Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to news
news

“Electric cars still kill pedestrians”: Tyre Extinguishers respond to claims that they mistakenly targeted electric car; Ford removes “don’t drive it, aim it” ad after backlash; Pinot on Nadal; Wiebes wins again; Wout was that? + more on the live blog

It’s Tuesday and – pending a vote of confidence – Ryan Mallon is here to bring you all the latest news and views on the live blog...
Tue, Jun 07, 2022 09:27
22
“Electric cars still kill pedestrians”: Tyre Extinguishers respond to claims that they mistakenly targeted electric car; Ford removes “don’t drive it, aim it” ad after backlash; Pinot on Nadal; Wiebes wins again; Wout was that? + more on the live blogDeflated SUV in Primrose Hill via Tyre Extinguishers
07 June 2022, 17:49
Ford ‘Aim It’ ad pulled – reader reaction

Try as I might, I just can’t find that 1984 Toyota ad anywhere…

It's almost as though, bubbling deep in the cesspit subconscious of people who make car ads, there's a compulsion to admit that they're selling machines that can and do kill people.

This Ford ad's not the worst though. That title must surely go to Toyota for the 1984 billboard that featured a Celica Supra being fired out of or alongside a handgun and the slogan 'The trigger is under your right foot'.

I mean the bigger problem with the Ford story is that, even taken in the "correct" context, i.e. aim for the apex, it uses language associated with racing and driving in a manner which is reckless and inappropriate for city streets.

Add onto that the picture is a car going round a right-hand bend such that it order to hit the apex (at least in the UK) the driver would have to be FULLY ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD then you reach the inevitable conclusion that even taken in the intended context it is a god awful advert that should be appropriately punished.

Personally I know nothing about 'aiming for the apex', whatever that is, as I don't follow motor sport.  To me, and probably to many other people, the word 'aiming' implies a weapon such as a gun being aimed. Also, vehicles have been used as weapons in terrorist attacks where they were aimed at streets full of pedestrians. I think it was a poorly-worded advert and it's right that it's been pulled.

And last word, from a Ford fanatic:

07 June 2022, 16:52
“If a cyclist does the same thing, it’s already forbidden”: Pinot and Martin speak out against Nadal injections

As French cycling royalty speaks out against the King of Clay’s use of injections during the French Open (to the extent that Nadal claimed he couldn’t feel his foot during his emphatic final victory over Casper Ruud on Sunday), what’s your stance on needles in sport?

> “Today’s heroes…”: Thibaut Pinot and Guillaume Martin question Rafael Nadal’s use of anaesthetic injections during French Open

Should injections be used to treat injuries, either as one-off emergencies or in the consistent, long-term manner seemingly favoured by Nadal and the likes of Steven Gerrard while he was at Liverpool?

Or do you agree with Martin and Pinot that if an athlete requires an injection to compete, they shouldn’t be competing at all? (Never mind needing to numb the source of the pain so much that you can’t even feel it…)

Perhaps you’re slightly confused that someone who apparently needs industrial quantities of cortisone to walk can still – at the age of 36 – dominate one of his sport’s biggest events?

Or do you reckon the French duo’s comments smack of ‘people in glass houses…’

Let us know!

07 June 2022, 15:55
More famous faces on the side of the road...
07 June 2022, 15:20
07 June 2022, 14:58
Waiting for Gaudu: French rider wins as Van Aert does ‘an Alaphilippe’ by celebrating too early

David Gaudu continued France’s successful start to the Critérium du Dauphiné by pipping Wout van Aert on the uphill drag to the line in Chastreix-Sancy, after the Jumbo-Visma rider was found guilty of raising his arms too early.

Or ‘doing an Alaphilippe’, as it’s known in the biz.

Despite his premature celebration, Van Aert has regained the yellow jersey he lost to Alexis Vuillermoz yesterday, and now sits six seconds ahead of Groupama-FDJ’s Gaudu, whose build up to the Tour de France looks to be gaining momentum after a smart, perfectly timed victory.

But now on to today’s most important concern – all the ‘Wout were you thinking?’ jokes and memes, currently spreading rapidly across the internet...

(And don't let the fact that Gaudu would have won anyway spoil a good gag...)

07 June 2022, 14:36
'Look at that full-kit wa-... oh wait, it's Romain Bardet'

Alaphilippe looks like he's been enjoying himself since his crash at LBL too...

