Council ridiculed for encouraging cycling...two weeks after ripping out LTNs; 10/10 kit; Insane urban downhill skills; Uninsured driver caught in cycle lane; Quick-Step tease contract news...it wasn't Cav; Bike bus trend spreads + more on the live blog

It appears that this tweet has become a lightning rod for residents' frustrations with @EalingLabour's recent #BonfireOfActiveTravel in the borough.@_petermason's High-Traffic Neighbourhoods make following this advice needlessly dangerous and difficult. https://t.co/hCgK10k4eB

— Ealing Cycling Campaign (@EalingCyclists) October 20, 2021

Ealing Council has been taking a kicking today. Here's some more of the rage and disbelief heading their way...

One quite famous local had his say too...

Left hand, right hand.

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) October 19, 2021

Ealing Council ➡️ Residents, please walk and cycle more.

Also Ealing Council ➡️ Let's take out as much safer active travel infrastructure as possible because we prioritise drivers needs.

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

— Kevin Shaw Join a union🌹💉💉😷 (@kevshaw99) October 20, 2021

Over on our Facebook, David Kelly was keen to have a pop at every council everywhere.

"What do you expect? It’s a Council FGS.. I’ve yet to hear any good reports about any. Ours are just as useless.." Someone's bin didn't get collected...

Chrisonatrike in the comments feels like he's seen that Nigeria kit before...brooksby reckons it's more like the chewy mint wrappers from the 70s...

Driver of this vehicle thought his car was a pedal cycle! Traveling at speed, along a dedicated cycle lane, past an unmarked traffic car isn’t the best idea when you don’t have insurance! 🤦‍♂️ Vehicle stopped on Bridgwater Way, driver reported and vehicle seized #165 pic.twitter.com/1XnJ9beY6N

— GMP Traffic (@gmptraffic) October 19, 2021

Another classic of the 'drivers using cycle lanes' genre. Jeremy Vine has something of a monopoly on the genre in our archives...

> Jeremy Vine films motorist driving down Hyde Park cycle path

One in Hyde Park and one Uber driver cutting in front of a cyclist to take a shortcut through a segregated cycle lane.

Worse still was the German motorist who filmed himself speeding past a cyclist riding in the road...by driving along the segregated shared-use path. The driver shared the video on Facebook with the caption, "If you use my lane, I'll use yours."

Images that precede heavy criticism:

12 days till #COP26!

Each day, we will be posting an impactful action you can take for the environment.

Over 50% of the journeys taken in the UK are under 2 miles. Why not start small & swap one car journey a week for walking, cycling or public transport 🚶‍♀️🚴🏼🚌🚋#ActForEaling pic.twitter.com/6rGJDnrizl

— EalingCouncil (@EalingCouncil) October 19, 2021

Ealing Council was winding up its residents this morning by suggesting active travel or public transport for journeys of under two miles. The problem? Well, just two weeks ago today they began work removing seven LTNs based on 22,000 responses to a 'consultation' many have dubbed a residents' referendum. 

Cllr Costigan asked locals to believe the council remains committed to active travel, but was listening to (22,000 out of 340,000) local people when deciding to scrap the schemes. It wasn't the first time the council has ended up in hot water for its handling of an active travel scheme.

Back in May, an LTN trial was removed "during the school run" as parents and children tried to make their way home along the route...

Needless to say, suggesting more walking and cycling didn't go down well, with many accusing the council of empty words and encouraging, not enabling.

Why not swim across the crocodile-infested river where we recently removed the bridge

— Hannah 🚲 (@theeyecollector) October 20, 2021

Hilarious - @EalingCouncil removes safe cycling routes and LTNs, and then asks us to cycle and walk. Top points for humour, zero points for effective action.

— Karen Liebreich (@kareninagarden) October 19, 2021

Our personal favourite... 

You're asking people to go for a swim after publicly shitting in the pool

— Kai (@4catsnomore) October 20, 2021

Something special is happening in Barcelona. It started last month when some parents organized a bike ride to school for just five kids. Now entire neighborhoods are joining. They call it Bicibús – or Bike Bus. pic.twitter.com/qIxsQEervG

— Zach Klein (@zachklein) October 18, 2021

We've seen a few of these pop up here in the UK and Ireland, but it seems the trend is going international.

Important news coming in just a couple of minutes 😃

— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) October 20, 2021

As a British-based cycling website, when you see Quick-Step tweet something like this it gets you excited for some Cav news...are they about to finally announce his new contract? Nope. No offence, Zdeněk Štybar, it's not quite the news we were looking for...

A winner of Omloop, Strade Bianche and E3.
A stage winner at Le Tour and La Vuelta.
A two-time National Champion.
One of the team's longest-serving members.

Happy to announce that @zdenekstybar stays with us in 2022 - his 12th season in the Wolfpack: https://t.co/Z1iD80UG2i pic.twitter.com/huNtwai6vY

— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) October 20, 2021

Right, let's wrap up the final reaction to the drivers vs cyclists social media spat from yesterday...chances are most cyclists here drive as well, a context that's often lost in a 280 character reply. The tweet that began it all has now been deleted, but spread the message "the amount of cyclists on the road today should be considered a crime."

It got plenty of educational (and funny) replies, and for whatever reason these sorts of 'debates' are popular, so here's the last of your thoughts and opinions before we move on...

Clive Wallis commented on Facebook: "Three hours waiting for fuel not a problem. Double parking - not a problem. 10 minutes driving round looking for a parking place - that's okay. Held up for three seconds by a cyclist and I go ballistic !!!!"

Tim Chandler added: "It's all relative...car drivers don't give a toss about holding up motorcyclists, but get stroppy when they get held up by the kings of the road on pedal cycles."

Graham Snook still has the most-liked comment: "They moan about people on bikes on the road, they moan about spending money on a dedicated cycling infrastructure to get people on bikes off the road. They moan if we go too close to their cars and moan if we keep a safe distance away from them. They moan that they want us to obey the traffic laws, but also moan when we ride two abreast. What they want us to be is Schrödinger's cyclist."

The blog got enough attention for it to be shared out to the wider non-cycling public, including some of those who enjoy a spot of bingo...

Bubba Junior added some intellect to the conversation..."Not got a problem with push bikes but for the love of god can you wear proper clothing, the bikes was here before cars but the men didn’t ride around in Lycra shorts and tap dancing shoes."

To be honest, we're still thinking about this...