The reviews are in for last night’s episode of Panorama, where the BBC continued their recent theme of exploring ‘road rage’, ‘killer roads’, and ‘road wars’ by turning their attention to the ongoing debate over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, which – as the Beeb’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt noted during the programme – have been “under near constant assault” in recent months.
In the likely event that you didn’t have the time, or willpower, to sit down for half an hour of LTNs, with a healthy smattering of traffic filters, Rob kindly summarised it for everyone on Twitter:
So there you have it.
LTNs, you’re either on the side of Hopkins, Fox & the Tax Payers Alliance OR people who would like to breathe clean air & not have their children killed by people who insist on travelling 12 minutes through a city in an SUV.
You decide.
— rob (@robpatrick) April 17, 2023
Like Rob, others weren’t impressed with some of the, ahem, interesting characters featured on the anti-LTN side, with one user describing the inclusion of views expressed by Katie Hopkins, Lozza Fox, and co as “idiot bingo”:
Taxpayers Alliance.. Katie Hopkins… Lawrence Fox.. It’s idiot bingo this evening.. #Panorama
— mistress purdee (@Purdee) April 17, 2023
Blimey #Panorama is just amplifying mad conspiracy theories (in the name of balance?).
Laurence Fox, Katie Hopkins and the Tax Payers Alliance amongst other loons.— Jen🌻 (@Jennyflower) April 17, 2023
Taxpayers Alliance and Katie Hopkins being shown as credible sources? Orly? This is not what I would expect from serious journalism. #Panorama
— Paul Treloar (@PaulieTandoori) April 17, 2023
HOw dArE thEy poTRay the NutTErs aS nUtTers on tHe tELevISioN#Panoramapic.twitter.com/UqtGskrGhK
— Simon (mzdt [at] toot.wales) 🪗 (@mzdt) April 17, 2023
With respect #Panorama, the taxpayers alliance is one of those far-right Tufton St think-tanks whose funding at least in part to come from the fossil fuel industry.
I think we should take their views on cutting fossil fuel pollution with a pinch of salt— Paul Murphy 💚 (@pablonmurph) April 17, 2023
Some also criticised a segment of the episode which claimed that, under Oxford’s proposed traffic calming filters, which would only allow exempt motorists to drive through the city centre on a specified number of days, a 12-minute journey through the city would now take 20 minutes:
A journey that now takes 12 minutes would take 25 minutes.
What the fuck are you doing driving 12 minutes through the middle of a city 🙄
Drivers are babies.
— Other Me (@othermeuk) April 17, 2023
Even the 12 minute journey zig-zagged all over the place. That journey would have been quicker and more direct on foot or by bicycle.
— Yoav Tzabar (@ytzabar) April 17, 2023
Transporting fridges, mostly.
— Noel Skum (@DanNethercott) April 17, 2023
However, others – such as Oxford-based courier service Pedal and Post – reckoned Panorama’s take on the LTN debate was “pretty balanced”:
Certainly interesting #Panorama episode on #ltns and transport policies
Were passionate to make our streets safer, cleaner, healthier and greener and we're excited to continue to expand in Oxford
Thank you to all who spoke to @BBCJustinR and was pretty balanced show pic.twitter.com/AtcrIcxNis
— Pedal & Post Oxford (@PedalandPost) April 18, 2023
Though it’s probably best to steer clear of the anti-LTN side on Twitter (let’s just say that Godwin’s Law has been thoroughly exhausted).
Did you tune in last night? If so, what did you make of the BBC’s latest attempt at analysing the case for active travel?
🥇🥇 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀, 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀!
Tao Geoghegan Hart conquers the sprint to claim victory once again in Stage 2 of Tour of the Alps !@taogeoghegan | #TouroftheAlpspic.twitter.com/CBZpwm0AP3
— Eurosport (@eurosport) April 18, 2023
A flying Tao Geoghegan Hart outsprinted Jack Haig to take his second stage win in a row at the Tour of the Alps this afternoon – but the Londoner wasn’t in a mood to celebrate, as he crossed the line shaking his head at what he believed was a “dangerous” finish in Ritten.
After strong work from Ineos teammate Pavel Sivakov, who kept the race under control after breakaway survivor Simon Carr was reeled in on the climb, a select group of favourites entered the grounds of the speed skating arena in Ritten, where AG2R’s Felix Gall crashed on a tricky bends, narrowly avoiding race leader Geoghegan Hart.
