With the views on the video now up to 2.5 million, roughly equivalent to the number of people who live in Leeds and Northern Ireland combined, and replies nearing 9,000, Durham Roads and Armed Policing Unit's Twitter admin stepped forward to deliver a thread for Sajid Javid, Baroness Foster, Susan Hall and the many others who have a problem with a child riding a bicycle on a road...
> Sajid Javid blames father of five-year-old cyclist for letting child ride on road in viral video
A 5yr old child is riding his bike on the road in convoy with his father.
A car is approaching in the opposite direction.
In law, all have equal right to be on this road.
In the heirarchy of road users, the cyclist is graded higher because of their vulnerability. pic.twitter.com/KF1pEwZY7I
— Durham Roads & Armed Policing (@DurhamRAPol) November 10, 2022
The child cyclist is safely dressed and clearly visible in the conditions.
The child cyclist is more unpredictable as a road user because of their age.
The car has more than adequate space to stop / slow / give way.
Squeezing past as they did is inexcusable. pic.twitter.com/6LIr8OACfM
— Durham Roads & Armed Policing (@DurhamRAPol) November 10, 2022
No doubt many of you will disagree, as is your want.
However, you are victim blaming / shaming a child for the actions of a car driving adult.
Cars do not, have not & will not, own the road. pic.twitter.com/a5pjpwViJX
— Durham Roads & Armed Policing (@DurhamRAPol) November 10, 2022
Drop that mic...
Slow down.
Pay attention.
Respect all others on the road.
And don’t blame kids for the actions of adults. pic.twitter.com/5R7VTmhMJi
— Durham Roads & Armed Policing (@DurhamRAPol) November 10, 2022
Oh, and as a reminder of what 'just cycle on the footway' might have looked like...
"just ride your bikes on the pavement, no one will mind. It'll be safer, no cars on the pavement are there?!"
The pavements next to a school pic.twitter.com/tq45IcW1m0
— AZB (@azb2019) November 10, 2022
Viva la #CyclingRevolution✊🏼 https://t.co/cUgWO9BjVS
— J o e__F o l e y (@JoeFoley84) November 11, 2022
Anyone heard from Sajid Javid today?
Bravo you run this!!!! Thank you!!
— T Doug (@Cyclingforbeans) November 11, 2022
I chose to ignore that bit. The bigger picture is more important in this case.
— Black Country Ste 🇺🇦 (@CCSteV) November 11, 2022
road.cc favourites the Surrey Roads Policing Unit have been trying their best too...
A reminder of the unit's impressive back catalogue...
> Surrey traffic cops tell driver spouting Highway Code whataboutery to return licence
> Surrey traffic cops call out safe driving campaign spouting "dangerous advice"
> More Surrey traffic cops truth bombs...this time about riding two abreast
.@EvenepoelRemco making a late bid for a call-up on Belgium’s national football team 😁
Video: @VelonCCpic.twitter.com/0rLX4sRE2r
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) November 11, 2022
It's the last chance for Belgium's 'golden generation' in Qatar this World Cup...although I'm sure we've been saying that for at least two major tournaments...
Maybe they just need a rainbow generation led by world champ Remco?
Anyway, that's enough football chat for one live blog. We'll catch you on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone!
Thank God they removed the cycle lane from the Euston Road to get the traffic flowing again
pic.twitter.com/geNO0Grb0W@willnorman— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) November 10, 2022
Le Col has teamed up with double Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton on a new collection. The kit design apparently mirrors the Le Col ambassador's tattoos, with a snakeskin-style pattern influenced by Pendleton's life on and off the bike.
The collection includes a long and short-sleeved version, available in black and navy and black respectively. Unsurprisingly the collection includes both women's and men's fits, and there are also additional accessories such as socks, caps and snoods.
Lawtons Law Firm UK went over Metropolitan Police data and found that in the last year just one in every 100 London bike thefts resulted in a formal sanction. Their analysis also showed that a quarter of boroughs have seen a rise, and the South West is the worst affected part of the capital.
> Three quarters of Brits don't expect police to bother investigating bike thefts
Sutton is the borough with the greatest year-on-year increase at almost one-third (32%), followed by Hounslow (25%) and Bexley (13%).
EK Spinner asked an interesting question in the comments about that bike-plane...
"Why the aero TT position? He is inside a faring, is that really the best position for power delivery?"
I'd love to give you a serious explainer answer EK, but I don't have one... the question did prompt a few replies from a couple of you willing to give it some thought...
Personal favourite... hawkinspeter reckons it's quite simple... "It's an AEROplane, not an UPRIGHTplane." That's the level we aspire to here on the live blog!
Patrick9-32: "Power to weight would seem to be key for takeoff but it (to my completely without aeronautical training brain) seems for sustained flight the aerodynamics of the vehicle are going to be the biggest factor. As such, why not a recumbent position to reduce the frontal area of the greenhouse by like 50%?"
Rendel Harris: "Like you, I've no idea how much advantage that would confer aerodynamically but a recumbent position reduces the power output for the same effort by around 20%, so it would have to be quite a big one."
Patrick9-32: "Also, with the massive advancements of bicycle motors to the point where they can put out sustained power far above any human over the last few years it would be very cool to have one of these incredible planes flying for hours at a time with electric assistance with the pilot in relative comfort (i.e. not bleeding from the eyeballs with exertion.)"
Thanks to Rendel for sharing this Wiki page of something similar — the Gossamer Albatross — which successfully completed a crossing of the English Channel back in 1979... while sean1 shared this vid of a human-powered plane Southampton University built in the 60s...
Those long July days seem well in the past now...
i think about this on a daily basis pic.twitter.com/86B992utOn
— elena 𓆉 (@secondoelle) November 11, 2022
Egg-cellent content...
Comprando lo del almuerzo hoy en la tienda del barrio, la Veci dice que ya piensa en vender su negocio porque los precios se le han elevado y no la puede mantener. Que cagada 😑 pic.twitter.com/WiNXuF9uFm
— Egan Arley Bernal (@Eganbernal) November 10, 2022
Can't lie we were expecting the caption to be something a bit more jovial, maybe even a cracking egg pun to scramble our brains... instead, Google Translate offered this: "Buying lunch today at the neighbourhood store, Veci says that she is already thinking of selling her business because the prices have risen and she cannot support it 😑"
Is it a bird? No. Is it a plane? Kind of. Is it a Lycra-clad man smashing 400w in a greenhouse with wings? YES!
We'd have liked to see how one 'lands' the bike-plane... I would suggest almost certainly somewhat abruptly once your legs turn to jelly and you can taste blood. We wonder if Ryanair will sit up and take notice?
'What if we charge passengers to pedal themselves to Alicante? We could bill them extra for clipless pedals, a sweat towel and energy gels. Genius.'
The design is one of Jarrett Carter's, or JRat Customs as he's known online, and is just one of his eye-catching stable of bikes, bike-planes and e-bikes...