I have a fold bike I bought recently in Sydney from a Japanese young man and the back brake started to screech something terrible when braking down hills (we have a few in Sydney) I took the bike (she is a real cutie!) to a couple of bike shops in Sydney and all the mechanics shook their head “can't find this kind of brake here” and another “it's a drum brake you can't find it in Sydney. It comes with the wheel”. and when I brake people scream out “oil it!”
So I thought I had better do some homework – so with a screeching drum (back) brake should I wet it or spray some water on it? I have been riding the bike during dry weather so maybe that is what causes the screeching sound??? Any advice will be gratefully accepted.
thesed
Sep 11, 2009, 0:54
I've also got through two Nexus 8's on my Ridgeback Neutron, each having lasted only about 18 months and 2000 miles. That's not what I call low maintenance, either, or longevity. The shop had no idea until they contacted Madison that the gear is supposed to be serviced at a Shimano service centre after 9 months to preserve the warranty. They have suggested the Shimano Alfine, which is supposed to be better quality, but I have doubts about anything Shimano now, and given that the hub, built into a new wheel, with other bits, will cost getting on for £300, I might as well get a new bike with all its other new components. And unless I feel flush enough to go for a Rohloff (unlikely), it'll probably be back to derailleurs again.
Our societies do a great job of pushing propaganda and getting people to blindly believe it as truth without even thinking about it.
Bicycle helmets are only one thing in a whole mess, but are such a great example of completely irrational acceptance of something. It’s amazing all the stories you hear of doctors/nurses treating a patient for, say, a leg injury, and commenting on how lucky they were to be wearing a helmet.
The general public does the same thing. I had a friend explain to me how I needed to wear a helmet because a friend of theirs had their bike slip out from under them (a racing bike, going down a hill, mind you), and they slid on the ground and got a severe road rash on their leg. Another story they told me was of another friend who (again on a racing bike, going fast), was fiddling with her odometer, got her fingers caught in the spokes, flew over the handlebars and landed on her face, smashing her teeth, etc. She didn’t even impact the part of her head where the helmet was, but they were convinced that the helmet saved her life, and so was the doctor who treated her.
In my opinion, any kind of advocacy/propaganda which causes people to think that irrationally is well worth some heavy suspicion.
Grim Wilo
Oct 4, 2009, 11:54
Re 3.
My advice would be do not have the test if it increases the incidence from 1 in a million to 1%
sished
Oct 12, 2009, 8:56
All I can say is that I would not have considered purchasing my bike without this scheme. It has saved me £350. The supplier would have missed out on my sale. It’s not a perfect scheme but I get a bike and the retailer gets a sale. They may not have made as much profit but they still made something.
John Biggins
Oct 12, 2009, 9:08
Yes, where’s the rear light? My Finnish Helkama bike also came with a front light driven by a Dynohub, and I had to fit a battery-powered rear lamp to the carrier where a reflector had been, but I’d assumed that was a local peculiarity and something to do with Finland’s traffic laws. So strange to see it on a bike specifically designed for the UK.
The reason may be that the Dynohub can’t produce enough current to power two lights, and a traditional bottle-dynamo was rejected as too damage-prone and imposing too much drag. But Dutch hire-fleet bikes – usually Batavus Personals – seem to work well enough with dynamos (…and the coffee-grinder whirr-whirr noise they make is rather comforting cycling home on a rainy winter’s evening).
Wonder how they’re going to solve the rear-light problem. An acetylene lamp, perhaps?
There’s GOTTA be lights, right? It’s the law isn’t it? Even Boris wouldn’t be so naive as to release a mass bike hire scheme that contravenes the law. Would he??!
Did anyone go to the Bike Show and actually see one of these bikes?
The BIXI bikes of Montreal have ‘always on’ front and rear dynamo lighting, and as far as I can tell the London Hire Scheme bikes are just BIXIs painted blue – so, no need to panic! (We hope!)
