The month of May keeps throwing one curveball after another, as this Tory government (on its way out, some would argue) seems quite intent on legislating laws for cyclists.
The ‘dangerous cycling bill’ was first agreed to be passed by ministers in the House of Commons last week, amidst severe backlash and criticism from cycling and walking charities and campaigners, and then disregarded after PM Rishi Sunak decided to call a general election on the 4th of July, leaving the Lords with not enough time to pass the bill and make it into a law.
Debate on cycling in Parliament today where people called for insurance, reg numbers and much more for cyclists.
I said everyone should obey traffic rules but many more people are hurt or killed by drivers than bikes & that these demands would cost billions and be unenforceable. pic.twitter.com/je2W5bfoov— Ian Austin (@LordIanAustin) May 23, 2024
And now yesterday, another hot topic — insurance for cyclists was debated in the House of Lords, with Lord Hogan-Howe expressing his feelings about why it should be legislated. He said: “Over the last 20 years injuries of pedestrians hit by cyclists have drastically increased — more than doubling. Every day, we see people ignoring one-way signs, going across pedestrian crossings, through red lights and across pelican crossings while pedestrians are on them.
“Cyclists are not even governed by speed limits in the way that motor vehicles are. Has not the time come for the Government to consider insurance to compensate people for the damage that cyclists can cause, and for registration marks to identify those who have committed an offence and deter those who might?
“Finally, where a cyclist commits an offence and has a driving licence, their licence might be endorsed with points for the offences which they have committed as a cyclist. Many may consider this to be a vote loser, but I think it is a vote winner.”
Fortunately, there was hardly in agreement with Lord Hogan-Howe. Lord Davies, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport, replied saying that “dangerous cycling puts lives at risk and is completely unacceptable” and “cyclists are required to comply with road traffic law”.
> Grant Shapps: Cyclists should have number plates, be insured and subject to speed limits
However, he added that the government had considered mandatory registration and insurance for cyclists as part of a comprehensive review in 2018 and decided against it “as the cost and complexity of introducing such a system would far outweigh the benefits”.
I wonder if the government had already reviewed the proposal in 2018, why did former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps raise the issue again in the summer of 2022, leading to his now-infamous backpedalling, a U-turn so sharp and quick that it would put the best bike handlers to shame.
The issue of bike insurance also came up in the news on Sunday, as the Spanish city of Zaragoza launched an ordinance that could make it mandatory for cyclists to have an insurance and carry that with them at all times, with the police having the power to stop anyone and ask them to show it. Even children learning how to cycle would legally be required to have an insurance.
Meanwhile, a number of other Lords were also in agreement that introducing a mandatory insurance for cyclists would be detrimental and not cost-effective, the feistiest of responses in yesterday’s debate came from Lord Ian Austin of Dudley.
“My Lords, this is utterly ridiculous,” he said. “Everybody using the roads should abide by the rules, but the figures bear out that many more pedestrians are hurt by drivers than by cyclists. Frankly, every day I see cars jumping red lights, speeding and going across pedestrian crossings, and the police are not able to enforce all of those at the moment.
“The best way to make our roads safer is to get more people on bikes. That would improve the environment and public health. Is the Minister not completely right to say that this will cost a fortune, be incredibly complex and massively bureaucratic and, as the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, knows better than anybody, with the pressures that the police are already under, be utterly unenforceable.”
“Hear, hear,” the chamber echoed in unison.
At the end of a week when the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warned that "the UK is travelling in the wrong direction" after official figures showed a 7.3 per cent decline in cycling miles travelled and a 2.2 per cent rise in car journeys between 2022 and 2023, a newly available document shows that the Department for Transport knew it was not investing enough in active travel to hit its targets.
Read more: > Government knew it wasn't investing enough in cycling, according to new document
With the maglia rosa all but confirmed (unless someone manages to overturn a 7-minute late, anyone willing to bet?) Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates decided to finally let up and let the breakaway have their day, and it was Andrea Vendrame from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale who was able to reap the benefits, with a stunning 30km attack en route to Sappada.
🔻 The final KM of stage 1️⃣9️⃣ for @AndreaVendra who finally wins again after nearly 3 years of drought! #GirodItalia
⏮ The @Continentaltire Ultimo Kilometro ⤵️#LastKm | #Continental#ContinentalItalia#SafetySponsorOfTheRoadpic.twitter.com/asWl123C65
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 24, 2024
Some amazing scenes there as the Italian rider high-fived his DS in the team car as he made his way to the finish line, after setting off his attack from the seven-rider leading group and then fleshing out his lead to more than a minute over the next categorised climbs.
The maglia rosa group, meanwhile, finished the race 16 minutes behind Vendrame, but no changes in the GC. Although there was a silly crash towards the very end by Geraint Thomas, who touched wheels with Antonio Tiberi in a moment of loss of concentration and hit the ground.
