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“Next you will be asking why cyclists don’t pay road tax”: Hampshire Police respond to anti-cycling bingo drivers; “Sexist” bike hire scheme tells users they’re “riding” Maeve; Mallett versus dead ends; An expensive bag of crisps + more on the live blog

It’s another warm, sunny Tuesday and Ryan Mallon is here, trying his best to keep cool in the live blog hotseat
Tue, Aug 09, 2022 09:27
46
“Next you will be asking why cyclists don’t pay road tax”: Hampshire Police respond to anti-cycling bingo drivers; “Sexist” bike hire scheme tells users they’re “riding” Maeve; Mallett versus dead ends; An expensive bag of crisps + more on the live blogHampshire Roads Policing Unit road safety tweet
09 August 2022, 16:49
Reader reaction: Hampshire Police and “sexist” bikes

Hampshire’s Roads Policing Unit came in for some praise in the comments today, for their commendable attempt to slap down the usual anti-cycling bingo enthusiasts.

“Well done Hampshire Police for that tweet, more of this kind of awareness please,” wrote peted76.

Others, however, noticed a glaring omission from the force’s educational video.

“The Hampshire’s Roads Policing Unit video is all very well, but where, I ask, are the videos of killer cyclists mowing down all in their path?” asked eburtthebike, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

“With so many pedestrians and drivers being killed by these arrogant, selfish, law-breaking, lycra-clad Tour de France wannabes, surely they must have plenty of material?”

“Motorists and pedestrians aren't snitches though and obviously don't want to create division or incite cycle rage,” chrisonatrike helpfully pointed out.

“They're probably just providing hours of this footage to the police without comment (when did you ever see a driver stopping to confront a cyclist?). Although it's a complete mystery to me why this hasn't resulted in the courts being overwhelmed with cases against these criminal cyclists.”

When it came to the curious case of Moby’s Dublin bike hire scheme – accused of “everyday sexism” for naming all their bikes after women (with the added possible sexual implications of the term ‘riding’) – road.cc’s Simon suggested that a “tweak to the start of the message” would suffice.

“’Your hire bike is called Maeve’ or ‘You are cycling on Maeve’ would work, I reckon?” he pondered.

chrisonatrike went into some more detail: “Using names (or maybe even words) is often walking into a minefield.  Of course now that AI is sentient I guess numbers will be just as bad.

“However another solution presents itself. Names *are* useful in that people recall them better, so drop the "ride" and just use names of both sexes?  That was the case for Edinburgh's Just Eat hire bikes. Made it simple to report all the ones that ended up on my estate: "Justin's lying in the bushes here, he looks in a bad way".

“Presumably to cope with the numbers of bikes as much as for diversity reasons I was pleased to see a wider choice of names (also reflecting local reality) e.g. "Marcin", "Felizia" etc.”

From there the conversation deviated wildly, eventually ending up in A. A. Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood.

I’ll direct you to the comments section for that…

09 August 2022, 16:20
Drum and Bass On The Bike to make Irish debut this weekend

DJ Dom Whiting’s two-wheeled rave will be heading across the Irish Sea on Sunday:

Let’s just hope that any hire bikes used are all appropriately named…

09 August 2022, 15:47
Lewis Hamilton admits he finds driving “stressful” outside of F1

He may be one of the most successful racing drivers of all time, but seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he’s not that fond of being behind the wheel out on the open road.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, the 37-year-old said: “I just think that I find it stressful. I try not to do things that don’t add to my life.”

As part of the interview, which was published yesterday, Hamilton drove the interviewer around Nice in his Mercedes Smart car, an experience he didn’t find particularly pleasant.

“Look, we’re on these roads, anything can happen,” he noted.

As traffic began to build, as it tends to do, Hamilton said: This is now stressful for me. This road is crazy. So much going on here. I’m going to turn around in a second.”

> The best bikes of the F1 grid: take a look at what the fastest drivers on earth choose to ride

While Hamilton bemoaned the stress of driving, the British racer – unlike many of his F1 contemporaries – isn’t that big on cycling either, only occasionally taking to his mountain bike for some downhill fun.

Other F1 stars however, such as Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button (among many others), have long professed their love for cycling, which often stretches beyond simple training for the racing season. For example, Bottas’ partner is Australian Canyon-Sram rider Tiffany Cromwell (and has been spotted out training with a certain Texan), while Alonso has long been rumoured to be interested in setting up a pro team with friend Alberto Contador.