As you can see, the front and back lights are clearly visible on the original Montreal version. For one thing, they are there because Quebec law requires lights on bikes at light, though most people don’t seem to know this and instead you see people wearing helmets because they believe that is where safety comes from (sigh). Is it possible there is no legal requirement for night lights in Britain/England, for which reason the promoters in London might not have included them? Or is it just a quirk of this particular photo?
I don’t see either option making sense. Option 1 is lethal, but Option 2 assumes the lorry isn’t about to turn right and has forgotten to signal, that there isn’t an oncoming bus, etc. Better to stop behind the lorry, not in its blind spot, middle of the lane, holding up the car behind you. When the lorry goes, you then have a clear route in front. There is too much risk of death/injury from a lorry to try overtaking it.
That leaves two remaining problems: what to do when a lorry comes up behind you at a junction, and what to do when a lorry overtakes you. No clear answers there, as both can be lethal,
Hi there. A couple of things – firstly, the book project is something we’d love to feature. Is there any scope to do an interview of some sort? As well as cycling, we’re movie makers, designers and photographers.
How is progress by the way?
And lastly, if you still need that cycling clothes horse, we have just the man – rides and has done catwalk for Yamamoto.
Thanks for pointing to this. I also seem to have enough energy to cycle without my bones snapping, and believe my vegan diet to be a good part of why this is the case.
Pierre Phaneuf
Oct 21, 2009, 13:00
I did know where to look for them (being from Montreal, I’ve seen my share of Bixis, like Chris!), but you can see the rear lights right on the photo accompanying this post.
[...] Dean was writing at an important turning point in transportation history: the automobile culture had not yet claimed dominance in the UK, and was still in its early years in the US: the first section of the M1 motorway opened in 1959, and construction on the Interstate Highway System began in 1956. Traffic on the roads was still mixed: not only trucks and cars, but also pedestrians and cyclists, shared the same paths. Dean documents the ways in which traffic law, supported by lobbyists for the automobile and transport industries, gradually usurped the dominant position on the roads until now pedestrians and cyclists are largely segregated into “safe” zones and many places can be reached only by car. He also draws chilling comparisons with Nazi Germany, called by the British automotive press before the war “a motoring paradise.” (Many quite disturbing quotations from British periodicals about the glories of Hitler’s Autobahn can be found here.) [...]
[...] Velorution has fabulous photos and recently they talked about scarves. [...]
Roddy Hays
Nov 3, 2009, 12:13
Any ideas when they will be available, and will you be stocking them ?
Rebecca Olds
Nov 5, 2009, 10:44
I whole-heartedly agree. Whenever I do find myself waiting for a bus, I envy every cycling going by. Because I’m a cyclist, though, that feeling of envy doesn’t disappear the moment I sit down (or struggle to keep my balance squashed in with what feels like hundreds of other humans being treated worse than cattle). As I gaze out the window, yes, I see cyclists having a hard time of it. But I also see cyclists moving forward, not delayed interminably by traffic. I see cyclists thinking “on their feet”, finding solutions, and — if they’re anything like me — relishing the challenges and reaching their destination with a sense of accomplishment. But unless and until people on buses know that that’s what the cyclist experience is really like, they will continue to think cycling is not a viable option for them.
Oh, and if possible, I’d love to have a link to this blog entry and permission to post the link (not the article text) on Facebook, so more people can see your site? Many thanks.
Nicola
Nov 5, 2009, 11:32
Couldn’t agree more. I often feel ashamed at the behaviour of some of my fellow-cyclists towards pedestrians.
When you’re walking, the feeling of a cyclist racing past you at close distance is about equivalent to being nearly clipped by a skip lorry when you’re on a bike.
Let’s all be a bit more civilised!
John Biggins
Nov 5, 2009, 12:01
“The answer, dear arrogant-cyclist-who-thinks-like-a-motorist, is that you should expect pedestrians to do these absent-minded ‘errors’ and be prepared: don’t ride close to the curb, don’t ride so fast, and don’t get upset.”
