Brilliant potty and massively-biased news coverage:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/can-cyclists-dual-carriageways-like-13274412

Ostensibly about whether cyclists are allowed to use dual carriageways (spoiler alert: technically we are, according to laws and stuff, but “it’s the height of stupidity”), but it manages to swerve into red light jumping, pavement riding, riding two abreast and Jeremy Corbyn.

We should present the author with a STW login immediately (assuming he doesn’t already have one).

I don’t even need to open the link to imagine the excrement posted so basically I’m not going to but instead comment from a perspective of being totally ignorant of the facts.

(I suspect much like the people who wrote the “content” and commented on the article linked)

its barely an article. looks like a set of notes about an article, taken down in the pub whilst pretneding to work!

Yeah I was kinda expecting a “flesh this bit out later” and “Lorem ipsum” half way through it. 😆

its barely an article. looks like a set of notes about an article, taken down in the pub whilst pretneding to work!

Exactly my thoughts. Phoned in from the pub, almost certainly, given the vintage of the reporter concerned!

First glance had me thinking the work experience had knocked it out. 🙂

Content / accuracy aside, that’s one terribly written article.

They always are..local journalists have become paid trolls. Dont click on the link he’ll probably get a bonus.
It would be funny if they didnt actually have an important role to fulfil.

Dont click on the link he’ll probably get a bonus.

That being the case, feel free to counter-click on this story:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-city-centre-taken-over-13270561

That has some nice positive reporting on the (HSBC/British Cycling) City Ride event in Newcastle at the weekend.

Come on it’s the Chronicle what did you expect, just don’t look at the comments on the Facebook page of the story.

‘JOURNALIST’ DISCOVERS ‘CYCLISTS ALLOWED ON ROADS’

Shitty pants Britain responds lazily with ever-shittier stirring sticks in the anti-social meeja. The (never) end.

The banality of spreading lazy hatred via the inter-webs…

Was there ever a precedent in sci-fi lit?

just don’t look at the comments on the Facebook page of the story.

Fortunately I couldn’t find it, but I did find the story about the World Naked Bike Ride in Newcastle with 430-odd people bibbling on about how terribly offensive and illegal it should be 🙄
https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleChronicle/posts/1446586082100660

All the folk moaning about the City Ride (road tax, not following the road laws etc):
https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleChronicle/posts/1452827621476506

And of course the story about 80% of motorists speeding in 20 zones:
https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleChronicle/posts/1453545588071376
(apparently they are “a waste of time”, “a hassel” and “if pedestrians didn’t step out into the road like sheep they wouldn’t need protecting” 🙄 )

I hate people sometimes.

The banality of spreading lazy hatred via the inter-webs…

Was there ever a precedent in sci-fi lit?

There was definitely a president… and sadly he wasn’t even fictional..

Yup it’s those 3 stories I was thinking of.

And it begins.

The laws explained.

Posted by Newcastle Chronicle on Monday, July 3, 2017

Ah splendid I’ll let slip the dogs of war (aka the folk on the Newcastle cycle campaign group)

I recognise a few STW members never mind NCCG.

Not clicking on the link, if it’s that bad please complain to the editor rather than sharing it and making them think it’s a success.

Some woman on the comments makes a (silly) complaint about road closures due to a race, follows up with usual red light / road tax / hi viz nonsense. Receives a load of personal abuse in return which serves to confirm her view of cyclists. Great result that.

Great result that.

Ignorance and confirmation-bias receives confirmation gratification that it’s THEM and not me

^ This could be the most common news item that never made a headline. People can be very dull in their thinking. Tribalism is often exciting for these people.

Receives a load of personal abuse in return which serves to confirm her view of cyclists. Great result that.

Yeah, like anything would change her view! 😆

Side note – anyone see that CH5 prog last night “Car Crash Britain” – small subfeature on cyclists. Mostly you could see accidents caused by badly designed cycles paths. Like one where 2 cyclists collided (looked like London – blue lane) It was “their” fault -not the fact that they had a 2 foot wide strip to share! Then there was the scary ones of drivers simply not seeing/looking. Had to turn it off.

(I must apologise, my post above seems to have been written in the same style as the article the thread is about! 🙁 )

I watched less than 5 minutes of it before I switched it off. I would have lost my voice shouting at it.

