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The joy of British bike lanes in autumn — leaves and puddles aplenty; Daily Mail columnist calls LTN supporters "Traffic Taliban"; Who's seen the worst bike rack?; Don't talk to Thomas De Gendt about Elon Musk; S-1; Friday fun + more on the live blog

All aboard the final live blog of the week, just one day to go until you can ride off into the weekend... Dan Alexander is here and ready for duty...
28 October 2022, 16:30
Have a good weekend everyone!

The live blog will be back on Monday...enjoy your weekend riding! We'll leave you with this... 

> Children take to the barricades to save School Street

28 October 2022, 15:34
The joy of British bike lanes in autumn — leaves and puddles aplenty

Despite the unseasonably mild temperatures this week some things never change...

You can always count on a British bike lane to become a treacherous ice rink of leaves and standing water come the time we turn our clocks back...

Deborah asked the council to get sweeping, something one reply suggested they had been doing on the other side of the road at another stretch. A bit more of that would be greatly appreciated up and down the country I'm sure... 

Anyway, let's have a Friday throwback to another unbeleafable bike lane (also in Manchester)...

Leaves

"Where do you reckon the boss wants us to sweep these leaves to?"

"Oh, just push 'em into the leaf collection lane..."

28 October 2022, 15:10
Where is the worst place to ride a bike?

A cyclist from Guildford has made the bold claim that Surrey is "the worst place in the world" he has ever ridden. Not because of the rolling climbs or anything else landscape-based, nope, but because of the standard of driving on display.

The Surrey Hills from Newlands Corner (CC BY-ND 2.0 licence by DavidGeen:Flickr)

"I've cycled on-road and off-road and raced all over the world as well. There are good and bad drivers everywhere — but certainly in the south-east the standard of driving falls below a level that any sane person would want to see on the roads," Jon Sharpe told Get Surrey.

"If I'm honest, I think Surrey is the worst place in the world I've ever ridden. That all comes down to the quality of driver and I've ridden in a lot of places you'd think cycling would be a worse experience, but Surrey is by far the worse place to be on the road.

"There are no excuses for putting people's lives in harm's way and you shouldn't be on the road if you're driving like this. We have a duty of care to protect those that are vulnerable, on the road or in wider society, and that message really needs to get out there."

I'm sure there'll be no shortage of suggestions... where is the worst place to ride a bike? I'll go first — indoors.

28 October 2022, 14:09
"It's those canalists hogging the road space again when there's a perfectly good waterway"
28 October 2022, 13:38
Round three... An Italian (half-arsed) job and a back alley bike rack

Two more challengers enter the ring...

First up, road.cc Simon's Italian adventure took him to Ferrara, Emilia Romagna, which — while a terrific city for cycling — had this bike rack leaving a fair bit to be desired...

Ferrara bike parking (Simon MacMichael)

"There was row upon row of these wheel-benders, hundreds upon hundreds of spaces (this was late on a Saturday evening, it was a bit busier come Monday morning). Quite a novel way of locking, too (also bonus team sponsor top right, big old Fassa Bortolo hopper)"

What about this back-alley offering from Brian Haugh? Nothing says you're a valued road user like having to go park your bike out back with the bins and empty bottles...

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)

"This is the bike parking at my office, in theory it's quite good being a courtyard yard with swipe access but our neighbours — the pub/nightclub — seem to feel that it would be a better space for bin storage. You can imagine the broken glass."

28 October 2022, 13:30
DIY tubeless inserts for less than £10 - cheap gravel bike upgrade

28 October 2022, 12:09
The school run — Glasgow-style
28 October 2022, 12:02
"So you must be the new Head of Uncertainty...nice to meet you, I'm Dave from HR"

Required:

- Must know 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' off by heart 

- Must have at least five years in a similarly ambiguous, undefined role

- Clear strategy and planning will not be required, we like things uncertain 

Benefits:

- Competitive salary (well, it is sometimes, other times not so much)

- 14-25 days paid holiday (maybe)

28 October 2022, 11:20
Daily Mail columnist calls LTN supporters "Traffic Taliban"

LTNs are back on the hit list in the Daily Mail today as features writer Louise Perry called for the "ill-conceived schemes" of the "Traffic Taliban" to be scrapped to "undo the anguish" they have caused...