Obviously you haven’t been following the “Guardian” cycling blog in recent months. What emerges very clearly from that is that a significant number of those who post to it consider it their God-given right to tear along crowded streets and canal towpaths at 25mph knocking pedestrians out of the way like skittles – and despise any cyclist who doesn’t as a bimbler, an amateur, a Sunday-biker, a Brompton-weirdo and whole host of equally charming epithets (oh, and dismiss everyone on foot under the collective title “peds”).Anyone who points out that the average cycling speed in Amsterdam or Copenhagen is about 9.5mph is laughed at as a cissie and told to go and live there if they like it so much, because in the UK cyclists are MEN, not a lot of grannies-in-trousers with shopping baskets on their handlebars and skirt-guards on the back wheel.
Can’t say how representative these anti-social clowns are, and how much of it is a deliberate wind-up. But it certainly underlines a crucial difference in mentality between us and continental Europe. If city-cycling is a battlefield in this country, not the least of the reasons is that a fair number of cyclists apparently like it that way.
Funnily enough today was my first close call with an arrogant cyclist since we came to Germany 9 years ago. Eldest son Friend and I were cycling home, Friend isn’t so confident on a bike and was wobbling. Straight road, full visibility. Suddenly Lycra lad on a full suspension white MHB storms past, through a tiny gap and nearly smacks friend on the head with his pedaly. Fortunately she didn’t realise what had happened.
Why couldn’t he slow down?
John the Monkey
Nov 5, 2009, 20:18
“don’t ride close to the curb, don’t ride so fast, and don’t get upset.â€
Good advice. I suspect most of your readers would dismiss me as a “sport” cyclist (daily commuter, on a road bike, in lycra, high-ish daily average speed).
However, when the UK’s fabulous infrastructure puts me near pedestrians, or I know that they’ll be crossing between stationary traffic I’m filtering through, I slow *right* down, and cover the brakes. In my encounters with other cyclists and pedestrians, I certainly don’t want to be what some motorists are to me.
spindleshanks
Nov 6, 2009, 9:27
I’ve noticed when people on bikes give way to people on foot, the cyclist will often receive a wave, nod or smile as the walker saunters across the road. Compare this to the same situation with a car. The person on foot often feels compelled to make their way across the road as quickly as possible so as not to delay the car’s journey by more than absolutely necessary.
What I like best about this post is that the city council have identified a problem (stealing of cargo bikes) and come up with a pro-active solution (the ‘car’ park)
Pretty cool in my books.
Marianne
Nov 15, 2009, 16:56
I very much agree.
Especially since in London you can progress swiftly most of the time cycling on the road, well away from the kerb, it really does not add much to your trip even if you’re extravagantly careful around pedestrians.
The sad fact in London is that many pedestrians are too deferential to all other road users. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter Walker indeed agreed that when walking he was bound to the same standard of care as when cycling or driving. In my experience, even people who mostly walk find the Dutch (and German) idea that your choice of vehicle brings extra responsibility hard to understand, let alone embrace.
[...] 10% deducted at all. it’s not hard and Velorution have the procedure you can follow detailed here: http://www.velorution.biz/?page_id=1306 you buy the bike as you buy ANY business [...]
[...] tips for buying: Before you go shopping, check if your company participates in the cycle-to-work programme. This will allow you to buy a bike with all the bells and whistles and not have to pay the taxes [...]
HOLY MOLY! When and where can I get one of those 16″ers? My son has used his Jumper nearly daily and I have been searching high and low for a nice 16″ pedal bike as nice as the jumper! I hope they have this out (in orange) by early May for his birthday!
Dawn Hayes
Dec 2, 2009, 15:25
I’d really like to know how I can get hold of one of these SP chairs. Any ideas? I’ve tried calling a couple of Brompton dealers and they don’t want to know about them. Dawn
Looks like bollocks to me. The study’s conclusion is merely that “social aspects of human interaction may play an important role in traffic safety”, which would just about scrape a 2-2 in The Bleeding Obvious (Hons).
You can link all sorts of things, but unless you can come up with a testable hypothesis to the actual causation then it’s just a waste of time. Hull City’s results and rainfall, for example – whenever the club does will it seems to piss down. Maybe they’re to blame for all those floods.
And the study uses some lazy proxies if you ask me – casually subbing booze-related liver failure for drink-driving for instance.
