Richard Leeming

Too good not to share…

There’s also definitely a sense of paranoia in the cycling community, but that’s fuelled by the feeling of being marginalised and in danger at every turn (hence why you won’t ride a bike in London!)

Perhaps less of a ‘hate campaign’, but more a culture of opposition - there’s definitely organised political opposition to active travel infrastructure.

I think there will be different reasons for different people - elderly people will feel vulnerable - in the linked case above I’d suspect the younger man may have felt able to behave like a misogynistic bully

It’s just seen as ok to object to cyclists doing things that would be overlooked or forgiven if a driver did the same thing.

My point about cars above was that danger from them is mostly priced in … from the correspondence I get, the danger from cyclists is mostly felt by elderly people and is a combination of proximity, resistance to change and the ‘out-group’ thing.

As someone who’s done a lot of work on active travel, I think the reasons are complex. The stats show that injuries to pedestrians caused by cyclists are almost non-existent, whereas from cars are significant. It’s motivated by cyclists being an ‘out group’ and, as in this case, a power dynamic.

Despite very clearly signalling my intent to give way to them, being polite and respectful, one of them almost immediately became abusive and threatening. This sort of thing happens regularly. Some people just hate cyclists.

Last week, leaving a dedicated cycle path with my son I decided to cycle along a short stretch of pavement under a bridge as the road was busy and dangerous. There were two elderly women walking the same way. I hung back, 4m behind them moving at the same speed.

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

Nvidia has a market capitalisation of $4.2 trillion, which is 15% greater than UK GDP. HMRC alone has twice as many staff (68k) as Nvidia. Let that sink in.

This is comically stupid *even on its own absurd terms*.

HMRC annual receipts about £860 billion
Staff about 66,000

Nvidia annual revenues about £90 billion
Staff about 33,000

Not at all surprised- having an ongoing ‘beef’ (as the kids say) with the parent of a friend of one of my kids who justifies frequent short car journeys on the basis they’re using an EV.

I’m very strongly in favour of regulating the digital media landscape to mediate the content available to impressionable minds (of all ages). I’m very strongly against regulations that won’t work. This is the latter.

As a lifelong Arsenal fan I used the word Gooner in front of my teenage children recently and was taken aback when they fell about laughing…

We did an Origin Story on Netanyahu, did a ton of research, and he remains the only person we've covered who has no redeeming features whatsoever. He started out an arsehole and became a monster. That's basically the story.

Can mixed-methods help us better understand congestion on Low Traffic Neighbourhood boundary roads? Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) aim to improve conditions for walking, wheeling and cycling by restricting motor vehicle movements on residential st…

We have a new paper out today!

Key takeaway: LTN congestion concerns stem not only from traffic volume changes but also public discourse. Congestion can be understood in different ways, reflecting key gap between residents' assessments and quantitative data.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Absolutely fascinating paper on approaches to mixing qualitative and quantitative evaluation of traffic reduction schemes in London - fortunately addresses and describes some of my concerns about the inherent bias of qualitative data capture

Okay, so age verification is pretty painless. It's still not a good thing. At all. It doesn't work. It's intrusive. It creates new vulnerabilities. It's bad for free speech. But…at least it's not difficult for users?

“At the time of writing, VPN apps are in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 9th spots in Apple’s app store. Go figure.”

Man carrying home his gardening tools arrested by armed police in Manchester Samuel Rowe, who was returning from allotment, seeking to overturn caution for possession of offensive weapon

Just once I'd like to see a quote from the police which says "Oh, well, we've made tits of ourselves here then, haven't we? Bloooody hell"

On holiday, I notice that there are wind turbines on the shore of Lake Garda, which very much makes me think that residents with a view of some incredibly mid Cotswold or other can put a sock in it.

Edit required:

Baffled by this take. Building homes without decent public transport or access to community facilities traps people in transport and food poverty, lowers productivity as people struggle to access good jobs. It’s a false binary and Labour must be more ambitious.

I know it’s the Euros and it’s not over yet

Might be time to think about re-upping this

Number of British acts at European music festivals plummets since Brexit Fans in France, Spain, Germany and Denmark set to miss out this summer

🚨NEW RESEARCH🚨
🎵Fresh analysis by Best for Britain reveals the number of UK musicians playing at music festivals in the EU is still down by a quarter compared to pre-Brexit levels🎤🎸🥁

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

When the left riots* the question is "what's wrong with the left?"

When the right riots* the question is "what's wrong with the country?"

*What constitutes a "riot" can also be wildly different. We're moral panicking over sings at left wing protests as right wing thugs fight cops.

One year on: UK communities count the cost of anti-immigration riots Charities and politicians describe a ‘tinder box’ atmosphere in some areas

The striking theme for me in this piece by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social is how far our institutions are unable to keep up with (let alone counter) the online aspects of the information environment which often galvanises and underpins disorder
on.ft.com/4lKmp1T

It’s hard to think of a less ‘true Labour’ policy than Corbyn’s proposed capitulation to Russia in Ukraine. The party’s finest hour was in May 1940 - when the people Corbyn inherits from were denouncing war with the Nazis as an imperialist squabble.

In general, I agree, but this particular junction would be very hard to filter. 100% support for better enforcement though.

Vehicles evading ANPR cameras (by covering their number plates) to drive down school streets are a common sight on the roads around Dulwich.

Where is the police action to arrest these illegal drivers?

@jamesmcash.bsky.social @richardleeming.bsky.social @margynewens.bsky.social