CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
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SUVs are now one of the biggest emerging threats to road safety in Scottish cities.
A new paper by Professor Adrian Davis warns that the surge in SUV ownership is making Scotland’s streets more dangerous, congested, and polluting. Transform is publishing this paper during this year’s Road Safety Week, 16th-22nd November.
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https://transform.scot/2025/11/20/too-big-for-our-streets-the-harms-of-suv-use-in-scottish-cities/
Very true. Friends of Mrs LB were driving through a light controlled junction in city when an SUV hit their VW saloon side on. Obviously police are investigating so I can't say anything on right and wrong of incident here. Fire brigade had to release VW driver and both he and his partner taken to A&E. VW Driver had burns from rapid airbag deployment. SUV had solid bumper frame (bull bars?) Occupants of SUV were unscathed.
Probably quite a common story tying up hours of police and NHS time. Sadly some that are on receiving end of a 'tank' hit often conclude they need to go bigger and higher. (Not saying that's the case here but in the 'autochat universe' these views may exist unless costs of going bigger and heavier are a lot more).
Interesting WRT front of SUV - hope Police & insurers are closely checking ironmongery WRT C&U compliance ^ after market alterations
In an evolutionary sense there is no long term benefit of super sizing your motor DEstroying the planet, weakening the species. Though Darwin has a dominan theory maybe Mendel could help us understand this behaviour. In Game Theory moving to small cars such as older minis or fiat 500 would be win win
This one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel
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Fisher's analysis gave rise to the Mendelian paradox: Mendel's reported data are, statistically speaking, too good to be true, yet "everything we know about Mendel suggests that he was unlikely to engage in either deliberate fraud or in an unconscious adjustment of his observations".
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Maybe simpler to assume it’s the result of the unhealthy relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘capitalism’?
Politicians ‘need’ bigger GDP numbers - the only measure they care about (on the dubious/defeatist basis that there will be ‘more money to pay for things’)
Bigger cars (and more of everything generally) require more stuff dug out of the ground (but probably fewer jobs) so ‘better for the economy’.
Seems some people would rather buy new/bigger/more cars than pay higher taxes to cover the costs - new/fixed roads, police for policing, NHS for crashes, asthma etc.
Maybe Marx, Keynes or Friedman have some insights??
Then again maybe it’s all ‘too difficult’ to think about trying something other than ‘more of the same’.
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Reeves is expected to reveal in this week’s budget that the UK’s economic growth forecasts have been downgraded in each of the next five years despite the government naming growth as its number one mission at the last election.
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Dig bigger holes, adds to GDP numbers.
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Bregman advocates for a new "realist utopia" in the face of rapid technological change, promoting ideas like Universal Basic Income, fairer taxation and responsible tech regulation. Finally, he zooms out to reflect on humanity’s strange historical trajectory, warning of the existential risks posed by unchecked AI and urging privileged individuals to take on an active role in shaping a better future.
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Community Councillor said openly he has a tank
"Because his older parents cannot get down into a lower car or up out of" this bit I can see as my in parents and in-laws both got a Duster and PHEV for this very reason, but given they do not drive in the city I don't really care. Also - more snow out their way.
And also claimed
"Families are ditching two fuel driven to get one EV giant beast and making it big so they don't have to take the hocket/cricket/rubgy/tennis gear out each time they drive it."
This bit scares me as laziness has become endemic.
And they drive over the speed "cushions" which means they need to be in the middle of the road AT ALL TIMES obviously
Which means they don't go down a road if it is already occupied (especially if by another tank)
I reckon covid made driving get worse as we had a long time when there was nowhere to go and nobody to crash into if you did. It has not gone back the other way
Part of the driving test should be
"Can you accurately tell from the dashboard, where the white lines are in relation to your wing mirrors?"
And if you can't you fail immediately and have to go park up in a supermarket - get out and learn!
Once you find the closest you can be to the line and where the line is on the windscreen/dash THEN you can resit your test
making it big so they don't have to take the hocket/cricket/rubgy/tennis gear
My niece turned up in one of those pumped-up Fiat 500 XLs and the amount of baby gear they had stored in the boot was ridiculous - you couldn't see out the back window. I have never seen so much gear. We used to travel on the trains with the baby, and we would never have dreamed of carrying so much stuff (even when we used the car, we didn't carry that much either).
Seems that the new fashion accessories to keep permanently bolted to your SUV are no longer spanking-clean mountain bikes, but instead massive slab* tent boxes, and an inflatable double mattress in the boot. Plus you need those psuedo-all-terrain tyres/wheels to make it look like you go to a campsite with the intention of not getting stuck (yes, I also once got a campervan stuck in a campsite).
Ridic.
*imagine the extra drag and corresponding fuel consumption increase.
World has gone mad
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Transform is however disappointed at the lack of motoring tax reform on SUVs. Emilia said:
“The Chancellor has missed an opportunity to introduce tax reform on the UK’s heaviest, most polluting vehicles.
SUVs are also eight times more likely to kill a child than a medium-sized car. Earlier this month, we signed a joint letter to the HM Treasury advising urgent tax reform on SUVs. This policy could raise almost £2 billion annually to support public transport, if reinvested in the UK’s transport system and infrastructure. A Large Vehicle Levy should be introduced, holding SUVs responsible for the increased damage large vehicles cause to our roads, public health and environment.”
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