Maybe Lewis will see the light some day…

09 August 2022, 15:34
09 August 2022, 14:52
Zoe Backstedt - World Championships (via British Cycling on Twitter)
Zoe Bäckstedt signs pro contract with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB

EF Education-TIBCO-SVB confirmed today that Zoe Bäckstedt has signed a full-time permanent deal with the team that she joined as a trainee at the start of August.

17-year-old Bäckstedt, the current junior world champion on the road and in cyclocross, raced with the American squad at last week’s CIC-Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, where she took the best young rider’s jersey as well as contributing to the team’s three stage wins (including a team time trial) and the overall title, taken by Krista Doebel-Hickok.

Stepping up from that brief spell as a trainee, Bäckstedt’s first pro contract will see her race for EF in both road and cyclocross races.

> Zoe Bäckstedt wins junior cyclocross world championships

“I spoke with a couple of other teams,” the Welsh wunderkind admitted in a statement released by EF today.

“I had a Zoom call with Linda, the team owner. Just the way I was speaking with her, the way she was speaking with me, how we got along, it seemed to work. I went downstairs after that call and I said to my dad, ‘That’s my team. I want to sign for them.’

“Just the whole vibe was what I wanted. Linda let me be myself, she was herself. I think we clicked a little bit then. I felt good, I felt confident.

“I looked at some of the riders on the team already. The likes of Abi Smith, I already knew. Lizzy Banks, too. I know a couple of people within the team already so it's nice to know that if I find it a little bit hard the first couple of times, I still have someone I can talk to that I know already that can help me out.”

Bäckstedt also said that EF’s willingness to allow her to compete on the ‘cross field alongside learning the ropes in the World Tour peloton was one of the key motivations for joining the team.

“It makes life a heck of a lot easier if I’m being honest than racing for two teams because then you get the problem of being pulled in one direction for a road training camp but you get pulled into the cyclocross season and then nothing tends to coordinate,” she said.

“But with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, I can do road and then I can switch to ‘cross and do ‘cross for as long as I want to, as many races as I want to and then I can take a break and go back onto the road. That approach of ‘you do what you want to do and we’ll make it work.’ I get to do a full cross season like I want to and I get to race on the road like I want to.”

09 August 2022, 14:17
Jake Stewart wins stage one of the Tour de l'Ain 2022 (GCN)
Jake Stewart takes first professional victory at Tour de l’Ain

Just when you thought the Selecter’s appearance at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony would be the last notable performance by someone from Coventry at a major sporting event this week, Groupama-FDJ’s Jake Stewart only went and took the first victory of his pro career today on the opening stage of the Tour de l’Ain.

The 22-year-old sprinter-classics rider, who finished second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last year during his first full season as a pro, narrowly outsprinted Romain Cardis in Val-Revermont for a breakthrough victory after a year punctuated so far by illness.

A monstrous late attack by Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl’s Rémi Cavagna under the flame rouge looked like it was about to spoil the sprinters’ day, after the peloton had been put under pressure by the incessant attacks of the Frenchman’s world champion teammate Julian Alaphilippe, building his form following his horrible crash at April’s Liège–Bastogne–Liège, in the final ten kilometres.

But as attack after attack shot off the front, Stewart maintained his place near the head of the bunch, and Groupama-FDJ had enough in the tank to haul back Cavagna and tee up the Coventry-born rider’s maiden professional victory, and along with it the yellow jersey.

Stewart’s landmark success follows a 2022 season that until now had looked to have been derailed by intestinal issues which saw the promising Brit miss the classics campaign and only race once before May.

“To finally get the win after chasing it for so long, it just feels like a massive weight off my shoulders,” an emotional Stewart said after the finish.

The 22-year-old is set to make his grand tour debut at the Vuelta a España, which starts in ten days in Utrecht, where he will be hoping he can carry this momentum into one of the sport's showpiece races.

09 August 2022, 13:37
Copenhagen crowds out in force (again) for major bike race

Another day, another bike race in Copenhagen…

Unless you were living under a rock for the whole of July – or, you know, out on your bike – you will have gathered that Denmark is the new professional cycling capital of the world, after the 5.8 million-strong nation had the kind of racing summer that would prompt a national tabloid newspaper to encourage their readers to cut out a mask depicting Jonas Vingegaard’s boyish features and tape it to their face (Nah, that’s a bit too mad, surely…).

Anyway, the party continued on this morning in the Danish capital, which was playing host to the start of another top-level stage race: this time, it was the turn of the Tour of Scandinavia, a brand-new Women’s WorldTour event, built on the foundations of the Tour of Norway.

