Alliance of British Drivers

[craggie]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... nce-to-mps

A car pressure group I'd never hear of wants higher speed limits and fewer cycle lanes and 'which says it represents mainstream views but accepts its membership is “tiny” as a proportion of drivers.' In that case why are they being taken seriously and should we be worried?

[simonineaston]

The article reports that this self-identifying "minority" group is described as having 'fringe views" and have been called to give evidence to parliament's transport select comittee recently... why, for god's sake?? Really quite upsetting although I may have misunderstood what's going on here - I thought the time when activists who hold these sort of views on climate change were invited 'for balance' were over, once & for all... maybe I'm missing something

[Jdsk]

They're being reported, they aren't necessarily being taken seriously.

We shouldn't be worried but we should learn by observing them. This forum has a high-posting small group of people who ride bikes who take extreme fundamentalist positions on some recurrent themes. The techniques they use are very similar to those of some extreme protagonists of cars and driving: hyperbole, cod statistics, tribal arguments etc.

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

Jonathan

ABD on:

"Cycle Passing Limits, and Cycling in London"
https://www.abd.org.uk/cycle-passing-limits-and-cycling-in-london/

Cyclists and "the war on drivers".
https://www.abd.org.uk/press-release-bojo-turns-the-nanny-state-into-the-bully-state/

"Public Consultation on Cycling Offences"
https://www.abd.org.uk/public-consultation-cycling-offences/

[roubaixtuesday]

... - I thought the time when activists who hold these sort of views on climate change were invited 'for balance' were over, once & for all... maybe I'm missing something

You may indeed be missing something.

Just for instance, take the curious case of Matt "Viscount" Ridley.

Old Etonian author, coal mine owner, Chair of Northern Rock when it crashed, hereditary peer and climate change "sceptic" with Times column. Currently sits on House of Lords science & technology ctte.

There are many similar.

[rareposter]

There's a comprehensive Twitter thread here on them:
https://twitter.com/c21stprimitive/stat ... 3343417345

Quote from one of the tweets:

They delude themselves into claiming to be the ‘voice of the British driver’, but in reality are a fringe libertarian pro-motor industry lobby group, who run astroturf campaigns (more of this later) to fight against progress on climate justice, air pollution & active travel...

When a fringe of right-wing extremists and climate change deniers gets given airtime in the name of "balance", it's onto dangerous ground. Look at what giving UKIP a platform did for the country...

[Cyril Haearn]

The British Association of Drivers, BAD, it is called I think

[thirdcrank]

The ABD was founded in 1992 under the name of the Association of British Drivers and later merged with the Drivers Alliance to form the Alliance of British Drivers, which is the trading name of Pro-Motor Ltd

https://www.abd.org.uk/about-us/

[mjr]

Alliance of Bad Drivers.

[Cyril Haearn]

..
This forum has a high-posting small group of people who ride bikes who take extreme fundamentalist positions on some recurrent themes. The techniques they use are very similar to those of some extreme protagonists of cars and driving: hyperbole, cod statistics, tribal arguments etc.
..

There are a lot of realists on these fora, including me, I believe
The simple truth is that the majority of drivers routinely break the law
Fact is, they kill lots of us, we kill none of them
Cyclists lobbying to be protected from lawbreakers is not comparable to lobbying by BAD for higher maximum speed limits, less enforcement etc

It is a wonder that the BAD does not have millions of members, but there is no need for the organisation because there is just about no enforcement now

One wonders how intelligent (?) people can hold such views as propagated by the BAD
..
Is CUK giving evidence?

[Jdsk]

This forum has a high-posting small group of people who ride bikes who take extreme fundamentalist positions on some recurrent themes. The techniques they use are very similar to those of some extreme protagonists of cars and driving: hyperbole, cod statistics, tribal arguments etc.

There are a lot of realists on these fora, including me, I believe

I'm sure that ABD and many of its members think of themselves as realists too.

That's precisely the point *I was trying to make. Thanks for illustrating it so clearly.

Jonathan

* And Burns.

[thirdcrank]

The organisation has been mentioned on here before. There's something like a dozen hits if you search on DABDA

[Cyril Haearn]

Facts, not opinions, cod arguments, hyperbole etc etc:

The majority of drivers routinely break the law
Drivers kill many cyclists and walkers
Cyclists and walkers kill no drivers

[simonineaston]

The majority of drivers routinely break the law
Drivers kill many cyclists and walkers
Cyclists and walkers kill no drivers

But that's a given, that's the starting point. The victims are collateral - accepted by society as "the price we have to pay" (for what? Convenience? Commercial gain?) or as a more extreme pov might put it, as they put the pedal to the metal, in their shiny R8, a price worth paying...

[whoof]

For some reason I get emails from Fair Fuel UK. These ask me to email my MP asking to cut fuel duty, removal of cycle facilities amongst other things. I always oblige but heavily edit their standard email to ask the opposite.

I then get an email from Fair Fuel UK thanking me, you're welcome!

[6.5_lives_left]

Lampooned in the twitter feed @AssnBritNutters
(from about 10 years ago)
I think former poster BristolTraffic was responsible for that output.
Perhaps he gave up because they are self-parodying.

It is not necessarily a bad thing that they (ABD) are giving evidence before a select committee. If the MP's are doing their job properly, the ABD should be taken apart.