The 2020 Giro d’Italia winner, sensing the danger of the constantly turning finale, then took control through the remaining corners, with clearly enough left in the tank to comfortably see off Bahrain Victorious’ Haig for back-to-stage wins.
However, rather than bask in the glow of his current imperious form, the typically forthright 28-year-old crossed the line visibly angry and immediately began venting his frustrations about the finish, which he colourfully described to Hugh Carthy as “so f***ing dangerous”.
Kort na de finish was Tao Geoghegan Hart vooral boos vanwege de, in zijn ogen, gevaarlijke finale op de piste in Collalbo 😡#TotA#TouroftheAlpspic.twitter.com/G9hFHyequD
— WielerFlits.nl (@WielerFlits) April 18, 2023
“You risk your Giro for what? Felix Gall just crashed,” Geoghegan Hart could also be heard telling Sivakov, obviously worried that his current legs – which look as sharp as they have been since his Giro win – could be cruelly taken away from him by a potentially hazardous final kilometre, just weeks before he aims to regain the maglia rosa.
Little chance then of the Londoner heeding commentator Adam Blythe’s advice to “just be happy” with the win…
Following his expletive-laden tirade in the immediate aftermath of his second straight Tour of the Alps stage win in Ritten this afternoon, race leader Tao Geoghegan Hart offered a more measured, if still rather cutting, assessment of the twisting, complicated finale in the post-stage presser.
“I really like this race and the organisers, but I wasn’t a fan of that finish. If it’d been wet on that concrete last 300 metres, I don’t know, for me it was a bit too much,” the 2020 Giro d’Italia winner, who has taken four of his eight pro wins at the Tour of the Alps, said.
“If the winner of the race pedals for maybe 80 metres in the last 300 metres, I’m not sure if that’s typical for a bike race. To see Felix Gall crash on that corner, just to try to make a normal sprint, it was a bit on the limit. For me it wasn’t really a correct last 500 metres.
“This shouldn’t be the story of a great stage but it’s important not to pass over these things. We’ve got a new CPA president in [former pro] Adam Hansen and he’s doing some great things to create dialogue in a good way. It’s important we all go in the right way together.
“To be clear, I wasn’t angry with Jack Haig, I don’t want to see any colleague crash, because a lot of guys are preparing for the big goals.
“This is a nice race. We could have finished on the lovely main road, it’s a beautiful day. I understand the desire to do something different but it needs to be done the right way. And, for me today was a little bit too much.”
> "Another day in the death race": Soudal-Quick Step pro rages at Paris-Nice dangers
While Geoghegan Hart has certainly cemented his position as one of the current peloton’s most outspoken advocates, he isn’t the first pro to raise concerns about race safety this year.
At Paris-Nice last month, Soudal-Quick Step's Florian Sénéchal publicly criticised several safety decisions made by the race organisers, including the position of street furniture in the final kilometre of a sprint stage, as well as speed bumps on a fast, technical descent.
When a member of the pubic somehow managed to drive their car onto the race route during the final stage around Nice, Sénéchal later posted an image of the terrifying incident with the caption ‘Another day in the death race’.
And in February, British sprinter Dan McLay accused race organisers at the Clásica de Almería of “playing with our health” and said it was a “f****** disgrace” that motorists had been using a roundabout at the same time the peloton passed.
I like to think that this cunning runner, who was disqualified from last week’s Manchester to Liverpool ultra-running race for covering 2.5 miles of the 50 mile route in a car (yep, that’ll definitely get you DQ’d), is actually an aficionado of Tour de France history and was simply channelling the 1904 edition of the race, and the infamous train-jumping actions of Maurice Garin and Hippolyte Aucouturier.
Great news for me 🥉 but really bad news for sportsmanship 😕
The below happened because a fellow competitor cheated.
She travelled in a car for around 2.5 miles of the M2L 50 mile event last week.
After an investigation, she has now been DQ’d, and rightly so. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/H1qkIOvXml— Mel Sykes (@nuddypants) April 17, 2023
Then again, maybe not…
Looks like Leith Walk’s infamous unicycle lane now has a Manchester-based contender for most pointless piece of cycling infrastructure:
Oh god it gets worse pic.twitter.com/g7qTAWfK4a
— Harry Gray (@HarryHamishGray) April 18, 2023
What do you think? Is the new road bike category more likely to convince you to head down to the local club 10?
