BBC1 19.30 tonight

"We dressed our reporter in a day-glo vest and some lycra trousers. Within minutes he was jumping red lights; mowing-down pedestrians like a velocipedal Boudicca. After just an hour, he was charging along one-way streets contrariwise and irking the Clarksons."

At least, that's what it would have been like if they had a proper reporter, like Ted Maul.

"Now that I have seen the evidence ... I apologise on behalf of my fellow cyclists."

Ted Maul is about to speak!

http://road.cc/content/news/14903-bbc-programme-bashes-londons-cyclists?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Emailmarketingsoftware&utm_content=482472987&utm_campaign=rccTues2010-02-23+_+ojrtkr&utm_term=AuntydoesfeebleimpressionofDailyMailIsthisanywaytospendthelicencefee
From the article:

29 pedestrians had been killed in Britain in accidents involving cyclists between 1998 and 2007, compared to 7,692 who were killed in collisions with motorised vehicles - that's more than 250 times more.
It's a shame they don't include motor vehicles colliding with other vehicles as well as pedestrians in that stat, might help to further highlight the real danger on the roads.

the clip after the sgt with the bad makeup, voice over shots of South Bank and assembling CM in the dark and cold.

'London cyclists also feel aggrieved over how they're being percieved. Some feel that the road should be given over to bikes, and they think the highway code should be relaxed'.

WHAT!??!!!!! Back that shit up you lazy cunting nomark journalist! Unbefuckinglievable.

Got a couple of tickets in one go last night and the copper actually mentioned this programme as he was giving me the lecture.

"Our job is not to scrape your remains off the road and tell your family about it"...

I like it when the Sgt said they have canvassed residents, I think residents are more worried about dog shit in Holland Park then cyclists RLJ

You'd be surprised how often this topic comes up in Community Advisory Panel meetings, where, as the sergeant said, Safer Neighbourhood Teams have their priorities set. Never mind whether this is a priority or not in your view--go along to those meetings, discuss it with other local residents and try to influence what they ask the police to spend their time on. The police are definitely not making excuses in this case, but they could certainly make their work more positive and explain to cyclists more about what they're doing--e.g. lowering the status of cycling. This may not concern individual cyclists who think that their speed is the only thing that counts and who don't understand traffic, but it perpetuates popular stereotypes and hampers more take-up of cycling among people who would rather not take up something that they perceive as lawless and done by people like whom they don't want to be.

there were a couple of idiots in those clips though
the " courier " on the wobbly MTB was just downright dangerous

I'm not sure he was, you know. He was definitely riding very oddly, but seemed to be paying pretty close attention to what was going on around him. As Bill and others would probably point out at this stage, a courier who takes stupid risks is a courier shortly about to be very very skint while they heal.

You can certainly do the sort of manoeuvres that the courier did if you understand junctions well enough quite safely. But it is exactly this sort of manoeuvre that makes people look down on cyclists, as they somehow think that you have to make it. The courier's earning a living, however, and other people just leave home too late to get to work on time.

You can certainly do the sort of manoeuvres that the courier did if you understand junctions well enough quite safely. But it is exactly this sort of manoeuvre that makes people look down on cyclists, as they somehow think that you have to make it. The courier's earning a living, however, and other people just leave home too late to get to work on time.

*A blend of strategy and speed is essential for the messenger to have any chance of making riding a worthwhile enterprise, we could liken it to the movement of a chess piece across the board, stopping strategically to pick up and drop off parcels with one destination constantly in mind yet never straying far off the closet course possible. Techniques like drafting vehicles, bypassing through the centre of lanes and running red lights alongside environmental conditions like road quality and weather need constant adjustment and anticipation for efficient transit, and a daily basis this “heightened awareness of risk may itself lead to a desire to take risk” (Lupton, 1999,p157). Other potentialities like blind cornering on green lights and sheer speed put this activity into a category distinguished by its risks, like various other adventure sports such as rock-climbing, mountaineering or mountain-biking all of which involve “Courting of danger, the active taking of risks for the excitement and sense of achievement that they bring with them” (Lyng, 1990,p33), lapses in concentration by a messenger can mean disablement or death, its’ this interplay of control and exercise of skill under pressure that leads to pleasurable experience. *

*Bring it On, *
*I wrote that ^ a couple of years ago. *

Just watched this...

What's to stop your riding off on one of those "stings"? Any coppers on bikes/in cars?

there were a couple of idiots in those clips though
the " courier " on the wobbly MTB was just downright dangerous

+1. he didn't have a fucking clue. If you jump lights, you do it with a constant velocity, not wobbling all over the gaff as though you can barely control your bike

"Now that I have seen the evidence ... I apologise on behalf of my fellow cyclists."

belated LULZ

Happy now?

Ted Maul reports, reports, reports.