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Friday, February 24, 2012

While Andrea Leadsom vows to carry on after Commons setback, without government backing her private bill is unlikely to get any further

In April last year we carried news of a proposal by Andrea Leadsom, the Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire, to introduce a specific offence of causing death by dangerous cycling.

Leadsom argued that a new law was necessary as the current offence of dangerous cycling has a maximum penalty of £2,500, with no possibility of prison. For someone who, to take a hypothetic example, ploughs recklessly into a pedestrian at speed on a pavement, this is insufficient, she said.

Hers was a private members bill and thus very unlikely to proceed very far without government backing. But then this apparently arrived: the roads safety minister, Mike Penning, promised Leadsom he would back it. The Department for Transport confirmed it would "consider the merits" of the new law.

On initial examination Leadsom's idea might seem to some uncontroversial. But cycling groups were alarmed. We ran a Comment is Free article explaining these worries at length. The main objection boiled down to this – pedestrian deaths from cyclists are so incredibly rare that the law would be both a near-irrelevance and a distraction from the enormously geater peril posed to pedestrians (and other road users) from motor vehicles.

In addition, while the only law covering the most serious cycling offences is a section of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, originally aimed at the "wanton or furious" driving of a horse-drawn carriage, this has been used for successful prosecutions in recent years.

The other worry many people had was Leadsom's use of the death of Rhiannon Bennett as a prime argument as to why the new law was needed. Leadsom's explanation of the case, as explained both in the House of Commons and, in very similar words for a post she wrote for the Bike Blog, went as follows:

In 2007, Rhiannon Bennett was walking with friends on a pavement when a cyclist approached at speed yelling, "Move, because I'm not stopping." He hit Rhiannon who fell and smashed her head on the kerb. She was taken to hospital but died six days later.

While it is, without any doubt, a tragic and heartbreaking case, Leadsom's account of it seems to be a notable over-simplification. The court case heard conflicting evidence about whether the cyclist involved, Jason Howard, ever mounted the pavement, and whether Rhiannon and her friends might have been standing in the road. I spoke to two local newspaper reporters who covered the trial and they both told me they didn't recognise Leadsom's version of events.

I had a long debate with Leadsom's office about this, and they pointed to the conclusions of the subsequent inquest, where the coroner decided that "some part of Rhiannon was on the pavement" when she was hit.

Either way, I think there's an important point here: making a new law from a single event is generally bad policy; doing so from what some would call a misleading version of that event is even more the case.

But this might all become moot. Leadsom's bill was tabled for a second reading on Friday, but never made it to the chamber as MPs instead endlessly debated the issue of extended daylight saving.

Leadsom's office passed me the following statement from her today:

Despite the bill not receiving its second reading on Friday, I will not let this rest. I will continue to campaign for justice for Rhiannon and to update the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act to ensure dangerous cycling can be dealt with in the same way as dangerous motoring. I will continue to keep pressure on the minister who I know takes a keen interest.

However, reading between the lines of a statement from the minister in question, Penning, which also arrived today, the Department from Transport is having second thoughts:

I am clear that everyone who uses the road – including cyclists - have a responsibility to behave safely and with consideration for others. We are investigating how existing legislation is working to establish if any changes are needed to ensure justice in these sorts of cases and whether there is a route to address these difficulties without the need for new primary legislation.

That sounds to me very much like doom for the Leadsom bill. Without wishing to downplay the importance of cyclists behaving safely and courteously on the roads, all I can say is thank goodness for that.

Peter Walker

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jan/23/mp-law-dangerous-cycling

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Help hack day developers make the Guardian's cycling coverage better | Peter Walker

It's the Guardian's regular 'hack day' this week, and some cycling-mad digital developers want to pick your brains

I'm here just to pass on a message from Matt Andrews, a member of the Guardian's digital development team. Later this week, he and his colleagues will be, among other things, trying to dream up ways to make our web-based coverage of cycle events like the Tour de France more informative, interactive and interesting.

At the bottom of the page is a (slightly small) pic of something which another developer, Alastair Jardine, has come up with as an example. It shows how, if you were to click or hover over a specific block of a cycling live blog it would bring up real-time data on rider positions, gaps etc.

But they're also interested in your ideas. So, over to Matt:

Thursday 2 February marks the first of the Guardian's quarterly hack days for 2012, a permanent fixture in the calendar for the digital development team in partnership with editorial, commercial and other parts of the Guardian.
At hack days, groups of developers and other interested parties work together to throw together ideas and concepts, often in a very short space of time, with the goal of producing a five minute demo the following day in front of the department.
The best demos go on to be made, theoretically, into complete products and apps. Not every hack ends up being released into the wild or taken on any further from the event, but it's often a fun time to experiment and play with new, emerging technologies.
This week's hack day is themed around sport (following last quarter's travel-themed hack, which we liveblogged here). This theme isn't rigidly enforced so it's likely we'll see some of the now-typical leftfield contributions (robots that can respond to tweets, a DJ turntable allowing users to remix the news), but in general we're looking at ways we can improve and expand the Guardian's online sport coverage and tools.
Inside the Guardian's development team there are quite a few cycling fans. Some of us have grouped together to build something bike-related on the day, whether it's for the Olympics, the Tour, or any other competitive bike race.
We have a few ideas in the works, many of which are limited by the availability (or lack thereof) of real-time race data, but we'd love to see what readers of the Bike Blog think would be interesting or useful in these contexts.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a live TV feed when it's mountain stage day or the final laps of Box Hill in the Olympic road race, so how can the Guardian help you experience the events while you're at your desk instead? Let us know.

Peter Walker

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jan/31/hack-day-guardian-cycling-coverage

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Barefoot Running, an essay ...

Source: http://danglethecarrot.blogspot.com/2011/12/barefoot-running-essay.html

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Thursday Morning Commute - Do Not Enter

Source: http://www.thewashcycle.com/2012/02/thursday-morning-commute-.html

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Goals

As I sit here typing this snow is gently falling down on boulder. 1 day of winter isn’t all that bad compared to the great weather we’ve had. So far though it seems like most places across the country are getting mild temps. I keep getting emails from all my back east athletes, asking to [...]

Source: http://jasonhilimire.com/2012/01/goals/

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Sterilized Singletrack: A Spreading Epidemic

Bull Mountain has been castrated. What used to be one of the last remaining bastions of technical mountain biking in the state of Georgia has been cut and bled of its virility. What was once a true man’s trail (or a true … Continue reading → Related posts:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/singletracks/~3/2fejQG-j__g/

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