31 October 2005: Roller-racing, Ghostcycle and Critical Mass London
Joining Buffalo Bill and the hardcore of London’s bike messengers for chaotic indoor racing action at Rollapalooza IV (and live music from the Deadley Treadleys). In the studio Scott and Steve explain...
View Article28 November 2005: Surviving the winter on two wheels
This week newbie cyclist Alex Crawford and veteran London bike messenger Buffalo Bill swap notes on how to survive the winter on two wheels. Featuring interviews with Simon from Brixton Cycles and...
View Article5 December 2005 Show – Police on bikes!!
This week we look at the subject of police and paramedics on bikes. Kieron Yates interviews Sergeant Robert Bliss of the City of London police’s cycle team. And a big shout to Bike Show listeners in...
View Article1 May 2007: Podcast special: ‘Stannerd’ comes out for cycling
The Bike Show is officially off air at the moment, but I couldn’t resist a podcast-only edition to discuss the Evening Standard’s Damscene conversion to the way of the bicycle. For years, London’s...
View Article14 May 2007: Road Peace // Floyd Landis
Returning for the summer season, The Bike Show turns to the trials of US cycling star Floyd Landis, whose sensational victory in the 2006 Tour de France was thrown into doubt after he failed a test for...
View Article28 January 2008: Transition Town Bicycling
Totnes in South Devon is where the rapidly growing ‘transition town’ movement all began. Transition towns are a response to the problem of resource depletion, peak oil and climate change and embrace...
View ArticleCycleSafeLondon.com
Two cyclists have been killed and another injured in collisions with lorries on the streets of London in the past week. This brings the unofficial total fatalities in 2008 to 8 or 9, depending on...
View ArticleQuis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Nice to see the police setting an example. Today at 2.20pm on Webber Street, corner of Blackfriars Road, SE1. For those who don’t know, this is an Advance Stop Line, a ‘safe place’ for cyclists to wait...
View ArticleCity of London Police: Road Safety Forum
This morning I attended the Road Safety Forum organised by the City of London police, at their Snow Hill police station, near Smithfield Market. It was a good meeting, well attended by a range of...
View Article13 October 2008: Emergency – Lorries Killing Cyclists
After a summer of fun on two wheels, we turn to more serious matters. The entire show this week is devoted to the problem of lorries killing cyclists in London. With Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists...
View ArticleCity of London: Cyclist traffic casualty statistics
I previously wrote about last months’ City of London Police’s recent Road Safety Forum. I mentioned some statistics that were presented by Sergeant Alan Rickwood. Sergeant Ringwood was kind enough to...
View ArticleLondon cycle hire scheme – the lowdown
An accident of geography means that, official speaking, I’m a Lambeth Cyclist but I’m a Southwark Cyclist at heart, not least because of the dynamic Barry Mason, the quirky Rob Ainsley, the luminous...
View ArticleLondon cyclists in monkey attacks
London’s cyclists have plenty to contend with whether it’s deadly lorries and trucks, bendy-buses, white van man or suicidal pedestrians stepping out without looking. But now there is a violent...
View ArticleCycle Super-MyWays
Boris Johnson is London’s first cycling Mayor and he has put a ‘cycling revolution’ at the heart of his programme of government. As well as the Cycle Hire Scheme, Mayor Johnson has announced plans for...
View ArticleTfL Draft Cycle Safety Action Plan: plenty of carrots but where are the sticks?
Transport for London has published a draft Cycle Safety Action Plan. Comments on the plan are required by December 11th 2009. The plan is good in parts but the emphasis is on voluntary measures,...
View ArticleA modest proposal to save lives: extend the lorry ban by three hours
Here’s an idea to make London safer for cyclists: keep the biggest lorries off the streets during the morning rush hour. If enacted I am confident it would save lives. It can be done by tweaking...
View ArticleCalling Time on “Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You” (SMIDSY)
The Bike Show moves into advocacy mode this week with guest in the studio Debra Rolfe, Campaigns Director of the Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC), Britain’s largest cycling organisation with 60,000+...
View ArticleThe physics of running red lights
It’s the Christmas silly season and newspapers are again rounding on cyclists (aka ‘lycra louts’) for running red lights and putting other road users at risk. Never mind the lack of any hard evidence...
View ArticleRed light means go (or does it?)
Should cyclists stop at red lights? Why do we feel such a strong urge to keep rolling? Should our behavior be guided by the law of the land or the laws of common courtesy? What would Isaac Newton and...
View ArticleWe’re all Aristoteleans now
Nigel Warburton, whose Philosophy Bites is among the brightest stars in the podcasting firmament, appeared on The Bike Show late last year, with materials scientist Mark Miodownik in a discussion about...
View ArticleLorries/HGVs/LGVs killing cyclists: an appeal to London listeners
Last Thursday, on what felt like a warm, sunny first day of Spring, I was witness to the immediate aftermath of a collision involving a cyclist and a 32 tonne articulated lorry. It was a truly...
View ArticleVideo: London Critical Mass – Lorries Killing Cyclists
The London Cycling Campaign have released an excellent video.
View ArticleCycle Superhighways – Waste of Paint or Copenhagenization?
A long, hard look at the Mayor of London’s plans for 12 cycle superhighways – bike routes from the outer boroughs along London’s main arterial roads. With Kulveer Ranger, Boris Johnson’s top transport...
View ArticleCyclists and lorries don’t mix: this week’s evidence
Not much text needed to accompany these photographs taken yesterday on the streets of Southwark and posted on the SE1 Forum. Exhibit A: Lorry and cyclist collide on Borough High Street, junction of...
