Well, Dublin doesn’t want motorcycles in bus lanes, so why should London?

This comes from the European Cycling Federation (www.ecf.com) and what are we doing, thinking of doing the opposite! Good for Ireland’s Road Safety Authority.

 

28.07.2008

The Dublin Cycling Campaign welcomes the Road Safety Authority’s recent announcement that it cannot recommend the opening up of bus/cycle lanes to motorbike use.The Dublin Cycling Campaign has never agreed with the use by some motor bike riders of bus/cycle lanes. A general and unwarranted assumption has been made by too many motor bike riders that it is permissible to ride in bus/cycle lanes and there seems to be no Garda action to enforce the existing legal ban. [see SI No. 182 of 1997. Section 32. (2).] The Campaign now calls on the Garda to enforce Section 32 of the road traffic regulations No. 182 of 1997 where only omnibuses and bicycles are permitted legally to be in a bus/cycle lane. Taxis are permitted to use these lanes only while on business – that is with the meter operational and a fare present. This also should mean that action will be taken against taxi drivers who are driving in a bus/cycle lane without a fare on board and the meter operational. A recent survey conducted by this Campaign determined that 56% of taxis in the bus/cycle lane in Pearse Street had no passenger present. There are too many vehicles using bus/cycle lanes where the driver is overtaking cyclists too close (failing to leave a separation distance of a least 1.5 m) and too fast. This intimidates cyclists. If this society is to meet its Kyoto transport greenhouse gas reduction targets more commuters are going to have to abandon their cars and take up cycling to work, college and school. Riders need to feel safe on urban roads and in bus/cycle lanes.

Cameron mysteriously gets his bike back!

Source : Daily Mail.

Great stuff.. but funny, with a little help of media attention, he can get it back, but not for the 5% of us who aren’t so lucky. Clearly it was quite easy for him to get it back.

I would like to know exactly ‘how this mysteriously turned up’ and whether the reward was paid out.

DJ Nick Ferrari has offered £500 Reward for Cameron’s bike

(News Source The London Paper 25/7/08)

Although this is a nice gesture if the crooks get to hear of this and return it, they may actually benefit from this a lot more than Cameron, as his Scott mountainbike appeared to be a cheaper than this. I don’t see why these  scumbags should benefit at all.  Now if Cameron had insurance, then it shouldn’t be that difficult getting another, even though it is a right pain.

It is likely he will have had household insurance. Actually, considering he left it on a bollard, one would even wonder about that!

300, 000 stolen every year – surely we deserve secure bike parking!

I saw this on the European Cycling Federation website (www.ecf.com):-

“According to the British Crime Survey around 300,000 bikes are stolen every year in England and Wales and only 5% of people ever get their bikes back. It also appears that bike theft is on the rise, as the British Transport Police report: since 2000, theft and damage to bikes at railway stations has doubled, while motor vehicle crime has fallen by 50%. There are now as many motor vehicle crimes recorded at railway stations as there are cycle crimes – 5600 per year.

To prevent cycle theft CTC – the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation is calling for more secure bike parking at railways stations and in shopping areas, as it reduces the chances of a cycle being stolen”

I think what the police could be doing is perhaps having some ‘decoy bikes’ in areas where there is a big problem. Considering how quick they go after they have been left it won’t take long to catch them. The police could catch them at it.

Many of us know that Brick Lane, in East London, is one of the worst places for stolen bike stuff and surely the trouble makers ‘are well known’. I mean, if they are well known to the locals then, why ’ain’t nuffin being done’ then?! They could even install Live Webcams there so perhaps all of us can have a look at what some of them nicked.

I remember when my bike was stolen the police were quite ‘relaxed about it’ and didn’t really take it seriously. (It’s only a bike, and they get lost all the time attitude). Ok, they have murders and all that stuff to deal with, but with 300,000 going missing, surely they may kind of ‘notice’ the main culprits.

