VERY impressive advocate for reallocation of roadspace.
Clearly said 'not about helmets' when Emily Maitless said 'yesterday BW called for...'
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Boardman on Newsnight
(20 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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I saw that, I thought he was excellent: tactful, measured, but very clear and strong in the political message he sent across, that space needs to be taken away from motor vehicles.
The complete opposite of Wiggo.
Posted 12 years ago # -
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APPCG (@allpartycycling)02/08/2012 23:11
The follwoing tweets are what @Chris_Boardman said on @NewsNight about cycling for transport
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https://twitter.com/allpartycycling/status/231150197122666496 (and following tweets)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Encouragingly, it seems like there's been a massive backlash (even from the Mail!).
Maybe I'll have to eat my helmet after all, and good will come of it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
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BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight)
02/08/2012 23:04
Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman: Hard for politicians to say more space on roads should be made for bikes - but time to do it is now
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Posted 12 years ago # -
Cycling at 11:01 then CB
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ll5vg/Newsnight_02_08_2012
Posted 12 years ago # -
Boardman's great.
Although I'm just waiting for the backlash along the lines of "Well, Boardman's got a vested interest in more people cycling, so he would say that" along the same lines of "Wiggins is paid to wear a Kask helmet so he would say that". ;o)
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Boardman's got a vested interest in more people cycling"
Haven't we all?
(Including non-cyclists - even if they don't realise it.)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Some have more commercial interests in it than others.
Not a dig at Boardman, just at the way the h*lmet debate is conducted.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@PS: that's way too cynical. My opinion is that the debate is nowhere near any calculations about financial or other interests. With the sole exception of the government, of course. No promises of any kind of action from them, certainly not any improved infrastructure!
Posted 12 years ago # -
@crowriver I agree. In the same way I think it is way too cynical to suggest that Wiggins would recommend helmet compulsion because he gets given a Kask helmet for when he's racing.
Moving on and back on topic, getting guys like Boardman on TV is exactly the right response to the road safety issue and should be built upon. So perhaps Brad's comments will have an affect as a catalyst for action. Keep the pressure on.
Posted 12 years ago # -
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As a tribute to Bradley Wiggins and Mod I’ll finish with the words of Mod revivalists Secret Affair, “this is the time, this is the time for action”.
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Posted 12 years ago # -
"Maybe I'll have to eat my helmet after all, and good will come of it."
Yeah, given the mahoosive cat-o-nine-tails of a backlash maybe it will? There's no way I'm eating mine though, too sweaty. yeach.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Interesting that we see those we agree with as 'tactful, measured' etc.
Boardman is an interesting case. I remember when he was competing there were quotes from him that he didn't really enjoy cycling, but just happened to be good at it, and it provided for his family.
When he quit and was then on the telly Tour coverage you could see he'd stopped, shall we say, indulging in physical exertion. The new, slimmer version seems to be one that has realised he enjoys cycling, because now he's not competing, so it's not a job, which means he understands 'normal' cycling a lot more - and that makes him a good spokesman.
I suspect that when competing he wouldn't have been quite as tactful and measured.
I see Lizzie Armitstead has also come out saying that iPod wearing is dangerous.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"...there were quotes from him that he didn't really enjoy cycling, but just happened to be good at it, and it provided for his family."
One of the Scottish cycle-athletes in the most recent Commonwealths was a convert from Judo rather than a lifelong cyclist.
I was wondering if a Wiggins effect would be any different from an Hoy effect due to Wiggins having done his recent stuff on the road, albeit on closed roads. It's upping the profile of cycling though it's still a cyclist in full athletic getup even if they're using the same roads as everyone else rather than the track of a velodrome. Any way of getting the respect-for-sportspeople-who-happen-to-be-using-bicycles-to-break-records-and/or-win-medals to trickle down to respect-for-people-transporting-themselves-using-vaguely-similar-machines needs to be exploited. A bloke who tweaks the aerodynamics of top-end athletes and their bikes AND has his name plastered on the top tubes of bikes in shops that non-cyclists go into is ideally-placed to do so.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Interesting that we see those we agree with as 'tactful, measured' etc.
