United Kingdom VII: Taking Pride in Your Success

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/21/three-year-old-girl-left-with-life-changing-injuries-after-being-hit-by-e-scooter-in-london

A 3yr old girl has been left with life changing injuries in London after being hit by an e-scooter

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/20/labour-votes-to-ban-four-far-left-factions-that-supported-corbyns-leadership

Labour has voted to kick out the far left groups that backed Corbyn

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/21/unesco-strips-liverpool-waterfront-world-heritage-status

Liverpool has been stripped of its World Heritage status as UNESCO says years of city development has meant the loss of their historic docks

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/21/england-may-have-to-reimpose-covid-rules-in-august-scientists-warn

Scientists say the UK may need to reintroduce mandatory restrictions and face mask use within three weeks (doubt that will happen)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/21/prime-minister-risks-major-rebellion-over-covid-jab-passports-say-tory-mps

Displaying how they don't care about the need for any restrictions MP's are already set to rebel against the plan for COVID certificates in crowded spaces

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/20/boris-johnsons-aides-plotted-to-oust-him-as-pm-dominic-cummings-claims

Cummings claims that aides to Johnson plotted to oust the PM weeks after he took office

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2021/jul/21/brexit-covid-latest-updates-northern-ireland-protocol-dominic-cummings-boris-johnson?page=with:block-60f7cb4a8f085dcd6b594571#block-60f7cb4a8f085dcd6b594571

And Cummings says in an interview this morning that Brexit was a mistake

[wakka]

That e-scooter thing is terrible and was bound to happen sooner or later. Where it happened is not a million miles away from where I live in Southwark. Honestly, those things are an absolute menace. Some of them absolutely rip along at frankly insane speeds, and they're so, so, so popular.

There needs to be some limitations put on them, because they are pretty dangerous. My dog nearly got run over by one the other day.

The weird thing is that they are, of course, illegal to use anywhere except on private property. But that law just doesn't seem to ever be enforced.

[Brad]

Questions like is Brexit a good idea? No-one on earth knows ... what the answer to that is.

And when Kuenssberg asked him to confirm that he was not sure Brexit was a good idea, he replied:

I think anyone who says they’re sure about questions like that has got a screw loose, whether you’re on the remain side or our side ... I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say Brexit was a mistake.

Cummings did, though, stress that he still thought Brexit was a good thing.

good to se he's not sitting on the fence about this

[charlesr]

500+ escooters have been confiscated in London in the last couple of months.

At the same time as rolling out official taxed versions that are allowed. Very confusing.

[MartyG]

Pressumably the taxed versions can be ridden on the roads, rather than pavements which is where the problem with scooters vs pedestrians is.

[wakka]

Googling it, you'll be able to use them wherever you can use bicycles.

Which isn't great considering they go way faster (than most people ride a bike, anyway) and are, generally speaking, often ridden much more recklessly.

They're more of a danger in parks (where you can ride a bike wherever you like) than on the pavement, in my experience - which is where the accident with the little girl above happened.

EDIT: just realised I sound like a 1000 year old grumpy old man. It's the children that are wrong!

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, this seems to be a question of regulation and where you're allowed use them. The laws need to move a hell of a lot faster when new things are introduced and then need to be enforced. I haven't got one of these scooters but, as a concept, they seem pretty great.

[Neon Ignition]

Learner Licence - Test - Licence - Road rules, registration and tax

It's typically moronic that this stuff isn't instantly covered by the DVLA. Simple basic terminology in the law would create an immediate catch all for new devices like these.

[wakka]

Yeah, a speed limit wouldn't hurt for one thing. There are these really chunky looking ones that must go 30+ mph an hour. They're totally silent too. The number of times I've turned a corner, trotting along with the dog, and had one of those bearing down on me.

I don't hate them as a concept and they are probably fun to ride. But the reality of dodging them constantly is cheesing me off!

[Neon Ignition]

That's another puzzler, it should be law for manufacturers to have to have a built in speaker emitting at least a low engine like sound as a basic safety feature of all e-transport devices.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jul/22/coronavirus-live-news-two-more-athletes-test-positive-in-tokyo-biden-raises-jab-hope-for-under-12s?page=with:block-60f90f3b8f0814e7a316ed3f#block-60f90f3b8f0814e7a316ed3f

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jul/22/coronavirus-live-news-two-more-athletes-test-positive-in-tokyo-biden-raises-jab-hope-for-under-12s?page=with:block-60f917928f0814e7a316ed77#block-60f917928f0814e7a316ed77

Food stores face shortages and could close due to Lorry driver and staff sickness, isolations and Brexit factors strangling supply

[Dogg Thang]

That's another puzzler, it should be law for manufacturers to have to have a built in speaker emitting at least a low engine like sound as a basic safety feature of all e-transport devices.

Yep. And this was talked about a lot when things started to go electric so I don't know why it's not yet standard. But then since my school days, I have always wondered why rules of the road and all this stuff isn't taught in schools as standard. It's a core part of life so why is it left out? If we had proper compulsory road rules teaching regardless of what vehicles they intend to use in the future or what hasn't even been invented yet, things would be so much safer and some classes of vehicle (like escooter or bikes) shouldn't even need a test later. Make sure everyone who comes out of school does so knowing how roads and paths work and what the rules are. And then enforce them.

[Asura]

Yeah, this seems to be a question of regulation and where you're allowed use them. The laws need to move a hell of a lot faster when new things are introduced and then need to be enforced. I haven't got one of these scooters but, as a concept, they seem pretty great.

That's the thing, right? I think they're fantastic. I love the idea of municipal alternatives to cars, like short-hire-bikes and the rest of it. Could even be charged via solar power, or at least some of their power could come from that.

It's just that we haven't quite worked out how they "fit" yet, and someone needs to think about it carefully. I see some in the cycle lanes here which are basically electric mopeds.

Learner Licence - Test - Licence - Road rules, registration and tax

It's typically moronic that this stuff isn't instantly covered by the DVLA. Simple basic terminology in the law would create an immediate catch all for new devices like these.

The last time I looked into this, I read the tax thing keeps getting thrown back because cyclists are against it, for a justifiable reason - because nearly all road tax goes onto road maintenance, required due to how cars wear away roads. Cyclists argue that if they're required to pay tax, they should see equivalent road infrastructure budget expenditure, e.g. if cyclists pay 30% of the road budget, then ~30% of the work on all roads should be to cater specifically to cyclists.

Subjectively, I'm sure if cyclists paid road tax then motorists would hate them, because they'd "take the lane" a lot more.

Part of me wonders if this would be the same for those vehicles, and if it was, the DVLA might have a bit of a headache, so they're just loathe to deal with it.

[Neon Ignition]

I can see why the budget isn't proportionate, most places lack the capacity to incorporate cycle lanes safely but I'd definitely say that anything featuring what classes as an engine should need to be licensed and taxed (whether fueled or electric) which escooters would immediately fall under as they're basically lawless motorbikes.

[Dogg Thang]

It's just that we haven't quite worked out how they "fit" yet, and someone needs to think about it carefully.

This is it exactly. And as with so many other road/path issues, a huge amount of the real difficulty is how they fit around cars. So much would be improved by fewer cars but how things work around cars often seems to be the barrier. Other forms of transport need to be better accommodated.