I’d like to see what the Graun Bad Science columnist, and real cyclist, Ben Goldacre would make of it all.
Generally speaking, stats are very badly understood. In fact, only 23% say they’re confident with simple maths. The other 87% can’t even do straightforward addition.
Edward
Dec 8, 2009, 23:31
Assuming there is a proven link between the two, the next question to ask is which comes first. The article appears to suggest that road fatalities are somehow a consequence of the high murder rate. You mention the old favourites like Denmark and Netherlands. But perhaps it is the other way around. Perhaps the murder rate is (loosely) connected with the manner in which we set up our streets, towns and cities. The cycling infrastructure we admire in those countries makes them very child-friendly. Children are able to get themselves around without being imprisoned in the back of a car. They learn early to deal with other people outside. Not allowing that must have a negative long term effect.
John Biggins
Dec 13, 2009, 15:14
I have put this on the “Guardian” cycling blog as well. There’s been a debate going on about cycle helmets (again…) and I thought that Mikael had some very useful things to say on that and on cycling tribalism generally. I particularly liked the analogy with vacuum cleaners.
John, thanks for putting this on the Guardian site. I have more material with Mikael specifically on helmets which I am going to combine with his thoughts on Bike Share schemes, and which I hope to have posted in the next couple of days. Mike Rubbo
Nicola
Dec 15, 2009, 14:46
This is pure genius! I love that the OPENbike doesn’t need docking stations. This saves enormous amounts of money and hassle during the installation of such a scheme. That money can instead be spent on more bikes and more cycle parking for use by anyone. It also makes the riding experience truly hassle-free: pick up a bike, cycle to where you want to, leave the bike there, bingo.
Hope this gets introduced. Would love to see it in action, and if it works it could be the future for cycle hire schemes everywhere. London take note!
I’m all for promoting cycling and removing as many dangerous cars from the roads… but we do have to be careful about confusing correlation with causation, and this might be a classic case. Just because there’s a close correlation between the murder rate and cyclist or general traffic fatality rate doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other or even that they’re related. They might be but they also might not be.
A darkly humorous example is that a close correlation was found between wealth and breast cancer. One could thus hypothesize that money causes cancer. In fact further investigation found that (amongst other factors) breast cancer screening was far more rigorous and consistent amongst wealthier women, thus the cancer was found more often.
Anyhow I have doubts that there’s really a strong relationship between the murder rate and the accident rate. Instead I suspect that a host of incidental factors contribute: higher rates of drug and alcohol use, general disregard for the law, worse road conditions, cars in poor condition etc etc. And sure, angrier, more violent people probably play a role too.
We just put up another interview with Mikeal in which he talks about how to persuade politicians to spend money on bike Infrastructure. It’s called; Talking to Mikael.
Also, I’ve also almost finished an interview with Holland’s most influential bike blogger, David Hembrow who blogs at; View from the cycle path. Mike Rubbo
Simply cannot wait for this, it sounds close to perfect.
However, the Carradice Duxback will take some beating, with its secret thumb loops and the den-like protection created over the handlebars.
I note the Oxford offers a lighter solution, with free hands and easier signalling. Combined with the saddle pouch let’s hope this reduces the effort required to robe and disrobe…
I took a good picture today on my iPhone of the pavement with pedestrians slipping all over the place while cars go by on their happily gritted roads. It’s impossible to conceive how much priority cars get over pedestrians and cyclists
I bought a mountain bike just to cope with the roads. It’s too bad, as long as you avoid cycle paths and don’t mind cars not slowing down on narrower roads.
The cycle path in the video isn’t actually all that local to me. It’s about 5 km from my home and I rarely ride along it except on recreational rides such as the one I was on when I made that video.
The same goes for all the cycle paths. Work is 30 km away, my route is almost entirely on cycle paths, and all of them were clear for my commute in both directions this week.
The jopo now comes with 24″ 507 tyres. One can fit Marathon tyres as well
Dual Front Discs
Jan 16, 2010, 21:57
I bought a Christiania, now named ‘Stephanie’ last February (2009). The entire family love her. Well done Velorution for stocking such an amazing bike.
