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It's Simon, yeah?

@coldwarcliff.bsky.social
870 followers 1.1K following 2K posts

Drinking beer, riding bikes and fixing stuff. Post about active travel, music and a bit of tech and politics. And riding bikes. And drinking beer.

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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New rules on cycling/driving around people cycling come into force in Spain. Strong principles here.
road.cc
Ride in the centre of the lane and always wear a helmet – Spain has new cycling rules coming later this week
Stay informed about Spanish cycling laws. Learn about new helmet requirements and lane positioning for safer rides.
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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I see a lot of people complaining about the undoubtedly stressful conditions at present on London's roads. But I see few people complaining about motor vehicles. Yet in the last 24 hours three vulnerable road users have died after being hit by people driving motor vehicles.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Bus priority scheme in Lambeth includes new informal crossings with central islands. As a pedestrian I think these should be zebras which actually give clear priority As a cyclist these create scary pinch points with drivers trying to overtake and cut back in.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Proposed bus priority and Healthy Route crossing between 2 LTNs on Acre Lane in Lambeth.
haveyoursay.lambeth.gov.uk
Citizen engagement platform
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telaversion.bsky.social @telaversion.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
@lloydsbankinggroup.bsky.social if it takes over 30 minutes to get through to customer services on a Thursday afternoon you don't have enough staff.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Why only sanctions on settlements? It’s the Israeli state that’s enabling this.
theguardian.com
Senior UK rabbis come out in support of sanctions on Israeli settlements
Spiritual leaders stress diversity of views within Jewish community and warn against inaction on settler violence
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is what I've always found bizarre about the Soho Society - they often seem to claim they want to 'preserve Soho's character' but the area has massively gentrified in the time they've been operating, and they surely have had much do with that. But now...
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
While Bus stop bypasses are back in the press (again) worth looking at how other countries around the world deal with cycleways and bus stops interacting.... There is pretty much a global consensus on this
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
People who oppose creation of a Dutch style cycle network (main roads cycleways + LTNs) usually have some attractively simple sounding alternative that doesn’t stand up to any real world scrutiny. - Just do routes to school - Separate cycling from bus routes - Put routes in quiet back streets
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
RBKC councillor on X trying to claim the borough has built "hundreds of [cycle] tracks and lanes". Yet the @safecycleldn.bsky.social map shows nothing in the borough. The stuff in pink was minimal intervention and they cancelled it in any case... lastnotlost.wordpress.com/tag/quietway/
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Also of note - we rode 24 miles with two people who live in rural France who'd never ridden in a big city before. Clapham - Vauxhall - Westminster - Tower Hill - Brick Lane - Canary Wharf - Island Gardens Battersea Power Station - Clapham Old Town @willnorman.co.uk
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Cycleways don’t increase cycle volumes apparently.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Forest bike review. The 9.99 day pass is a great way to spend a day in London. We rode 24 miles with visiting nephew today, using 184mins of our 1440! Just over 5p a minute. The bike itself? Doesn’t have the very fast acceleration of Lime but has a lot of over run (power after you stop pedalling
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Meanwhile, the US was the only country in the world to oppose a recent UN declaration about the need to reduce crash deaths. The vote was 162 to 1.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
A refreshing view on “access frictions” from active travel infra - which are not cyclists vs disabled but actually needs of different disabled people. From: @tricyclemayor.bsky.social
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
It’s always tricky to attribute something to a specific intervention but this looks like a real validation of ULEZ. There are still, even now, ghouls calling for it to be scrapped on grounds it is “regressive”
theguardian.com
Ulez led to better lung size and function among London children, study finds
Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Sometimes you wonder. Porsche has been crashed. SUV has clearly been driven a long way on a flat front tyre, tyres on trailer are flat.
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
It's that day again #alevels
[Title panel]:
A-LEVEL RESULTS COLUMNS DAY

[Scene is a TV news type report about A Level results day]

REPORTER [talking to camera outside a school where students are crowding outside the hall to get in]:

Well, it's that day again

When A-Level students across the country finally get to find out

What Britain's newspaper columnists think about their results.

