Dr. Helen Cooper

Lovely day for a lunchtime trip to the farm shop, that's the 🐔 food & bedding sorted for a while. Cargo bikes are great, they make so many more trips doable by bike, the hardest bit was pushing it up the slope to the chickens, but then I'd have had to carry it up from a car 😂

@BobHRoss @BobArmour14 @RiderEddie81 @anon_opin Thanks, but I'd rather we didn't tarmac over any more of my favourite places to make room for car parking 👍

@Egmel @BobArmour14 @RiderEddie81 @anon_opin Sounds like the places you want to go need better parking.

We know that adding car lanes to roads just attracts more cars. We should now try the opposite: take away car lanes, widen pavements, add segregated cycle lanes. We'll find that bigger cars become less attractive and more people walk and cycle. Win for everyone.

@LoyaltyTravelz @graeme_cobb Reading a bit more on charge cycles etc of NMC batteries this night not be a good idea 🤦‍♀️

@LoyaltyTravelz @graeme_cobb Interesting, we were just doing what the MG team told us to do when we bought it. Our electricity provider is currently paying us to plug in so it's getting charged back up to 80% nightly. Previously we used to run it down to ~40% before we plugged in.

Wifey is off to Birmingham in her MG (224 mile round trip). She’s done no forward planning, hasn’t bothered to look for charging stops because if she needs to stop and charge, she’ll find somewhere, like you would do for petrol. This is the reality of driving an EV in 2025

@DuncanJon @graeme_cobb You're a sparky but you don't seem to understand the difference in load of moving a large mass and running AC/heaters.... An EV might not suit everyone's usecase but unless you're doing more than 200miles daily you'll probably find it better. Also, roll on solid state batteries.

@graeme_cobb My Euro 6 turbo diesel does 550mls on a tank thanks! I'm a Sparky and won't be buying an EV very soon. No range anxiety, can turn my AC, lights heaters on and that range isn't effected by the cold.

@BobHRoss @BobArmour14 @RiderEddie81 @anon_opin Not true of active travel though. Many times I've wished I could have taken a bike instead of a car. It's easier to park, it gets me outside, I see more on my route. We're gearing up to buy another e-cargo bike so we can leave the car at home when the kids have to be in 2 places.

@BobArmour14 @RiderEddie81 @anon_opin Most people who use public transport would prefer to use a car. I always use my car whenever possible, it's much better than any public transport here.

@FarmingUK This is due to the free trade agreement we made with NZ following Brexit. No tariffs on most stuff. I suspect it's now cheaper to import than to store onions in temp controlled environments. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zeala…

@WollstoneC1797 @reformexposed Is it just about the breakfast or is it that school opens the gates at 8:30 and some parents have to be at work at 8. Why is breakfast club any different to after school club in that respect.

@reformexposed I was a hard working single parent of two children. I still managed to feed my children breakfast before school. Perhaps some parents need to be more organised, get up a bit earlier & take responsibility leaving the provision for those in genuine need.

Reform UK want to scrap breakfast clubs. They don’t understand working parents.

@MartinSLewis Prior to marriage he moved into mine so I did house bills and he paid rent, separate accounts + a joint one just for house bills where we transferred what was required. Post marriage/kids, our salaries go into joint account + spending monies transferred into separate accounts.

TELL US: If ur part of a couple, how do u manage the finances? Does one do it all for both? Do u have a joint account (for everything or just bills)? Do u do regular budgeting meetings. How does it work, & do u feel it works well. Pls reply & some'll be read out in my pod. And do like ur faves.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists So why do you think cycling is dangerous? If you're going faster downhill than your brakes allow then you are dangerous but walking pace and 12-15mph are not dangerous speeds.

@Egmel @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists I have a large Pashley, my average speed is 12-15mph. I can just about get it to 25mph on very steep hills, although the drum brakes are ineffective at those speeds. On shared paths I cycle at walking pace, but usually stick to the roads.

Kid cycling on the pavement because the cycle lane is blocked by parked cars, is hit by a bus and dies from "multiple chest injuries". Collision investigator blames kid for not using the cycle lane (which was blocked) and not wearing a helmet (which doesn't cover his chest). 🙄

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists You and I cycle very differently, I don't cycle fast, on most shared infrastructure I barely go over 10mph, on roads 15mph, incidents there are only dangerous when they involve other vehicles, usually going much faster and weighing significantly more than I and my cargo bike do.

@Egmel @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists Cycling is very dangerous, I have no impact protection. If I hit a pothole at speed I could be killed. If I hit a tree. etc... In a car I would be safer, much safer.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists Again, it is not the cycles which are dangerous. Women aren't dangerous, the men who attack them are. The first rule of managing health and safety is to remove the thing which causes harm, in this case that's the cars being able to interact with people on bikes or on foot.

@BOWZ6CV @Egmel @but_cyclists When choosing a transport method it is reasonable to choose one that is safer per mile. Taking the total deaths and dividing by the mileage is easy. This shows how dangerous cycles are. Now we could use other variables and we will get different results! Perhaps more likeable!

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists No, cycling, in and of itself is not dangerous. The danger comes from other vehicles. We don't suggest people should walk round in padding in case they get hit by a car. No amount of road planning will make the roads less full of traffic unless we give people other safe options.

@Egmel @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists You have noticed a planning problem, the roads are not fit for purpose. Cycling is not safe it is more dangerous per mile by at least an order of magnitude, this is because cycles have no safety protection.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists But you seem to be missing the fundamentals here, cycling and walking in and of themselves are not dangerous, they are only dangerous because we allow drivers to drive into them. Cars might be the safest mode of transport but they have stolen our freedom to use anything else.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists Yup, safe, fast and effective, that's why we need cycling and walking infrastructure so people can choose, not be forced to take the car. When I needed to collect from school by car (bike in for a service) I spent longer waiting for a parking space than it would take me to cycle.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists Because in order to have room on this island for everyone to own a car and drive it everywhere we would need to give over so much land to roads + parking. We waste so much time sitting in traffic queues and are polluting the world, disconnected from our communities in metal boxes

@Egmel @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists Cars are safe, 0.0000000006 deaths per mile, why choose a mode of transport that has few if any safety features. Care about your loved ones, get them a car and use it.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists The greater good? Forcing people to own & drive cars by not having safe active travel infrastructure is not "the greater good", why is being a pedestrian or cyclist dangerous? How many of those deaths are due to drivers? The greater good isn't enough for those who lose loved ones

@Egmel @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists The greater good, My figures take the total deaths rounded up against the total car mileage per year. you will get 0.0000000006 deaths per mile, of course some transport choices are safer, and some more dangerous.

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists 5 people a day are killed on our roads. If that were happening by e.g people eating cheese most people would stop eating cheese. For some reason though, we consider it acceptable. If it were happening with e.g escalators we'd be up in arms so why do we accept it from car drivers?

@TJAWindsor @BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists No, that's how many drivers/passengers die, they are involved in many more. injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-commu…

@BOWZ6CV @but_cyclists While I agree you should not be jumping on and off kerbs at speed, any driver who has 'issues with' pedestrians should hand in their licence for the safety of all. The sooner we treat driving with the severity that is commensurate to the damage cars can do the safer we'll all be.

@but_cyclists Coming off the pavement collisions are a leading cause of cyclist injury and death - no driver expects to deal with anything travelling 4-5 times as fast as a pedestrian- many have issues with anything moving at just pedestrian speed...