The six-day race will kick off with a stage each in Denmark and Sweden before four decisive stages in Norway.

FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope’s Danish champion Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, a stage winner and seventh overall at the Tour de France Femmes, was predictably the star of the show, wowing the crowds in the City Hall Square, the scene of Vingegaard’s glorious post-Tour homecoming last month:

09 August 2022, 13:07
Why don’t cyclists use cycle lanes? Part 698
09 August 2022, 12:45
Another virtual cycling platform seems to be on the way…
09 August 2022, 11:53
Harsh, but fair
09 August 2022, 11:19
Matt Page London Edinburgh London bike and kit - credit Matt Page
Matt Page is smashing London Edinburgh London

In the early hours of Sunday morning, almost 2,000 hardy souls set off from the Guildhall to take on the iconic, 1,500km-long London Edinburgh London.

Established in 1989, and back after a five-year hiatus, London Edinburgh London is a self-supported Audax event modelled on France’s legendary long-distance event Paris-Brest-Paris, first run in 1891.

While formally known as a ‘cycle ride’, rather than a race, the event still features a 125 hour cut-off, which means you’ll have to keep the pace high and rest and recuperation to a minimum.

The cut-off certainly won’t be a problem for road.cc and off.road.cc contributor (and world-record breaking castle visitor) Matt Page, who is currently smashing the course to shreds at the head of the event.

Matt is no stranger to enduring needless amounts of pain on his bike – in 2020 he raised over £4,000 for charity after completing Rapha’s annual Festive 500 in just 18 hours – so it’s no surprise he’s making light work (though I’m sure it’s very difficult) of LEL.

> What do you need to ride London Edinburgh London? Matt Page's bike and equipment for 1,500km self-supported classic

He was first rider to make the turn south and should reach Checkpoint 16 in Louth, Lincolnshire, by lunch time, about 50km ahead of the nearest rider on the road.

Not too shabby at all, Matt.

Although, yesterday evening two riders appeared to have sacked the whole thing off after 400-odd kilometres, with their dots – according to road.cc’s Simon – appearing suspiciously close to a pub inside York train station.

I think I know who has the right idea there…

You can keep up-to-date with all the dot-based escapades on the London Edinburgh London website.

09 August 2022, 10:57
09 August 2022, 10:43
The world’s most expensive bag of crisps?

A bit of a shocker this one, as a member of Bristol Road Club had their bike nicked right at the tills of a Tesco Express, by a determined thief who had followed the cyclist into the shop on the Whiteladies Road:

Goes to show, even taking your bike into the shop with you won’t deter some criminals. I’m not sure a packet of salt and vinegar could provide any kind of consolation after that…

If you have any information about the stolen bike – a Specialized Tarmac S-Works with SRAM AXS groupset and ENVE wheels – the rider has provided a contact number on the Facebook.

09 August 2022, 10:19
Revenge, a dish best served cold… and strawberry-flavoured?
09 August 2022, 09:58
“Who thought up that bright idea?”: Timmy Mallett versus dead-end cycle paths

As Timmy Mallett’s two-wheeled tour of the UK comes to a close, the TV presenter took the time to point out one of the glaring flaws in the county’s bike network: the dead-end cycle path.

“One of the great joys of cycling the coast of Britain is finding that there is a cycle path right alongside the water,” he said on a video posted to Twitter.

“This is fantastic, brilliant. But then you come to this,” he says, turning the camera to face a metal fence and some overgrown weeds, “and you realise that the system isn’t joined up at all. It’s a complete and utter dead end. That’s it, no further.

“Who thought up that bright idea?”

Not so ‘utterly brilliant’, eh?

Cycling charity Sustrans, who Mallett tagged in his Twitter post, responded to the legendary entertainer’s complaint yesterday, and offered him a catch-up on the lessons he’s learned while riding his e-bike on stupidly steep Welsh roads and foreboding Highland tracks:

09 August 2022, 09:44
09 August 2022, 08:57
Dublin bike hire scheme accused of “everyday sexism” – after telling users that they’re “riding” Maeve or Mary

A bike hire scheme based in Dublin will no longer give its bikes female names after one user complained that the company was reinforcing “everyday sexism”, Sticky Bottle reports.

Bikes belonging to Irish company Moby – which offers rentals in Dublin and Co. Westmeath, as well as in London – were named after women, with the scheme’s app informing the user that they were ‘riding’ Mary or Maeve, and for what cost.