But we do have a part to play ourselves, like ‘Don’t Tie it to a Bollard’ where it can be taken off easily. One would have thought that was kind of obvious in London

 

Cameron has his bike stolen at Tesco, Portobello Road

Source: The Daily Mail:-   David Cameron joked the theft had been like losing ‘an old friend’ Conservative leader David Cameron says his bicycle was stolen after he left it locked outside a supermarket while he shopped near his home in west London. He was at a Tesco branch on Portobello Road when the bike – which he joked was “an old friend” – disappeared. “Someone must have picked it up and walked off with it,” he said. “If anyone has seen this bicycle, I would like it back,” he added. “I’ve reported it online… but I’m not holding my breath.” Mr Cameron said he had been “picking up a few bits of salad” when the theft occurred at about 1800 BST on Wednesday. His spokeswoman added the Tory leader was “annoyed” and “pretty hacked off” at what had happened. High-profile bicycle Tom Bogdanovich of the London Cycling Campaign said he hoped the theft would not discourage Mr Cameron from using his bike. The case highlighted the need for a greater number of secure cycle stands in London, he added. Mr Cameron and his bike have had a high profile since he became Conservative leader nearly three years ago.

 

OPINION

I would like to know what lock he used and if he Datatagged it. He is right in saying, that we do need more cycle secure parking. I mean, often you have motorists’ vehicles being ‘protected’ with CCTV but often supermarkets don’t protect bicycles with CCTV.

ACTION:   I have contacted Cameron to ask him details of the bike and will upload it here so eagle eyed Bicycle Activist readers can spot it round town, or even round the world! Update: As yet, I have had no reply (think he is badgering for an election).

I hope he gets his bike back.. even if he is a Tory and cycles through red traffic lights, and has a chauffeur behind him.

United in cyclist solidarity!

Cyclist dies listening to Ipod

This news came from softmedia:-

“iPod blamed for Aussie’s death,” The Age reports. It seems that Patricia McMillan, a 32-year-old Australian law student, that had lived in the UK for 10 years, was listening to her iPod when she was knocked off her bike and thrown under a truck. The incident took place near her London home.

The Evening Standard quoted McMillan’s best friend, Jacques Poullard, who stated that she may have very well still been alive had she not been listening to her iPod.
“She was obsessed by that thing. I never said anything to her about wearing the iPod but now I think if she hadn’t had it on she might have heard (the truck)”

 

This is a wake up call to cyclists like me who love taking ipods with them.

However, when cycling in London, I wouldn’t even dream of wearing one as you have to have your wits about you.  If it is quiet, outside London, I tend to but I turn it off when it gets busy or I need to concentrate. I used it in Kent this morning, but then there was nobody around in the morning and I was using the cycle paths.  I expect, one day, cyclists won’t be able to listen to them by law since some cyclists use it even when it is clearly risky. It maybe easier just to stop everyone doing it in the first place. Saying that, surely motorists have the radio blaring all the time too. Perhaps I will use it a lot less after this accident though. That could be a good thing.

Cyclist fined for killing a pedestrian

This comes from Yahoo:-

 

The family of a teenager fatally injured by a cyclist criticised his “laughable” fine and said he should have been tried for manslaughter.

Jason Howard, 36, was fined £2,200 on Tuesday after he was found guilty of dangerous cycling. He hit 17-year-old Rhiannon Bennett, who struck her head on the pavement as she fell and died of her injuries.

Speaking outside court, her father, Mick Bennett, told the BBC Howard was an “arrogant and vile little man” who should have faced manslaughter charges and been jailed for several years.

He said: “It’s laughable – when we first heard about this we thought it would be manslaughter, or perhaps even murder, but this is Britain.”

Her mother Maureen told the broadcaster “words cannot express” how upset the family was.

Howard, of Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, hit Rhiannon as she walked with friends in Buckingham in April last year. He was fined £300 less than the maximum.