I have a fold bike I bought recently in Sydney from a Japanese young man and the back brake started to screech something terrible when braking down hills (we have a few in Sydney) I took the bike (she is a real cutie!) to a couple of bike shops in Sydney and all the mechanics shook their head “can't find this kind of brake here” and another “it's a drum brake you can't find it in Sydney. It comes with the wheel”. and when I brake people scream out “oil it!”
So I thought I had better do some homework – so with a screeching drum (back) brake should I wet it or spray some water on it? I have been riding the bike during dry weather so maybe that is what causes the screeching sound??? Any advice will be gratefully accepted.
I've also got through two Nexus 8's on my Ridgeback Neutron, each having lasted only about 18 months and 2000 miles. That's not what I call low maintenance, either, or longevity. The shop had no idea until they contacted Madison that the gear is supposed to be serviced at a Shimano service centre after 9 months to preserve the warranty. They have suggested the Shimano Alfine, which is supposed to be better quality, but I have doubts about anything Shimano now, and given that the hub, built into a new wheel, with other bits, will cost getting on for £300, I might as well get a new bike with all its other new components. And unless I feel flush enough to go for a Rohloff (unlikely), it'll probably be back to derailleurs again.
Our societies do a great job of pushing propaganda and getting people to blindly believe it as truth without even thinking about it.
Bicycle helmets are only one thing in a whole mess, but are such a great example of completely irrational acceptance of something. It’s amazing all the stories you hear of doctors/nurses treating a patient for, say, a leg injury, and commenting on how lucky they were to be wearing a helmet.
The general public does the same thing. I had a friend explain to me how I needed to wear a helmet because a friend of theirs had their bike slip out from under them (a racing bike, going down a hill, mind you), and they slid on the ground and got a severe road rash on their leg. Another story they told me was of another friend who (again on a racing bike, going fast), was fiddling with her odometer, got her fingers caught in the spokes, flew over the handlebars and landed on her face, smashing her teeth, etc. She didn’t even impact the part of her head where the helmet was, but they were convinced that the helmet saved her life, and so was the doctor who treated her.
In my opinion, any kind of advocacy/propaganda which causes people to think that irrationally is well worth some heavy suspicion.
Re 3.
My advice would be do not have the test if it increases the incidence from 1 in a million to 1%
All I can say is that I would not have considered purchasing my bike without this scheme. It has saved me £350. The supplier would have missed out on my sale. It’s not a perfect scheme but I get a bike and the retailer gets a sale. They may not have made as much profit but they still made something.
Yes, where’s the rear light? My Finnish Helkama bike also came with a front light driven by a Dynohub, and I had to fit a battery-powered rear lamp to the carrier where a reflector had been, but I’d assumed that was a local peculiarity and something to do with Finland’s traffic laws. So strange to see it on a bike specifically designed for the UK.
The reason may be that the Dynohub can’t produce enough current to power two lights, and a traditional bottle-dynamo was rejected as too damage-prone and imposing too much drag. But Dutch hire-fleet bikes – usually Batavus Personals – seem to work well enough with dynamos (…and the coffee-grinder whirr-whirr noise they make is rather comforting cycling home on a rainy winter’s evening).
Wonder how they’re going to solve the rear-light problem. An acetylene lamp, perhaps?
There’s GOTTA be lights, right? It’s the law isn’t it? Even Boris wouldn’t be so naive as to release a mass bike hire scheme that contravenes the law. Would he??!
Did anyone go to the Bike Show and actually see one of these bikes?
The BIXI bikes of Montreal have ‘always on’ front and rear dynamo lighting, and as far as I can tell the London Hire Scheme bikes are just BIXIs painted blue – so, no need to panic! (We hope!)
You can see pictures of the original Bixi here:
http://montreal.bixi.com/gallery/velo
As you can see, the front and back lights are clearly visible on the original Montreal version. For one thing, they are there because Quebec law requires lights on bikes at light, though most people don’t seem to know this and instead you see people wearing helmets because they believe that is where safety comes from (sigh). Is it possible there is no legal requirement for night lights in Britain/England, for which reason the promoters in London might not have included them? Or is it just a quirk of this particular photo?