[show the interior of the school hall, with long tables, but instead of results papers on them, loads of middle-aged newspaper columnists are all laid out]

[Close up on the COLUMNISTS lying on the table, talking up to a gaggle of excited students desperate to find out what they say]

PETER HITCHENS:
I remember when A-Levels meant something

CLARKSON: 
I got a C and two U's

[Cut to outside the hall, the REPORTER is talking to a student]

REPORTER:
And did you get the middle-aged opinions you wanted?

STUDENT:
Yes! 

I got one ‘There's Too Much Humanities’,
and two Oxford graduates telling me they went to Oxford.

REPORTER [now doing a voiceover, as we see the students in the school hall next to the columnists on tables, and the students are preparing to jump in the air for a photographer]:

And then the annual photo shoot…

[PHOTOGRAPHER]
One, two, three...

[One of the columnists on the table pipes up with]: 

What's The Point Of University in 2026?

[The students all jump for joy]

STUDENTS:
HOORAY!

[ends]
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Londons bus fleet electrification is happening at a fair lick. 1/3 of fleet now content.tfl.gov.uk/31-march-202...
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still last @lastnotlost.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🧵 Why is national cycle route #NCN4 on a shared-use pavement along Chelsea Embankment in #RBKC? Well, #RBKC chose the shared-use pavement in Dec'1999 to prevent the nascent Greater London Authority GLA building a proper cycle lane on the forthcoming red-route. 1/n
Open Cycle Map : https://www.opencyclemap.org/?zoom=15&lat=51.47663&lon=-0.16592&layers=B0000 