Now – I’ve been reliably informed by some of my baffled English colleagues that the term ‘ride’ may have various connotations in different parts of the Atlantic Archipelago.

While our American cousins tend to use ‘ride’ to refer to getting a lift somewhere, in Irish slang… how should I put this… ‘ride’ more often than not refers to sexual activities.

So, you can see why there might be some confusion surrounding Moby’s bike hire scheme.

Dr Eemer Eivers, a research fellow at Dublin City University, tweeted and emailed her objections to the crude use of language employed by Moby, which she argued implied that users were “buying women for a ride”.

Moby then initially responded to her complaint by suggesting that the use of women’s names for all of the scheme’s bikes was “empowering” – a reply which Dr Eivers, rather charitably, deemed “ignorant” and “sexist”.

However, Dr Eivers’ Twitter campaign appears to have paid off, as Moby then informed her on Monday that the scheme will revert back to its initial use of ID codes for its bikes.

“For all the Maeves I’ve known!” Eemer tweeted after hearing the news.

09 August 2022, 08:11
“Next you will be asking why cyclists don’t pay road tax”: Hampshire Police respond to anti-cycling bingo drivers

Lately on the live blog, we’ve been fairly critical of how certain police forces have handled themselves on social media regarding cycling (looking at you, Essex).

But credit where it’s due – on Friday evening Hampshire’s Roads Policing Unit posted a compilation of close passes and details of the resultant prosecutions, alongside a call for motorists to avoid being “space invaders” and to show “consideration for vulnerable road users”.

While some cyclists bemoaned the seemingly lenient outcomes of one or two of the cases highlighted in the video (how the first driver got away with just three points and a £100 fine is beyond me), Hampshire Police nevertheless received some extra kudos for their handling of the plethora of red-faced motorists who invaded the thread to fill in their anti-cycling bingo cards.

When one highly original driver, in a since-deleted tweet, pointed out that cyclists can engage in “red light jumping, riding on pavements, using mobile phones, think they’re above the law”, the police’s retort was worthy of the road.cc live blog comments section:

They also swiftly slapped down this attempt to fill in the more obscure edges of the bingo card:

Hampshire Police’s prolific tweeting on Friday was enough to earn the attention of the notoriously pro-cycling advocates at the Daily Mail and GB News, who reported that the Roads Policing Unit sparked a “furious backlash” for simply asking drivers to treat cyclists like human beings, so they must be doing something right…

Ryan Mallon

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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46 comments

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brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

Tesla’s self-driving technology fails to detect children in the road, tests find

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/09/tesla-self-driving-technology-safety-children

Discuss (not sure why the pasted text went blue..., sorry)

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Cycloid replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
3 likes

One of the arguments for autonomous cars is that there will be fewer accidents, and they will be different ones, also that the product will improve with time.
I wonder if there is an option to punishment pass included?

 

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brooksby replied to Cycloid | 2 years ago
2 likes

You probably have to pay extra for that...

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Cycloid replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
0 likes

There's lots of room for conjecture here.

Complete the following matrix
Which is 1) More Dangerous   2) More Frightening
A punishment pass from;-
a) An Autonomous Vehicle b) A Manually Driven Vehicle

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Simon E replied to Cycloid | 2 years ago
3 likes

Cycloid wrote:

One of the arguments for autonomous cars is that there will be fewer accidents, and they will be different ones, also that the product will improve with time.
I wonder if there is an option to punishment pass included?

I wonder how they will react when they meet a cyclist on a narrow lane. I find it's a lottery - some drivers are incredibly considerate, others don't even roll off the throttle.

Will autonomous cars be programmed to not drive or park on pavements? That would be good.

Would they obey speed limits? That would be an improvement on the huge number of selfish people speeding where I live (including supermarket delivery vans, notably fuckwits in ASDA vans).

Having said that, I'm sure those humans could all manage to drive safely if their own child/relative was cycling or crossing in front of them.

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chrisonabike replied to Cycloid | 2 years ago
1 like

Cycloid wrote:

One of the arguments for autonomous cars is that there will be fewer accidents, and they will be different ones, also that the product will improve with time.

That's my betting - pros and cons.  Overall improvement (safety, driving efficiency) but then systemic or random glitches.  The consequences of which may be bad or worse as human failures.  For one they maybe less predictable by humans as our mental models are partially based on introspection.  It may turn out to be far harder to pin responsibility on anyone than it is currently - which isn't easy.  I could imagine even civil claims getting caught up in a tangle of whose service / software was to blame and to what degree.

