Cycling UK Forum

Adam S wrote:

Dave W wrote:The point was that cycling accidents are rife - I didn't see any banged head on kitchen cupboard headlines..

News stories report the notable, not the commonplace. We could use your methodology to show that murders are rife. What is this obsession with individual reports when we have statistics?

Nail,head,on!

Too many drivers seem to subscribe to 'plan B, let's kill the cyclist'. Mobile phone use is banned for car drivers, but is still rife. Some admittedly do the 'safe' thing of stopping, often on a blind bend or other inadvisable place where drivers become panicked and do stupid things. Smoking in cars means that the attention of the driver is removed from the road as the constantly drive one handed but that is still legal.
A few years ago I was given a lift to work by a young driver when we encountered a cyclist on the A38 dual carriageway near Alfreton. He was using the narrow hard shoulder quite happily and was not delaying motorised traffic at all. The comment of the driver was that he was an 'idiot' and deserved to die because he was not wearing a helmet. Obviously a helmet is a means of marking out to drivers whom they are allowed to kill, or not.

Needless to say I expressed my opinion about how shocking I thought her attitude was and she should try cycling herself, before judging others.

Strangely that was the last time I took a lift with her. Driver attitude is the greatest danger to cyclists.