Cyclists slam "victim blaming" road safety video advising "improve visibility" so drivers don't hit you; Bike rack vs drunk man; Chris Boardman calls for end to "relentlessly hostile rhetoric" about cyclists; New bikes + more on the live blog

Surrey RoadSafe is a partnership between the county's police force and council "working to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on Surrey roads". So, what are we focusing on today? Speeding? Drink driving? Mobile phone use? Anti-social behaviour on the roads? Oh, right... telling cyclists how to ride to help improve visibility so... they don't get hit by drivers...

Cyclists improve your visibility on the road.

Watch our series of animations illustrating common car/bike collision scenarios and how to avoid them.

#1 DRIVE OUT #HabitsForLife pic.twitter.com/kGNWlm8LuJ

— Surrey RoadSafe (@SurreyRS) May 29, 2024

 "Car/bike collisions can be avoided," we're told. "Use defensive action to ride safer!" the video continues. Because, as the graphic goes on to imply, if someone fails to give way and pulls out in front of you, causing a collision, the action we should all be seeking, to avoid such incidents is... cyclists riding in the middle of their lane so they are more visible.

Needless to say the Surrey RoadSafe partnership got plenty of feedback under the post... from those calling the advice "victim blaming", through to people pointing out it might be slightly useful to instead ask the cause of the collision pictured not to... well, you know... crash into cyclists because you didn't look properly to see an oncoming road user when pulling out at a junction? 

Bob From Accounts called the video "victim blaming 101" and suggested "separate infrastructure is the only solution". VNS added that as cyclists we already know about riding in primary position in certain situations as it can be safer. Rather, he said, "It's drivers who think cyclists are being inconsiderate for doing this. Please also educate drivers. Drivers being the ones who are responsible for collisions like this."

Matthew: "Yeah, because it's definitely not the drivers failing to look properly. All you're doing is empowering drivers to blame cyclists for 'not riding correctly, so I couldn't see them'."

RedLaser4000: "Is this real? That was the fault of the driver pulling out without looking!"

Mustapha Cycle: "Nothing wrong with cyclists improving their visibility but maybe focus on the real offenders and less on the victims. Enforce the Highway Code rigidly and get the standard of driving back on track to an acceptable level."

Tim Pryce: "Problem is drivers then yell at you and close pass you for being 'in the middle of the road'."

Ian Bradbury: "We know and we do. The people you should direct this at are the drivers screaming 'get out of the middle of the road' and the eejits who paint murder strips at the side of the road and pretend they are cycle provision."

Incidentally, the UK's head of roads policing recently spoke at-length about her wishes for making the roads safer, highlighting the key areas of concern that addressing would bring about real-world change and a reduction in the number of deaths and serious injuries.

Jo Shiner urged stricter sentences for driving offences and warned that the "basic standard of driving has reduced" and puts cyclists and pedestrians at risk. She also suggested that deaths on the UK's roads have become "unseen" due to their frequency.

"We have over 1,700 deaths a year on our roads, we have got to look at it differently," she said. "Sometimes the reporting of those people who are killed or seriously injured barely features in the local papers anymore.

"Anti-social driving is really prevalent on our roads at the moment and we know that it is causing a lot of collisions and I think that's where in terms of the punishment fitting the crime we do need greater deterrence. 

"So one of our focuses within our portfolio is on greater sentencing, so the ability for us to be able to actually increase the sentences which both magistrates and other courts can give, but also greater sentences.

"What I mean by that is that if you actually compare some of the sentences the drivers who do kill people because of the way in which they've drive on the roads versus maybe some other crimes in society, predominantly you see that those sentences are lower and that's just one example where I think families are not feeling that they do get the justice that sometimes they deserve.

"I think the basic standard of driving on our roads has reduced," she continued. "Using an indicator, being in the correct lane, actually knowing what the Highway Code says, knowing which lane to go in when you're going around a roundabout and also just calming down on our roads.

"You know, sometimes I see behaviours where people are just utterly impatient to get where they want to go, really not recognising the risks that are around them, that they're both creating for others but also that others are then potentially creating for them.

"So I think changing behaviours and changing minds is really, really important in terms of just calming people down and also trying to reinforce just how much damage a vehicle can do, particularly to other vulnerable road users, whether that's a pedestrian, a pedal cyclist, a horse rider, it's really important that people take responsibility for the risk that they could pose to others when they're behind the wheel."

We must have missed the bit about cyclists being more visible so they don't get hit.

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Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds and local candidate David Chadwick riding bikes during a visit to Knighton, Wales, while on the General Election campaign trail.

Image ID: 2X94NNT / Jacob King / PA Wire#generalelection pic.twitter.com/QYFKL03Qlj

— Alamy Editorial (@Alamy_Editorial) May 29, 2024

SHOCKING EXCLUSIVE: Lots of bike news on bike website... would have guessed it?

First up, is this an unreleased Canyon Aeroad that F1's Valtteri Bottas was seen riding at the Monaco Grand Prix?

Next up, leaks have emerged online showing a new Trek road bike with an 'IsoFlow' seat tube hole, leaving our tech team to ask, is it a new Émonda or revamped Madone?

And finally, Jamie's travelled back to 2012 to take an in-depth look at the bike that arguably signalled the beginning of the end for rim brakes (*smiles as he looks away from his desk at the lovely rim brake bike still serving him well*)...

> Check out the Colnago C59 Disc

It's a pretty decent summary of humanity that you've got the one mate giving a hand, at least trying to help the man who's made the questionable choice to climb into this coiled bike rack, only to (very predictably) get stuck. Meanwhile, the other mate is simply trying not to cause himself any damage by laughing too hard or falling over while filming his pal's predicament.

😂 pic.twitter.com/ncjeEiu7BI

— Dubs life (@dubslife1) May 27, 2024

Reason #2,701 why Sheffield Stands should be the universal cycle parking design. Obviously, simple and practical racks to lock your bike to would be number one, but preventing drunk people using them as a tunnel only to get stuck is at least on the list somewhere, even if a bit further down the priority hierarchy.

We've got no idea where this happened, or which unimpressed fire service was asked to attend. Maybe he was just confused by the design and went looking for his bike? Okay, fair enough, that's too generous — always remember to enjoy alcohol responsibly. Otherwise you might end up stuck inside a Turkey Twizzler bike rack... enough to give Jamie Oliver nightmares.

We've seen these god-awful bike racks before, namely outside a Lidl branch in Dublin and they got a shout-out in our appropriately titled feature: 

> Worst bike racks — from the useless to utterly unusable places to park your bicycle

You'd do well to get stuck in any of those other ones, although I guess the middle one up top ('the toast rack' as it was dubbed) has potential.

Fans of Always Sunny might think they've seen this one before:

Frank, is that you? pic.twitter.com/LDE0oa7buD

— D Naylor (@R3DLFC) May 28, 2024

Another in the comments declared that "stupid springs to mind"... ba dum tss...