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by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 4:19pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: BBC and the Cotton Wool Society
Replies: 36
Views: 1948

Re: BBC and the Cotton Wool Society

Only a little under 13,000 posts to read - not that many surely!
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 4:19pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: 26" or 700c wheels ?
Replies: 57
Views: 5175

Re: 26" or 700c wheels ?

Because the £2 is larger, it rolls more smoothly over imperfections. Then again, it is floppier and heavier than the £1 coin... :wink:
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 3:10pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: BBC and the Cotton Wool Society
Replies: 36
Views: 1948

Re: BBC and the Cotton Wool Society

irc wrote:People do things like jumping off high cliffs and bridges into water becauser of the thrill which comes from the danger.


Exactly. What I don't understand about this sort of reporting is that there is an automatic assumption that danger is bad.

Not everybody wants a bland life which ends in a drawn-out painful death from some incurable old-age malady. Nobody wants to die young, either, but I think it's wholly understandable that people want to *risk* dying young in order that the overwhelming majority can both die old, and live a little on the way there.
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 12:47pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: "A good day for motorists". BBC idiots.
Replies: 85
Views: 5299

Re: "A good day for motorists". BBC idiots.

AlbionLass wrote:Isn't there a daanger that bemoaning the scrapping of speed cameras just confirms the suspicions of the more vocal elements of the motoring fraternity that all cyclists are militantly anti-motorist?


Does cutting down on underage drinking make you militantly anti-child?

I prefer to think of support for speed enforcement as being anti-criminal. Nobody campaigns for higher speed limits, they just think they (and only they) should be immune to the law.
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 12:42pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: "A good day for motorists". BBC idiots.
Replies: 85
Views: 5299

Re: "A good day for motorists". BBC idiots.

bensonboo wrote:Swindon (possibly Wiltshire) ditched theirs last year, the roads are just as safe, indeed, the threat and presence of officers with speed guns at various places is possibly better than having drivers slow down past the fixed camera then speed back up.


Also (while I agree that fixed camera sites that come up on your satnav are completely stupid), the article actually says "enforcement at mobile sites will cease "with immediate effect". ".

Still, in the long term I can only see this as a positive effect. The door is now open for researchers to compare the number and severity of accidents before and after camera enforcement - just as the London motorbike in bus lane experiment ended up with some surprising results about crashes (something like 40% more motorcyclists hit in conflicting turning movements, although I couldn't tell you off the top of my head if the study is sound).
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 12:39pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: James Cracknell severely injured
Replies: 36
Views: 2600

Re: James Cracknell severely injured

Presumably because he is a celeb, the journos know they wouldn't get away with blaming him for crashing into the truck, where the same protection doesn't apply to joe public (especially if they have been killed).
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 10:26am
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"
Replies: 147
Views: 11192

Re: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"

You're seeing the negative, not the positive. I was thinking about this topic in the car, and reflecting that there are times where I am also guilty of being "pedantically legal" in just this sort of way.

As I do a lot of driving, I think anything which reminds you to think along these lines, even potentially to the point that you save a life, is quite worthwhile.

Dead is dead, and I fear my concience is not so robust as our good friend's.
by EdinburghFixed
22 Jul 2010, 9:01am
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"
Replies: 147
Views: 11192

Re: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"

I'm not interested in arguing with you, Ulysses - the topic stands as it is.

If it's any consolation I think what everybody has been interested in is not really what you describe as the "pedantic" aspects of the crash, so much as your own, deeply revealing, reaction to the event, or to criticism. It's an irrelevance that you hit a cyclist, it could have been an OAP on foot, or another driver. The blame could have been more clearly yours, or more clearly theirs. Missing that point (which johncharles has also, valiantly,) has been the real lesson of this topic.

It's quite hard to articulate. I suppose we shall have to wait for the shoe to be on the other foot (touch wood it never will be) before you'd appreciate the difference between us.

However, I've gained a new quote for my sig, which is a rare event. :)
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 11:14pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"
Replies: 147
Views: 11192

Re: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"

Edwards wrote:It is now time for everybody to reflect on what they post.
Will what you write serve any useful purpose and do any good what so ever.


For what it's worth, I think this has been one of the most important topics I've read here in as long as I can remember - I saved it all to the PC for future reference, in case anything should happen to it in the meantime. Just because people get passionate about things does not in any way invalidate the discussion (perhaps it even validates it).

All too often we read about the aftermath of a tragedy and are left to wonder at what could have happened, often with nothing better than a "he came out of nowhere" defence at trial - if it even comes to trial.

