Scaffolding firm sent one star reviews after parking in cycle lane; Cyclist awarded £17k after crash on "nightmare" roundabout; Tom Brady inspired Chris Froome; Alistair Brownlee backs towpath campaign; Disc brake fail; New Raleigh + more on the live blog

grOg wrote:

Here's a thought; the relevant authority could issue the scaffolding company a permit to close off the bike lane while they used it. I regularly see traffic lanes coned off for builders to park their vehicles for private construction works on abutting land. One recent unit construction site got a permit to completely close off the road so they could park trucks and use a crane. The scaffolding truck may not have had a permit but the point is they could have got one, so the fact remains that cyclists have to be a bit flexible with their route.. still unhappy? footpaths are sometimes blocked off for various works with signs put up to use the other side of the road reserve - this would be far more inconvenient for disabled users than able bodied cyclists having their path blocked.

This frequently happens and I've never heard a cyclist complain about it, we understand that sometimes it's necessary. However it didn't happen in this case so not sure what point you're making.

grOg wrote:

Here's a thought; the relevant authority could issue the scaffolding company a permit to close off the bike lane while they used it. I regularly see traffic lanes coned off for builders to park their vehicles for private construction works on abutting land. One recent unit construction site got a permit to completely close off the road so they could park trucks and use a crane. The scaffolding truck may not have had a permit but the point is they could have got one, so the fact remains that cyclists have to be a bit flexible with their route.. still unhappy? footpaths are sometimes blocked off for various works with signs put up to use the other side of the road reserve - this would be far more inconvenient for disabled users than able bodied cyclists having their path blocked.

Oh come off it grOg. This isn't for essential works to the road. This is a lazy scaffolder trying to get as close to the property as possible on a private job, and f*ck anyone else.

Permits are attainable for necessary functions. This clearly is not the case. However, with the damage they'll have incurred to the kerb, that may become necessary at a later date...

Ah, but a permit might have cost them some money.  Why would they bother paying for a licence to do something that they can do for free with no repercussions...?

(OT - I sent a photo to a removals company yesterday, of their two vans parked up on a shared use footway/cycle path in such a way that I had to dismount, walk my bike on the carriageway on a busy A road facing the oncoming traffic; I suggested that's generally not considered best practice...; I got a response back within the hour apologising and saying they'd told their drivers to sort it out)

grOg wrote:

I regularly see traffic lanes coned off for builders to park their vehicles for private construction works on abutting land... cyclists have to be a bit flexible with their route... footpaths are sometimes blocked off for various works with signs put up to use the other side of the road...

As an aerial fitter, I sympathise with the need of the scaffolders to get their heavy equipment close to the job, and the blockage may have been (in their eyes at least) short-lived, just while they unload. But with a bit of forward planning it could have been so much better. With a permit they could have coned off a traffic lane (or what looks like space where cars are parked, not even a running lane) to the right of the cycle lane in advance and left the cycle lane free. The disadvantage there would be that they would have to carry the scaffolding across the cycle lane. Or diverted the cycle lane onto the coned off traffic lane/parking space, though the kerb would have made that awkward for cyclists, necessitating some sort of ramp. Such issues should be noted during an advance site visit and the necessary permits obtained.

The infra there is less then a few months old as Sept 2020 streetview has it as a normal street. The house on the end has scaffolding in that pic supplied by another company so I suspect it was doing something there. The stupidness is there is a very large entrance / exit to a small industrial complex right next to there but oh no, lets block vehicles and kids off.

I always notice Lyndhurst Way as the building on the corner (where it meets Peckham Way) has a Trotter's Independent Trading Reliant van in its grounds. 

markieteeee wrote:

I always notice Lyndhurst Way as the building on the corner (where it meets Peckham Way) has a Trotter's Independent Trading Reliant van in its grounds. 

Yes it's an hotel...local opinion is divided about it!

eburtthebike wrote:

I'd ask on twitter myself, but I'm still suspended until they decide my appeal for calling Cristo, the cycle-hating shock jock, a cretin.  Still, it's only been two months so I'm sure they'll look at it soon.

How on earth would that get you banned? Particulary seeing as Cristo is a vile bully. 
Yet people like George Hindle post hateful crap like this and are still on twitter - see screengrabs in second tweet. 

imajez wrote:

eburtthebike wrote:

I'd ask on twitter myself, but I'm still suspended until they decide my appeal for calling Cristo, the cycle-hating shock jock, a cretin.  Still, it's only been two months so I'm sure they'll look at it soon.