Forgot the Second Sue vimeo. Falling apart, I am.
http://www.vimeo.com/6924283
Mike
I don’t see either option making sense. Option 1 is lethal, but Option 2 assumes the lorry isn’t about to turn right and has forgotten to signal, that there isn’t an oncoming bus, etc. Better to stop behind the lorry, not in its blind spot, middle of the lane, holding up the car behind you. When the lorry goes, you then have a clear route in front. There is too much risk of death/injury from a lorry to try overtaking it.
That leaves two remaining problems: what to do when a lorry comes up behind you at a junction, and what to do when a lorry overtakes you. No clear answers there, as both can be lethal,
Hi there. A couple of things – firstly, the book project is something we’d love to feature. Is there any scope to do an interview of some sort? As well as cycling, we’re movie makers, designers and photographers.
How is progress by the way?
And lastly, if you still need that cycling clothes horse, we have just the man – rides and has done catwalk for Yamamoto.
Cheers
No Endeavour
Thanks for pointing to this. I also seem to have enough energy to cycle without my bones snapping, and believe my vegan diet to be a good part of why this is the case.
I did know where to look for them (being from Montreal, I’ve seen my share of Bixis, like Chris!), but you can see the rear lights right on the photo accompanying this post.
[...] Dean was writing at an important turning point in transportation history: the automobile culture had not yet claimed dominance in the UK, and was still in its early years in the US: the first section of the M1 motorway opened in 1959, and construction on the Interstate Highway System began in 1956. Traffic on the roads was still mixed: not only trucks and cars, but also pedestrians and cyclists, shared the same paths. Dean documents the ways in which traffic law, supported by lobbyists for the automobile and transport industries, gradually usurped the dominant position on the roads until now pedestrians and cyclists are largely segregated into “safe” zones and many places can be reached only by car. He also draws chilling comparisons with Nazi Germany, called by the British automotive press before the war “a motoring paradise.” (Many quite disturbing quotations from British periodicals about the glories of Hitler’s Autobahn can be found here.) [...]
[...] Velorution has fabulous photos and recently they talked about scarves. [...]
Any ideas when they will be available, and will you be stocking them ?
I whole-heartedly agree. Whenever I do find myself waiting for a bus, I envy every cycling going by. Because I’m a cyclist, though, that feeling of envy doesn’t disappear the moment I sit down (or struggle to keep my balance squashed in with what feels like hundreds of other humans being treated worse than cattle). As I gaze out the window, yes, I see cyclists having a hard time of it. But I also see cyclists moving forward, not delayed interminably by traffic. I see cyclists thinking “on their feet”, finding solutions, and — if they’re anything like me — relishing the challenges and reaching their destination with a sense of accomplishment. But unless and until people on buses know that that’s what the cyclist experience is really like, they will continue to think cycling is not a viable option for them.
Oh, and if possible, I’d love to have a link to this blog entry and permission to post the link (not the article text) on Facebook, so more people can see your site? Many thanks.
Couldn’t agree more. I often feel ashamed at the behaviour of some of my fellow-cyclists towards pedestrians.
When you’re walking, the feeling of a cyclist racing past you at close distance is about equivalent to being nearly clipped by a skip lorry when you’re on a bike.
Let’s all be a bit more civilised!
“The answer, dear arrogant-cyclist-who-thinks-like-a-motorist, is that you should expect pedestrians to do these absent-minded ‘errors’ and be prepared: don’t ride close to the curb, don’t ride so fast, and don’t get upset.”
Obviously you haven’t been following the “Guardian” cycling blog in recent months. What emerges very clearly from that is that a significant number of those who post to it consider it their God-given right to tear along crowded streets and canal towpaths at 25mph knocking pedestrians out of the way like skittles – and despise any cyclist who doesn’t as a bimbler, an amateur, a Sunday-biker, a Brompton-weirdo and whole host of equally charming epithets (oh, and dismiss everyone on foot under the collective title “peds”).Anyone who points out that the average cycling speed in Amsterdam or Copenhagen is about 9.5mph is laughed at as a cissie and told to go and live there if they like it so much, because in the UK cyclists are MEN, not a lot of grannies-in-trousers with shopping baskets on their handlebars and skirt-guards on the back wheel.