Despite:

- A 2021 study showing road injuries were halved in low-traffic neighbourhoods when compared against areas without the schemes 

- Transport for London analysis showing that LTNs in Hackney had not caused a rise in traffic on nearby main roads (and encouraged a quarter of residents to cycle more)

- Ambulance trusts saying the schemes, along with pop-up cycle lanes, did not slow their response times

LTN planters

Perry wrote that LTNs in south London were hitting businesses and residents, and cited Department for Transport figures which "reveal that LTNs have spectacularly backfired, actually increasing the total number of vehicles miles travelled".

> Highway Code changes: Daily Mail publishes "error-strewn" Richard Littlejohn column attacking cyclists

What the Department for Transport figures showed is that the total vehicle miles driven in ten inner London boroughs that introduced LTNs or equivalent schemes in 2020 rose by 11.4 per cent (an average of 41 million miles) in 2021 compared to 2020...

The two inner London boroughs that did not implement the schemes saw an average rebound of 29 million miles or 8.9 per cent. But are LTNs the sole reason for a traffic increase? The Department for Transport did not comment, The Times newspaper admitted "the figures do not prove a link between LTNs and more miles being driven".

> 10 of the most hysterical anti-cycling Daily Mail headlines

Anyway, Perry's "Traffic Taliban" column goes on to suggest families in London have to drive, and cycling with children, in a cargo bike for example, would be "nearly impossible" and you would be "lucky" to have a bus going where you want to go...(apparently)...

Commenting on similar schemes in Oxford, Perry writes:

Oxford politics has always been skewed by the presence of its two large universities.

During term time, almost a quarter of Oxford adult residents are full-time students — the overwhelming majority of whom are childless, able-bodied, and not looking after elderly or disabled relatives. Of course these young adults are going to be in favour of the council's war on cars, particularly when it's presented as a woke, eco-friendly endeavour.

They can virtue-signal without any cost to themselves. But across the country, these measures are causing so widespread misery, dividing neighbourhoods and only making traffic worse.

Now that we have proof that they do not achieve their environmental aims, councils across the country must think again. It's time to scrap these ill-conceived schemes — and undo the anguish they have caused to so many. 

28 October 2022, 10:21
Round Two... Worst cycle rack contenders from Crystal Palace Football Club, Aldi, local medical centre, an Aussie car park and apartment buildings

You've been getting your submissions in for a couple of hours now, so let's take a look...

My personal favourite so far..."The builder refused to change these," nniff told us...

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)

Must be something about apartment buildings trying to do bike storage because this from VanDerBike is an instant classic... 

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)

"When stored vertically, can't lock anything other than the wheels. Hence it's used like this..."

Next up, Steve K shared a snap of the 'official' bike parking at Crystal Palace Football Club...superb stuff...

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)

Tom_77 shared the "bike rack outside my local medical centre. Someone screwed a floor-standing bike stand to the wall. Bent wheels and a blocked pavement. Obviously I use the green metal things instead." We can see why...

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)

hirsute offered an Aldi favourite...

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)

 Lastly, antigee sent a contender in from Down Under, Melbourne to be precise. Found right at the "far far end of massive car park probably a 1km walk to the numerous shops/eateries it was intended to serve. Presumably the 'no cycling' sign was added to confirm that it was underutilised and so could be removed to add more car parking spaces."

Live blog bike racks (28/10/2022)
28 October 2022, 08:58
Halloween inspiration

Time for more of these memes... we've had a couple on the live blog already, but get ready for the next batch...

Even Park Tool got in on the act...

28 October 2022, 08:50
You've heard of N+1, but what about S-1?

Quite extraordinarily considering how grim the comments over on Facebook can be sometimes, I'm thinking I should be giving comment of the day to one from there...

