Poacher
Gravitationally challenged member
- Location
- Nottingham
Please note that @fritz katzenjammer lives in Canada. "Pavement" has a different meaning in leftpondian.
Something like metalled road as distinct from graded gravel. Or something.
The Media War on Cycling
- Thread starter PedallingNowhereSlowly
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Please note that @fritz katzenjammer lives in Canada. "Pavement" has a different meaning in leftpondian.
Something like metalled road as distinct from graded gravel. Or something.
OP
OP
PedallingNowhereSlowly
Senior Member
Pavement doesn't really have any meaning here either; it should be footway if we mean the raised section for pedestrians at the side of the road.
Not criticising per se. Getting terminology right helps avoid ambiguity.
I was pondering this conundrum last night. We know most of the hate inspiring publications are 99.9% false. We know because we ride. The best way of convincing other people, is to get them to riding too.
So perhaps the answer is closing non-trunk roads in urban locations to motorists one day each month. With subsidized bike hire available in every town and city.
Not criticising per se. Getting terminology right helps avoid ambiguity.
I was pondering this conundrum last night. We know most of the hate inspiring publications are 99.9% false. We know because we ride. The best way of convincing other people, is to get them to riding too.
So perhaps the answer is closing non-trunk roads in urban locations to motorists one day each month. With subsidized bike hire available in every town and city.
T4tomo
Legendary Member
It was being driven her partner, she had her spare bike in the link box on the back so she wouldn't lose any time if she punctured.
matticus
Guru
Good on the Standard for publishing that. In case anyone was too sceptical to click, and just read that awful URL, here is the headline:
This moral panic about killer cyclists is hateful and wrong — it's drivers who kill people
CHRIS BOARDMAN
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Almost completely unrelated ... I just read that the Standard is reducing to weekly publication.
That's what happens to you when you publish radical authors like Chris Boardman.
That's what happens to you when you publish radical authors like Chris Boardman.
matticus
Guru
... or perhaps they hope that such a universally popular figure will boost their readership?
brommieinkorea
Well-Known Member
Read the pavement comment as referring to the substrate known as asphalt (aka pavement). Here cycling on the sidewalk is illegal and wildly dangerous. Just a linguistic thing. Otherwise everything you said seems spot on.
Interesting that a high speed, and illegal in most US states, tractor is pictured rather than a normal farm tractor which could have issues passing oncoming anything..... There are no number plates for tractors here, but a slow moving vehicle sign requires that the vehicle be moving under 20 mph. and strangely the photo looks like the tractor is on the right (wrong) side of a 4 lane road...
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I'm not a fan of his approach to public cycling, so you can strike the U word out of that sentence.
Jameshow
Veteran
In what way? 🤔
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
In that I don't agree with some of the things he says, particularly his brief period where he was a 'cycling tsar', as the tabloids would say, yet refused to ride on the road.
Understandable perhaps considering the circumstances that brought that about, but totally unhelpful when he's supposed to be promoting just that. If that was his perspective he should have immediately recused himself in favour of someone more suitable.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
I don't remember him refusing (I've ridden on road in a group with him a few years back) and he's still the cycling czar for England. Have you confused him with someone else?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
There waw a period when he said he would not ride on the road, most likely as a result of the obvious. The words "exhausting", "unpleasant" and "too dangerous" were the ones he used.
Whether there he carried through on that for another matter, and these dwys he is oft seen riding on the highway (if only for publicity purposes) but when promoting cycling there's a balance to be made between lobbying for better routes, less danger, etc, and trying to encourage people to get out there on their bikes. IMHO that comment swung the needle far too far the wrong way on the scale while completely ignoring the health benefits- after all, on average us regular cyclists live 7 years longer than sedentary motorists, so in NET terms it cant be stupidly dangerous.
I can understand the emotion that likely motivated his comments, but in view of his role the words were completely misguided and he should have either remained silent or else stepped aside for someone able to be more objective.
How many people thought, "I ain't getting on my bike if Chris Boredom says it's exhausting, unpleasant, and too dangerous?" We will, of course, never know, although we can be fairly sure no one rushed to get out there ride because of the comments.
So no, not universally popular.
Whether there he carried through on that for another matter, and these dwys he is oft seen riding on the highway (if only for publicity purposes) but when promoting cycling there's a balance to be made between lobbying for better routes, less danger, etc, and trying to encourage people to get out there on their bikes. IMHO that comment swung the needle far too far the wrong way on the scale while completely ignoring the health benefits- after all, on average us regular cyclists live 7 years longer than sedentary motorists, so in NET terms it cant be stupidly dangerous.
I can understand the emotion that likely motivated his comments, but in view of his role the words were completely misguided and he should have either remained silent or else stepped aside for someone able to be more objective.
How many people thought, "I ain't getting on my bike if Chris Boredom says it's exhausting, unpleasant, and too dangerous?" We will, of course, never know, although we can be fairly sure no one rushed to get out there ride because of the comments.
So no, not universally popular.
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matticus
Guru
I think this is a weird use of language*.
Is your dog popular with you? How about your eldest child?
Now - do you agree with them on everything? Approve of everything they do??
*(please bear in mind that when I used the phrase on this thread it was tongue-in-cheek anyway, due to the online abuse that Boardman's words trigger from trolls :P But it's now drifted into different waters. Bygones!)
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Searching for his name and those words makes me feel that you've probably misremembered this interview where he said that he preferred riding away from roads (due to the lack of parked and moving cars to risk-assess), not that he refused to ride on them. That's probably due to the ambiguous summary in the first paragraph which says he was "avoiding" them. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...a-bike-on-uk-roads-feels-too-dangerous-for-me
The uses of those words are: “False modesty aside, I’m about as competent as it gets and I am constantly doing risk assessments. I’m looking at parked cars, seeing which way wheels are turning, everything that’s going on around me. It’s just exhausting. Whereas if I ride on a track or a trail I don’t have to do that and it’s just more pleasant these days,” while the "too dangerous" only appears in the headline, not in his words.
This may have been seized on by certain petrolheads but I think there's an element of the blinding obvious about this. Really, can anyone here honestly say that they feel riding on certain fast motorist-dominated roads in England is refreshing, pleasant and too safe?
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