Can’t say how representative these anti-social clowns are, and how much of it is a deliberate wind-up. But it certainly underlines a crucial difference in mentality between us and continental Europe. If city-cycling is a battlefield in this country, not the least of the reasons is that a fair number of cyclists apparently like it that way.
Funnily enough today was my first close call with an arrogant cyclist since we came to Germany 9 years ago. Eldest son Friend and I were cycling home, Friend isn’t so confident on a bike and was wobbling. Straight road, full visibility. Suddenly Lycra lad on a full suspension white MHB storms past, through a tiny gap and nearly smacks friend on the head with his pedaly. Fortunately she didn’t realise what had happened.
Why couldn’t he slow down?
“don’t ride close to the curb, don’t ride so fast, and don’t get upset.â€
Good advice. I suspect most of your readers would dismiss me as a “sport” cyclist (daily commuter, on a road bike, in lycra, high-ish daily average speed).
However, when the UK’s fabulous infrastructure puts me near pedestrians, or I know that they’ll be crossing between stationary traffic I’m filtering through, I slow *right* down, and cover the brakes. In my encounters with other cyclists and pedestrians, I certainly don’t want to be what some motorists are to me.
I’ve noticed when people on bikes give way to people on foot, the cyclist will often receive a wave, nod or smile as the walker saunters across the road. Compare this to the same situation with a car. The person on foot often feels compelled to make their way across the road as quickly as possible so as not to delay the car’s journey by more than absolutely necessary.
[...] VÃa: Velorution: Spare de Trees [...]
What I like best about this post is that the city council have identified a problem (stealing of cargo bikes) and come up with a pro-active solution (the ‘car’ park)
Pretty cool in my books.
I very much agree.
Especially since in London you can progress swiftly most of the time cycling on the road, well away from the kerb, it really does not add much to your trip even if you’re extravagantly careful around pedestrians.
The sad fact in London is that many pedestrians are too deferential to all other road users. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter Walker indeed agreed that when walking he was bound to the same standard of care as when cycling or driving. In my experience, even people who mostly walk find the Dutch (and German) idea that your choice of vehicle brings extra responsibility hard to understand, let alone embrace.
[...] 10% deducted at all. it’s not hard and Velorution have the procedure you can follow detailed here: http://www.velorution.biz/?page_id=1306 you buy the bike as you buy ANY business [...]
[...] tips for buying: Before you go shopping, check if your company participates in the cycle-to-work programme. This will allow you to buy a bike with all the bells and whistles and not have to pay the taxes [...]
[...] Buy it: Velorution, £465 [...]
HOLY MOLY! When and where can I get one of those 16″ers? My son has used his Jumper nearly daily and I have been searching high and low for a nice 16″ pedal bike as nice as the jumper! I hope they have this out (in orange) by early May for his birthday!
I’d really like to know how I can get hold of one of these SP chairs. Any ideas? I’ve tried calling a couple of Brompton dealers and they don’t want to know about them. Dawn
[...] is the original: velorution » Blog Archive » Murder One – study finds homicide … Share and [...]
Looks like bollocks to me. The study’s conclusion is merely that “social aspects of human interaction may play an important role in traffic safety”, which would just about scrape a 2-2 in The Bleeding Obvious (Hons).
You can link all sorts of things, but unless you can come up with a testable hypothesis to the actual causation then it’s just a waste of time. Hull City’s results and rainfall, for example – whenever the club does will it seems to piss down. Maybe they’re to blame for all those floods.
And the study uses some lazy proxies if you ask me – casually subbing booze-related liver failure for drink-driving for instance.
I’d like to see what the Graun Bad Science columnist, and real cyclist, Ben Goldacre would make of it all.
Generally speaking, stats are very badly understood. In fact, only 23% say they’re confident with simple maths. The other 87% can’t even do straightforward addition.
