Road safety weak/week

[Pete Owens]

The two key problems are that

1. Road Safety in general and Brake in particular would be quite happy to "improve" safety by victim blaming and loading active travel down with gadgets and geegaws until no one does it and all these pesky victims drive instead;

Please explain why you think focussing on vehicle speed is "victim blaming"?

[Pete Owens]

They mostly seem to prefer to cling to the "bad apples" theory that current road designs would be safe if only the incompetent could be removed, which ignores that people make mistakes and that the lack of driver retesting means they would only be removed after causing harm. We need to reduce the harm done by mistakes.

This is most certainly those who campaign for inherently dangerous parallel cycle paths that vastly increase the risk of collisions at junctions (precisely because they rely on road users spotting others coming unexpected directions including from behind - thus increasing the chance of mistakes) and when those mistakes inevitably occur they insist it would all be fine if only the road users concerned had been more attentive - ie the exact opposite of sustainable safety.

It is also true for those who bang on about "subjective" rather than "objective" safety. Campaigning for measures that they know to increase danger on the basis that other people mistakenly believe to offer safety.

[mjr]

This is most certainly those who campaign for inherently dangerous parallel cycle paths that vastly increase the risk of collisions at junctions (precisely because they rely on road users spotting others coming unexpected directions including from behind - thus increasing the chance of mistakes) and when those mistakes inevitably occur they insist it would all be fine if only the road users concerned had been more attentive - ie the exact opposite of sustainable safety.

Except that parallel cycleways mean that cyclist and motorist vehicle paths cross perpendicularly so no-one has to spot anyone coming from behind, unlike the poor carriageway cyclist who has to look in three directions at once when passing every side road, to try to spot the so-called "left hook", the "right cross" and the failed-to-yield.

Attempts to show that cycleways increase risk of collisions at junctions mostly rely on pretending that all junctions are equal and/or that highways designers have tested nothing and learned nothing for 30+ years.

It is also true for those who bang on about "subjective" rather than "objective" safety. