• 19 Jun 2024, 12:38 p.m.

    Conversely, getting hit by a massive SUV is much worse for a pedestrian or cyclist than a tiny VW Polo and all of that is in those numbers.

    Not really clear what you are in favour of. If it's safer roads, then you have to acknowledge the fact they have got miuch safer over the last few decades and give some credit to car manufacturers, drivers and road designers. If you want that to continue, then I don't think anyone is against that depending on what measures you are proposing. If you want to ban cars, then good luck but it's not going to happen.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 1:26 p.m.

    Just Stop Oil protesters have sprayed orange food dye over the stones at Stonehenge today.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 2:16 p.m.

    Someone's done the same to Trump.
    What?
    Like that anyway?
    Oh.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 2:20 p.m.

    You should have a go on that internet thing they’ve got now. You’ll love it.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 2:32 p.m.

    I thought the internet was mostly for grot?

  • 19 Jun 2024, 6:18 p.m.
  • 19 Jun 2024, 7:50 p.m.

    So you do want to ban driving?

  • 19 Jun 2024, 7:51 p.m.

    Reducing the necessity for something is not the same as wanting it banned, and yet the deepest loons are getting walkable city changes completely blocked.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 8:15 p.m.

    Do you want free reign for motorised vehicle drivers to be able to kill other road users?

    It's quite dispiriting to see people unable to have a discussion with nuance, without immediately polarising the argument. Not least because it shows that the divisive manipulation of people through propoganda largely works.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 8:26 p.m.

    No I want road designers, car designers and drivers to continue their excellent work in reducing fatalities and injuries.

    And I suspect Jeremy Vine contributes (marginally) to an environment that sets cyclists and drivers as opponents in a war over road space. Which is probably unhelpful.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 8:40 p.m.

    With respect that appears to come from a slightly one eyed bias. The roads are fucked, and the designers do fuck all to stop an impatient and entitled driver from driving dangerously. That is not a rare thing.

    I've not seen vine's stuff, but he couldn't show drivers driving dangerously and poorly if they didn't do it. Why the fuck should he pussyfoot about with the message, when there are people out there recklessly, and often intentionally, putting other legitimate road users at risk of death or serious disability?

    It's not just bike riders that are at risk, they are just much more vulnerable, lacking as they do the protective cocoon. It's not a rare thing, earlier this year I was subject to a terrifying reckless driver all over the back of my car, at high speed, in dreadful conditions, eventually swapping lanes at an island and nearly wiping out someone else.

    Drivers need to get over this idea that the road belongs to them. They need drive to the highway code with courtesy and patience. And if they don't the very least that they should expect is bad men to say nasty things about them.

    This is often not carelessness or mishap. There are reckless and dangerous anti-social characters out there causing death and disability. It's a crime against society. What turned you against your best interests, and the safety of your family and friends?

  • 19 Jun 2024, 8:48 p.m.

    There's lots of bad drivers around, there's always been lots of bad drivers around. But objectively they are causing less damage than they used to and less damage than they are in other countries.

    Netherlands is great for cyclists, right? 745 road deaths in 2022 compared to 1700 in the UK. From a population of 18 million.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 8:56 p.m.

    I have no real interest in other countries, or how much safer cars are for their occupants. I just want people to stop driving recklessly and dangerously, and where they do I want them called out and preferably prevented from doing so. So that public road use becomes more predictable, more a shared enterprise, and safer for all. I do not think measuring outcomes and having an acceptable attrition rate compared with others should be the way forward at all.

  • 19 Jun 2024, 9:19 p.m.

    My issue with Jeremy Vine was more the way he's just an antagonistic prick on his radio show phone-ins. He just says whatever might stir the pot.

    Not seen his TwatterX, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't shit stirring there as well.