iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 29/09/2026

Would be nice to see TfL getting similar powers to regulate car clubs. If Zipcar hadn't needed to deal with individual boroughs setting their own prices and rules, maybe they would have stuck around?

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 29/09/2026

Okay so I might vote in a general election run under a PR system by the time I'm 45. Unless Reform win in a landslide and then decide that FPTP is Good Actually... which unfortunately doesn't seem that unrealistic a scenario.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 29/09/2026

However, Oxford Street is awful for all users currently! The MDC has given Khan an opportunity to do *something* and he is taking it. I hope when it's done, there are hard and necessary conversations about why change took so long to achieve, and yet the outcome is still worse than in other cities.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 29/09/2026

The mayor only has some of the tools though that would be needed to properly solve the issues here. So he's chosen to focus on the pedestrian experience even if that inconveniences public transport users (buses being diverted means step-free access is worsened) and endangers cyclists.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 29/09/2026

Plenty of examples of cities where a pedestrian-first shopping street also has a movement function. Trams, bikes and pedestrians can all get along in a well designed space! Korenmarkt in Ghent is my favourite example that I've personally experienced.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 28/09/2026

I imagine it is traditional, deterministic code in the harness handling that?

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 27/09/2026

It's a bit of both I think. The artificial noises seems to be a little bit influenced by / designed to complement the noises an electric motor system naturally makes. The noise a Lime / Voi bike makes when you move off is somewhat similar for instance, but there's nothing artificial about that.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 27/09/2026

It's a far less aggressive, antisocial noise at least. I'm particularly glad that with an EV, there's no equivalent to revving your engine.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 26/09/2026

We've had half a century of failed demand-side "solutions" to housing affordability. Couldn't you just spend whatever funding is being diverted to this scheme on building homes instead?

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 22/09/2026

Not helped by past Tory governments overruling the local council when they tried to deny planning permission for new academy primaries

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 19/09/2026

The Voi discount seems particularly good as (looking at the terms) it doesn't seem to require rides to start in the borough, as with Lime.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

In a UK context, there's pretty much zero chance of police (we don't have "cops") getting involved with parents and their kids cycling to school on the pavement

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

Act like a guest in the space, because you are I think saying "no one will hate you" is a stretch though. I've seen school run parents riding on the road, 10 meters away from their children cycling on the pavement. I don't know why they would do that if it weren't for previous aggro they've faced.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

If funded by public bodies, they're probably mostly doing it for good publicity / green credentials and the mere act of installing them is seen as job done, would be surprised if they following up on usage. Private businesses would care more about the ROI, but how would you collate that data?

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

Yeah the ones I've seen in Europe are seemingly almost always funded by tourist boards / local councils, or installed by private businesses hoping to attract custom. I would not be hopeful about the prospect of getting high quality reports / studies.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

I've never seen a little box (to leave your charger in?) on public chargers in the continent! Bit weird, feels like it would deter usage, and you can just put the charging brick in some waterproof panniers if you're concerned about rain.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

Might be worth getting in touch with @pedalme.bsky.social to ask how they handle this

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 16/09/2026

Given the capacity of even the largest cargo bikes, seems unlikely a courier would run down the battery before finishing their rounds. Then when they return to the depot for more packages, seems like it would be easier to have spare batteries charging there so they can be quickly swapped out.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

Vastly better than any other city in England though. At least if a local authority is serious about dealing with it, they have the powers to do so.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

"It won't have to be done in the London way [here in Coventry] but it's a blanket ban and you have to put an order in allowing people to park." Sounds an awful lot like the London way tbh?

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

Would hopefully lead to fewer companies degrading the user experience (auth walls / captchas) to deter scraping / distillation, if there was an easier path. And yes presumably hype and therefore investment would lessen making a model didn't mean you get to exclusively profit from it.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

In a way, it feels like a working class version of the IR35 mess. Putting the responsibility entirely on individuals to follow the rules means the risks will always seem worth the reward. Enforcement will never be able to make a dent when there are so many offenders to chase.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

Oh and unlike Lime, it seems that for the £1.75 fare isn't only for rides starting in the borough. Phone holder doesn't grip tightly enough—I think I need to figure out a way to lash a quad lock mount to the handlebars of hire bikes / scooters.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

£1.75 pass for 30 minutes for Hackney residents is very welcome (and I still have 15 minutes left over). But you can't buy a pass using credit you already have in your account (I still have some from hiring a scooter in Münster last year).

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 15/09/2026

Needed to pick up my bike after it had been fixed, so I've used a dockless bike for the first time ever (nearest dealer for the brand was is Tower Hamlets). It was a Voi, they're stupidly fast off the mark! Would be great to have an option to tweak the acceleration.