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hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
1 like

chrisonatrike wrote:

That's my betting - pros and cons.  Overall improvement (safety, driving efficiency) but then systemic or random glitches.  The consequences of which may be bad or worse as human failures.  For one they maybe less predictable by humans as our mental models are partially based on introspection.  It may turn out to be far harder to pin responsibility on anyone than it is currently - which isn't easy.  I could imagine even civil claims getting caught up in a tangle of whose service / software was to blame and to what degree.

With the various cameras and sensors fitted to autonomous vehicles, it should be easier to determine which party was at fault. I can imagine that fault analysis might be bounced around inside companies, but it should be quite clear cut as to who is at fault in any collision as claims wouldn't need to identify anything other than which vehicle it is. It's likely that manufacturers will provide their own liability insurance as otherwise owners might unearth trade secrets whilst trying to answer legal cases. That's also a good example of 'eating your own dogfood' as poor collision avoidance will cost the manufacturer and provide an incentive to improve the software.

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chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
0 likes

Quote:

With the various cameras and sensors fitted to autonomous vehicles, it should be easier to determine which party was at fault.

I think all this is entirely dependent on what rules the manufacturers haggle the government to put into law.  That includes "who is ultimately at fault" if all agree that "it was the car".  I don't have an immediate example but I'm pretty sure companies selling complex tech products haven't been above pointing at other companies and saying it was their fault.

So I sort of agree - although for cycling I think this is the usual "progress happens while we're trying to get what we actually want".  All is speculation until we discover what our masters have signed us up for.  Maybe the user licence agreement for these vehicles will also have a clause saying "it's on you and if you're not satisfied you've been had"?  Or more likely "the government has agreed that you can't take us to court directly and you have to apply to them".

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hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
0 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

I think all this is entirely dependent on what rules the manufacturers haggle the government to put into law.  That includes "who is ultimately at fault" if all agree that "it was the car".  I don't have an immediate example but I'm pretty sure companies selling complex tech products haven't been above pointing at other companies and saying it was their fault.

I know exactly what you mean about software providers pointing fingers (insert spiderman meme here), but I can't see that being relevant for a RTC. Ultimately, the hurt party would be making a claim against the driver's/manufacturer's insurance, so it would only be necessary to prove that the vehicle/driver was responsible for the collision. The insurance company could then argue with various suppliers and/or the driver to get their money back, but that wouldn't affect the original claimant.

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Cycloid replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
0 likes

I think aportioning blame after collisions will have a moral and a financial dimension.
Suppose for every child taken out 1000 minor bumps in parking lots were avoided. If the cost of the 1000 bumps was greater than the compensation for the child then simple economics could determine the software version installed. 
These two scenarios are not mutually exclusive, but consider the situation where a collision is unavoidable. Say a car is coming round a bend on the wrong side of the road, and a young mum is pushing a baby in a buggy on the footpath. Does the car go for the head on collision, or does it take out the mother and baby? Either way two lives are lost, but in the second case the person who has paid for the software survives.
I suspect teams of American Lawyers are working on get out clauses at this moment in time.

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hawkinspeter replied to Cycloid | 2 years ago
1 like

Cycloid wrote:

I think aportioning blame after collisions will have a moral and a financial dimension.
Suppose for every child taken out 1000 minor bumps in parking lots were avoided. If the cost of the 1000 bumps was greater than the compensation for the child then simple economics could determine the software version installed. 
These two scenarios are not mutually exclusive, but consider the situation where a collision is unavoidable. Say a car is coming round a bend on the wrong side of the road, and a young mum is pushing a baby in a buggy on the footpath. Does the car go for the head on collision, or does it take out the mother and baby? Either way two lives are lost, but in the second case the person who has paid for the software survives.
I suspect teams of American Lawyers are working on get out clauses at this moment in time.

If the collision is unavoidable, then why would the car aim for the mum and baby?

Quibbling aside, that scenario is sometimes brought up and it's extremely unlikely to happen. I would imagine that the autonomous car would detect the oncoming car earlier than a human driver and attempt to reduce speed as quickly as possible in a straight line to maintain full control. Swerving out of the way of a collision at speed is a poor evading tactic to use when it's so much easier to just reduce speed.

Also, just imagine the bad publicity if the collision-swerving code has a bug and the manufacturer's vehicles then have a habit of swerving wildly onto pavements when the only obstacle is a plastic bag in the wind.

