Jeremy Vine almost hacked down by 'clown' in a car; Urán sorry for baby blunder; Brit drivers set for tougher phone rules; UK's longest bike path?; Porsche buy into e-bikes; What happened to pedal cars?; Cyclist frees goat + more on the live blog

Good lord, are you quite alright? I know it's the you and Rendel(l) show but you seem to not only be agreeing but also advocating some kind of "vigilantism". (And not the kind that involves the vigilante in the car assaulting the other "vigilante" collecting evidence).

As always, detection and enforcement are everything - which is where Cycling Mikey types potentially come in. I agree with you though about possible loopholes - I also wonder whether there are any restrictions on fitting “television receiving apparatus” before selling vehicles as that could be said to be contradicting the message of the other bit of law. Sample size of two but heard from some long distance truckers back in the day that a TV was a must-have.

I also think that with a small measure of interpretation that existing law *should* have handily covered mobile phone use also. Not a lawyer though! Looks like the usual gap between the political "we made a law so we fixed this issue" and what the police, courts and society actually consider within standard practice.

Garage at Large wrote:

It's already against the law to watch TV while driving, so you should have done a Cycling Mikey on him.

Edit - here's the law https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/109/made... although I have to say it's worded in a way that makes it sound like a top lawyer could find a loophole...

If those are the current regulations then you don't need to be a top lawyer to see they don't cover watching TV on a phone. Not many phones have cathode ray tubes. Another case of the law not keeping up with the technology.

But it just comes under without due care and attention.
Police did this with lorry drivers picking up TV watchers and cooking (!!) when one force went out with their special video equipped lorry

Yes, absolutely, although that brings us back to the point about whether the law needs changing on using phones or whether the general careless driving etc offences are sufficient.

Jack Sexty wrote:

Going easy on Nick went well then! You is a right horrible lot... 

Ach he's up for it and can hold his own. I'm sure his shoulders are broad enough to take anything that gets thrown at him though not broad enough to obscure the view of following motorists. 
 

Arghh.  I misread the post. Had been a long hard day and wasn't concentrating 😕 Apologies to Nick and Jack for doing so! 

Jack Sexty wrote:

Going easy on Nick went well then! You is a right horrible lot... 

Sorry

This looks like Kennington Park Road.  I used to cross here for work and at my commute times there were far more cyclists than car occupants. Since then some adjoining residential streets have become LTNs and cycling has had an overall increase of something like 87%.  In some of the streets, there has been no increase, so for the average to be that high means some routes have seen over 300%.  One Oval don't like it though.

markieteeee wrote:

This looks like Kennington Park Road.  I used to cross here for work and at my commute times there were far more cyclists than car occupants. Since then some adjoining residential streets have become LTNs and cycling has had an overall increase of something like 87%.  In some of the streets, there has been no increase, so for the average to be that high means some routes have seen over 300%.  One Oval don't like it though.

Looks like here. CS7. Yeah - it's not yet Dutch quality e.g. the busy-looking side street here doesn't have cycle tracks so no "network". However there are sensible bus stop bypasses here, continuous footway / cycleway done properly here, there's some protection for cycling at this junction, one-way cycle paths on both sides. I'd say this is A grade for the UK and a decent middle ground between "cheap as paint" and "best in class". Mind you look at the road - still has five lanes plus a bus lane in places.

Yes, just where I thought. I agree with what you say about it.  It's a mix of TfL roads and Lambeth side streets. Kennington Park Road feels pretty safe for cycling, considering it's the A3 and a prime route for people entering by car.  The side streets should be easy to tackle as most households don't own cars and something close to 80% of journeys by residents are on public transport. They've made progress around this part of Lambeth but there is a surprisingly low proportion of controlled parking zones, considering the positive approach the borough has on measures for healthier streets.

I take that A grade back - I hadn't looked in the opposite direction. Travel that way and almost immediately we're into something more familiar in the UK here.  We have a combined bus / cycle lane. The only good thing is this is signed as a constant operation / 24h bus lane.  So no separated cycle tracks, no bus stop bypasses. Normal driveways not continuous footway (here). Junctions just have ASLs (bike boxes) with no other protection and e.g. no cycle bypass for the lights if you're not crossing the side arm of a T-junction. Junction here.

Here's how some of these could be done instead: minor side roads (video version), larger junctions (video). Here's the part of the last video which explains bypassing lights at T-junctions. Note that this works because there is enough space around the cycle track (not lane) so that pedestrians can safely cross that independantly of the main road and its traffic lights. Yes - you may then need to take space from the cars to achieve this. But here the main carriageway is 4 lanes wide (2 bus + 2 general)...

I can only imagine it's the same as we had in Edinburgh - interventions are made where you have "excess" / "extra" space so you can put in cycling without disturbing the motorists too much. Or to be charitable without having to change the existing carriageway too much.

Different people in charge at the time, along with cyclical nature of these type of memes....

It's alive!

When if first started, this came up on another forum and an ex traffic police officer basically said it made their job easier on terms of enforcement. On the basis of their posting history, I was quite happy to take their word for it.

I'm of the belief that this is lip service.  Creating or modify a law is pointless if it enforcement is hit and miss, but it ticks a politicians "something must be done" box.

See also HS2 / NPR funding being "repurposed".

Where I live, enforcement of road traffic rules is non-existent. Changing the law on mobile phones will make no difference, in the absence of enforcement.

Couldn't agree more. Assuming you're based in Harrogate have you seen the number of drivers who ignore the left turn only at the end of Beech Grove and go straight over onto Victoria Ave? It's constant and very dangerous as they often come close to coliding with vehicles turning right off Victoria Ave or wiping out cyclists (as in my case) who legitimately go straight on at the junction. I even pointed it out to two police officers when it happened in front of them and they failed to notice it! They said they would do something about it . Needless to say...

PRSboy wrote:

Do they actually need special rules on gadget use in vehicles?  Is it not covered under driving without due care?

Its surprising, given that 6 points could be very costly, how many drivers you still see fiddling with smartphones at the wheel.  Hard to see how the new rules will make any difference.

Before it was only banned to use it as a communication device (phone calls, internet, music streaming) but not accessing any data already on the phone.

The new rules remove the need to prove the phone was being used for communication at the time. Whatever you were doing with the phone is not allowed. (except apple pay/android pay at the drive thru or toll booth)

Was about to say this. For anyone interested in the detail and issues around enforcing the current law on phone use while driving, see: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/road-traffic-mobile-phones