Blind leading the blind?

[merseymouth]

Hello there, In the Daily Telegraph today,21/1/17, a motoring journalst gets paid for a column of sheer stupidity?
Erin Baker posts a piece directot related to cycling & cyle training which beggars belief. Doing the school run by bicycle whilst supervising her young son she admits to not having a clue about any of the legal or safety issues involved, bemoaning all pedestrians who object to being endangered in an area set aside for their safety!
I will write to her, questioning her suitability as a parent & mentor for the child. Also ask why she hasn't concidered actually undertaking proper cycle training before putting everyone else at risk?
She says - "It seems we're not allowed on the road or the pavement, and we're not allowed in the playground, or in the nice enclosures in Richmond Park, so where exactly is he meant to learn how to cycle?".
Well, my view is that if she is so obviously ignorant of such matters she should get her ignorance seen to before further endangering the young lad, or he mightn't gey much older!
The "Blind Leading The Blind" are her words not mine, but they are correct. TTFN MM

[reohn2]

Do you have a link to the article or is it behind a paywall?

[thirdcrank]

The article is in the "Pedal Power" column of the newly-revamped Daily Telegraph's Weekend Section. (As part of what I presume to be desperate cost-cutting, a lot of the separate supplements including the motoring one have been lumped together in one section. Last week there was an all-the-gear-no-idea review of a £10,000+ Bianchi road bike. This week it's the twaddle mentioned by the op.)

I've looked for it online and can't find it. The time I've spent doing that is already more than it's worth.

(The basic idea is largely true - not easy to cycle on today's roads with small children - but the way it's presented seems inappropriate, to say the least.)

[PH]

Hello there, In the Daily Telegraph today,21/1/17, a motoring journalst gets paid for a column of sheer stupidity?

Paid with the money from those who buy it of course.

[ianrobo]

well at least they see a market for it given the usual Torgraph reader is closer to death than retirement.

[reohn2]

Thanks TC for looking,I had a look too and couldn't find anything,though what I did find convinced me I've not missed anything by not buying a paper these past 25 years or so

[ChrisOntLancs]

well occasionally papers that demonise a particular group will seek out their own poster boy/girl to speak their mind, inevitably throwing them to the wolves while simultaneously obtaining validation in the caricature.

but this isn't some freelance (code for) blogger... this might actually be sincere journalism.... which would be far scarier if true.

[thirdcrank]

Had the piece been from a first-time poster on here, I'd have had my usual concern that it might be somebody floating topics they know to be controversial on here like pavement cycling but I could have accepted it as a request for info, to be directed to things like Cyclecraft, the HC and Bikeability but really, one might assume that a journo would know how to find info if they really wanted it.

[661-Pete]

'Erin Baker' isn't a name to me (am I expected to keep tabs on every journo on the planet, whether anti-cyclist or not? ) so I googled her. The most recent offering that actually is online (dating from last February) contains stuff such as the following (her bold, not mine):

Between 1993 and 2013, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs, the number of speed-limit signs in England increased by nearly 100 per cent, to more than 440,000 ... This is madness: the signs become hazards in themselves, greater than the ones they warn of.

(*sigh*)

[Postboxer]

The most recent thing I found from her was her getting a bike this Christmas, to go with her son's so they could cycle to school, I think the title was 'Why I'm joining the enemy'

Found it again, it was actually, 'Joining the enemy: Why I've bought a bicycle'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/comment ... t-bicycle/


Sorry it's behind a paywall but you can read the opening.

[661-Pete]

The most recent thing I found from her was her getting a bike this Christmas, to go with her son's so they could cycle to school, I think the title was 'Why I'm joining the enemy'
Found it again, it was actually, 'Joining the enemy: Why I've bought a bicycle'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/comment ... t-bicycle/
Sorry it's behind a paywall but you can read the opening.