Thankfully, he was quickly back on the saddle, with Pogačar even slowing down in gentleman's move for the Welshman who currently sits third in the general classification.
E Thomas deu jeito de cair#giroditalia#GironoDSportspic.twitter.com/aSl357GvMq
— O País Do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) May 24, 2024
The 2022's winner of the overall three-day stage race, Team SD-Worx's Lorena Wiebes has taken the win in the first stage of the RideLondon Classique in Colchester.
The 159km stage, which started in Saffron Walden, came down to a bunch sprint with Wiebes coming out on top ahead of Letizia Paternoster (Liv-Alula-Jayco) and Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek).
That's what she does! 🚴♀️ ⚡️@lorenawiebes from @teamsdworx is our 2024 Ford RideLondon Classique Stage One Overall Winner! 🥇 👏
The sprint specialist bided her time and produced an explosive finish to take the win!
#RideLondon | @UCI_WWTpic.twitter.com/cIVRMg61ob— Ford RideLondon (@RideLondon) May 24, 2024
Wiebes will now go into tomorrow's 143km stage, which starts and finishes in Maldon, wearing the race leader's jersey. She also leads the Sprints Classification.
Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) will wear the Queen of the Mountains jersey after winning a maximum nine points in the competition during today's stage after being part of the day's main breakaway alongside Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ceratizit - WNT Pro Cycling Team)
In the wake of yesterday's debate in the House of Lords raised by Lord Lord Hogan-Howe about whether cyclists should have mandatory insurance or not, let's have a look at what the now cross-bencher lord and former chief of Metropolitan Police had to say a couple of years back.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, but Hogan-Howe has previously expressed his dislike for cycling. In 2013, in an interview with BBC Radio London, he said: “I’ve never been a big bike rider anyway but it seems to be that if you get it wrong, or the driver gets it wrong, the person that’s going to pay is the cyclist.
“It seems to me that there’s a lot of traffic and personally I wouldn’t (cycle). But of course some people don’t have the choice; economically it’s not easy you know.
“If you’ve got someone who can’t afford to take a car into the congestion zone - if they did, you can’t park it anyway. Some people, they’ve got limited money and they can’t pay for public transport. I understand why they take the choice. It wouldn’t be mine.”
I guess some things never change?
The comments in reaction to yesterday's debate in the House of Lords about should cyclists have insurance are in, and there's a fairly strong consensus on: "no".
Richard Docherty (Facebook): "What is this nonsense that cyclists are the only road users who don't have tax, insurance or a form of identification, as per the lords debate. What about horses, horse-drawn carriages. Or indeed, the most numerous category of road users: pedestrians."
FingerBoardLies (Twitter): "Says it all really, they are after vote winning policies but not bothered about making an actual difference."
DJ_Caress (Twitter): "Becoming extremely tiresome hearing people with no understanding of how accessible cycling insurance actually is and how many people are already insured. That’s before you start pressing them on the practicalities and what problem it would supposedly solve."
Clem Fandango: "Oh well, only 6 more weeks of this BS....."
Another one for you readers to discuss and come to a consensus. This latest video in the long-running series titled ‘road.cc covering Jeremy Vine’s cycling exploits in London on the live blog’ (the title may need some shortening, will send a note to Jack) shows the BBC and Channel 5 presenter admittedly breaking a law by moving ahead of the white line at a red light and arguing why doing so sometimes can actually be safer for you.
“Heading for the lights, and here I am just behind the stop line. But I’ve seen the bus, so I’m moving. I worry this is breaking the law,” he says in the video, as he approaches a red light and comes to a halt on the right-hand side of a van.
I think I broke the law here.
I’m hoping you’ll understand why, on a bicycle, you sometimes have to. pic.twitter.com/pzgwGPibSo— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) May 23, 2024
As he sees a bus turning from the junction ahead, with nowhere to go he decides to instead go ahead of the van and thus cross the white line to position himself in a safer position. The bodywork of the bus does spill over the white line dividing the two lanes, and Vine says: “That’s an example of why you might want to be forward of the line here.”
He shows another instance from the same day of a truck driver turning right and completely cutting across the cycle box at the traffic light, and most certainly hitting a cyclist if someone had been there.
Vine adds: “I took the decision to be forward of the line to avoid being in their path and that’s 100 per cent right.”
This one is MAD when you look at it. He needs a banksman beside the truck for this manoeuvre pic.twitter.com/xF9FdOmEsJ
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) May 23, 2024
However on a rare instance, CyclingMikey seemed to disagree with Vine, replying: “It's a technical RLJ, and I think it's better to avoid doing this. I would sit one car back or filter back to the nearside, generally. I'm not massively bothered though I do notice often people who do this then sometimes can't see the change of traffic lights.”
What do you think, is Vine right to make himself safer by crossing the white line (he’s not actually going through the red light), or is there a better way to keep safe and not put yourself in such a situation in the first place? Let me know in the comments!