Assuming there is a proven link between the two, the next question to ask is which comes first. The article appears to suggest that road fatalities are somehow a consequence of the high murder rate. You mention the old favourites like Denmark and Netherlands. But perhaps it is the other way around. Perhaps the murder rate is (loosely) connected with the manner in which we set up our streets, towns and cities. The cycling infrastructure we admire in those countries makes them very child-friendly. Children are able to get themselves around without being imprisoned in the back of a car. They learn early to deal with other people outside. Not allowing that must have a negative long term effect.
I have put this on the “Guardian” cycling blog as well. There’s been a debate going on about cycle helmets (again…) and I thought that Mikael had some very useful things to say on that and on cycling tribalism generally. I particularly liked the analogy with vacuum cleaners.
John, thanks for putting this on the Guardian site. I have more material with Mikael specifically on helmets which I am going to combine with his thoughts on Bike Share schemes, and which I hope to have posted in the next couple of days. Mike Rubbo
This is pure genius! I love that the OPENbike doesn’t need docking stations. This saves enormous amounts of money and hassle during the installation of such a scheme. That money can instead be spent on more bikes and more cycle parking for use by anyone. It also makes the riding experience truly hassle-free: pick up a bike, cycle to where you want to, leave the bike there, bingo.
Hope this gets introduced. Would love to see it in action, and if it works it could be the future for cycle hire schemes everywhere. London take note!
[...] via velorution [...]
I’m all for promoting cycling and removing as many dangerous cars from the roads… but we do have to be careful about confusing correlation with causation, and this might be a classic case. Just because there’s a close correlation between the murder rate and cyclist or general traffic fatality rate doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other or even that they’re related. They might be but they also might not be.
A darkly humorous example is that a close correlation was found between wealth and breast cancer. One could thus hypothesize that money causes cancer. In fact further investigation found that (amongst other factors) breast cancer screening was far more rigorous and consistent amongst wealthier women, thus the cancer was found more often.
Anyhow I have doubts that there’s really a strong relationship between the murder rate and the accident rate. Instead I suspect that a host of incidental factors contribute: higher rates of drug and alcohol use, general disregard for the law, worse road conditions, cars in poor condition etc etc. And sure, angrier, more violent people probably play a role too.
We just put up another interview with Mikeal in which he talks about how to persuade politicians to spend money on bike Infrastructure. It’s called; Talking to Mikael.
Also, I’ve also almost finished an interview with Holland’s most influential bike blogger, David Hembrow who blogs at; View from the cycle path. Mike Rubbo
Good idea to suggest a cape. If it works in Vietnam it will work here!
Simply cannot wait for this, it sounds close to perfect.
However, the Carradice Duxback will take some beating, with its secret thumb loops and the den-like protection created over the handlebars.
I note the Oxford offers a lighter solution, with free hands and easier signalling. Combined with the saddle pouch let’s hope this reduces the effort required to robe and disrobe…
I took a good picture today on my iPhone of the pavement with pedestrians slipping all over the place while cars go by on their happily gritted roads. It’s impossible to conceive how much priority cars get over pedestrians and cyclists
I bought a mountain bike just to cope with the roads. It’s too bad, as long as you avoid cycle paths and don’t mind cars not slowing down on narrower roads.
The cycle path in the video isn’t actually all that local to me. It’s about 5 km from my home and I rarely ride along it except on recreational rides such as the one I was on when I made that video.
However, it’s an essential link for people who live in villages and that’s why it’s cleared of snow. The same goes for all the cycle paths, of course. They’re all essential, so gritting is comprehensive.
The same goes for all the cycle paths. Work is 30 km away, my route is almost entirely on cycle paths, and all of them were clear for my commute in both directions this week.
The jopo now comes with 24″ 507 tyres. One can fit Marathon tyres as well
I bought a Christiania, now named ‘Stephanie’ last February (2009). The entire family love her. Well done Velorution for stocking such an amazing bike.
DFD.
I think you could at least say it’s probably the best use of a fixie
new olympic event maybe…
took this on my phone today. you might just be able to make out 3 guys on a bmx. efficient or what?