How on earth would that get you banned? Particulary seeing as Cristo is a vile bully. 
Yet people like George Hindle post hateful crap like this and are still on twitter - see screengrabs in second tweet. 

I wish I knew, but I appealed immediately two months ago, and I've sent them an enquiry a few weeks ago, but they will neither explain why I was suspended nor resolve my appeal, merely giving me the option of withdrawing my appeal, which I ain't gonna do.

NPlus1BikelightsNJerseys wrote:

Sounds too much like a lottery story. "Awarded" not "won" £17,500. Won the case maybe.

Yup.  Being awarded £17,500 for pain and suffering caused by a driver really, really isn't winning, and it demonstrates the appallingly low level of such awards in the UK; should be ten times that.  From the newspaper article:

“My wife needed to help me get washed, dressed, and even eat as I couldn’t use a knife and fork for ages. It meant I couldn't go to the gym and do a workout. It took quite a while before I could swim again and then not very well for ages.

“I needed two months off work. Thankfully I received my BBC pay, but had I been self-employed, as I used to be years ago, and unable to work, it would have been really hard, money wise."

£17,500 is a joke for all that.

Well done for rephrasing the newspaper's crass statement that "He also fractured his right thumb...."  No, I'm pretty sure the driver did it for him.

I can find no reports of the original collision, and the articles do not mention the name of the driver, and Stephen Redgrave searches just throw up articles about the rower, so was the driver prosecuted, and if so, received what punishment?  I'm guessing he was, because the liability wasn't disputed, only the level of the award.

I suffer permanent pain and minor upper body disability from a severe whiplash I got from a motor vehicle accident twenty years ago; the other driver was prosecuted for failing to give way. As one has to permanently lose significant use of ones body to make a successful personal injury claim in Australia, eg, lose a limb, people like me get a big fat zero.

On that roundabout, it's a 30mph limit, conveniently missed in the HDM photo used for illustration, the roads to the left and right are also 30 mph limits, the appoach road from behind the photographers position and directly opposite are 40mph limits, the 30mph limits are usually driven at 40mph plus unless it's rush hour when people are looking for gaps in traffic,when they do a quick glance then "floor it" to get on the roundabout.  AFAIK that roundabout is part of city ring road so comes under the Highways Agency and like several roundabouts maintained by HA in Hull has no adequate provision for cyclists so is an accident waiting to happen

Glad the cyclist received compensation but I would rather he had not been hit by the driver.

If Redgrave was coming from the direction of Beverley, and as you say the 40mph stretch of road, cyclists are encouraged to use the shared use facility to their left, go all the way around the corner away from the roundabout, press the button on the crossing and rejoin the shared path and carry on to the left at the next roundabout along Sutton Road. But if he was going to work at the BBC studios he might have been taking a more direct route through Sutton Fields Industrial Estate. Not that any of this excuses the motorist, obviously, but does explain why I take the soft option and press that button. And there are worse roundabouts in Hull IMHO. I also fear that the current roadworks are going to add a few more

[edit: updated with screenshot showing roundabout]

Quote:

And there are worse roundabouts in Hull IMHO. I also fear that the current roadworks are going to add a few more

The article headline makes it sound like he called that roundabout a nightmare but the quotes further down showed he was calling most of the ones in Hull that. 

Yes, that's a fair assessment of many. 

Exactly. "Wins" was the word used in the Hull Daily Mail headline and trivialises the collision. Redgrave didn't play a blinder in a quiz show or something - and he could have been killed. Liability was uncontested, only the amount to be awarded was in dispute until the settlement was made. 

I was "awarded" a big fat £0 after being mowed down by a "New-Age Traveller" riding a Hercules sit-up-and-beg bike under the influence of Haile Selassie in January 1992 in the dark. I suffered a broken collar bone. And a broken finger, fractured eye socket and cheekbone. I was in hospital for a week, in a vegitative state for about a month and spoon fed by my mother for most of that time. The police arrested the offender and released him without charge because it wasn't worth their time pursuing him, as he wouldn't have turned up at court, wouldn't have paid any fines, etc etc.

If I wanted to pursue him in a civil action, his name was S***** L***** and his address was "no fixed abode". Lovely. I did try to claim some compo from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, but my claim was rejected as "no crime had taken place".