It seems you can read one story behind the torygraph paywall without paying, you just have to register - so I've just done that (using one of my 'anonymous' webmails of course! ).
Here is the rest of the article:

And so a bit of festive cheer, peace and goodwill at this time of year: after years and years of hating the enemy, I have crossed the bar. Having reached peak hatred of a certain group of people, I find myself among them, breaking bread and passing the wine. Yes, I have bought a bicycle.

Chiefly, this is because I have a six-year-old boy who wishes to ride to school, and I bought him a bicycle for his Christmas present this year, delivered early (because the other bike was so small it was giving him shin splints), via Santa’s special helpers at Halfords. Also, because the walk to school is quite long, but I can’t drive, because if there’s a group I have traditionally reserved more derision for than cyclists it’s mums who drive to school in their 4x4s.

So, drowning out the loud sniggering from my boyfriend (with that quote I can never quite recall in the heat of the situation, about changing my mind when the situation changes), I bought a pushbike.

It’s a “women’s hybrid”, whatever that means, and it’s got “Boardman” written down the side which I’m told is the name of a chap who rides regularly.

All I know is that, this Boardman bike having firmly put the stoppers on the possibility of having another baby due to the jarring nature of the ride over broken road surfaces, I wish I’d bought the mountain bike with the comfy-looking tyres and big suspension forks at the front.

So far, I more or less hate cycling. It has simply confirmed to me everything I knew: it is inherently dangerous, cyclists are hardly ever in the right in an incident with a car, and they always think they are.

Also, no cycling helmet looks good, and yet I’ve also been forced to buy one of those because my six-year-old son was getting a bit anxious about knowing how to fish my mobile phone out of my pocket when I crash with a head injury and am bleeding to death on the high street and he’s got to manage me, his three-year-old brother and calling 999 on my mobile. All of which is fair enough, on balance.

So I bought a helmet and now I look stupid, feel stupid and am largely in pain from the waist down.

How is this a thing? How has cycling reached such unstoppable proportions in the popularity stakes in this country? And, more to the point, how have the roads not ground to a halt, with cyclists encircling each car at the lights, like some sort of evil festive wreath, preventing more than one car getting through on green before they change to red again?How are we not all killing each other with rage, a dystopian landscape of motorists out of their cars, engaged in hand-to-hand mortal combat with each enraged cyclist who has thumped an angry fist on their roof? It’s a mystery to me.

There’s only one answer, which is a sound blending of the two forms of transport. It’s called a motorbike. I used to have one, and now I want one again.

The pedals stay still, the helmets look better, the suspension is softer and leather is so much more attractive than Lycra. You heard it here first.

Says it all, I suppose... And ideas how to answer this? Or get the CUK guys to put up a riposte in CycleClips?

[Phil Fouracre]

How do you respond to such crap like that? Where to start!

[661-Pete]

I suppose, start anywhere. Borne out of ignorance, exactly as the OP said.

Well, it's the Torygraph. But that paper has a much higher readership than my preference, the Grauniad, and even the Grauniad puts up some very silly articles some of the time.

So - begin at the beginning? Well after a bit of preamble, she plumps for Halfords. Not the wisest choice perhaps for a complete adult bike - but - OK! - I have no quarrel with Halfords: to me they have the advantage of being local, and open on Sundays. Anyway Halfords explains the 'Boardman' badge. I've not tried a Boardman myself, but I suppose they're fine as economy bikes.

The sneering allusion to Chris B himself is clearly meant as sarcasm, so we'll pass over that.

She clearly needs a bit of practice in riding the "broken road surfaces" - perhaps she ought to watch one of the pavé stages in the TdF or Paris/Roubaix, just to see what the pros have to contend with.

Anyone else want to take over the pack?

[Bez]

I would dispute the notion that this is ignorance. Journalism is a buyer's market. Media outlets buy stories that they want to print and buy from authors whose output matches, or can be persuaded to match, that Journalists respond to demand. In how many professions does apparent ignorance so routinely prove to be in high demand?

https://twitter.com/beztweets/status/755680503945199616

[thirdcrank]

Put another way, the best way to deal with it is to ignore it: fewer clicks.