And now my local paper is attracting haters for daring to suggest that we give cycles space when overtaking.

Motorists are being urged to give cyclists more room when overtaking as Road Safety GB NE Region launches a new campaign:

Posted by Northumberland Gazette on Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Ah splendid. As it happens I was just citing the police Close Pass initiative to someone on the Chronicle feed who thought cyclists should always ride single file so he could pass them without having to leave the lane. 🙄

Same tiresome points come up time and again on these things:
– “road tax”
– no insurance
– riding two abreast
– jumping red lights

It’d be nice to think that a national campaign presenting the counterpoints to those might change some minds – but somehow I doubt it. People just see cyclists as annoying moving speed bumps.

It’s mental, there’s about 3 unique comments in your link Drac, each one posted 147 times!

What gets me every time I briefly glance over Facebook comments like that, is how many utterly thick people drive cars. It really is a worry.

It’s just people in general. Look at any of the stories under those feeds and you’ll find a significant proportion of the comments are barely literate and completely illogical reactionary drivel.

Remember.. 50% of people will be below average intelligence.
50% of people will be below average driving ability.

Wonder how big the correlation is?

100% of that 50% have Facebook accounts.

What about motorways?

That’s banned.

But some cyclists look in envy at the hard shoulder and claim it could be used as a safe cycle lane

said no cyclist, ever.

I do.

Rachel

You’d be mental to want to ride on any derestricted dual carriageway anyway. I saw a tt on the A303 on sunday. Possibly the worst thing I could imagine doing on a bike. working your arse off for no fun with an extreme risk of death through no fault of your own from impatient motorists. mental

You’d be mental to want to ride on any derestricted dual carriageway anyway. I saw a tt on the A303 on sunday. Possibly the worst thing I could imagine doing on a bike. working your arse off for no fun with an extreme risk of death through no fault of your own from impatient motorists. mental

True enough, but as more and more roads are widened and dualled, once perfectly usable cycling roads are made off-limits.

You’d be mental to want to ride on any derestricted dual carriageway anyway. I saw a tt on the A303 on sunday. Possibly the worst thing I could imagine doing on a bike. working your arse off for no fun with an extreme risk of death through no fault of your own from impatient motorists. mental

Except that on the DC they at least have decent sight lines and more room to avoid hitting you, waaaay better than the country roads with people driving at 50+mph round blind bends hugging the hedges and just hoping nothing is there when they get round the corner 🙄

I steer clear of articles like that now as I know it’s a one way ticket to be being both simultaneously annoyed and disappointed in the human race, and I don’t need that kind of negativity in my day 🙂

I made the mistake of engaging in one of these threads last night.

Seemed that arguments for cycling were well written, grammatically correct and contained very few spelling mistakes.

Ante ciclist had lds f txt spk, barely understandable english, swearing, a general ignorance of the law and VED/road tax and total disregard for anyone else’s opinions or rights because they once saw a cyclist go through a red light…

Fun engaging for a short while, then lost interest and looked at videos of bikes….

You’re not allowed to hate gays, blacks or disabled people anymore so cyclist bashing fills that gap in these morons lives.

You’re not allowed to hate gays, blacks or disabled people anymore so cyclist bashing fills that gap in these morons lives.

So cyclists and Muslims then? Is it still de rigeur among the tabloid classes to hate Eastern Europeans? Or has that been knocked on the back-burner while they concentrate on Muslims and cyclists?

I think all Europeans are considered fair game these days.

God help you if you try to cite Europeans examples of cycling infrastructure used by Muslims 😀

I’ve cycled on some proper big dual carriageways in the UK (and raced on a couple) and they are in the most part simply scary, horrid experiences. Huge trucks at 55-60 mph are no fun, and getting across spear junctions isn’t nice either. The line of sight on a dual carriageway may be better, but the closing speed between a 17 mph cyclist and 80 mph car is nuts. I would far rather cycle on a country road any day.

I don’t know why I clicked those links.

I don’t know why I commented on those facebook threads.

I don’t know why I’m writing in bullet points like that terrible “article”

I feel dirty now

For posterity and reference if (and of course I hope not) the day comes when she kills someone:

Yes she actually admits close-passing because she mistakenly believes that cyclists don’t pay ‘road tax’. Does the same go for triple-wide strollers I wonder?

How the holy F do these people manage to pass a driving test? wipe their own bottoms?