I presume the 'we' means me. He was tactful because when asked about the helmet compulsion 'statement' from Wiggo, he said "I'm not sure I agree with that", which was pretty polite given that he then took the completely opposite line.
He was measured because rather than embarking upon an off the cuff ramble about irresponsible behaviour he set out, quite logically, a very clear position, while being realistic about the political obstacles.
To be fair, Wiggo had no warning of the question, it was an ambush in many ways. Boardman had time to consider his response and obviously would have been briefed beforehand on the line of questioning: this being Newsnight and not a post-victory press conference supposedly about the medal just won.
"Boardman is an interesting case. I remember when he was competing there were quotes from him that he didn't really enjoy cycling, but just happened to be good at it, and it provided for his family."
Haven't many riders said similar things? Anquetil for example, who allegedly never rode a bike again after retiring as a professional.
"realised he enjoys cycling, because now he's not competing, so it's not a job, which means he understands 'normal' cycling a lot more - and that makes him a good spokesman."
Absolutely.
"I see Lizzie Armitstead has also come out saying that iPod wearing is dangerous."
So is cruising around with boom box stereo blasting in your car, but I don't see Hamilton, Button and Coulthard calling for bans on in-car entertainment systems, do you?
When will sport cyclists stop apologising for the rest of us and siding with the cyclist haters? *
* - For the avoidance of doubt, a rhetorical question, no need to reply!
Posted 12 years ago # -
"I see Lizzie Armitstead has also come out saying that iPod wearing is dangerous."
In fairness she's pretty, so can say what she likes. ;)
In all seriousness though regards ear buds, they do close out all reality of the outside world, not to be recommended!
Much the same as when a car stereo is too load, except that then becomes anti-social too.Posted 12 years ago # -
"I presume the 'we' means me."
Sorry, no, that wasn't meant as a dig - just in general, I've seen a lot of it on Twitter. Not just with regards to cycling. Religion, politics, etc.
"Haven't many riders said similar things? Anquetil for example, who allegedly never rode a bike again after retiring as a professional."
I think that's right. Chris Eubank was the same with boxing (though obviously, to paraphrase Graeme Obree, you don't box down to the shops (save in Pilton perhaps). Ian Thorpe on the BBC the other night said when he packed in competitive swimming he didn't get back in a pool for 5 years.
There is a huge disconnect between sport cycling and leisure/commute cycling (even if I do believe success in the former is fueling the latter) that makes our sport cyclists possibly not the best spokesmen for cycle safety (unless, like Cav in the Times, they are measured remarks - though I think he's ghost-written on these things - just used as a focal point).
"I don't see Hamilton, Button and Coulthard calling for bans on in-car entertainment systems, do you?"
Primarily, I presume, because they're not asked the question. I think that's just an indication of how we simply accept that driving is 'dangerous', but can't do anything about it; whereas cycling is 'dangerous', but we can tell people to put a plastic hat on and they'll survive.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"You don't football down the shops..."
Not necessarily to the shops but there is that thing which those kids who wander around with their hands down inside their tracksuit trousers do when they can't just walk along the street without kicking a football around all over the place, presumably to demonstrate their dedication to and prowess at football to whoever their target audience is.
"There is a huge disconnect between sport cycling and leisure/commute cycling..."
I think I said something in some sort of online cycling magazine thing once about not feeling that my scootling round the local woodland on a rattly third-hand Puch was really on the same continuum as Chris Boardman winning races in a velodrome by several lengths of his magic-fibre velociwhoosh. Even an incautious statement by someone at the top level which connects what they're doing as their work with what we're doing to get to work in the mind of the public is possibly useful.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Maybe I'll have to eat my helmet after all, and good will come of it."
Apparently my hat would survive being eaten by an elephant… at least 3 times.
Posted 12 years ago #
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