Or is the misery, pain, and torture of time trialling just not worth it, even if CTT decides to one day include a ‘lazy person with the hairiest legs’ category?
In any case, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my old, trusty Spinaci bars anymore…
The banning of bike tyre and inner tube disposal in landfill looks to be a step closer.
Last month, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) hosted a representation from the National Bicycle Tyre Recycling Scheme and heard that national coverage of collection points for used tyres and inner tubes is now in place, putting a potential end to the 9,300-plus tonnes which go to landfill each year.
Read more here:
Ce découpe-pizza maison à base de disque Shimano DuraAce et moyeu imprimé en 3d m'éclate toujours autant 😁 #cyclingtwitterpic.twitter.com/Jm4LmOSEmZ
— Marc (@marcrp) April 17, 2023
Can’t wait for the Di2 version to come out, though I’m not sure Auntie Karen’s budget will stretch to anything more cutting-edge (see what I did there?) than Park’s tried and trusted model…
Apologies in advance for the inevitable nightmares this dystopian slice of cycling team PR will lead to, but here is how Jumbo-Visma – or should that be Jumbo-Dismal? – announced this morning that their Tour de France hero Jonas Vingegaard has signed a new contract extension, keeping him at the Dutch team until 2027…
Warning: The following clip contains super cringey AI-generated graphics. Viewer discretion is advised:
A little boy can dream. Because dreams are forever. 🌟
What a touch of AI can do. 🥹#Jonas2027#rideyourdreams💭 pic.twitter.com/620MJXa1Wa
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) April 18, 2023
I have so many questions.
Which Jumbo-Visma staff member is obsessed with AI?
Why does it have the feel of a binned Pixar pitch?
And why, dear God why, is creepy baby Jonas speaking with an American accent?
It appears I’m not alone in being completely creeped out by perhaps the strangest cycling team video ever made:
This is just flat out weird.
— Guy Brown (@BrownGuidofcb) April 18, 2023
Since when does Jonas have an American accent? And, please, AI may be beneficial for a lot of things - but I agree with those who say: This is CREEPY!! Sorry, @JumboVismaRoad , this announcement could have been great - but it´s the opposite!
— Cycling_Eve (@CyclingEve) April 18, 2023
Just because you can make things with AI, doesn't mean you should make things with AI.
Pure nightmare fuel.
P.s. great work keeping Jonas!— Love Not Money (@Love_Not_Money) April 18, 2023
Though I suppose it could have been worse. Creepy AI Jonas could have been playing the piano alongside Alexis Sánchez…
Obviously, there’s a lot going on over in France at the moment, but that won’t come as any consolation for the poor cyclists who returned to their bikes in Strasbourg this morning, only to find them in a crumpled, broken mess.
And it certainly won’t make them feel any better that such blatant disregard for their mode of transport was carried out by one of the city’s police officers – hardly the most popular people in France right now – who was captured on video reversing his van, with a sickening clang of metal, into a row of parked bikes last night… only to immediately accelerate off down a side street.
CRS vs BIKE
Voilà ce qui arrive quand on ne regarde pas dans le rétroviseur en faisant une marche arrière ! 😅#STRASBOURGpic.twitter.com/FLRUdK0cPL
— Gaspard Glanz (@GaspardGlanz) April 17, 2023
The police hit-and-run on the bikes has been widely criticised over on French Twitter, with one user even claiming that the dodgy manoeuvre was an act of “revenge” following the recent weeks of protests against Emmanuel Macron’s highly inflammatory pension reforms.
“The key to getting your licence is to observe how the cops do it and do the opposite,” another tweeted.
However, one Twitter user – I really, really hope sarcastically – responded to the video by throwing in a few anti-cycling bingo greatest hits, this time focused on the prior actions of the stationary, inanimate bikes.
“Yeah, but we don't have the context,” they wrote. “The video begins just a few seconds before the incident, coincidentally. If it is, the bikes may have asked for it a bit too.”
Another joined in on the fun, posting: “No, but wait we don't have the context. We don’t know what happened before!”
I sincerely hope those are jokes. Like I’m almost 100 percent sure they are, but these days you never know…
This one, from Jean Christophe, is definitely a joke, anyway, straight from the live blog hall of fame: “The bikes didn’t have their helmets and yellow jackets, it’s their fault.”
Classic.
