here

Summary?

Nice to see Bez has got himself a new gig hosting a local radio talk show.

🙂

FFS MrBlobby – it’s only 90 minutes

wait, WTF ? – 90 minutes ? 😯

argh idiots on bike
eh were not idiots
er yes you are lycra lout
grrr SPORTIVES
ah ****** ***** (apologies for that)
repeat for 90 mins

(no I didn’t listen to it)

pretty sure Bez said he couldn’t make it, was he on there?

Looks like him to me, if he’d been replacing Es with pies for a while.

Just listening to the intro… “Lots of people taking to their bikes, whether it’s the Ride London 100 or the Tour of Britain, or one of many spotives.” WTF? I’ve already lost the will.

Not worth listening too. I think the people of Surrey need to get a **** grip.

Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset…

All of em!

Not worth listening too.

have you listened to it ?

I’m listening to it now, skip the first 10 minutes!

a quote from that women who own the cafe on Newlands Corner.

a quote from some old bloke who lives in Holmbury complaining about mtbers and the damage they create

some quotes from government types about encouraging people to take more exercise

a complaint from some women who liked to drive to box hill with the family to walk, but now feel intimidated by the number of cyclists

A Dutch guy saying that this discussion is like it was in Holland in the 70’s.

a woman complaining that she thought the meeting was going to be about strategy, not people complaining about cyclists.

BBC Surrey

Is that BBC1 or BBC2?

58 year old woman complaining of drivers slapping her bum

Tedious. The usual NIMBYism. 30 minutes in and I’ve not heard any actual debating. I’m out.

Tiresome though the debate is, I think it is fuelled by a mix of middle class selfish nimbyism, and overpopulation. Too many people in too small a place all wanting to do their own thing…

It’s probably not a fair comparison, but do areas in south wales suffer the same problem with large amounts of mtbers about? Or Scotland? Far too many well publicised cyclist conflicts seem to be in the south and south east. As someone who lives in the south east, riding seems more stressful because you have so much to contend with keeping things cordial with other trail users and dodging cars. It diminishes the freedom of riding a fair bit, and it’s a relief to head to, say, mid Wales and not have to worry – I enjoy my riding far more (not just because the trails are better).

Or Scotland? Far too many well publicised cyclist conflicts seem to be in the south and south east.

Well in terms of Sportives I think the Étape Caledonia was one of the first big ones to be sabotaged by some NIMBY-fundamentalist dropping carpet tacks all over the road. And Perthshire isn’t exactly over-populated.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/may/17/cycle-race-etape-caledonia-protest

do areas in south wales suffer the same problem with large amounts of mtbers about?

They may do, but the local populations are more working class so won’t get the same attention that the whiny middle class cockbags of Surrey are given.

BBC Radio Surrey.

Think I got the impression that it would be better to only have rolling road closures in future, would remove a lot of resentment.

The Dutch guy said that a difference was that cycling was seen as a sport here, whereas in Holland it is seen as a mode of transport, and that this was a problem and the roads were not appropriate for a sport.

Seemed to be lots of people who had bad impressions of cyclists based on some stupid/sh1tty behavior by cyclists.

Like that woman who owns the cafe on Newlands Corner.

She complained that cyclists came in to use the loos and drink her tap water, and then complained of slippery floors as their cleats slipped.

For a start, why go in that cafe when there are public loos across the road ? And then to complain that their cleats slipped!

When people say lycra-wearing louts, this must be what they mean.

Woman says that sportives are ok, but group rides without telling the police first aren’t 😆

in the whole scope of things, does it REALLY matter that much?
people have too little to do and too much time to worry about these kinds of things.
is it just lots of monied retired old folk in Surrey with an arrogant sense of entitlement to the land and the roads? seems like it.
am I over-generalizing? maybe.
are some cyclists just dicks? certainly, but not that many.

It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. No proper fired up anti cycling lot on there, it was fairly polite really.

You made it through all 90 minutes? Blimey.

Around 1:14 – bloke complaining that cyclists, walkers, horses and dogs on the roads are intimidating motorists has to be the most completely mental contribution from all of them.

Generally, I thought it suffered badly from a crappy chair, fair enough try to stimulate debate, but his comments and approach very much favoured the anti-cycling perspective – when someone suggested implementing a proper cycling infrastructure, he pretty much put it down with an aside, where as the mad contribution I note above, he let slide without mentioning the fact that cars could kill any of the “intimidating” users by accident – and the other users don’t have that power.

a summary here:

http://www.surreyhillsmtber.co.uk/1167/surrey-cycling-strategy-bbc-radio-surrey-debate-my-thoughts/

Around 1:14 – bloke complaining that cyclists, walkers, horses and dogs on the roads are intimidating motorists has to be the most completely mental contribution from all of them.

Intimidating? Really? Maybe inconveniencing their journey by a few seconds, but that’s about it.

BBC Local radio – was anyone really expecting more or better than this?

BBC Local radio – was anyone really expecting more or better than this?

I was expecting a good scrap, or at least some good stories about a good scrap.