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mdavidford replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
4 likes

Is this evidence that the Teslas are actually becoming self-aware, and they find the Midwich Cuckoo bollards creepy too?

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Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
2 likes

Looks like Matt Page is on for a LEL finish this side of midnight....

I hope he'll have enough in the tank to make some story notes whilst it's fresh in his head. 

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brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

The story of six deaf men and an epic cycle mission

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/video-the-story-of-six...

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
0 likes

I was just thinking it would take a skilled and brave signer to abuse a motorist after a close pass then realised this probably quite common!

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IanMK | 2 years ago
1 like

In recent months I've seen good engagement from TVP Roads Unit, I believe they work/share with Hampshire. Not always the result I'd like but they will engage (normally they call me) with any follow up I might have and explain their reasoning. I also get the impression that they are listening to me as well. I would definately recommend making submissions to TVP but if you don't follow up and ask what's happening they don't respond. As I said once you contact them they will get back to you and if you need clarification they will call you.

Northants don't really engage they do produce monthly tables which will give you some reasons if no action is taken. Beds are really useless. No engagement on why they don't think a report should be actioned. They will action close passes but I had one at the weekend - an overtake over speed humps, approaching a junction and a bend in the road (where of course a car appeared from), really clueless driving. Luckily my Spidey senses were tingling and I could keep myself safe but I thought the driver would at least get some words of advice on what the HC actually said about all three of their mistakes.

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Simon_MacMichael | 2 years ago
2 likes

The named hire bikes, just needs a tweak to the start of the message?

"Your hire bike is called Maeve" or "You are cycling on Maeve" would work, I reckon?

 

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brooksby replied to Simon_MacMichael | 2 years ago
0 likes

I wonder what verb Dr Eivers uses to describe the act of sitting on a bike and pedaling it?

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

Cycling !

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brooksby replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
1 like

I never say I'm cycling.  I always say 'riding'.  Tomatoes/tomatoes, I guess...

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
3 likes

To add another angle: don't cyclists drive their bikes (being the source of motive power) while motorists merely ride in their vehicles?

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wtjs replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
2 likes

don't cyclists drive their bikes (being the source of motive power)

Many on here aren't!

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chrisonabike replied to wtjs | 2 years ago
4 likes

wtjs wrote:

don't cyclists drive their bikes (being the source of motive power)

Many on here aren't!

EDIT: don't cyclists drive their bikes (being part of the source of motive power) and there's nothing wrong with them not contributing 100% of that although in an ideal world those fit and healthy enough might choose to get slightly more exercise by riding machines which are less resource intensive to manufacture but apparently riding e-bikes is overall more energy efficient than riding unpowered bikes when you account for the cost of food and transporting it...

...but that wasn't so snappy.

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Mungecrundle replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
11 likes

According to many drivers, I don't just ride a bicycle, I wobble about all over the middle of the road 4 abreast without paying tax.

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brooksby replied to Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
5 likes

Mungecrundle wrote:

According to many drivers, I don't just ride a bicycle, I wobble about all over the middle of the road 4 abreast without paying tax.

invisibly.

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hutchdaddy replied to Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
2 likes

What a coincidence so do I apparently I also jump red lights, haven't read the highway code, don't have lights on my bike, don't have a helmeet don't wear high vis, don't do this, do thank that...These non-cyclists ar so knowledgeable and they are mind readers too. Wow! I wish I wasn't a cyclist.

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brooksby replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
3 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

To add another angle: don't cyclists drive their bikes (being the source of motive power) while motorists merely ride in their vehicles?

Don't you be coming on 'ere with yer "logic"! 3

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OnYerBike replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
0 likes

brooksby wrote:

chrisonatrike wrote:

To add another angle: don't cyclists drive their bikes (being the source of motive power) while motorists merely ride in their vehicles?

Don't you be coming on 'ere with yer "logic"! 3

"Driving" doesn't necessarily mean providing the motive power; it can simply mean controlling or directing that motive power. To use a topical example, the "drivers/driving" in "Drivers of carriages injuring persons by furious driving" refers to the person in control of a hourse-drawn carriage (the horse providing the motive power, not the driver). See also https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drive 

Avatar
PRSboy | 2 years ago
1 like

I'm glad Dr Eivers has sorted that one out.  I for one would be disappointed if I used the Moby app to rent a bike to cycle to the station and a lady turned up instead.  

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chrisonabike replied to PRSboy | 2 years ago
9 likes

It's all fine until you realise the maintenance costs.

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