Andrew Tierney is part of a new breed of cycling activists tackling a rise in online abuse head-on
Carlton Reid
“If someone deletes their comment, that’s success for me,” says Andrew Tierney. “Hopefully, that person will think about what they’re saying in the future.”
Tierney, who goes by the name @cybergibbons online, is part of a new breed of cycling activists. After noticing an increase in the amount of abuse and violent threats on social media directed at people who ride bikes, Tierney decided to take action. He started calling out the posters online, with the result that many deleted their comments or even their accounts.
“If someone says something racist [online], on the whole, people will challenge those views,” he says. “It should be the same for threats made against cyclists; challenge those who make these statements.”
There has been a noticeable increase in virtual threats against cyclists since the Highway Code changes and clarifications have been in the news, Tierney believes, and he has started responding to the most serious ones.
“It was on TikTok that I suddenly thought: ‘Wow, people think it’s socially acceptable to make [comments about harming cyclists]’,” he says. “A user made a comment about harming cyclists if they saw them adhering to one of the new Highway Code rules, and it got lots of likes.”
Ship carrying luxury cars sinks near Azores Islands after burning for weeks – theguardian
Authorities fear that thousands of tons of fuel carried onboard could leak and pollute the ocean
The merchant ship Felicity Ace was carrying cars worth millions of dollars as well as thousands of tons of fuel and oil. Photograph: Staff and agencies in Lisbon 2/3/22
An abandoned ship carrying an estimated $401m (£295m) worth of cars, including Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini models, has sunk nearly two weeks after a fire broke out onboard.
The Felicity Ace sank on Tuesday about 400 kilometers (250 miles) off Portugal’s Azores Islands as it was being towed, MOL Ship Management in Singapore said in a statement. A salvage team had put out the fire which had burned for days, fueled by lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles onboard.
Coventry’s protected cycleways to deliver safe routes across the city –
Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands, Adam Tranter,
Work has started on a 6km segregated cycleway in Coventry, which will connect the city centre to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.
The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) board approved £8.6m to fund the new Binley Cycleway.
Coventry City Council and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) will oversee development of the cycleway, due to be completed by March 2023. It will form part of a wider 10km East-West connection, linking with the Coundon Cycleway, which is…
“White lines do not work”: Oxford campaigners call for urgent action after cyclist is killed at notorious junction – road.cc
A man has been charged with causing death by careless driving after a woman in her 30s died following a collision involving a lorry at The Plain roundabout
Ryan Mallon 3/3/22
The First Step Toward Saving the Planet Is Ignoring the Economists – rollingstone.com
The U.N.’s latest climate report shows that we don’t know how expensive the climate crisis will be, which means cost-benefit analyses weighing how to combat it are pointless
Andrew Dessler
The latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is stark. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres describes it as “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.” If the world can’t solve this problem, there will be a lot of blame to go around, but one group in particular shouldn’t be able to skirt it: economists who have relentlessly downplayed the seriousness of climate change and overstated the costs of solving it.
The Bicycle Thieves – mattstoller.substack.com
Matt Stoller
In 1817, German Baron Karl von Drais introduced a two wheeled machine called the Dandy Horse to the world. The Dandy Horse had no pedals or gears, but it was the first of what would eventually become known as the bicycle. Eventually engineers and tinkerers added modern tires, brakes, drivetrains, and so forth, improving comfort, feel, and speed. There were two ‘bicycle crazes’ in the 19th century alone, and mass production began in the 1860s. The bike industry, in other words, is very old.
Today there are a billion bikes worldwide, and in some cities, biking is a key part of taking cars off the road, improving traffic and reducing pollution.
Did you see the damp kestrel hunched in the hawthorn by Sawyer’s Hill? – Martin Williamson – Twitter
Did you see the damp kestrel hunched in the hawthorn by Sawyer’s Hill?
Shocking footage of road rage driver repeatedly trying to ram cyclist off bike – road.cc
Police claim insufficient evidence to press for more serious prosecution — driver admits driving without due care, fined £100 and given three points
by Dan Alexander 4/3/22
On December 15th last year, road.cc reader Kionne Potter went on his usual one-hour lunchtime training loop, the footage he sent us today shows the shocking road rage attack that followed from a driver who repeatedly tried to ram the West Midlands cyclist from his bike.
The motorist involved admitted driving without due care and received three penalty points and a £100 fine after West Mercia Police downgraded the report from assault to dangerous driving, and then once more to driving without due care, saying there was insufficient evidence for a more severe prosecution.
Mind the gap: Lime reports 162% increase in e-bike rides from closed London Underground station – cyclingindustry.news
24 February, 2022 Simon Cox
A 162% increase in e-bike rides from Bank station, coupled with a 136% increase at London Bridge station: These eye widening numbers have been recorded by e-mobility provider Lime, as a direct result of London Underground’s Northern Line closure for improvement works.
For context, Transport for London (TFL) reports that, “Bank and Monument (Northern Line) stations see a combined total of more than 120 million passengers in a normal year.”
Road to bankruptcy – change.org – Stop The Wensum Link
Petition update 17 Feb 2022
Is Norfolk County Council gambling on receiving Government funding to avoid possible bankruptcy with the funding of this doomed road? This was the question arising out of yesterday’s Council’s Scrutiny Committee’s meeting.
Following the meeting Councillor Osborne posted this on Twitter:
‘Norfolk County Council have NO contingency reserve if the Norwich Western Link fails. If it fails, the cost will completely wipe out their general revenue reserves at £20million. This is huge. @NorfolkCC is gambling with Norfolk’s financial future’
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