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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   953 thread views

Transnational Thursday for November 20, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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A development tangentially related to a court case that I posted a few weeks ago: On roads where cyclists are present, the government of the UKGBNI is now discouraging the construction of 12-foot (3.65-meter) traffic lanes, which have been standard for approximately 150 years, under the rationale that they encourage motorists to pass cyclists in an unsafe manner (closer than the 4′11″ (1.5 m) that is required under the law). Under the new guidance, lanes should be (1) 10′8″ (3.25 m) or narrower, in order to make it clear that motorists should not try to pass cyclists, or (2) 12′10″ (3.9 m) or wider, so that motorists can pass cyclists safely. Critics point out that in most cases right-of-way constraints prevent existing lanes from being widened, so in practice this will force local governments to make existing lanes narrower in order to get funding for road-maintenance projects.

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