Yeah it's the Mail.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Urban England is not suited to bicycles"
(35 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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Lived in London for three years and found it unsuited to cars. That was 20 years ago.
Posted 14 years ago # -
That is an extremely silly article. The one lesson I take away from it is that if we try to sell cycling on image (pink pashley etc), it is doomed to failure, because too many of those who go for it will be idiots like this. I'm afraid I've pretty much stayed out of the 'bike belles' etc debates because I thought this to begin with, and this article confirms it, sadly.
Posted 14 years ago # -
What a strange set of statements.
"No one could stop him, even after I yelled that the bag was a fake."
"They are weirdly obsessive about their mode of transport, assuming an air of de haut en bas on their diets of wheatfree pasta."
"As I wobbled along London's roads, nearly hitting every pedestrian and car, riding the wrong way up one-way streets, I was petrified and hysterical, screaming every curse I knew, including one particularly nasty one learned from my Hungarian grandmother."
"Oh, and burn those cyclists' bodysuits. Only bronzed continentals can get away with wearing outfits that make the English, with our cheesestraw legs, look like giant insects."
"After three days, disgusted with myself and unwilling to commit manslaughter, I rode on to the kerb - deliberately, of course - and fell down."
So, because she is incapable of riding a bike properly, has cheesestraw legs, and has fake handbags which - for whatever unfathomable reason - fail to cause thieves to turn themselves in, no one else should be allowed to cycle?
Posted 14 years ago # -
I am very relieved that the Daily Mail hates cyclists. Let me put it this way. Would you actually WANT to be in any group that the Daily Mail supports? I would just feel dirty and would probably have to buy a Land Rover and run down foreigners in it so at least I can be hated by decent people.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Intelligent analysis and presentation is one reason that I prefer the Guardian over the Daily Mail
"But the police have found that half the collisions between bicycles and cars are the fault of the cyclist, according to analysis by the Transport Research Laboratory."
"The data, which was analysed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), showed that more than a quarter of all cycling deaths in 2005-07 happened when a vehicle ran into the rear of a bike. This rose to more than one-third in rural areas and to 40% in collisions that took place away from junctions.
The 64-page analysis found that police attributed responsibility for collisions more or less evenly between drivers and cyclists overall, but this was skewed by the fact that when child riders were involved their behaviour was named as a primary factor more than three-quarters of the time.
With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time."Posted 14 years ago # -
The sad thing is the Daily Mail wears it small minded hatred as a badge of pride. Back in the 1930's it was very keen on Hitler.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Hey hey, don't knock the Land Rovers, they're very good in the right place, just like cycles ;)
The Daily Mail however....
Posted 14 years ago # -
Oh I just picked it as being British car. At least I assume it still is!
I wear the Daily Mail's small minded hatred of me as a badge of pride. :-)
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Urban English Woman Not Suited To Bicycles" News at 10!
Not such a good head line if slightly more accurate.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I'm really not very good at football and once hurt my ankle playing. It's obviously unsuitable for everyone.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Stepdoh, yes, that's part of it, but it is also 'I've got all the right (ie expensive) kit, so I must be able to do it without actually putting in any thought or effort'. I suspect all sports have a bit of this, which is why so many people stop going to the gym after buying all the trendy gear. But the thing about cycling is that it is BOTH a sport, and a mode of transportation. And the messages get confused. the cycle chic message is 'look at me, look how effortless I make it look; my only concern is colour co-ordinating my outfit'. Vis a vis the ultra fit, trendy cyclists. But actually the reality for most people (as commuters/leisure riders anyway) is somewhere between the two. You need to be moderately focused, know the rules of the road, and be prepared to get a bit sweaty once in a while. But most of the time it's quite nice. That'll never work as an advertising campaign, but it is a bit more realistic.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"most of the time it's quite nice"
sounds good to me
Posted 14 years ago # -
'I've got all the right (ie expensive) kit, so I must be able to do it without actually putting in any thought or effort'
In some ways it's amazing the number of 'new' cyclists that stick with it.