He shouted at the youngsters to “move, because I’m not stopping” but rode into Rhiannon, Aylesbury Magistrates Court heard.

 

 

Opinion

 

I am not sure why he wasn’t tried for manslaughter either and I think he should have been jailed. In fact, any person, say a cyclist or motorist should have the top punishment for manslaughter. A fine is just a way of reducing prison overcrowding.

The problem is pedestrians do just ‘walk out’  in front of cyclists all the time. You only have to see it at traffic lights and they start to cross on green lights. In cities, this is mayhem. In Tower Hamlets, I see people nonchalently WALKING TOWARDS ME on cycle/bus lanes or just standing on the bus/lanes thinking that it is a safe place to cross.. Eh?! Then they are surprised to see a cyclist on it..  It is infuriating. Of course, it is an accident waiting to happen.

Get off the bus and cycle lanes pedestrians and stay on the pavement where you belong! As a cyclist, you have to prepare to stop as there are a lot of stupid pedestrians around.

In order to make the roads safer, perhaps there should be tougher laws for pedestrians, like in Singapore.

Report Moronic Motorists!

I came across this superb website about shaming bad drivers. 

You write in the car registration plate and tell the world what the driver did.  You can even ‘see’ the vehicle’s appalling driving history. (That may be a sight for sore eyes eh?)

As my brother is a Transport Manager (of all things), I will send the link to him to see if any of his vehicles are ‘up to no good’ while he isn’t keeping an eye on them.

So instead of feeling that you can’t do a thing, at least write in to this website, and contact the police if necessary.. now whether they can do anything is another matter.

It maybe something for Critical Mass to look at too.

www.betterdrivingplease.com

 

British Cyclists in Beijing will not use anti pollution masks

Even though the people in China wear them and in the Olympics is in High Summer too, blimey that really makes sense. Maybe anyone in Critical Mass going to the demos on the 6th April in London can wear the ‘symbolic gasmasks’.…

Herald Tribune

article.wn.com/view/2008/03/12/British_athletes_will_compete_in_Beijing_without_masks 

Here’s an article in TIME about Beijing ‘massaging the pollution statistics’. In fact there were a huge number of other websites suggesting they were doing this too, some a few years ago in 2006. Still, our PM is a trusting man, the type to not offend a country where so much ‘influential’ British business is  at stake. Oh I would love to be the Government Auditor.

The current level of Air Quality in Beijing is 88… and that’s pretty much polluted.

www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1722450,00.html?xid=rss-world

 

MP in Chelsea Tractor knocks down cyclist outside House of Commons

This is a quote from the Evening Standard today:-

A police investigation is under way after a Conservative MP knocked over a cyclist with his 4×4 outside Parliament.

Chelmsford West Conservative MP Simon Burns collided with the male cyclist as he drove his Range Rover out of the House of Commons.

The collision sent the cyclist into the air before he landed face down outside the gates yesterday evening.

The man, in his twenties, was airlifted to Royal London Hospital with serious injuries but is now in a stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.

An environment protester in Parliament Square, who witnessed the accident, said: “The car came out pretty fast and he obviously didn’t see the cyclist who was just going along with the traffic.

“The cyclist tried to brake but his front wheel locked. He went over his handlebars and hit the wing of the car before falling on the ground in front of the car.

 

unquote

 

More on this story on www.thisislondon.co.uk

Why does an MP need a Chelsea Tractor in London anyway? On the bright side, even though he  ’didn’t bother to go up to the cyclist’, at least he didn’t do a hit and run, but then I suppose, too many people were about and he had no choice but to be there!  ‘If it was his fault’, then he may just end up with a small fine or higher insurance premiums which he can easily pay off – if he can fork out for a Range Rover, the punishment won’t hurt him. I think his car should confisicated by the police for a year. That way, it is more likely to hurt. However, I think it is great for the Evening Standard to report cycling accidents in the media. 

I think The Commons would be a good place for Critical Mass to go to.