07 June 2022, 13:25
Red-hot Wiebes storms to Women’s Tour stage

You can’t keep a top rider down for long.

Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes made up for sliding off on the final corner yesterday by returning to winning ways in emphatic fashion on stage two of the Women’s Tour in Harlow today.

The Dutch sprinter benefitted from a textbook lead out from her team, before instantly gapping her rivals with an explosively powerful burst with 200 metres to go, comfortably beating Barbara Guarischi and Shari Bossuyt into second and third respectively.

Wiebes has certainly cemented herself as the sport’s dominant sprinter during what has been a sensational 2022 so far.

Of the 20 race days the DSM rider has taken part in this year, she’s won eight of them (and don’t forget the overall GC at the RideLondon Classique).

Not too shabby, eh?

With a few more opportunities for bunch kicks left in this year’s Women’s Tour, don’t bet against Wiebes continuing her relentlessly impressive streak.

07 June 2022, 12:10
Can’t stop the beat at the Women’s Tour

After yesterday’s chaotic, stressful and pretty controversial opening stage, the Women’s Tour peloton will be hoping for a more serene loop around Harlow today – though by the looks of things at the moment, the pace is starting to ramp up on the rolling roads.

Team Coop-Hitec Products, meanwhile, are intent on winning the hearts of cycling and dance fans (like myself) everywhere...

07 June 2022, 11:43
07 June 2022, 11:29
The Queen’s Head (on Strava)

Just when you thought a bicycle-propelled Red Arrows display couldn’t be topped, road.cc reader, bike builder and Strava art creator (yep, that’s a thing) Nicolas sent us this hugely impressive and frankly terrifying image of the Queen’s head mapped out by bike over London.

Queen's Head Strava

Nicolas was taking part in Rapha London RCC’s jubilee-inspired checkpoint challenge but, instead of limiting himself to the prescribed 50-kilometre route, decided to go above and beyond in the name of the Platty Joobs, clocking up over 320km during a non-stop 20-hour ride to draw this massive postage stamp.

Fair play Nicolas. I can’t say I fully understand why you did it, but fair play.

07 June 2022, 10:52
“Electric vehicles still kill pedestrians”: Tyre Extinguishers respond to claims that they “mistakenly” targeted electric car owned by former BP chief executive

Tyre Extinguishers, the direct-action group calling for SUVs to be banned from cities, have responded to an article in the Daily Express which claimed that the activists “attacked the tyres of an electric car by mistake”.

Members of the group, who spoke to us in April for an episode of the road.cc Podcast, use dried lentils to deflate tyres of the vehicles to draw attention to their campaign.

Over the weekend, the Express reported that John Browne (that’s Baron Browne of Madingley to you), BP’s chief executive between 1995 and 2007, found that the tyres on his Mercedes SUV had been deflated by the campaigners last month.

A note wedged under the car’s windscreen read: “Attention — your gas guzzler kills.

“We have deflated one or more of your tyres. You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally.

“It’s not you, it’s your car. Psychological studies show SUV drivers are more likely to take risks on the roads. SUVs are unnecessary, and pure vanity.”

“We were appalled, because our car is electric,” Lord Browne said.

“And what if we had needed to use it for an emergency — to go to hospital or something? It is right to tackle climate change, but this is the wrong way to go about it.”

Tyre Extinguishers, however, have since responded to the article to confirm that the incident was “not a mistake”.

The group posted on Twitter: “Electric vehicles still pollute the air, kill pedestrians and we can’t electrify our way out of a car-caused crisis.

“Also, Lord John Browne is a climate criminal who deserves to have his tyres deflated every day.”

The group, which has no centralised structure and is active around the world, encourages people to get involved with its campaign by undertaking their own direct actions and leaving a leaflet, downloadable from their website, to explain to owners of the vehicles why their tyres have been deflated and to highlight the effect of SUVs on the planet.

