Belgian cyclist vs lorry driver video – the spoof version; Tesla Truck 'not street-legal' in EU; Pro cyclist breaks leg riding e-scooter; Lidl discount bike parking with ‘useless’ butterfly racks; TfL launch 'Report a Problem' webpage + more on live blog

brooksby wrote:

Is it me, or does the Tesla Cybertruck look like it was designed on a BBC Model B? 

Etch-a-sketch surely?

Butty wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Is it me, or does the Tesla Cybertruck look like it was designed on a BBC Model B? 

Etch-a-sketch surely?

I think that's got a similar computing capacity, so maybe...

antigee wrote:

what's this EU centric regulation reporting surely the UK is going to go loose and lax and solo on vehicle regs?

That's what the reptiles, charlatans and con artists forming the current regime want to happen, trouble is, any company producing vehicles to those standards won't be able to sell them in the EU. Then you have to ask whether the UK is a big enough market on its own. Anyway the motor industry will now retreat to continental europe to avoid the upcoming no-deal tarriff barriers and then there won't be a uk-based motor industry any more. 

Oldfatgit wrote:

How does it get called a truck anyway? It doesn't look like it has a load compartment like a pickup, or anywhere to put anything bigger than a small suitcase.

It's a truck in the same way that a Nissan Juke is an off-road 4x4.

a4th wrote:

The Tesla safety test thing is a bit of a non-story. US safety standards are designed for vehicle-vehicle collisions which makes sense given where the majority of accidents happen on that side of the Atlantic. European standards focus on pedestrian safety- again a good move in a highly urbanised part of the world. It's one of the reasons cars look different and it seems kind of sensible. 

The problem is if you make ONE vehicle in that size "indestructable" it then forces all that energy into whatever other vehicle it hits, given it's weight that means in a head on collision with a normal-ish car weighing in at a lightweight (for the USA) 2 tons, with both vehicles doing 50mph, instead of a 100mph combined speed, it would mean the other vehicle could see the impact being the equivalent in terms of damage to having a closing speed of double that. That Cybertruck is intended to me mega-strong, so crumple zones on the other car would have do do far more of the occupant protecting that they were designed for.

a4th wrote:

The Tesla safety test thing is a bit of a non-story. US safety standards are designed for vehicle-vehicle collisions which makes sense given where the majority of accidents happen on that side of the Atlantic. European standards focus on pedestrian safety- again a good move in a highly urbanised part of the world. It's one of the reasons cars look different and it seems kind of sensible. 

The problem is, that a vehicle like this will be bought in large numbers by men (and women) with small penises to drive around the urban environment simply because there is no better way to demonstrate their eco woke credentials.

Maybe in a future driverless car world where the AI is infallible and traffic collisions of any kind are unknown you might be able to get away with such a hard edged design, though cycling or walking into a parked one will probably be very much like colliding with a skip and potentially fatal even without the car turning a wheel.

It is sort of movie set cool though.

Mungecrundle wrote:

The problem is, that a vehicle like this will be bought in large numbers by men (and women) with small penises to drive around the urban environment simply because there is no better way to demonstrate their eco woke credentials.

Maybe in a future driverless car world where the AI is infallible and traffic collisions of any kind are unknown you might be able to get away with such a hard edged design, though cycling or walking into a parked one will probably be very much like colliding with a skip and potentially fatal even without the car turning a wheel.

It is sort of movie set cool though.

Are you body-shaming women with small penises?

ktache wrote:

I had seen these bins in other blogs extolling the facilities for cyclists.

This one is a little more of a challenge.

That bin looks like you could actually fit a whole cyclist in though.

Rick_Rude wrote:

ktache wrote:

I had seen these bins in other blogs extolling the facilities for cyclists.

This one is a little more of a challenge.

That bin looks like you could actually fit a whole cyclist in though.

If not, just add some netting and you can self-pack your Christmas tree to take it home.

alexuk wrote:

I can't help but feel we're going a bit over-the-top with the coverage of the Lidl thing. It's just a few butterfly bike-racks people - chill.

Personally, I think that Jacqueline Jossa deserved her win, so I don't get why people may be angry and focussing extra ire.

alexuk wrote:

I can't help but feel we're going a bit over-the-top with the coverage of the Lidl thing. It's just a few butterfly bike-racks people - chill.

Far from it.  One of the main deterrents of people riding anywhere is fear of having their bicycle stolen, so proper, secure cycle parking is essential, not just an afterthought.  My local Aldi in Bristol had proper Sheffield racks, but put them at the side of the building, not overlooked, so most people locked their bikes to the posts outside the main window.  The local planning authority must have guidance about cycle parking and should have refused planning permission for butterfly racks.

I had a long correspondence with the local Sainsburys, which had no cycle parking at all, but after a year of complaing, suggesting and recommending, they put some Sheffield racks in, not where I wanted, under cover and in plain view, but out of sight with the end one was next to the emergency exit from the cafe, so if anyone locked a bike to it, the exit would be blocked.  I pointed this out to the management several times, and was brushed off the same number of times, so I rang the fire brigade, who visited and told them in no uncertain terms to lose the end rack.  Two weeks later it was still there, so I rang them again and next day that rack was gone.  The fire officer rang me back to thank me and said that he had told the store manager in no uncertain terms that he would close the cafe unless the rack was removed today.  Since then the store has been refurbished, and they have moved the racks to an extremely inconvenient, out of sight location.

Cycle parking isn't rocket surgery, I've lost count of the publications giving advice about it, but the planners really, really don't care, and the supermarkets care even less.  We shouldn't be satisfied with fourth class provision, so no, I'm not going to chill.

alexuk wrote:

I can't help but feel we're going a bit over-the-top with the coverage of the Lidl thing. It's just a few butterfly bike-racks people - chill.

Quite, there's some stainless Sheffield stands at mine a huge 25m from the store entrance, personally I lean my bike against the window halfway along as I never bother with a lock.

Worst store around here is Tesco, they have the wheelbenders, one of which has had a huge lock on it for years, another is place in such a way that there's a wall in the way and the other two are now useless because they put a large advertising machine (rotating job) in the way so you can't even get a bike in. Sainsbury's aren't much better as they removed one due to it being in the way of the fire exit, twits!

The local Aldi that sprouted up in Spetember placed their bike racks as far away from the entrance as they could manage, the companies offer compared to Lidl is bang average IME, I've been in once and it's just meh.