's last week on the way to the Evans in the first pic (they're on opposite sides of the same roundabout) and thought the hedge was a tad overgrown.

As an aside, the chap in the workshop there was most helpful and gave me a bolt I needed to install some brakes. It's not a bad branch of Evans and would be a lot better if they could keep some more of the basic maintenance spares in stock, rather than keep having to use the click and collect service.