07 June 2022, 11:42
07 June 2022, 10:12
The new Trek Madone: a story in two YouTube comments
Trek Madone YouTube comments

The radical new Madone, with its funky aero frame, has certainly divided opinion within the cycling community, if the comments under Liam’s video report from the Dauphiné are anything to go by…

07 June 2022, 09:30
“How are you feeling?” “Dead” – Brad on a Bike, Vuelta ’83-style

I know he’s fond of chatting to riders at the back of the bunch (often in the wrong language), but I’m not sure even Sir Brad of Wiggins could pull off this kind of onboard interview technique…

07 June 2022, 09:13
You love to see it...
07 June 2022, 08:22
Ford removes controversial “don’t drive it, aim it” ad after online backlash

Yesterday on the blog we reported that car giant Ford, recently announced as a major partner of RideLondon, came in for some flak online for a controversial marketing campaign which encouraged customers not just to drive their cars, but “aim” them.

The ad – which some Twitter users claimed was a reference to racing drivers ‘aiming’ for the apex of a corner – was described by the West Midlands’ cycling and walking commissioner Adam Tranter as a “new low”.

“Car companies have long promoted their products in an assertive and aggressive way, encouraging drivers to ‘be in control’ and to ‘own the road’,” Tranter wrote on Twitter.

“But Ford may have set a new low in openly marketing their cars as weapons.”

Referring to Ford’s new ‘Park the Car’ initiative, which aims to encourage drivers to cycle or walk for short journeys, Tranter continued: “It’s an interesting strategy for a company aiming to earn goodwill by promoting their support of people walking and cycling, the modes of transport most in danger of the weaponisation of cars.”

Last night, Ford contacted the cycling and walking commissioner to inform him that the offending advert has now been removed.

The motoring firm also acknowledged that when “taken out of context, the language used on this particular advert can be misinterpreted.”

Ford said in a statement: “We want to reassure you that nothing is more important to us than the safety of all road users and, though initiatives like our long-established Share the Road programme, we have been working to promote safer, more harmonious roads that specifically focus on cyclist safety.

“It is true that, taken out of context, the language used on this particular advert can be misinterpreted. We have taken action to remove it immediately and are working closely with our colleagues to ensure this is avoided in the future.”

While some praised Ford’s speedy response, others weren’t as convinced:

Ryan Mallon

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

Add new comment

22 comments

Avatar
mdavidford | 2 years ago
4 likes

Quote:

Baron Browne of Madingley, former chief executive of BP, found his tyres had been let down last month

The Tyre Extinguishers started their campaign in March, targeting SUVs in some of London’s wealthiest postcodes

Or, John Browne's 4WD lies immobile in Belgravia?

Avatar
Blackthorne replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
4 likes

Tyre extinguishers, what an epic band of lentil brained idiots most likely to increase suv sales out of spite. 

Avatar
mdavidford replied to Blackthorne | 2 years ago
6 likes

No - that doesn't really work as a next line - it needs to be at least vaguely similar to "but his soul goes marching on".

I mean I know mine scanned poorly, but yours isn't even close.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
4 likes

mdavidford wrote:

No - that doesn't really work as a next line - it needs to be at least vaguely similar to "but his soul goes marching on".

I mean I know mine scanned poorly, but yours isn't even close.

The arsehole goes driving on?

Avatar
eburtthebike | 2 years ago
4 likes

"Over the weekend, the Express reported that John Browne (that’s Baron Browne of Madingley to you), BP’s chief executive between 1995 and 2007, found that the tyres on his Mercedes SUV had been deflated by the campaigners last month."

“We were appalled, because our car is electric,” Lord Browne said."

Maybe Tyre Extinguishers could issue a Boris apology? 

"We're sorry, really sorry, no we really are sorry, very sorry, extremely sorry repeated ad nauseum.  That we got caught."

Avatar
brooksby | 2 years ago
3 likes

Shocking moment car SMASHES into bike as cyclist crosses the road – so who is in the right?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/18804867/car-smash-cyclist-road-right/

There's a video there, if anyone is interested.

Quote:

Plumber Ian Payne, 68, turned off a road when the rider emerged from an island behind a parked van, bounced off the windscreen and fell down.

The cyclist, wearing only a baseball cap and no helmet in Portsmouth, Hampshire, last month, cracked the glass before howling in pain.

Ian, who feared the rider was dead, insisted he was not in the wrong and shouted at passers-by: "That wasn't my fault."

Cyclists are banned from riding on pavements unless they are in a designated cycle lane under highway code rules.

Dad-of-five Ian also alleged the cyclist admitted to drinking before riding but left before police and an ambulance arrived.

...

Hampshire Police is investigating.