And according to the article, has a 3 speed derailleur, which would be very interesting if true.

My sister and mother had Raleigh 20 Shoppers in the 70s. If the Hoppa is more than half the weight, it's doomed.

Specs say 16.9kg, it's no lightweight. Not what I'd call a deal breaker though, that's at least 5kg less than my steel frame Gazelle which serves the same purpose. The wheel lock would make up a kilo of that weight.

Raleigh's own specs call it a 3 speed derailleur despite it obviously being an IGH, worrrying when the manufacturer doesn't know the difference. Interesting that they opted for rim brakes on both wheels instead of being retro with a coaster brake. Still, good to see them dipping into their past and reviving a design that is quite practical for getting around town.

The fact that this was approved as an 'official' cycle route by Sustrans despite the fact that there was a massive flight of stairs just goes to show the complete inadequacies of both Sustrans and of towpaths as cycle infrastructure. 

Over the last decade, millions have been wasted in yorkshire turning towpaths into cycle routes, with Sustrans approval. They are almost never tarmaced (re-surfaced with some stupid hard packed earth athat turns into the Somme every time it rains), include brand-new narrow A-frames that discriminate against disabled/infirm cyclists who can't lift their bikes, brand-new speedbumps and many other horrors. And no measures are taken against bloody loose dogs. They are an abomination. 

For god's sake, stop trying to make shared use towpath-bike paths happen, and build proper infrastructure.

We have lots of Sustrans canal towpath rubbish in the South West.

The Kennet and Avon canal is totally unsuitable for cycling with a mostly narrow path with a mostly rubbish surface.

However it is part of NCN 4.

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-a-route-on-the-national-cycle-network/k...

How Sustrans can endorse this as acceptable for a National Cycle Route is beyond me.

South Wales is also riddled with cycle routes that would tax a full-sus MTB in all but the driest weather, and those bl**dy a-frame things! Total nightmare clearly designed by someone who either has never ridden a bike, or only rides a bike with 38cm wide drop-bars. They're impossible to get round with a flat-barred bike with full guards (or any kind of recumbent, or any other non-standard bike). Shared use paths are not cycling infrastructure, they're just an excuse to try and get 'those pesky cyclists' to stop asking for bike paths. 

As an aside, why is it that when a road gets busy the immediate cry is 'build more roads', but when a cycle route is successful (i.e. the Bristol-Bath path) the only suggestions are to slow down/discourage cyclists. 

sean1 wrote:

The Kennet and Avon canal is totally unsuitable for cycling with a mostly narrow path with a mostly rubbish surface. However it is part of NCN 4.

I am particularly fond of the sections that go under a low bridge on a narrow and stony path where the lack of headroom forces you towards the path edge which is crumbling into the cold dark water.  If that doesn't teach low speed bike handling, nothing will.

Every staircase is different,

The HorseShoe bridge, over the end of the Kennet where it empties into the Thames, is quite shallow, but the steps do slope, which used to make it fun on the wooden steps in heavy rain and freezing conditions.  I used it on my commute for well over a decade.  It took them 3 goes to get the cycle "ramp" right, and a long time to fit the surface with grip.

I went to Cambridge for an interview and was impressed with the continuous wheel ramp on the stairs at the station of this cycling city.

I only ever climbed the staircase from the Basingstoke canal to the Deepcut Bridge a couple of times, when they closed the towpath to install a new staircase, and I almost fell down them twice.  And I have lived in a first floor flat for a good 8 years with a steep narrowish concrete staircase, with rarely a stumble, and since first lockdown have had to use the stairs up to the bridge at Reading station a lot, lots of stairs there, far more with the new much taller bridge.  (Only climbed the stairs from the Caversham side once, long time back.)  (I am not going to get into a lift at the time of a worldwide pandemic...)  The temporary stairs they installed were so much better, well sized and textured, though the bicycle wheel ramp was unuseable, too close to the uprights.

The new concrete steps look great, They let them set for almost 2 months(?) and are now installing the most impressive banisters and ballistrade I have ever seen on an outside set of stairs.  So good they will probably be nicked.  I hope they get the ramp right, I might have to use it if they close the other bit of the towpath for a bit of surface treatment, it is shockingly muddy, they have been fixing the "holes" in the bank, and it had been threatened for several years on the Canal website.  The stairs have been paid for by the developers of a local housing development.  Partly why they seem so flash...