So to have an actual dialogue with a driver who has hit someone on a crossing, hear their excuses/justifications (depending on how you read it) is really quite something. All it really needs to close the circle would be to get the opinion of the cyclist, and perhaps to ask the investigating officer- although naturally, they wouldn't be able to comment on this specific case, but they might have something uncomfortable to say about such cases in general.
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 10:59pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Sad, sad day
Replies: 30
Views: 2356

Re: Sad, sad day

Boycie wrote:
EdinburghFixed wrote:Although I quite understand your reasoning, I think it's profoundly sad that so many people are the subject of these assaults but can't get anything done about it, that when it happens to someone who *can* do something about it, they don't either.



You are quite right of course, and that adds to my genuuine sense of sadness and frustration. However, see my reply to (XAP) Bob. The days of coppers being given any modicum of respect whatsoever are long gone, and it says more about our society than anything in my view. If I seem bitter, perhaps I am, but believe me, there is a reality here that some quarters either refuse, or conveniently ignore.


Yep, I can well imagine the (professional) pain you might have to go through to follow it up. I guess that was what I was referring to, not so much the fact that you don't *want* to sort it out, but that you're in a position where it genuinely isn't possible / worth it.

For what it's worth I think there would be huge mileage in having plain clothes specially-trained traffic police to do urban beats by bicycle. With video rolling you would pick up so many offences you wouldn't know what to do with them all (yet another problem!) and a few sharp exemplary punishments for cutting across or pulling out dangerously in front of a cyclist might save many serious accidents from happening altogether through better awareness. Fat chance though, antisocial driving is just about bottom of the pile for everybody else...
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 8:02pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Mark Beaumont: slacker spokes good?
Replies: 29
Views: 3256

Re: Mark Beaumont: slacker spokes good?

The only two wheels I have made (replacements for the fixed wheel), I just made them as tight as I thought they should feel like, then de-tensioned them by jumping off a high kerb!

Probably this is sacrilege...
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 7:59pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Sad, sad day
Replies: 30
Views: 2356

Re: Sad, sad day

Although I quite understand your reasoning, I think it's profoundly sad that so many people are the subject of these assaults but can't get anything done about it, that when it happens to someone who *can* do something about it, they don't either.
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 4:37pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Bus stop and zig zags
Replies: 7
Views: 2348

Re: Bus stop and zig zags

The bus stops are not on the approach to the crossing, but after it - the zig-zag lines only apply if you are heading *towards* the crossing.
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 4:32pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"
Replies: 147
Views: 11192

Re: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"

You shouldn't be so circumspect, Phil - speak your mind! :shock:
by EdinburghFixed
21 Jul 2010, 1:57pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"
Replies: 147
Views: 11192

Re: "Cyclist, 76, fighting for life after sliproad crash"

Ulysses31 wrote:
EdinburghFixed wrote:I'm not sure I follow the second point. Perhaps the cyclist simply expected that a driver approaching a crossing, blind, on the boundary of a 40mph zone with preceeding warning signs would have slowed to 40mph, in which case no collision would have occurred. Remember that he managed to pass all the way from the right side of the lane, fully across the car until he was hit by its left hand side. If the driver had slowed to an appropriate speed there would have been no impact, would be my line of attack.


It would, because he was literally just feet in front of the car. Feet. Maybe 3 or 4. He was pedalling at a fair rate and came straight across, and didn't wait at the refuge.


With respect, earlier in this discussion you admitted not knowing even whether he had come from the left or right side of the road! This being so, you will forgive others if they take your now surprisingly precise report with a pinch of salt. I mean, simple trigonometry tells us that if he managed to appear 3 feet in front of your car, but ride all the way across the lane to your nearside before being hit, he would have had to be doing between two and three times your speed. 150mph is a little optimistic for even the most reckless septagenarian! :roll:

Ulysses31 wrote:This great store that people are making of going too fast, is rubbish, the car was naturally decellerating, as I had been doing coming up the slip.


You admitted to travelling well above the limit of the sign which you crossed only a couple of feet after the impact - decellerating "naturally" is not a defence for speeding.

Going back to the example above, if we take a more realistic estimate of 15mph as the cyclist's speed, that would put you 30 or 40 feet back when he started to cross. At that distance, and given that he was almost across when struck, I think it is fair to speculate whether you would have hit him at all if you'd slowed to the limit in preparation for the signed crossing.

Don't get me wrong - speculate is the operative word here. But don't think that strident denial somehow covers it.

Ulysses31 wrote:I don't want to cast aspersions at the cyclist, or his abilities, but his daughter told me that he didn't even think he was on his bike, he thought he was pushing it. Then he told the police he saw my black car in his vision before we collided. The car is silver.


Actually it's usual for victims of head injury to completely lose any memory of the event, and sometimes a considerable period of time to either side (I have a friend who lost several weeks after a simple fall). I think it a little distasteful to try to draw any conclusions about the cyclist's prowess from their physiological response to the impact.

In any case, I wouldn't get too worked up if I was you. As you've said, the police aren't interested and neither is the cyclist - so there's nothing to worry about, apart from your concience.

I would be genuinely interested to know whether you continue to drive through this crossing above the speed limit?