With half of under-16 ICU hospital beds taken up by scooter collision victims, action is needed, not performative lawmaking. Looking to put helmets or high-vis on children or others engaging in already illegal activity is an oxymoron. Ministers and TDs need to look at stopping the import and sale of illegal scooters, while also making it clear that a switch to illegal bikes will not be tolerated.Most of the media, a good chunk of our political classes, and even some medics are treating illegal e-scooters, illegal e-bikes and illegal scramblers as separate issues. But they are all interlinked, and the main problem is not enough enforcement.Im using the word illegal repeatedly for two reasons to emphasise that the illegal versions of these devices are most problematic and that all of them are already banned.We clearly need to stop talking about banning activities and devices that are already banned. Even if you dont care about the legal and legitimate uses it just doesnt make any sense to talk about banning whats already banned. Whats going on? Peoples understandable emotions around these issues, their lack of detailed knowledge, their lack of interest in knowing more, and/or theirgeneral disregard for the devices are being cynically used by at least some politicians.Promising to enact new laws in a few months is often easier than acting now getting our police force to act and, in some cases, enabling them to do so. Some other politicians are just as lacking in their knowledge of the details.I know some people will be thinking: How can he possibly talk this way about people? How arrogant is this fool? But its not arrogance when were talking about banning a problem when the problem is already banned. Its silly season gone mad.To keep it somewhat simple, lets look at scooters first: Legal e-scooters are light (25kg or less) and their users potter along at 20km/h max. Enforcing everything thats already illegal would involve leaving the people minding their own business on the legal scooters alone. This frees up more policing resources to tackle whats already illegal:Under-16s using any scooter.Any scooter over 25kg.Any scooter thats capable of going faster than 20km/h.Any scooter thats actually going faster than 20km/h.Any scooter with two or more people on it.Any scooter on a footpath.Any scooter with a seat.Many Garda already know what to look out for; others just need a bit more guidance and awareness. There are enough reasons above to get all the problematic scooters off the road. Illegal e-bikes often called bicycle-shaped objects are a bit trickier to distinguish from bicycles, but a bit of training can make them easy to spot. Whats left is the need for enforcement. This can be done now without waiting months for new laws or wasting time with non-problematic scooter users.Claiming theres a need for new laws to address the current scooters that have been sold to date is a distraction.New laws are mainly needed to stop the import and sale of more illegal scooters. Many are being sold and marketed with can only be used on private property which is a joke. These scooters are being bought and often marketed for use on roads, and there are almost no legitimate private property usages for these devices.If deemed necessary, a special import licence can be issued to anyone who can demonstrate legitimate private use. The same applies to overpowered e-bikes and scramblers (electric or not).Without action around the sale and importation of these devices, which are already illegal to use on roads, paths, parks, greenways, and anywhere publicWhat about all the children being injured? With half of the child ICU beds being taken up by scooter collision victims? From what medics have indicated in radio and TV interviews, the types of injury being seen in children are more like motorcycle injuries, which indicates that they are mostly illegal e-scooters which are being used.Of course, these are indications rather than hard data, but I think its clear enough from those indications and from looking at whats been used by teenagers on our streets that most are using illegal vehicles, which are already banned.And the focus just on scooters is misguided, so too is a previous political and official push to apply new rules to legal e-bikes, or pedal-assisted bicycles. The legal versions are overwhelmingly not an issue. But the simplistic ban them outright call for scooters wont work when problematic scooters are already banned. Heres the thing I openly interact with people online and ask them why they are thinking something will work when it clearly wont. On the issue of speeding e-bikes and e-scooters on Capel Street, Ive had people doubt me when Ive said that the main issue is bikes that are already illegal. Its understandable that the average person cannot see the difference between a legal e-bike and an illegal one, which looks very similar but is classed as a moped. But they wont accept it even when you tell them youve been covering cycling and transport for nearly 20 years and you do know the difference. This week a lot has been made of the fact that the GardaCommissionersaid he would absolutely support an outright ban one-scooters, but a lot less focus has been put on the fact that he also said, because of the EU presidency, as reported by the Irish Indepednent Garda plans for e-scooter and scrambler crackdown delayed by EU presidency and the Examiner, that the earliest the dedicated pursuit training for garda could start would be the end of the year.This contradiction in the lack of action now, because of resources, does not seem to have gained traction in the wall-to-wall broadcast coverage of scamblers on RTE or elsewhere. The simplistic approach also risks quickly turning this into a game of Whack-A-Mole, targeting different devices as people switch from one to the other, and having to repeatedly revisit the issue, rather than looking at the evidence and pushing on with the hard work needed to enforce and take existing illegal vehicles off our roads and block future sales.Sadly, where we are now calls for things which are already banned to be banned again is a classic case of a serious issue getting caught up in Silly Season hysteria none of it makes sense, and it feels largely performative. The question is, can our leaders rise above it?

Doping controls are indispensable in professional cycling and the Tour de France. No one who demands a credible and clean competition can seriously argue that Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, or other top riders should be tested less. It is precisely the best who must expect to be at the center of t...

Good morning and welcome to the liveblog of the 113th edition of the Tour de France. The peloton rolls into Stage 15 with the second rest day in sight, but first the riders must tackle a demanding route featuring a brutal summit finish on the Plateau de Salaison. With yesterday's grueling stage stil...

Tour de France second-place ride Jonas Vingegaard has crashed out of the Tour de France on stage 15.The Dane was the first rider to slide out on a corner on the way approach the stages final hors category climb. He remained on the floor clutching his shoulder and clearly in some pain.Several other riders also came down in the crash including some of Vingegaards Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates.Isaac del Toro, a key domestique for yellow-jersey wearer Tadej Pogaar and a challenger for the white jersey, was also brought down in the crash. All the riders other than Vingegaard were able to remount their bikes and rejoin the race.The day had been marked by the Danes team leading the bunch and working hard in what appeared to be an attempt to set up Vignegaard for an attack on the climb to the finish at the summit of Plateau de Solaison.Replays appeared to show Vingegaard clipping the kerb in a turn and falling onto it.It caps what had already been a difficult day for the two-time Tour de France champion after he was woken at 2am this morning to give samples to doping control officers.The Dane was aiming to become just the second person this century to win both the Tour and Giro dItalia in the same year, after his long-time rival did the double in 2024.This is the second crash Vingegaard has suffered this year after he sustained facial injuries in a crash at a training camp in January.He recovered and cruised to Giro victory in May before starting the Tour earlier this month.

The Visma-Lease a Bike leader crashed on the exit of a roundabout and was seen clutching his shoulder in pain

The Tour de France is a race of legs, resilience, and many times luck. When a rider does not have it, it can render the work of months meaningless. Jonas Vingegaard has abandoned the Tour de France this Sunday after crashing during stage 15, bringing to an end Team Visma | Lease a Bike's mission to...

Remco Evenepoel took his first ever win on a Tour de France road stage after he shadowed Tadej Pogaar all the way up the final climb of Plateau de Solaison before beating him in a sprint.The Belgian had already been lifted into second place in the general classification after Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed on the descent to the foot of the days final climb.The Dane seemed to be in considerable pain and eventually climbed into the back of an ambulance.

Comfy, high-quality steel tourer with well-chosen components and a genuinely lovely ride

Stage 15 of the Tour de France was the most eventful of the race thus far. Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar underwent doping tests in the middle of the night; Vingegaard crashed and withdrew from the Tour; and on the brutal climb to the Plateau de Solaison it was Remco Evenepoel himself who took t...

I got four hours of sleep today It was definitely not nice to be woken up in the middle of sweet dreams, yellow jersey Pogaar said