On Wednesday I mentioned Jeremy Vine so I figured I’d check in on what the old boy’s been up to, and I was not at all surprised to learn that he remains aggrieved:
Now I should point out that as an American I know absolutely nothing about Jeremy Vine’s broadcasting career; I only know about his bicycling exploits. So any comments I make about him are entirely in this context. Also, I believe that when bicycling, people should feel free to clothe themselves any way they choose, and I myself veer from “normal” street clothing to full suits of stretchy technical garments–sometimes in the same day! At the same time, I can’t help asking…why the hell can’t this guy just dress normal while he’s riding around London for chrissakes?
That’s fine if you want to dress like a SCUBA diver who’s gloved up to administer a prostate exam, but he’s a public figure, and this getup reflects poorly on all of us. I realize the helmet cam or whatever he uses distorts things considerably, and maybe is just wearing relatively normal clothes and it only looks weird because of the device he’s using. But either way, whether it means tweaking his wardrobe or his lens, if he could present himself less freakishly and more proportionately I think it would go a long way towards earning both himself and the rest of us a little more respect.
Superficial matters aside, this time Vine’s problem seems to be the bike lane on the Westminster Bridge, which appears to be the equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge bike path in that it’s full of tourists:
Of course, New York City actually solved the problem of tourist/bicyclists conflicts on the Brooklyn Bridge by giving the path and all its panoramic views completely over to the tourists and giving the bicyclists a totally separate and non-scenic path on the roadway:
If I sound bitter or cynical about this I’m not at all–this is a very good and pragmatic solution, even if advocates act like it’s an unmitigated disaster because sometimes there’s a puddle in it:
Two ways to look at this:
1) The city has failed you, bicyclists should never have to encounter water
OR
2) When it rains it gets wet so use fenders
*shrug*https://t.co/rlDNSAysYr
— Bike Snob NYC (@bikesnobnyc) October 17, 2022
But I gather London has not implemented a similar solution and so Mr. Vine must stop repeatedly as he makes his way across the span.
To his credit, he is very polite and considerate, unlike that COMPLETE ASSHOLE on the Brooklyn Bridge who used to make videos of himself singing loudly and once hit a little girl. But to the tourists’ credit they’re also quite considerate, because they eventually do move, and would you move for this? I’m not sure that I would:
He looks like he’s on his way to Lugash to steal the Pink Panther:
Source link 