View ArticleLondon Assembly Member Jenny Jones rides the Cycle Superhighway
Jenny Jones asks all the right questions. Good, campaigning stuff from the Green Party Assembly member.
View ArticleNo bicycle helmet law here, please
We’re free to wear whatever we please while riding a bike. But to those who might be considering a compulsory helmet law, like that in Australia or the law that looks as though it may be adopted in...
View ArticleNorman Baker MP, liberalism and bicycle helmets
You may not have heard of Norman Baker. He is the member of parliament for the town of Lewes in East Sussex. He is also a junior minister in the Department of Transport. Among his responsibilities is...
View ArticleKeep the Red Stuff In
In the studio is Bike Show regular ‘Buffalo’ Bill Chidley, who brings news of London’s burgeoning bicycle polo scene (note imminent rebranding as ‘urban bike hammer ball’). The London Open 2011 is on...
View ArticleRoad Danger Reduction with Dr Robert Davis
Each year on the roads of this country upwards of 2,000 people are killed and many tens of thousands more are injured in road crashes. The perception of danger is one of the most common reasons people...
View ArticleWhy Boris Johnson has got it wrong on Blackfriars Bridge
London’s Mayor Boris Johnson has made his position clear on Blackfriars Bridge, a subject that has become a major subject of campaigning for a more cycling-friendly city: Question No: 1750 / 2011 John...
View ArticleBlackfriars Bridge: how far to push the limits of peaceful protest?
In the face of a unanimous motion of the London Assembly and the Mayor’s own misgivings, Transport for London plans this weekend to build a dangerous new gyratory on the north side of Blackfriars...
View ArticleBlackfriars and Beyond
The ‘Battle for Blackfriars’ has united London cyclists and pedestrians in opposition to plans by the Mayor of London for an ‘urban motorway’ on a London bridge that is heavily used by cyclists yet has...
View ArticleCompare and contrast
Here’s the Mayor and Transport for London’s plan for the new northern end junction of Blackfriars Bridge: And here’s the new plan from the London Cycling Campaign: Which do you prefer? If you think the...
View ArticleBoris Johnson on the Safety of Cycling in London: Complete Audio
Following a spate of deaths and serious injuries to London cyclists, there is a growing campaign to make London streets safer for cycling and walking. Under questioning from various members of the...
View ArticleIs riding a bike as easy as riding a bike?
Jen Kerrison takes over the show for a week while Jack is away in Yorkshire, riding up hill and down dale. Jen asks if cycle training is necessary for adult cyclists. Or is riding a bike just like...
View ArticleMake Our Junctions Safer
Flowers and candles for Ellie Carey, a 22-year old woman killed while cycling on Tower Bridge Road on 2 December 2011. The flowers and candles were left by family and friends on 14 December following a...
View ArticleRed Flag, Yellow Flag
Oh, how the tables have turned. In the late 19th century, people looked with alarm at the new ‘horseless carriages’ that were appearing on the public highways. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic...
View ArticleLondoners On Bikes…with Votes!
In the studio with Stephen Taylor and Katherine Hibbert of Londoners On Bikes a new group of London cyclists who want to put cycling front and centre in the London Mayoral elections this May. Plus we...
View ArticleAcross Europe by Bike
Andrew Sykes tells of his six week summer journey from his home in Reading to the southern tip of Puglia, in Italy, along the Eurovelo 5 long-distance cycle route, and reads from Good Vibrations, the...
View ArticleOn Two Wheels in France
As governments around the world seek to improve conditions for cyclists, we take a look at France, a country synonymous with cycle sport but that has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to...
View ArticleHow to get more women riding bikes
To mark International Women's Day, a discussion of women in cycling, from bygone days of the Rational Dress Society of the late Victorian era to Britain's twenty-first century successes in competition...
View ArticleSummer’s here! Get on your bike and ride
With the start of British Summer Time we profile two upcoming mass rides: Velonotte London and the Edinburgh Pedal on Parliament. On the night of Saturday 23rd June, Sergey Nikitin's Velonotte...
View ArticleWhen Will We Stop Lorries Killing Cyclists?
As another cyclist is killed by a lorry in central London, Jack Thurston asks whether it's time to take a harder line to make the city's streets safer. Featuring Cynthia Barlow of RoadPeace, former...
View ArticleA Bright New Dawn for Cycling in London?
London Mayor Boris Johnson's new Vision for Cycling has won widespread praise for its ambition of making London streets more inviting for people on bikes, following the successes of cities like...
View ArticleCampaigning for Cycling
In the middle of possibly the worst week for cycling fatalities in London Mike Cavenett of the London Cycling Campaign talks about what his organisation is doing to change things in the city and how an...
View ArticleCycling and the Countryside
Cycling in the countryside can be an unparalleled joy. But too often fast, hostile roads and make it worse than cycling in Britain’s urban streets. What’s gone wrong? And more importantly, what can be...
View ArticleSpace for Cycling: The Big Campaign
In what may well be the biggest electoral campaign ever mounted by a cycle campaign group in Britain, Space for Cycling makes a very clear series of demands on candidates for local councils. To talk...
View ArticleCome the E-Bike Revolution?
Electric bikes are a rapidly growing area of the bicycle industry, offering the promise of effortless two-wheeled travel. Professor Mark Miodownik of University College London tests a Smart E-bike...
View ArticleThe Near Miss Project
Statistics tell us that for the same distance travelled you're more likely to come to physical harm on a bike than on most other modes of transport. But even so, crashes are quite rare. Much more...
View ArticleBike Boom? What Bike Boom?
Bike sales are up, cycling is all over newspapers and magazines. We in Britain are in the middle of a bonafide bike boom. So says veteran cycling journalist Carlton Reid, who's writing a book about the...
View Article