The video is unclear on whether that road is a footpath or a blue badged shared path, and the cyclist is (IMO) travelling too fast and was blocked from sight for hard-pressed family-man motorist Mr Payne by a van parked for roadworks, but I thought everyone is supposed to approach junctions carefully - something in the HC about people crossing or about to cross having priority...?

Avatar
Awavey replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

Looks like just a footpath on Google maps, but its confusing because the path quickly turns into a shared path setup the direction that guy was riding in and coming from, as part of NC22, it's just not a shared path in the between bit he was on.

But its confusing I think because theyve stuck the "helpful" this is NC22 route sign on a lamppost right where your eyeline takes you towards using the path not the road you are supposed to be using but there looks precious little other indication of the route you should follow. In theory it looks like you should be where the other cyclist in the video is riding out. But why would you do that if the footpath is the more direct route and 'traffic free'.

Probably daft to ride and not check if stuff was turning in there given the van blocks your view and general busy road noise would block any sound of vehicle approaching , but classic example of parking your van so as not to inconvenience people on the roads, but create potentially dangerous situations for people using the path instead. It could easily have been a mobility scooter or wheelchair user as a cyclist

Avatar
mdavidford | 2 years ago
1 like

Is telling us that Strava art is a thing still a thing?

Avatar
John Stevenson | 2 years ago
4 likes

It's almost as though, bubbling deep in the cesspit subconscious of people who make car ads, there's a compulsion to admit that they're selling machines that can and do kill people.

This Ford ad's not the worst though. That title must surely go to Toyota for the 1984 billboard that featured a Celica Supra being fired out of or alongside a handgun and the slogan 'The trigger is under your right foot'.

 

Avatar
Carior | 2 years ago
2 likes

I mean the bigger problem with the Ford story imho is that, even taken in the "correct" context, i.e. aim for the apex, it uses language associated with racing and driving in a manner which is wreckless and inappropriate for city streets. 

Add onto that the picture is a car going round a right hand bend such that it order to hit the apex (at least in the UK) the driver would have to be FULLY ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD then you reach the inevitable conclusion that even taken in the intended context it is a god awful advert that should be appropriately punished.

Avatar
andystow replied to Carior | 2 years ago
2 likes

Carior wrote:

I mean the bigger problem with the Ford story imho is that, even taken in the "correct" context, i.e. aim for the apex, it uses language associated with racing and driving in a manner which is wreckless and inappropriate for city streets. 

Definitely reckless, would love it if drivers were wreckless.

Avatar
alchemilla replied to Carior | 2 years ago
0 likes

Personally I know nothing about 'aiming for the apex', whatever that is, as I don't follow motor sport.  To me, and probably to many other people, the word 'aiming' implies a weapon such as a gun being aimed. Also, vehicles have been used as weapons in terrorist attacks where they were aimed at streets full of pedestrians. I think it was a poorly-worded advert and it's right that it's been pulled.

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
3 likes

Maybe off-topic, but anyone know where I can watch live boxing?

Avatar
Hirsute replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
2 likes

Have you asked Jerry ?

Avatar
Hirsute | 2 years ago
2 likes

井上尚弥 VS ノニト・ドネア生きる LIVE 放送

今見る (link is external)

ボクシングをライブで見るには、ここをクリックしてください (link is external)

6月7日：井上。ドネア。再戦はESPN+でライブです–井上直哉とノニートドネアが日本の埼玉の埼玉スーパーアリーナからのバンタム級タイトル統一試合で会います–ストリーミングカバレッジは午前5時ET/2午前PTから始まります

Probellumは、偉大なNonito Donaireが、ボクシング全体が求めていた戦いである井上直哉との大ヒットのバンタム級の再戦を確保するのを支援したことを光栄に思います。

 

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
2 likes

Hirsute been hacked?

 

Avatar
Hirsute replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
1 like

I'm just spamming the forums !

Avatar
brooksby replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

Take a look at the "latest forum topics" too

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
0 likes

I saw those, just wondered if he had also been hacked.

Avatar
Hirsute replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

Mods have awakened. Pretty sure there was a comment about travellers that got removed too !

Avatar
brooksby replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
0 likes

Yup - all forum topics tidied up now laugh

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
0 likes

Yes that was fast. I saw Dnnnn had replied to something in that topic on the front page, but when I clicked on it to see what, it was gone.

Latest Comments