Talking about yesterday's N+1 chat, Michael Irwin introduced us to a whole new phenomenon... S-1...

N+1 garage (Jez Briggs/ Twitter)

Commenting on the road.cc reader's bike-packed garage... Michael told us "the S-1 formula can save you. Where S is the number of bikes results that in separation. It's where your spouse says, 'If you get one more bike, so help me, I'll...!' Of course finding that threshold can be a little tricky."

Write that one down...

Also from Facebook, Pete Whelan told us: "N+1 peaked at 36 for myself — wife and two children. Three of them were tandems. Now down to more manageable levels now it's just two of us, though two recumbent trikes take up a lot of space."

Lawrence Hallett says he's "managed to get to N+8"...

28 October 2022, 08:17
Don't talk to Thomas De Gendt about Elon Musk

Ah yes, the Elon Musk blue bird app era... there are seemingly two types of people reacting to this news... those like Adam Hansen and those like Thomas De Gendt...

Just the 52 Grand Tours between the two, by the way... 46 of those completed!

Anyway, back to Musk. The new Twitter owner (who, in everyone's favourite joke this morning, spent $44billion on a free app...) has popped up on road.cc before, mainly for his Tesla antics...

By antics I mean deciding the best way to solve congestion in big cities is to send traffic...underground in great big tunnels...

Elon Musk's Teslas in Tunnels traffic jam (via Twitter)

Also on Musk's greatest hits... claiming Tesla's Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD) had not been responsible for a single collision since its release... only for a YouTuber to capture footage of his vehicle smashing into a cycle lane bollard weeks later...

Oh, and then there was the 2016 comments about it being "morally reprehensible" to delay the release of autonomous vehicles.

28 October 2022, 08:02
The return of 'who's seen the worst bike rack'...

Yesterday we shared a road.cc reader's petition to make bike storage pods a requirement for all new building developments, prompting a few comments of your own — starring more hilariously sad, grim and disappointing bike storage from your two-wheeled travels...

Woldsman got the ball rolling with this classic — a place to park your bike which comes with free foliage... 

Live blog bike rack (Woldsman road.cc live blog 27th October 2022)

I'm sensing a Friday game of 'whose seen the worst bike rack?' 

"At least they made an effort," Woldsman told us about this next one... now just to work out how to get your bike over the spiky fence... that's a big bunny hop...

Live blog bike rack (Woldsman road.cc live blog 27th October 2022)

And finally, "the unloved and unused wheel benders"... courtesy of Homebase...

Live blog bike rack (Woldsman road.cc live blog 27th October 2022)

Roll up, roll up... anyone for a crap bike rack?

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

Add new comment

60 comments

Avatar
Steve K | 1 year ago
1 like

Given this discussion, I thought I'd take a pic of the Crystal Palace bike parking before this Saturday's match with a few more bikes there. Still, at least we won

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

Bus driver sacked after ped crossing fail

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63437689

(initial report mentioned here 2 or 3 days ago)

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

hirsute wrote:

Bus driver sacked after ped crossing fail

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63437689

(initial report mentioned here 2 or 3 days ago)

I'm glad they sacked him, but there's no mention of him being prosecuted for careless/dangerous driving. He should at least get points on his licence.

Avatar
wtjs replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like

I'm glad they sacked him, but there's no mention of him being prosecuted for careless/dangerous driving. He should at least get points on his licence.

Don't worry about him- he'll still be able to get a job with Stagecoach Lancashire

Avatar
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 1 year ago
2 likes

the daily Mail is so pathetic. The bad news is so many people believe the lies and moronic stuff it prints - whether it's idiotic lies about the EU or made up stuff about the Labour Party, or hateful ignorance about migrants and cyclists. It's a truly hideous entity. But one that so many morons take seriously. 

