active transport

Blame is hard to prove, but campaigners argue trifling penalties gives little incentive for drivers to change their behaviour

Is a £200 fine and three points on your licence an appropriate punishment for killing a cyclist on the road? According to Kingston magistrates' court, where last month Joao Lopes pleaded guilty to "driving while eyesight was such that you could not comply with the requirements of a prescribed eye test", it is.

New Hutt City councillor Lisa Bridson is proving she will walk the talk  or if not, cycle it.

Ms Bridson campaigned on environmental sustainability and said she would fight for a better deal for cyclists and pedestrians in the city.

A "big fan" of walking and cycling as affordable, convenient and sustainable ways to get around, she arrived at her first official council meeting last week by bike, having also cycled to an earlier gathering to meet senior officers.

Does This Match Your Experience?

A new Swedish invention could spell the end of bad hair days for bike riders.

A Swedish design house has created a potentially life-saving fashion accessory for cyclists.

The Hovding airbag collar has been designed to provide a safe alternative to the bicycle helmet without the detrimental effect that stack-hats tend to have on one's hairdo.

Designed to wrap around the cyclists neck like a scarf, the Hovding (which means Chieftain in Swedish) will deploy an airbag in the form of a hood if its in-built sensors detect a potential head impact.

A Balham biker has gone into the cycling community’s record books by becoming the rider of the one millionth Barclays cycle hire journey.

And as a special thank you, the banking giant awarded 37-year-old Rupert Parson and three friends annual membership of the scheme for five years - as well as a cycling makeover at Bobbins Bicycles in Islington.

Mr Parson said: “It was a complete surprise, and I have to say that I thought it might be a practical joke when first took the phone call.

Communal bike hire is great - but do we have to help advertise a bank? James May's not so sure.

This column, as I've tried to make perfectly clear in the past, is pro-bicycle and pro-cycling. I love a bicycle and I haven't been without at least one since I was three years old.

That's why I don't like being lectured about cycling by sanctimonious reformers who bought one last week and imagine the rest of us haven't discovered them yet.

Two years ago I wrote For Bicylists, There is Safety in Numbers noting the work of Chris Rissel, who said "It appears that motorists adjust their behaviour in the presence of increasing numbers of people bicycling because they expect or experience more people cycling."