showing  a red line with National cycle Network route 4 running along the north side of the River Thames between Lots Road and Chelsea Bridge.  It is a shared-use pavement
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Name and age match (which is not definitive) but it looks like someone jailed and banned for 5 years for killing a cyclist while driving at 70mph in a 30 limit in 2016 has left another cyclist for dead. People who drive with this level of recklessness should never be allowed to drive again.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Another year, another blog from londontravelwatch on decreasing bus speeds. Once again, no mention of what might actually be causing that decrease, which is affecting all London boroughs. www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/news/blog-po...
londontravelwatch.org.uk
Blog post: The ever-decreasing speed of London's buses - London TravelWatch
Trevor Rosenberg, our Policy and Advocacy Officer, looks at the growing issue of slow buses and longer journey times
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Looks like the Royal Parks are finally, after >6 years, going to open the gate at the south end of the Park Lane cycle way so cyclists and pedestrians don’t have to squeeze through the narrow ped gate. (And bypass the stupid shared space crossing to Hyde Park Corner as well)
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Also, the idea of 'privilege'? Firstly a 30 minute ride is at most £9.70 not "over £10", but only £4 if pre-paid (less if a bigger bundle) and £3 for students. A tube single is £3.60 (£7 for cash!) 30 minutes in a black cab £25-45, Uber 15-50 Yet the Lime rider is somehow flaunting wealth?
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Hope. That’s what I remember. The world wasn’t perfect but through much of the 90’s it felt like the world was becoming a better, safer, more liberal place and that nations were working together for good. The culture reflected that. Less post 9/11. A lot less post c2015? 2008?
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
It would have be really useful to know if there was significant difference between speed limited high quality rental scooters and illegal private scooters www.theguardian.com/science/2026...?
theguardian.com
E-scooters far more dangerous than motorbikes or cycles, analysis suggests
Study of accidents in England and Wales shows e-scooter riders three times more likely to suffer traumatic brain injury than bikers
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Is this the most ridiculous cycleway design failure of the last decade? Loads of space for wide cycleway + footway. They were trying to create a series of bends to slow speeds but built a narrow straight path with a load of unusable tarmac at the sides. Completely obvious from consult drawings.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I don’t know if it is the cost of housing, an ageing demographic or something else but it’s ever clearer that West End residents would rather live somewhere else. Why don’t they just move? The Soho Society is the worst. Seemingly trying to “preserve” a Soho that’s not what it’s ever been.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Older drivers aren't involved in as many collisions as younger drivers, but that doesn't mean they're not a danger. They don't drive many miles but the RATE of collisions per mile goes up drastically. Over 80's are the most dangerous on the road. www.gov.uk/government/s...
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Visited Margate at the weekend and the streets were so pedestrian hostile. 20mph makes such a difference to the whole feel of a place-walking around nearly every UK town outside London is more stressful due to speeding traffic Look at the crossings on this junction right in the middle of the beach!
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Laura Laker @lauralaker.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
“It’s perverse that people who want to walk and cycle are penalised because the motor traffic is too polluting". National Highways closes cycling and walking routes beside heavily polluted roads lauralaker.substack.com/p/national-h...
lauralaker.substack.com
National Highways closes walking and cycling routes beside heavily polluted roads
Roads body accused of 'perversely penalising' walkers and cyclists for motor traffic pollution
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Also see The Royal Parks. From Richmond Park Cyclists. Forest is now the sole bike share in Richmond. But while you can ride a forest bike through the park you cannot park anywhere inside the park. There’s no published figure for the number of *free* car parking spaces across the 7 car parks..
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Iain Roberts @slowbikeiain.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Let's talk about mayors - a 🧵 Burnham wants to give mayors across the country substantially more powers, money and responsibility. He's looking to roll out "Greater Manchester Plus" (my phrase) across England within three years. That's very fast, and very good. It needs to be done. 1/X
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Obsessed with the Alastair Heath headline generator stirring-fox-7e1fab.netlify.app
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Every single person who rides an ostentatiously noisy motorbike can just fuck off. Those who do so in London or any town or city, and especially those who use chainsaw-volume engine revving as a “warning” can then fuck off all over again.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Every day the BBC news updates on the number of people who’ve crossed the channel in small boats. But somehow this isn’t newsworthy. Just the collateral damage of a motorcentric society
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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 30/07/2026
This is going to make it very difficult to know which sports we should ban them from.
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I can’t believe these arrests are still happening - the new PM could end this utterly absurd proscription if he chose. As Jonathon Porritt says - trying to save lives is not terrorism. Exposing this government’s complicity in genocide is not terrorism
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orrox @orrconsult.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Still waiting to hear from Lime after querying why they gave me a 'Warning for not parking correctly' after they turned off my bike when I paused at side of road to look at my map (in Netherlands). The app said "because my ride had been unusually long". Is there a time limit. Has anyone had this?
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Social media is so ripe for witch hunts. I've seen a suggestion that Zack didn't even 'repost' this - that the original poster had tagged him into it, and that's why it appears on his feed. Maybe. I've never been completely clear on how Insta displays stuff
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
So it *is* possible to stop Apple Music on my phone bugging me to subscribe and to just show and search in my mp3 collection that I've synced to it.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Just a Church off Fleet Street campaigning against Sunday parking charges. "there are often issues with public transport on Sundays, a problem compounded by the fact roads are regularly shut to allow activities such as fun runs, driving is often the only option" www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Good thread this. Social care is hugely unfair right now - even more so when you get to the point about those paying subsidising the costs of those the state does pay for.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Nowhere else like it.
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Last night when I slipped off the narrow pavement on Poland Street nearly falling in front of a speeding taxi I reminded myself how important it is high net worth families or movie stars aren't in any way inconvenienced by having to walk anywhere and have parking.
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 23/07/2026
"Sunny Jim" in Private Eye nails the Tories' new approach to climate change...
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It's Simon, yeah? @coldwarcliff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This is a new one on me - Ashford town centre. An A road becomes a big open space with no road markings but vague zebra like stripes in the paving (but no zebra crossing markings or beacons) with very long crossing distances. @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social
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Stephen Smith @gsds3.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Once again, I regret not responding to the Charter Review consultation with ‘give the BBC lots of money in return for banning vox pops, voodoo polls, and quotes from think tanks who are actually lobby groups’
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