Avatar
David9694 replied to BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 1 year ago
0 likes

The world is a frightening and stupid place - read The Mail to find out how much so. Also, Instagram star stuns fans with revealing bikini snaps.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to David9694 | 1 year ago
0 likes

David9694 wrote:

The world is a frightening and stupid place - read The Mail to find out how much so. Also, Instagram star stuns fans with revealing bikini snaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue8GOry52xo

Avatar
adamrice | 1 year ago
0 likes

Pre-Covid, my workplace designated an unused room as the "bike room" and installed one of those wheel-bender racks in it. The thing is, there's no good way to get from that room to the shower (singular). I'm also the only person who commutes by bike regularly, so that bike room goes unused.

Avatar
IanGlasgow | 1 year ago
7 likes

The school I work in installed wheelbenders.
When we didn't like those they made a lovely covered bike rack. It's shaped like a football goal, is open at the front and is in the playground where kids play football!
Then they added insult to injury; the Sheffield Stands in it turned out to be attached to the ground by a few short bolts so they fell over. The school's response... replace them with more wheelbenders.

This was my response.
Rack from Amazon.
Ten minutes with a power drill.
Nobody has told me I can't, so I assume I can.

Avatar
NOtotheEU replied to IanGlasgow | 1 year ago
4 likes

Nice solution. It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

Our Road Safety team in partnership with @PoliceScotland

are asking pedestrians, if you're out walking this winter, don't fade to GREY - Be BRIGHT, be seen!

 

https://twitter.com/GlasgowCC/status/1585996017937387524

Also watch out for drivers who ignore no right and no left turns and drive through ped crossing when the green man is lit.

 

 

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
4 likes

hirsute wrote:

Our Road Safety team in partnership with @PoliceScotland

are asking pedestrians, if you're out walking this winter, don't fade to GREY - Be BRIGHT, be seen!

https://twitter.com/GlasgowCC/status/1585996017937387524

Also watch out for drivers who ignore no right and no left turns and drive through ped crossing when the green man is lit.

Also, try to jump out of the way of drivers who may be about to hit you - it makes a mess on their car and no-one likes that

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
1 like

And as they are crossing at a junction, HWC says that pedestrians should have priority, and they can't lean on them being light controlled as they are green. Police should be doing them for driving without due care, even if they think that the turn infringement is minor.

Avatar
IanGlasgow | 1 year ago
1 like

PU Backer Rod is used to fill expansion gaps before sealing over with some sort of sealant. It's made by - among others - Soudal (sponsor of Lotto Soudal).

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 1 year ago
3 likes

Louise Perry might want to refrain from referencing the Taliban as a source of road safety policy. Apparently they are no longer issuing driving licences to women.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/tal...

Avatar
OnYerBike | 1 year ago
1 like

S-1 has been in The Rules for as long as I can remember...

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SimoninSpalding replied to OnYerBike | 1 year ago
1 like

The problem is, like the HC, so few people actually read the Rules, and those that do forget most of them.

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Patrick9-32 replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
1 like

Once you get your head around making sure you have matching socks to your kit you are hit with making sure you don't have matching kit unless you are a pro and then you give up on the whole rules thing and just ride your bike. 

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
6 likes

You'd think someone with a cycle carrier would have a bit more care around cyclists.

NSL, blind bend, SLOW, chevron sign. At the decision to overtake, the red van was blocking the view (not that it was a good idea anyhow).

How do these people get to stay on the road with this level of incompetence ?

Avatar
Kapelmuur replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
3 likes

I have written on here about a close pass from a car carrying 2 road bikes on its roof and wondering what the driver was thinking.

But I subsequently experienced the closest  pass I've ever suffered from a car marked 'Starley Racing Team'.

Avatar
brooksby replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
7 likes

hirsute wrote:

You'd think someone with a cycle carrier would have a bit more care around cyclists.

I've found that the drivers of SUVs and people carriers/minivans with a bike rack on the back are among the most badly behaved motorists around cyclists.  But then I imagine that they don't ever cycle on the road (just drive to an off-road site to ride around on gravel and mud, then drive back home).

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

"Avid cyclist"

I wouldn't be too hard on those who just don't want to ride on the roads although in an ideal world most people would ride to the ride.  If you're driving though, I'm only interested in how you're driving.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
4 likes

brooksby wrote:

But then I imagine that they don't ever cycle on the road (just drive to an off-road site to ride around on gravel and mud, then drive back home).

