Always uplifting to see a struggling native species doing well. Hope I get to see one of these beauties up close one day, shame they are still limited to just a few locations.
And it was that very summer, when taking a leisurely swim in one of Britain’s lakes, that ns1 got his wish, his face surfacing directly underneath an alarmed seven-centimeter giant raft spider on the hunt.
I really hope in the next few years we see a revolution in short distance transport. Most journeys are less than 3 miles (if I remember correctly, could be 5) a perfect distance for e-bikes, e-scooters and normal acoustic bikes. Hopefully at least some places capitalise on it
Sadly this is a term that has caught on even though it makes no sense. I wish people had latched onto “non-electric” bike or “NE” bike instead, but here we are.
There are some great examples of cycle lane design out there. And some atrocious examples of cycle lanes that have been built. But that’s a separate rant.
If we had a quality cycle lane network, we could have adapted that to support “more than walking, less that driving” lanes without much issue.
The earlier we invest in this new class of highway the cheaper and easier it will be.
It stops a lot of people. Unfortunately, they are also the ones who would actually follow the rules. This just leaves the rule breakers and idiots, giving everyone else a bad name.
I would personally love a micro mobility option. An option between walking and driving my van somewhere would be extremely useful.
What are your rules about bicycles? In Sweden, we regulated them kinda like bicycles - as long as the motor has an effect under 250w, and is limited to driving at speeds of 20km/hr, you’re able to use them in the same places and manners as other bicycles.
Recently they started to require traffic insurance, and basically all insurance plans have zero deductibles as long as you’re wearing a helmet. I barely see anyone with helmets still, but yeah…
Or is the biggest nightmare that there’s not many designated bicycle paths, and so people are zooming around where pedestrians are walking?
25kmph and 250w, off the top of my head. You need to pedal for the motor to engage, and they count as a bicycle so no insurance needed. The twist & go bikes (no pedalling required) are basically motorbikes with pedals so they’re technically illegal but they’re still widespread. You’ll regularly see them in every city centre for food deliveries and you’ll see kids on them everywhere else.
The lack of bicycle paths is a big problem but I don’t think they’ll solve it entirely. The barrier of entry is just too low, any idiot can ride one and be oblivious to the danger as they weave in between people.
And not these bullshit white lines that people park over and drive in constantly.
There’s a road near me where they spend loads of money “upgrading” the cycle infrastructure, literally all they did was to paint some white lines. Which as you say people park on.
Yeah I’m positive it’s just a box sticky next exercise.
But it’s just another example of the conservatives and their complete lack of any real interest in the carbon initiative, because that’s where this comes from. They were supposed to increase cycle infrastructure by a certain percent by a certain date, but since they were not going to do that they instead they decided to just paint some white lines on the ground and claim that they’d done it.
Then about 5 years ago they just decided to give up and not even pretend anymore, and left us with whatever mess they had got to.
Truly life being stranger than fiction, in that he was recently in the news after being acquitted in the US.
He had this to say on the American legal system at the time: “the reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent… but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that’s set up to sweep you away”.
How does raising money help? He’s already been sentenced, so it’s not going to go in for legal defenses. And he’s a dangerous individual and therefore unlikely to be eligible for parole.
Seems like a great big nothing burger really.
Also where did his idiot friend come up with 1 grand from? That is not a large amount of money.
No it’s not a large amount of money to anyone. We all live in the same economy we all have to pay for the same basic things. It’s less 1 months minimum wage. Seems like a very strangely picked limit likely by chosen by someone that doesn’t actually know the value of money and thinks it’s a lot.
This seems like a good first step.
Move them out of the “technically illegal, but lots of people use them anyway” area, and into the “legal to use, but you have to register and carry some form of insurance”.
I’ve been a bicyclist, car driver, drive for a living and also have a VSett that goes a steady 35mph max which means I can lane check but, because I can’t fugging insure the thing means I’m always looking over my shoulder if I need to dump some keen eager copper.
I’m starting to think of selling it so I can get a eBike Surron instead and blend in with the local wildlife around here.
If you give people a reasonable, legal way to do things, people will generally do them.
And the odd twat doing 30mph on the pavement is much more obvious, rather than blending in with people who would otherwise be following the laws.
I think one thing that’s missing from the equation is testing and licensing to ride/drive them.
I know it’s an English forum here but you need to have a set of cojones to “drive” an escoot/EUC on our roads and I only use it to travel the short distance to work.
I’ve gone down arterial roads suited up with live Bradford traffic, and it’s not for the faint of heart lemmi tell ya :/
I wish the cycling proficiency test was a legal requirement to ride a bicycle.
There are so many people who drive dangerously and use bad cyclists as an excuse. You know the ones who decide that traffic lights don’t apply to them, and the ones that ride on the pavement at 20 mph and knock over little old ladies.
I get the feeling that in the past, the effort required to cycle self-selected people a bit.
Now with cheap assisted bikes, it’s easier than ever to become a 100KG object travelling at 20mph.
So maybe it should have more requirements, in a “greater good” kinda way.
Kinda like when drones took off (heh). The rules for how to use model aircraft needed refining, because the barrier to flying a 2KG object near an airport became much lower.
In October 2010 the first introduction of a great raft spider population into a new site in the UK was carried out in a joint project by Natural England and Suffolk Wildlife Trust and supported by a grant from the BBC Wildlife Fund. The project saw around 3000 spiderlings bred and reared by Dr. Helen Smith and the John Innes Centre, 1600 of which were released into suitable dykes at the Suffolk Wildlife Trust Castle Marshes nature reserve. The site is part of the Suffolk Broads and lies 50 kilometres (31 mi) downstream, from Redgrave and Lopham fen, between Lowestoft and Beccles. Work was carried out to improve the ditch network at the site to prepare for the reintroduction and provide optimal habitat for the new spider population.
Dr. Helen Smith knew that the one great problem with the UK was an insufficient number of giant spiders running around, and she intended to remedy that.
Each spiderling was hand reared in separate test tubes and fed with fruit flies.
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