Well this will get the ENews motoring fans seething.
Though as the first comment says "Only those breaking the law have something to fear!"
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Speeding-police-accused-of-39stealth.6189885.jp
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"police accused of 'stealth tactics'"
(28 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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Don't worry, normal service has been resumed at EEN web site.
I would like to know why "This is a non-enforceable speed check", if they were catching drivers speeding they should have been enforcing the law, isn't that is what we have the Police for?
"It's important to get the message across and make sure that drivers modify their behaviour." Yes, and handing out fines is a lot more effective at modifying behaviour than letting them get away with it.
Posted 14 years ago # -
These punters have never heard of an "unmarked police car" then? Stealth... pfft
All it takes is someone to upload the coordinates into a RoandAngel or tomtom speed cam reporting website and everyone will know about it...Posted 14 years ago # -
It's quite encouraging that, on the whole, the vast majority of comments are not from the rabid motoring side of the story.
I didn't know you actually *couldn't* have a hidden speed trap - why ever not? If you wanted to catch illegal downloaders by random web session monitoring, you wouldn't put a flashing banner on every page saying "you are being monitored", would you?
Posted 14 years ago # -
I'm a keen cyclist and a motorist. In fact I own an Impreza Turbo so I'm not exactly in the eco/slow/safe group (although it's an estate, so I'm not one of "those" Subaru drivers).
However, I believe speeding in town is reckless and dangerous and should not be tolerated.
I don't care how in town speeders are caught. The important thing is that they're deterred from speeding in the first place.
Hiding behind bins is a great start! May I suggest dressing up as postboxes next?
Posted 14 years ago # -
@davidmhodgey
You are clearly not a paid up member of the official "we are being persecuted so we must complain about it in the Comment section of the ENews" group.
I suspect you are NOT alone.
Too many politicians seem to be 'scared' that motorists = voters and forget that they are also walkers and cyclists - as are their friends and relatives (most people in fact!)
Posted 14 years ago # -
It is a curious thing that there is so little political will to tackle the issue of road safety, it is an issue which affect every voter, just about every voter most know of a friend or family member who has been killed or seriously injured on the roads. Why is it we let this happen?
Posted 14 years ago # -
"It is a curious thing that there is so little political will to tackle the issue of road safety."
Part of the problem is the notion of "road safety". Which is all about accepting that things are the way they are and making them a 'bit better' rather than (for instance) thinking about making it easier and more attractive to make fewer journeys by car and more by walking, cycling and Public Transport.
There's a lot of rhetoric and a few carrots, but as soon as anything is done - hiding behind bins or restriction of parking or proposing speed reductions there's a 'big fuss' - which somehow is assumed to be by the not-very-silent majority.
In addition, politically, there always seems to be more interest in (and cash for) major projects rather than dealing with simple things.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"In the Netherlands between 1980 and 2005, there was a 45% increase in cycling, and a 58% reduction in cyclist fatalities"
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/04/more-cyclists-and-pedestrians-in-europe.html
Posted 14 years ago # -
Posted 14 years ago #
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As it is Easter, I am going to attempt to introduce a Class Analysis to this forum, I have resisted this previously as it is very boring to some, even a little now to myself.
Car manufacturing is similar to the manufacturing of other weapons of mass destruction. You just turn the words round slightly to Mass Weapons of Destruction. These MWDS are indiscriminate - killing motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, wildlife etc. However, just as the economy can be construed as a Permanent Arms Economy (and you could ask why would we continue to produce nuclear weapons etc?) the economy also depends on the manufacturing of cars. Obsolesence must also be built into the weapon so that new weapons can be built. Thus when galvanising chassis became common, computers that mechanics can't fix had to be introduced.
I could go on, I feel on a roll, but my son wants on the Lego Spiderman Movies on YOutube.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I'm not sure what the question was.
I run a far older car than my dad did. It's a 13 yr old wagon with more than 150 K miles on the clock. I don't worry about it not starting in the morning or bits falling off. When I last drove to work it was a 17 yr old car which again didn't worry me at all... until the water pump broke. In the 80s my dad worried about depending on a car half that age. So from my point of view cars have a much longer life span than they used to.
For bikes things are different too. I used to run on a fixed wheel in the winter so I didn't get salt and grit into the good stuff. Eventually I just got to like it and used it all year. These days few people would use a fixed wheel in winter to protect their good equipment.
Still not sure what the question is.
Posted 14 years ago # -
The question was "Why is there so little political will to tackle the issue of road safety?"
The answer was "Because we live in a permanent arms economy"
THe next question is Why are Fixed Wheel/Single Speed bikes so popular? If I lived further down the hill, say in Ratho I might be tempted by Specialized Tricross with the flipflop hub. It can take mudguards and a rack (I am guessing). I would need that as I carry a lot of work related stuff in my panniers. BUt as I live up the hill and have stuff to carry I will stick to gears. I also quite like freewheeling which of course is achievable on a one speed but not a fixie.
