“It’s official, post-ride beers are good for you”: Tadej Pogačar’s agent claims he indulges in the odd pint to “recover and relax”; Cyclist and pet cat suffer dangerous close pass from coach driver who allegedly had “nowhere to go” + more on the live blog

I'm not going to shoot you down, that's for sure.
I'm not in agreement with any animal being carried like this, especially in a city.

I also find it amusing that according to the intro ... we should know who they are.

A. I'm not in London
B. I'm not on Shitter
C. TikTok were the robotic dancers that Gary Numan used to have on stage

I might have read or even commented on the previous story, but the box with that particular penguin in has well and truly been replaced.

And yes ... I know its not all about me.

Brutal close pass, especially as the "driver" then close passed a group of cyclists in front of this guy.

was it that brutal a close pass ? its London, its a tour coach, its barely a few mph quicker than the cyclists none of whom seem that disturbed.

if the coach had come blasting pass at that distance, thats different, but that looks fairly tame stuff, maybe cats in bike basket videos have dropped in popularity, after all that two cats meme thing crashed pretty quickly.

#Mewtoo, a bit. But i don't know the chap or indeed the cat - perhaps he's got a very impawtent job at Whiskas?

Not the same exactly but that's also what some people say when confronted with young children (can't sensibly consent) on a child-carrier or in bakfiets. It's only responsible if you're using a car apparently...

Also ... I used to take the cat to the vet on the bike sometimes. But FWIW that was using a suburban and largely off- road route. And not on the socials.

I'd maybe chance it, if I had the right type of bike, on quiet roads with a fully-enclosed carrier, but definitely not in an open basket where the moggie can roll out under other people's wheels, or even one's own, in a crash. As far as children are concerned again it'd depend on the road, I wouldn't chance it riding round Hyde Park Corner or Elephant and Castle in the old days (before the current excellent cycle provision in both areas was installed) any more than I'd play Rollerball with a baby in a carrier on my back.

Yeah, cat carrier only for me (well, for the cat... you know what I mean).

I guess the idea with the basket is that in a crash the cat can jump / run clear but like you I have my doubts... a cynic might say that a plastic crate with a cat inside doesn't look as cute.

I'd say that there's no reason why there should be extra risk, and that things like this help to humanise the debate and emphasize that we need to create a situation where this is just not a problem.

It gives prejudice one more hurdle to jump, and to a degree undermines othering.

There is no difference from people who walk their cats on a lead on the footway. And Sigrid likes it.

For a parallel, slightly different example, consider Dr Haarrie Larrington-Spencer.
https://x.com/tricyclemayor/status/1575555371376447488

Some people can't walk their dogs or cats - are we suggesting they should not be allowed pets?

I didn't say there was any extra risk of an incident happening. What there is is exposing the cat to unnecessary risk, apparently for publicity and financial gain.

How is there "no difference from people who walk their cats on a lead on the footway"? Is walking on the pavement as dangerous as riding in the middle of heavy London traffic? Of course it isn't.

Yes I'm absolutely saying that disabled people shouldn't be allowed pets. 100%. Or maybe, just maybe, I'm saying that if there's a good reason for riding with your pet on a bike then that is a very different matter to unnecessarily exposing your pet to a high-risk environment to get likes, advertising revenue and to sell a book.

I could be wrong [and quite often am], but isn't it an offence to operate a motor vehicle with an animal in distraction distance of the driver?
Or to carry an unrestrained animal?

Rule 57, I think it is.

It's a rule that is often seen broken and could quite easily be used as yet another wedge in the "they can do it, why can't I" anti-cycling pile.

It's bad enough that press are shitting bullets at us because we can break the 20mph speed limit... do cyclists really want to throw that in to the pot too?

isn't it an offence to operate a motor vehicle with an animal in distraction distance of the driver?

Not in Lancashire it isn't! 

That was February 24. This is November 22. The Highway Code and pretty much every road traffic law and regulation has been abandoned here

Unthinking prejudice! They could be the driver's guide dogs.

There was a Garstang case about 4 years ago with 3 clearly visible large dogs in the front passenger seat. This was one of my early experiences of the really stupid excuses given out by Lancashire Constabulary- the Sgt. who is now running OpSnap Lancs wrote 'the dog (sic. singular) may be correctly restrained'. He also forgave the driver for being across double white lines in a dangerous position on a humped main road bridge immediately followed by a right hand bend

I'd have far more problems with them throwing the cat in a pot than with them riding around with it in a bike basket.

Let's not forget the double decker too.

So much for being a professional driver.

So much for being a professional driver

After this frightening close pass by a Stagecoach 42 bus

https://upride.cc/incident/px12dnd_stagecoach42_closepass/

I decided to try again to report direct to Stagecoach to see if they were still as bad, as I knew the police would ignore it. They initially tried the 'we can't see the video' dodge, which was pretty daft as it was on a 'chat' on X and it was working fine at my end. I then confronted them with the above link. The only comment from Stagecoach was "we will deal with this internally". That was it.

Backladder wrote:

I'm sure there was something in the highway code about those zig zag lines on the road, is it that they mark where it is safe to overtake?

Unfortunately and of course totally wrongly the law about overtaking another vehicle on the zigzags only applies to motorized vehicles overtaking other motorized vehicles, the coach driver isn't actually breaking the law there (in that respect).

Z ?!!!
Next you'll be telling me you pronounce it 'zee' !

You learn something every day, at least if you're willing to learn!

On-trend - cyclocross just gets bigger...