There's the unfamiliar bike to deal with, traffic, rules of the road (maybe better if rider has done a driving test) PLUS the fact that they are unlikely to be 'bike fit' - if even if they are generally/sporty fit, the reality is cycling uses different muscles and requires hands to deal with (probably) unfamiliar brakes/gears.
MAYBE THIS SHOULD BE A NEW THREAD -
Posted 14 years ago # -
<rant>The incessant Cycle Chic-ing thing kind of annoys me, I ride out to 10 miles out ingliston every morning and wear cycle gear for the simple premise that it's cold and I can't get over the corstorphine/maybury hill without getting a rather sweaty, I don't know why I have to be setting a bad example by daring to wear thermal bibtights rather than my suit.
Argh.</rant>
Posted 14 years ago # -
Stepdoh-
Oh as a woman I got bored years ago with being told what I am SUPPOSED to look like. So someone called Carlton Reid wants to see "gorgeous women on bikes" and "Forget helmets, Lycra and speed". Oh dear, I guess he will be disgusted by me then. Oh well never mind. I suppose I'll get over it. I totally agree that it needs to be seen as normal to just pop on your bike down to the shops in whatever you are wearing but I won't be told what to wear and I won't feel guilty about it.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"The best way not to be noticed is to wear urban camouflage - Hi-Viz clothing, lots of lights and reflectors and a helmet." - Dr. Tony Raven
Posted 14 years ago # -
Hey Stepdoh, there should be space for everyone, no matter what their style ...
Posted 14 years ago # -
Kim-I have heard that the best way to get inside a building you are not supposed to be in is to wear a hard hat and hi-vis jacket. Everyone will ignore you. I've not tried it though!
Posted 14 years ago # -
Add in carrying in a clipboard, and it never fails... ;-)
Posted 14 years ago # -
yup, i mean I'm a picture of Continental cool when coming back from ASDA in my jeans with shopping bags hanging off the handlebars. Just not on the wind/rainswept plains around the airport!
Guess it's dress for the occasion, but you'd have a tough time taking my roubaix off me!
Posted 14 years ago # -
:*)
Erm, sorry, that didn't read well. But I'm sure you get the gist.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yup, dress for the occasion, but I am not about to take roubaix off anybody!
Posted 14 years ago # -
I prefer garish to hi-viz (during the day). Altura Night Vision at night also good.
I have a hideously garish MArmite top - I do not even like the stuff but often raises a smile from drivers.
Posted 14 years ago # -
That'll be Foska... ;) I've got 'Bones' and 'Coleman's Mustard' jerseys from them.
Posted 14 years ago # -
For Petronella
"What every woman needs to know to get out and about by bike."
Posted 14 years ago # -
yeah foska - quite helpful - had long exchange with them when they were getting rid of free ride style jerseys very cheap (the free ride stylee appears to be 4 sizes too big but the very small ones which were dirt cheap were just too wee). They even put me on to thecyclejersey.com which is a scottish company that makes the Tunnocks Tea Cake jersey. Again, I hate Tunnocks Teacakes (preferring the caramel log) but the jersey is neat and the company ultra helpful sending me new jersey before they got the other one back (my mum had ordered wrong size)
On drive to Ayr today I spotted railway men in orange and guys on the verge in yellow, so I would say that hi-viz is highly visible but maybe not enough for blind to the bike drivers
Posted 14 years ago # -
Cartoon in current Private Eye
Posted 14 years ago # -
Thank heavens she gave up, sounds like a right menace to society and a danger to members of the public. At least I can be assured of never encountering her on my travels. Whilst railing at the antics of other cyclists she was flagrantly breaking the law by cycling on the pavement, stupid woman, and was thus far more likely to run down some frail old woman and hospitalise them with worse injuries than her aged relative sustained and maybe not even one elderly person but several. Also it beggars belief if she thinks her handbag was nicked because it was thought to be designer and therefore very expensive, and not for the contents, very, very stupid woman as well as shallow, self-centred and vacuous. Frightening and scary in fact. What is more worrying, in my estimation, is that people like her are employed to write articles in newspapers even one as crap as the Daily Mail.
Posted 14 years ago #
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