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Reposted by Liam Duffy

Hackney Cycling Campaign @hackneycycling.org.uk · 13/09/2026

We have some rides planned for next Sunday, 20th September, as part of London Cycling Festival! - Feeder to main "Kidical Mass" ride, starting from Stonebridge Gardens, Haggerston at 10am - History ride starting in Hackney Central at 3pm See here for more info: lcc.org.uk/events/lcf-h...

Photo of large group of cyclists, including children, riding down a road

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 13/09/2026

Yep! We've planned a route accounting for this and just did a recce to test

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 11/09/2026

Chris, I think this would be a strong look for the video

A woman stands in a field wearing a large black hat with solar panels on the brim, plugged into a neck cooler

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 11/09/2026

All the e-bike chargers I've seen in Europe just have a standard AC outlet. Means you have to bring your cables / brick with you but I don't think that's too much of an issue. It also means the chargers can be used with other micromobility devices, like mobility scooters.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 11/09/2026

Rivian have a sub-brand coming out with a bike that will supposedly offer 240W USB PD charging, but like a lot of car manufacturer's pet e-bike projects it seems designed to have a list of features that sound cool, rather than to be useful. The charging has apparently caused delays in production.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 11/09/2026

Not really in the UK no, yes in Europe

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 10/09/2026

Feels like the only forces that could pull back this latest and most virulent strain of US hyper-capitalism are Brussels and Beijing. I do think China's focus on open weight models is a positive, makes it less likely we'll end up with a handful of players exclusively profiting from this technology.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 10/09/2026

It does feel like a real abdication of responsibility to leave the big questions (e.g. whether training on copyrighted data without a licensing agreement is legal) to be decided in court cases and not in legislation. But again, how much impact could one country have by themselves?

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 10/09/2026

It seems that governments around the world are all avoiding actively shaping the direction of AI development and instead just crossing their fingers and hoping it all works out. To be fair, I don't think many countries have the clout (on their own) to have any real impact either way!

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 07/09/2026

Hopefully the mooted change to speed limits (from the current 8mph) will actually happen, as I'm sure it would help many mobility scooter users feel more comfortable riding in the carriageway rather than on the pavement.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 06/09/2026

I also suspect that if such a lever existed, that would make TfL far less timid about making interventions in favour of walking and cycling. There are so many big nasty junctions they currently aren't willing to touch because reducing the flow of cars would also necessarily reduce the flow of buses.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 06/09/2026

TfL needs a policy lever to deal with congestion outside the current charging zone. If someone wants to drive their private vehicle at busy times and slow down buses, then they ought to pay for the privilege.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 06/09/2026

Policymakers and local officers should be well aware that every time a local household buys another car, it's going to be that much harder to try and nudge the behaviour of local residents towards healthier, lower impact ways of getting around.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 06/09/2026

So there may even be a temptation drive more for little tasks / conveniences to get "value" out of that investment. This is why it was so gutting that Zipcar's offering in London was just allowed to die. It offered a way for people to occasionally use cars without getting addicted.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 06/09/2026

I suppose the issue is that once you have a car for one reason (e.g. commuting), it's just very tempting to use it for trips where it isn't strictly necessary. A privately owned car may have some big up front costs, but from then on per trip they're actually quite cheap.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 04/09/2026

Got sorted fairly quickly by Herberts Cycles in Whitstable, who had Brompton-appropriate tubes in stock. Evidence: video of me cycling with visible sea in background!

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 03/09/2026

Big burst along a seam. Definitely not salvageable

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 03/09/2026

Might limp it to the train station in the morning and see what Whitstable's bike shops are made of

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 03/09/2026

The importance of having a inner tube handy is not lost on my at this moment.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 03/09/2026

Okay so I have a big ride in Kent that I'm wanting to do tomorrow morning and a bloke riding across a pedestrian crossing over a red light just slammed into my front wheel and burst the inner tube! Less than ideal.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 02/09/2026

There is a separated cycle track to use if you're turning left here. Every other arm of the junction has no such protection. Seems like a lack of strategic thinking around cycling, and just fitting it in a token gesture where it was easy.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 02/09/2026

Only suitable for cyclists who aren't bothered by the feeling of being immediately "chased" by cars as soon as they're in a junction. There is an early release here I think, but the junction is still so huge that motorists will definitely catch up before you're out the other end.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 02/09/2026

I suspect this is because these are phrases usually used in connection with supposed quality time with the family. Lunch has less ceremony around it

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 27/08/2026

Wait what, are they a / b testing the blurb?

Crop of cover, showing title "31 Inventions That Built Our World" and following blurb; "Fascinating and often very funny" from Tom Holland and "I Love Jonn Elledge's brain" from Marina Hyde.

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Liam Duffy @liamduffy.dev · 26/08/2026

I imagine they're assuming anyone arriving using a kick scooter will be staying on the pavements

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