At a time when organising cycling races in Britain seems to be getting more difficult than ever, with the Tour of Britain organiser pointing out the huge organisational, logistical and financial stress that goes into just getting a race on at all last year, it’s good to have cycling back here, thanks to the three-stage Ford RideLondon Classique.
Windows 95 or @RideLondon?#RideLondon | #UCIWWTpic.twitter.com/OSjBVqluem
— Human Powered Health Cycling (@hphcycling) May 24, 2024
And the starting list is stacked, featuring Team SD Worx’s Lorena Wiebes who won in 2022 and Team DSM-Firmenich’s PostNL Charlotte Kool who triumphed last year, as well as the reigning world champion Lotte Kopecky.
Among the leading domestic names taking part are 2015 world champion Lidl-Trek’s Lizzie Deignan, who was third at last year’s race, plus current British champion Pfeiffer Georgi, as well as sisters Elynor and Zoe Bäckstedt.
Here it comes....and there it goes, the Ford RideLondon Classique cycle stage has been and gone through Buntingford. Thanks for all the support 🚴♀️ pic.twitter.com/b3G6oZMr2m
— Hertfordshire County Council (@hertscc) May 24, 2024
Today’s opening stage starts off at Saffron Walden and ends at Colchester. Stage two is 143KM long, starting and finishing in Maldon while Stage three is a 91KM circuit in central London, starting and finishing on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.
If keeping yourself safe from dangerous drivers on the road didn't seem like a hard enough task for you, it looks like crows are also now on cyclists' back.
Dashcam footage shared by DeTours360 shows two crows swoop down and attack a cyclist in Townley Road, Dulwich yesterday. Not just once, not just twice, but at least a total of three times. The video was reposted by Dulwich Roads, saying: "The crows are back again this year and attacking cyclists and pedestrians at the junction of Beauval Rd and Townley."
Dashcam footage shows 2 aggressive crows attacking a cyclist in Townley Road, Dulwich 23/5/24. @Southwark_News@mysouthldn@AlleynsSchool@SthLondonPress@itvlondon Be careful when walking past Beauval Road. pic.twitter.com/fKy23ZDvkj
— DeTours360 (@DeTours360) May 23, 2024
I've always been a bit perked by birds, and watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in my teenage years only deepened that paranoia and fear of a shady cabal of birds conniving and threatening to push humanity back into the dark ages...
> Cyclist-attacking magpies remember their victims
My irrational fear-mongering aside, cyclists being attacked by birds is really nothing new, and going back in the road.cc archives of bird attacks, my fear seems to have only been elevated, as this instance of a crow attacking a cyclist in a bizarre encounter in Vancouver that left marks on the man's knuckle illustrates.
Or the series of magpie attacks in Australia, with a behavioural ecologist ringing some alarming bells by saying that they remember their victims, and may even come back at you for more.
“If they think you’re a threat, they will follow you and attack you for years," ecologist Darryl Jones said. "If you’ve been attacked in the past, you’ll probably get attacked in the future."
Jon Clark, the creator of Magpie Alert, a webiste that Australian cyclists can use to track aggressive magpies in their area, said; "If you want to go for a walk or cycle, check the website first to see if they are swooping in the area and then just change your route."
> Has an Aussie cyclist finally found the way to stop magpies attacking riders?
Well that doesn't sound very proactive does it? But turning back the pages and having a look back at the strategy deployed by an Aussie cyclist in 2021 may be of use here. Paul Heymans, head of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Users Association had said that using cheap, gardening bird scarer tape on your helmet can result in fewer attacks.
"I happened to notice that the magpies that used to attack me were actually avoiding me," he said. "It's not 100 per cent effective... I reckon it's about 85 per cent effective, but it does work."
I wouldn't worry too much about the scientificity of the percentages here, but I do sense a potential for opening the doors to a helmet debate here (we haven't had one in a while, have we?)... I'll leave you all to discuss.
A "cowardly and callous" hit-and-run driver who killed a 15-year-old cyclist in 2021 and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison and a three-year driving ban has been jailed again for 22 months following his release having led police on a 100mph pursuit through 40mph zones in a stolen vehicle.
As the trend of cycling teams trying to recreate viral social media memes and reels continues, Bahrain Victorious has come up with something that's not utterly worthless (looking at you Quick-Step)...
POV when you think someone’s stolen one of the most important things in your life as a cyclist, but then you realise it was just your phone 😆@Neversecond2… Can’t go without it pic.twitter.com/JX7xh72QfX
— Team Bahrain Victorious (@BHRVictorious) May 24, 2024
A freeway in Slovenia yesterday. @TamauPogi#Giropic.twitter.com/GCwYu9cBKu
— Várhegyi Beni (@MrVrhgyiB) May 23, 2024
Now that's a clever way to pipe down drivers looking to exceed the speed limits on the roads. Now only if this could be implemented in the UK? I've got a poll for you about which rider would you like to see...