Posted 14 years ago # -
@Gembo "Why are Fixed Wheel/Single Speed bikes so popular?"
My guess is a couple of reasons... firstly broke cycle couriers like bikes, but in my experience couriers can seldom afford the newest shiniest examples of the manufacturers art... so, they get old good quality frames/bikes and customise them, now if you ride 8 to 10 hours a day you can push a middling gear pretty much anywhere, and if you (re)build your custom as a singlespeed then it can be done without blowing lots of cash you don't have on a posh gearset. Easy choice, and as a bonus it looks neat and different.
Instantly the cool couriers are cutting around on neat classic looking bikes and other people want them... so the manufacturers then build them and charge as much as they think the market will stand...Hence the couriers £150 custom, built because it's too nice a frameset to waste and "because they can" (and cannot afford the latest specialized or whatever) becomes the commercial £600 trendy singlespeed that most non couriers/racers keep as a toy because they need lower gears to deal with any sort of decent hill. Funny old world isn't it? :-)
Fixed is just an extension of the genre, lets you leave off a brake and look more minimalist. Probably fun for some people but not for me ;-) 99% a style thing imho (puts on flameproof jacket...)
Many I've seen are very pretty though, much classier looking than the current crop of road race bikes in my eyes :-) and there is the second reason I believe they are popular just now, they have style where many of the carbon forked aerodynamically styled road bikes are fashionable just now but will probably look very, very dated in a few years...
All the above of course imho, and no offence meant to anyone ;-)
Posted 14 years ago # -
You can get the three speed fixed hub again.
In about '81 when I first tried it there were a few reasons. It stopped your good gears getting busted in the winter muck. It was rumoured to give you better feed back from, and control over, the back wheel. it taught you to pedal in circles. It stopped you getting lazy because you had to be turning the pedals all the time.
On a more philosophical note it made you more at one with the machine.
My two speed Brompton is a little like that. It's more minimal than the other two. It's possible but not easy to make a fixed Brompton. The suspension and tensioner cause problems. I wouldn't bother.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Why are Fixed Wheel/Single Speed bikes so popular?"
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=512#post-3803
new thread??
Posted 14 years ago # -
Smudge has got it in one.
The courier chic fashion thing has a lot to do with it. people want to belong to that subculture because they think it holds some kind of glamour and hardcore diyness. Urban street culture sort of thing.Of course anyone who has done that job for any length of time knows otherwise!
I have to say I do love riding my single speed non freewheel bycicle quite a lot.Posted 14 years ago # -
(Blushes) Why thank you :)
I can see the attraction of a singlespeed, it's using the very least required to achieve an aim/complete a task and that is often quite satisfying. I do wory though when I see the odd fixie with no brakes other than the pedals/chain, fine on a track but on the road.... :-/ not good.
Also even if I was fit enough, as I think I mentioned before I doubt my knees are up to fixed gears :-o I always thought riding in toeclips/spd's taught me to pedal in circles, playing with fixed gears as a kid just taught me how much a wayward pedal can hurt the careless! :-o ;-)So the bottom line? If you like it, ride it. Variety is good :-)
Oh and if you want a really cool singlespeed find an old race frame and refurb it to your spec saving about £400 and supporting your local beadblasters/sprayers/bike shops, being green and ending up with something original and unique to you :)Posted 14 years ago # -
And learn how to spell bicycle.....(oops)! I'm with ye on the brakes as well. I know quite a few fixers that ride with no brake and feel happy about it but it's not for me. I do only have a front brake but it's a very good front brake and I can stop on a dime. Oh yeah and DIY. Off the peg fixies for £££'s In the words of lemmy....no class.
Posted 14 years ago # -
A class analysis of single speed/fixie wold therefore suggest capitalism has appropriated the genre (as with punk rock) and sold it back to the people. In this instance with a functionality (low maintennance) a fitness a style and a zen angle. Lemmy would be turning in his grave if he were dead. Ace Of Spades.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I like it! It's the equivilent of urban outfitters selling Discharge tshirts
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Off the peg fixies for £££'s In the words of lemmy....no class."
Some people like DIY, some don't, others 'supply the market'.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Certainly but I think £1000 for a fixie is too much. Each to his own though that's just me.
Posted 14 years ago # -
So is this the latest attempt to reduce speed on McDonald Road?
Certainly unnecessarily cycle-unfriendly (as are some - but not all - of the other chicanes.
Really ought to sort out sensible cycle access to the crossing to St. Mark's Park.
Posted 14 years ago # -
@chdot - that is just outside my old office, the one that was 10 miles from home
Posted 14 years ago # -
"just outside my old office"
With famous 'rock star' teaching round the corner.
Posted 14 years ago # -
in Broughton Primary? Are you saying Mr Boom is a teacher there?
Posted 14 years ago # -
yes/no
Posted 14 years ago #
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