Un parc à #vélos a involontairement été percuté à hauteur du N°43 avenue de Colmar à #strasbourg par un fourgon de police qui intervenait sur l'encadrement d'une #manifestation
Nous invitons les propriétaires des vélos détériorés à se manifester à l'hôtel de police de Strasbourg pic.twitter.com/xp6f8yDyF5
— Police Nationale 67 (@PoliceNat67) April 18, 2023
In any case, Strasbourg’s police have since confirmed that the bikes were “involuntarily hit” by the driver of a police van who was supervising last night’s pension protest in the northeastern city.
“We invite the owners of damaged bikes to come forward to the Strasbourg police station,” the police said.
I’m sure that’ll be a fun visit…
Maybe this mornings extremely close pass got the wrong end of the stick with #OperationClosePass day, thinking the closer the better.
A report will be sent to WYP tonight, thanks to both my cameras 👍 https://t.co/ljL3FzAcaw— Shez (@Sh3zz4) April 18, 2023
Perhaps the motorist thought today was actually a National Day of Close Passing? Oh wait, is that not every other day?
Here at road.cc HQ this morning, the bunting’s out, the balloons are up, and the bouncy castle’s on its way…
That’s because – though I’m sure you’ve had the date heavily circled in your calendar for months – today has been declared by the National Roads Policing Operations and Intelligence unit as England’s National Day of Action on Close Passing.
It's #OperationClosePass Day in England. Is your police force taking part?
We are appealing to all drivers to follow the guidance in the Highway Code and give plenty of space when overtaking people cycling: https://t.co/s01uSrAzEwpic.twitter.com/JwhvC0pMH4
— Cycling UK (@WeAreCyclingUK) April 18, 2023
Hip hip, hooray! Now blow out the candles on those prosecution figures…
This most special of days means police forces across England will be sending out plain clothes officers on their bikes to run close pass operations, and to remind motorists to leave plenty of space when overtaking cyclists.
Obviously, as we’ve noted over the past few days on road.cc, the police’s rather mixed handling of close passes on cyclists has come under growing scrutiny.
Last week, we reported that West Midlands Police, the godfathers of close pass operations, had prosecuted just one driver from 286 close pass submissions in 2022, a startlingly low figure that attracted much ridicule on our Thursday live blog.
However, yesterday on the blog, Hampshire Police’s stats made for much more promising reading – of the 1,068 incidents reported, 40 percent (423) resulted in ‘PENTIP’, the police’s penalty notice platform used to record and process fixed penalty notices, while 38 percent (403) received a warning letter.
As those mixed results suggest, it is not yet clear how many forces are taking part in the big day today, though Surrey Police have confirmed their participation:
It's #OperationClosePass& we’re out with CROs & #VanguardRST educating drivers about the importance of overtaking other road users safely.
Make sure to leave at least 1.5m when passing. Something only 72.9% of people answered correctly in yesterdays poll!#2WheelOperationpic.twitter.com/aNSQn2ZrPU
— Surrey RoadSafe (@SurreyRS) April 18, 2023
As well as the results of an ever-reliable Twitter poll on safe passing distances:
What is the minimum recommended passing distance when overtaking a cyclist, at 30mph?
— Surrey RoadSafe (@SurreyRS) April 17, 2023
Today’s National Day of Action forms part of a wider two-week campaign by the police to make the roads safer for “two wheelers” (including people on motorbikes too), though I’m not sure whether they’re bothered about people on trikes…
Responding to the campaign, Keir Gallagher, campaigns manager at Cycling UK, said: “Close passes are not only really intimidating, but also dangerous for people cycling. Police attribute passing too close as a factor in a staggering 25 percent of serious collisions between cyclists and large vehicles.
“Cycling UK appeals to all drivers to follow the guidance in the Highway Code and give plenty of space when overtaking cyclists, just as you would if it were your friend or loved one out riding their bike.
“We hope to see as many forces as possible out on the roads today helping to keep cyclists safe”.
NPCC roads policing lead Jo Shiner added: “Police officers will use whatever options are appropriate – whether education or enforcement – to promote safety for riders of any two-wheeled machine. We urge every road user to be observant and courteous in sharing the road space with those who face a higher risk of injury.”
Cycling UK has also kindly asked if any road.cc readers spot their local force out and about on their bikes today, they could let us know by getting in touch on the blog or tweeting using the snappy hashtag #operationclosepass.
Now, where did I leave that cake?
Now, where did I leave that cake?