Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

Post navigation I'd formed a cunning plan earlier in the week to head across to Edinburgh after work today to catch a Fringe performance (Impact Arts/Gallery 37, if you're wondering) at 6pm on the Royal Mile.  I finish at 1 on a Friday, so I drew up a route that would get me there on time at a 24kph average speed.  Falkirk was the 'cheat and catch the train' bail out point. With the glorious weather today, everything looked promising.  Sun cream was applied, the summer jersey was dug out, the GPS was loaded.  Everything was set. It turns out I'd been somewhat naive with what Google thinks a road is... Edit: I'm grateful to Regulator from the CycleChat forum in pointing out a misunderstanding on my part here.  The 'Accidental Death' verdict recorded here is from an inquest and as such makes no judgement on whether Lena is guilty of an offence.  The next step up is 'Unlawful Killing', which apparently can only be an outcome if the actions which brought about death were obviously likely to result in a fatality.  It's a shame that accidental is the terminology given the ' crash not accident ' campaign by Roadpeace, however, there's an awful lot of legal terminology that is similarly over my head! The unedited original post is below, and remains a desperately sad state of affairs. --  I promise to write something that's actually cheerful in the near future, but feel this sad story is worth commenting on. Back in January, James Darby was cycling at a reasonable speed in London.  Lena Pennacchia was in a car parked by the side of the road, opened her driver's door into the path of James, and killed him. There was no suggestion of malice on the part of Lena, who was reported as being understandably devastated by the result of her actions.  However, her actions were clearly careless and made her guilty of an offence under the The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 , which state that No person shall open, or cause or permit to be opened, any door of a vehicle on a road so as to injure or endanger any person Links to the relevant legislations and some more detail are neatly summarised on the UK Cycle Rules site, so I'm just going to borrow their references: (RVCUR r. 105 ; RTA s. 42 ; RTOA Sch 2 ) It emerges today that the inquest into the death of James has instead recorded a verdict of 'accidental death', once again casting the death of a cyclist caused directly by the actions of another road user as a simple consequence of fate.  I don't understand how this can be the case.  Someone breaks a law that exists to safeguard the welfare of others, kills someone as a direct consequence, and the law then turns around and says no transgression has occured.  To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Lena deliberately killed James, but every time the justice system in the UK twists to ignore the death of a cyclist it's another step down a slippery slope in the public consciousness.  As an immediate example, the article I linked to above described the incident as "[a cyclist died] when he crashed into a stationary blue Fiat Panda".  Just about factually accurate, but it's quite clear where the uninformed reader is going to place the blame. Not being an expert in UK law I've no idea what happens next or whether James' family have any further recourse towards compensation.  However, the next time you come across a cyclist travelling four feet out from parked cars or ignoring a cycle lane practically under the wing mirrors, at least you know why. You may have noticed we got some rain here last Thursday.  Not just your normal Scottish rain, but the full on 'I'm not sure if there's enough air left to breath' saturation level of precipitation. I'd have taken a photo, but my phone had no chance of surviving and (annoyingly given later events) I'd left the waterproof bullet camera in the bike cupboard. As a massive bonus though, the rain wasn't cold and I was wearing lyrca (soaking wet baggy shorts are only slightly less uncomfortable than a wire wool vest), so I had a great time.  Some bonus information bullets: If you haven't got a home-made mudflap on your front guard, for the love of your crankset (upright) or suspension/chain/rear derailleur (recumbent) go and make one tonight.  If you haven't got mudguards at all don't worry -- I'm sure the muddy backside look will come into fashion soon. When the road is covered in standing water, take up a wide primary position that makes it obvious that close passes from cars will be hugely unpopular. If you're driving, adapt to the fact that you can't see anything out of the windscreen by slowing down, and don't pass close enough to cyclists to pressure wash them with the bow wave from your wheels. SON dynohubs continue to power lights even when immersed.  This is down to German Voodoo. Related to the above point, if you are absolutely certain the road surface is good beneath the water there is nothing more fun than hooning a lowracer recumbent into a really deep puddle.  With sufficient care you can get the resulting spray above the height of your head. You might have spotted an article on BBC online a few days back regarding the Communications Data Bill, which our beloved government have just published in draft form. This got all sorts of exciting debate going for a little while, as you might've guessed from the bill's informal name of 'The Snooper's Charter'. Theresa May has stated that the changes within this bill are vital to catch up with how criminals were using new technology, and will apparently catch rings of paedophiles red-handed.  To do this, the bill requires all internet use (email, chat, forums, VOIP, gaming, etc) of everyone in the UK to be recorded for at least a year. Dunno how this got here. Clearly nothing to do with the article. Most odd. Today marks a glorious day.  The day when, after 46 days ahead, Ade's 01:41 record on the Pollockshaw's Road Sprint was crushed by a storming 01:36.  It's not a long segment at just over 800m, nor is it hugely uphill.  It is, however, now mine. Or at least, The Definitive Guide to Cycles & The Train Operating Companies (TOCs) I Know About.  Which is a bit less snappy. This is drawn from my own knowledge and a fledgling trainspotter thread on CCE, and should guide you through the entire process from booking the tickets to arriving at your destination, bike clutched in hand.  I've split the post into general stuff that applies across the UK overground network, then some specifics on ScotRail, East Coast, Virgin and CrossCountry.  I'll update with others in the future. Can I tempt you into brief cogitation on a subject of bike loading?  In particular, how do you split weight between the front and the back (and the middle if you've got access to suitably sexy frame bags)? The Sutra loaded up awaiting the train north in Durham station. The fetching pale canvas bag is bungeed when moving... The (admittedly somewhat less salubrious) elements of the web were briefly intrigued over the weekend with the rumour that German intelligence services had 'cracked' PGP.  Whilst probably not of immediate concern to anyone not currently shifting large amounts of money out of Greece, there's clearly a twinge of unease that the common man's encryption method of choice might be vulnerable.  After all, the inevitable trickle down of technology suggests that whilst it might start with just the Militrischer Abschirmdienst being able to read your bank details, eventually someone in the Ivory Coast will be using the same methods to top up their phone with your cash. Continue reading ?