In the news

Pedestrians are third class travelers. Have you tried walking recently...?
narrow pavements, advertising boards in the middle of the pavement, road crossing sheep pens, countdown crossings, waiting, waiting, waiting to cross roads all the time, many more of these folk get injured than cyclists

Drivers are second class in some places. have you tried driving recently...?
Road humps, one way streets that are 2-way for cyclists, narrowing that scratch the side of your car, filtered cycle only networks, 20mph, impossible parking connundrums...

give me my bike anyday, first class + luxurious

Don't get me wrong cycling for me is the only way to get round the city. But as someone who has lived here all their life and has been cycling here for 20 years, very little has changed, really.
I say this is a pedestrian, a cyclist and a driver.

Some of the things they put in place to calm the traffic just creates chaos. Liverpool Road for example is a complete fucking mess. 20 mph speed limit with humps. Drivers accelerate to the next hump, slam on the brakes and repeat to the end of the road. Cyclists are undertaking, overtaking. Cars re undertaking each other. No one knows what the fuck is going on. The junctiona at Upper Street, Islington High Street, Essex Road, Pentonville Road. The whole thing is a complete fucking shambles and does not suit pedestrians, cyclists or motorists.
I sometimes think that interviews for urban planner be it buildings or roads go along the lines of.

'Are you a complete fucking moron?'
'Yep'
'OK the job is yours'

edit: Buses, that's who the roads are designed for. Buses. I mean who the fuck gets a bus. Really?

very little has changed, really.

Really?
Having ridden in London since I came here 25 years ago there has been genuine improvements, steady and on going especially in central London Boroughs. speeds are slower as are the number of people driving, Bus lanes on A roads are enforced and bus drivers have vastly improved their behavior. London LAs and TfL have been actively promoting cycling and discouraging driving. While it is work in process (until the robocars arrive) London is probably the best place to cycle in the UK. People visiting from other UK cities are astounded at the ease of riding especially if you know the best routes

Even the ES had its own cycling campaign as well as the campaign in the Times

In the last 2 or 3 years maybe but the attitudes of drivers towards cyclists have not changed. The ES don't even know how they feel about cyclists. It's probably just inflammatory journalism and the BBC the same. One minute they seem to be pro cycling, the next we are visually impaired hating, dog killers.

Two cops fired at least thirty rounds! Fuck me that's bad.

There's some backtracking going on with the Guide Dogs hoo-hah

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28945834

(scroll to bottom)

It boggles my mind as to how the BBC considered this newsworthy in the first place, regardless of the accuracy of the figures. There are dicks, some of them ride bikes, some of them are dicks around guide dog users. Anyone surprised? No.

I'm sure most of these 'blinds' are forruns.
I bet none of them ride bikes regularly, if at all.

Two cops fired at least thirty rounds! Fuck me that's bad.

That struck me as well, presumably that means that one, or both of them had to reload, before continuing to blast away at the chap with the toy gun?

"Proportionate response to the threat presented" does not spring to mind.

Ahh bless

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/flintoff-spared-ban-for-speeding

.

Good grief.

OK. I can kind of see what they were getting at. In that case, it would be most rad to have the chump banned from driving vehicles over a certain power to weight ratio until he learns to behave.

Couldn't he just hire a chauffeur? It's not like he's poor...

Has anyone seen what's going on here?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28971528

Road.cc has a new article up about the guide dogs thing: http://road.cc/content/blog/128474-anatomy-lie-how-guide-dogs-london-fabricated-attack-cyclists

According to some bloke in the comments, Tim Harford will be tackling the issue in his More or Less programme on BBC Radio 4 to illustrate the perils of statistical illiteracy.

But still, millions of people now think cyclists go out of their way to hit guide dogs and I now hate blind people. See nothing cunts.

Hello Kitty is not a cat... funniest news I have heard in a very long time. She is also British...

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2014/aug/28/hello-kitty-cat-40-anniversary-japanese-london

LOL!!!

uk terror alert raised just a few minutes ago
substantial -> severe

what happened to good old green amber and red
it seems green and amber have taken a vacation over the last 20 years, we are in red all the time these days and they needed something extra to scare us with

#shadesofred

I miss the good old days before 50 shades of red.

Ahh bless

news.uk.msn.com/uk/flintoff-spare­d-ban-for-speeding

Why do they have to wait until a driver has 12 points before warning them that they won't get away with it again? It seems more appropriate to tell them that at 9.

UK terrorist threat level raised to 'severe', Theresa May says
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28986271

Shit the bed! I'm off for a 2 weeks holidays.

stay away from the tube, american embassy and israeli embassy for starters

Mrs May said there was no intelligence to suggest an attack was "imminent" but that the level had been raised in response to events in Iraq and Syria.

and to keep in in fear
so we can keep selling arms
and to distract us from bad news stories (UKIP defections) for the tories
and to ensure we spend more money on chasing bogymen than dealing with health, education and transport

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=it+goes+up+to+11&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=RH4AVMrSC4_TaLbMgMgL&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=884#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=KnjWgkbGEOSr2M%253A%3BgAPTIuGNFb6mEM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftfparsons.files.wordpress.com%252F2011%252F06%252Fspinaltapamp.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftfparsons.wordpress.com%252F2011%252F06%252F18%252Fproportional-crisis%252F%3B300%3B300

#spinaltap would have sufficed^

no offence meant

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate". The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.