That's great. I totally agree that more of us (myself included) could cycle instead of drive a lot more. I think we need serious national investment in making cycle only routes between towns and villages. I think we could use existing bridleways, old unused railways, and similar. Then cycling would be so much safer and probably more direct. But that's beside the point.

I was only trying to point out that it's a lot quicker to drive 15-20 miles on country roads than it is to cycle. Even during rush hour. My commute is 16 miles. It takes me a consistent 30 minutes both ways. I can do it in 25 without speeding when the roads are empty like at 03:00. Google tells me that to cycle the same route it would take 1hr 27min. That would make my timings impossible both in the morning and evening. If I had to do the school run (I sometimes do) then I wouldn't start my day until 10:30. And on the other end of the day I would have similar issues.

Personally I need a vehicle for work anyway because of the things I need to transport. I also think it would feel prohibitive to rent a car to visit friends and family across the country. It may be cheaper overall, but it would undoubtedly be a barrier to have to spend £200 or so every time. There is no realistic public transport option. I have looked.

All of that said. I am not in any way anti-cycling. I genuinely applaud you for deciding to cycle instead of drive. As I said before, more of us most certainly should do the same a lot more often, including me.

If you live in a city.

I'm not normally one to call for harsher sentencing, however, four months, suspended for two years doesn't seem like nearly enough of a sentence. The absolute horror of what she did is mind bending.

Yeah, the location on a hill is really good. I was just thinking of a ditch about maybe 5 blocks deep and 8 blocks wide up against the outer wall. The walls that are already on the edge of the hill don't need it.

A good example of what I'm thinking of is Coch Castle in Wales.

I like the aesthetic, with a Norman style keep and the gatehouse on the curtain wall.

Have you considered digging a moat around the outside of the curtain wall? You could flood it too, but most actual medieval moats were dry. Their main function is to make the walls harder to ladder over and to stop siege towers from reaching the walls.

Use reader mode, the popup magically disappears.

This is the most evil comment I've seen in a very long time. The thought of someone burdening themselves with high interest debt. Debt that they don't have the money to pay back. because if they don't, they'll die. That's sickening.

Unless of course you think it's a serious solution. Then it's just plain ignorant. Clinical idiocy levels of stupid.

Kilometers are too small for our giant country.

Fortunately for NASA, space is actually smaller than the USA. Otherwise km would be totally unworkable.

I'm guessing that you have to use meters instead of yards when designing tall buildings? Yards would be too small for most skyscrapers.