Floyds cat spills the beans
Courtesy of Monty Props via the Kingdom of b3ta
:: at my command unleash hell :: opps meant kittens, not hell ::
Archive for October, 2007
Mirth
Hey look Kneel, a ruddy great big elephant!
Pallas on the road to Damascus, er, Copenhagen?
Watch ABC Stateline on Friday (7.30pm) for more, as apparently our wonderful Minister for Roads has seen the light. Apparently he’s seen something quite interesting, as the SL promo has him pedalling down a suburban street somewhere.
Will he repent and atone for grievous past transgressions? We shall hold our collective breath, although it’s interesting to note if in NSW if they’ll have similar luck with Roozendaal, or even extracting Costa from his Prado.
Ride to Work Day
A myriad of wondrous and no-so wondrous things occured yesterday, including watching my beloved almost get clipped by a ute-driving tool on Hoddle Street while we were on our way down to the Yarra RTW event. But the ride home abuse was a stand out. The intended abuse was so utterly bizarre that it has to be the ultimate compliment.
Scenario: Attempting to spin up hill on the commuter tractor plus one over full pannier. Car cruises past while I’m tackling a speed hump. Either the driver or a occupant yelled out:
WHAT THE FCUK IS IT WITH ALL THESE FCUKING WOMEN RIDING BIKES
I immediately burst out laughing, punched the air in sheer delight and then attempted a two fists in the air version, before quickly correcting the steed before having a self-induced stack. Hilarity ensued.
Elephant for Kneel
Kneel can’t see elephants. Or see people who choose bicycles. Have listen to this unintended mirth from yesterday, it’s snippet of 3AW morning traffic reports. While traffic incidents should never be the stuff of jokes, Kneels commentary at the end of this 2 minute mp3 is pure muddled-head wombat territory. Now the vexing issue should be rephrased for Kneel: Why are people running into things? Because some people don’t know how to drive a car and deal with cyclists. Or anything else that inhabits the same space-time vortex.
Silly Season cometh
Yep the Lazy Susans being spun around again, but hey why not pre-empt the upcoming silly season & beat those journos to the punch?
Lets get funky
Defeat the Borg Collective with your step-through kiddies steel frame, complete with death ray drive train and advanced luxeon technology capable of piercing the hardest Selachian battle cruiser! Wish this went longer than 15 secs, even with the training wheels.
For your viewing pleasure: How to overtake more than 100 cars in 5 minutes.
Not entirely convinced about the afro skid lid, but the Brazilian scenery is gorgeous.
Tiresome
Todays semi-regular cycling article from the Saturday Age discussing the priorities of lobbying groups and the actual perceived impact of overall cycling participation rates.
Cyclists on the rise, but does this mean fewer cars?
Six thousand more people are riding to work in Melbourne than five years ago, data from the 2006 census shows.Cycling groups were delighted with the increase, compared with the 2001 census, but transport experts were not so enthusiastic. blah blah blah
Personally and professionally I’d sooner prefer pluristic attitudes over the extremely stale us vs them debates. But when there’s intractable foes getting their opinions in the media (speaking on behalf for the rest of us who may not necessarily share their views) ultimately it doesn’t really broaden or enhance any discussion on transport options.
Although going by previous tanties, this is a comparatively minor media stoush, but badly directed and stale. If you want to read better transport related guff - head straight for Professor Peter Newman and Professor John Pucher.
The Lid is off
UFO sighted over Torquay late Saturday arvo.
Sorry couldn’t pass up a footy reference even for this bitter and jaded ex-Royboys fan. Even non-footy fans should have something to cheer about, with the GetUp Climate ad reaching over $200K in pledges and broadcast during the half-time TV slot.
It was international Car Free Day on September 22. Did you blink and miss it? In Melboring that’s not all that surprising, but in London, under the benevolent rule of Red Ken, they certainly know how to celebrate with The Day of the Bicycles.
Hippy, erstwhile Blackburn CC rider and MIA PubBUG participant has filed a excellent report of the days’ outing:
They day before our ride, Mal was very nervous. We’d been into the city, suffered London’s useless Saturday bike shop staff but at least managed to score a cheapish helmet that wasn’t totally fugly (£40 from £50 because they had no box for it). Behold, the Giro Havoc: (image on hippyblog, no hotlinking here folks!)
Around 10.15am after some tyre-pumping and chain tensioning we left home and headed down to the Ealing Town Hall. The Ealing branch of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) was marshalling a 8k/5mi ride to one of the feeder locations at Ravenscourt Park. (more over at hippyblog)
Enough of the overseas despatches and onto serious local stuff. The National Transport Commission (NTC) has a online questionnaire running until November 2, regarding a Review of the Australian Vehicle Standards Rules.
With each question there is a comments section. This is the bit where you should go for broke and inform the NTC where they can do better. Which they need to do where it comes to truck freight and safety issues for road users. Especially the more vulnerable ones. Discussion and idle chatter here on aus.bicycle.
Cycling Australia have changed their ‘Ride It’ licences to be a more attractive insurance opinion for the swelling ranks of recreational cyclists. Although I’m yet to dig down into the details of the CA Ride It licence and do a comparative analysis vs other products currently on the market. But I’ve got to admit $45 annually ($90 family) + the member benefits offered are very comparable to existing products.
More insurance options for non-competitive cyclists surely be a healthy sign for the greater cycling community. Whether non-competitive cycling organisations, whose membership relies very heavily upon providing insurance as a part of their membership package share this opinion, is quite another matter. Hey isn’t providing consumer choice and all that capitalist bollox is what the market-driven economy strives towards? Ha!
It would be an understatement to say that interesting times are ahead.