Of course they don't want to ride on the road where there are drivers like themselves.

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
4 likes

Re the "Traffic Taliban" article, I live near East Dulwich Grove, the road the author claims is "permanently choked with traffic" due to the LTN; this little video I made back in June in response to a challenge from another anti-LTN person may prove instructive.

https://twitter.com/Rendel_Harris/status/1585902647391195136

(Sorry the audio's a bit indistinct, the important bit to note is that it's 10.43AM on an ordinary working Friday; sorry also about the dreadful brake rub, it was a warped rotor that I replaced that weekend!)

Avatar
Brian Haugh | 1 year ago
3 likes

This is the bike parking at my office, in theory it's quite good being a courtyard yard with swipe access but our neighbours the pub/nightclub seem to feel that it would be a better space for bin storage. You can imagine the broken glass. 

Avatar
Patrick9-32 | 1 year ago
5 likes

Daily Mail out here threatening us with a good time again. 

Imagine a world where other options were prioritised so much that you didn't want to get in your car!

Avatar
eburtthebike | 1 year ago
7 likes

The worst kind of bike rack is usually none at all, although some of the examples given are admittedly worse than none.

I had my covid booster last week, and rode my ebike rather than use the car, to get to the community centre.  When I arrived, I looked for the cycle parking, but there isn't any, but there was a very nice, recently surfaced car park, with a sign banning bicycle riding.  I locked my bike to the railings on the pedestrian ramp.

I've asked the council, which owns the place, to install proper cycle parking and to remove the ban on cycling.

Avatar
chrisonabike | 1 year ago
2 likes

Bike storage: another area where simply copying "what I've seen in pictures" from e.g. The Netherlands leads to cargo-cult facilities.

I believe in NL because bikes are traditionally a) heavy and b) come equipped with a rear wheel ring lock* it's common to have the "wheel bender" bike racks as simple storage for shorter stops (e.g. shopping).  So people tend not to lock to the rack.  This likely works because it's harder to lift / carry away a Dutch bike (because heavy and the back wheel's immobilised).  Places where bikes are stored are often more "visible" in NL.  Finally if you've got tons of people cycling you need very space-efficient (and cheap) designs.

In the UK racks tend to be hidden somewhere out of sight.  (Also inconvenient - often you can park a car closer than you can store a bike in the "designated" storage.)  People everywhere don't understand security.  I discovered both things recently (grr) when a thief found that if you pried some bars (turned out they were only held on by tacks) next to the gate of our bike storage you could just reach round and turn the latch to open the lock.  They then had a convenient private space to take their time over angle-grinding locks.

* Many wheel ring locks allow you to plug in a chain so you can properly immobilise such a bike relatively easily also, although I personally would probably carry a second lock.  However I've found to my cost angle-grinders will go through most things so it's more about the security of where you leave it.

Avatar
KDee replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
2 likes

The plug-in chains that work with the ring locks don't provide much extra security for a determined thief. The ring lock on one of my stadsfiets seized up (ring lock open, but chain plug stuck in the lock). Borrowed a cordless grinder from the LBS and cut through the shackle in less than 10 seconds. Considering the money I paid for that chain, it was utter crap.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to KDee | 1 year ago
1 like

I'd say very little - other than your own bank vault - provides security against a determined thief.  Angle grinders have definitely changed the landscape.  In the UK bikes (other than obviously cheap ones) tend to stand out because there are not many visible bikes.

Sadly I believe I can only protect against opportunists (someone pinching an unlocked bike or armed with single-hand cutters).  Or make a slightly more determined thief overlook my bike or preferentially steal another.  So it's having a bike that looks (or is) less valuable than the next one, or is better secured.  Obviously too well secured and that stands out - plus stops you cycling very far!

I've learned to my cost that if you have something that "looks valuable" it's only really sensible to store it in your home.  Anywhere where people won't see or interfere thieves will take what they like.

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