Kind of a sad Sunday ride around London..

[RDJ]

Left the US Friday, got an assignment in London this week, had Sunday afternoon off. Rented a bike privately and took a trip out and about starting from Chiswick / Heathrow and the surrounding countryside, finishing off down Regent Street, Hyde Park, Pall Mall and Big Ben / The Embankment (as one does... I wanted to pay my respects at the WWII Bomber Command Memorial at Green Park that I had not seen yet - it was I believe opened in 2012 - and when in London and when I can, I stop by the Hyde Park Memorial for New Zealand's war dead).

'Twas somewhat a damp ride (it was raining and I had no wet weather gear with me - but what the heck, in the past I've ridden in the tropics to work daily and rain just means, dry the gear out overnight so who cares?)

It is probably at least three years since I last rode in the UK = a fading memory probably accounts for the fact that it was a bit like this already last time but I didn't pick up on it.

• Major Nanny State intrusions on all roadways.
• Speed limits change three or four times within a few miles with Gatsos thicker than bedbugs on a hostel mattress.
• Enormous amounts of lane markings which basically channel traffic flow into one or two lanes even when three or four could easily work.
• Zoo-like fences at every intersection presumably to stop pedestrians from suicidally jumping out into the flow of traffic if they are so minded.
• Excess of Hi-Viz on so many people that it is no longer enhancing visibility for those at risk.

Sheesh. The country that gave us the Magna Carta looks like it's heading straight for Vision Zero.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2...up-new-policy/

Bright Spot: stopped off at Infinity Motorcycles just up the road from my Chiswick hotel for some retail therapy. Picked up an excellent Kriega R35 (the strap on my trusty 8-yr-old Jansport backpack broke off on the BA flight from LA - not that it was due to BA, I'm sure it was LHR luggage handlers). Informed service with a smile, & a great choice of bikes and accessories, (although much gear still infected with the Hi-Viz virus).

[Zedder]

• Major Nanny State intrusions on all roadways.
• Speed limits change three or four times within a few miles with Gatsos thicker than bedbugs on a hostel mattress.
• Enormous amounts of lane markings which basically channel traffic flow into one or two lanes even when three or four could easily work.
• Zoo-like fences at every intersection presumably to stop pedestrians from suicidally jumping out into the flow of traffic if they are so minded.
• Excess of Hi-Viz on so many people that it is no longer enhancing visibility for those at risk.

Sheesh. The country that gave us the Magna Carta looks like it's heading straight for Vision Zero.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2...up-new-policy/

It's irritating to see this about Claes Tingvall given his earlier statements that, with Vision Zero "the goal is zero but that's impossible" and it's "a mindset and not a figure".

[awa355]

A lot of those articles linked below are dated 2008 with the MCN one dated 2010. Don't know if that is relevant.

[Zedder]

A lot of those articles linked below are dated 2008 with the MCN one dated 2010. Don't know if that is relevant.

It's always been about a philosophy not numbers but the thinking and solutions have centered on roads and other vehicles rather than motorcycles.

The anti-motorcycle brigade appear to like picking up on anything to do with motorcycles being bad. In fact, Tingvall as recently as 2012, stated he saw motorcyclists as being the most safety orientated of any road user group.

[RDJ]

A lot of those articles linked below are dated 2008 with the MCN one dated 2010. Don't know if that is relevant.

There is plenty more recent. He's no better in his thinking, just better at hiding it.

https://www.tispol.org/interview-roo...ision-zero-tis

This is his style of thinking:

Q: So where does responsibility for traffic safety management start?
A: With the professionals in the system. We don’t have to ask people if they want to survive or not, do we. Or ask them if – in return for more mobility – they are willing to sacrifice a family member. That doesn’t make sense. The key question is what kind of responsibility do we want the provider to have. Who should be responsible, what relationship does that have to the citizen. That comes back to the analysis.

The analyst knows best. We should shut up and be grateful for his bestowed wisdom. He is one of the Professionals In The System.

His fascist-nuttiness would not matter except he is well funded by taxpayers to spout his verbiage and enforce his vision. There are some reports he has backtracked, the more convincing reports are that he has just decided to go under the radar for a while because of the flak his earlier stupidities attracted.

For motorcyclists the suggestion of a vision of zero fatalities, “Vision Zero” harks back to 1997. Sweden’s Claes Tingvall, one of the authors of the 1999 Vision Zero road safety document, stated back then that, “Motorcycles are incompatible with Vision Zero… It will never work to combine motorcycles with our ambitious road safety.”

[RDJ]

... so did an early morning M3/M4 circuit before doing so; then later in the day back to Heathrow and ultimately NZ / home via LAX.

0330-0530 is still and always IMO a pretty great time to see a big city from a bike... the other night owls who are awake and on the road for whatever reason, are easy to share the road with.

Got back to Chiswick just before 0550 and dropped the bike off after a bacon and eggs breakfast at 0600. Always a good way to start the day - on a bike, and then bacon.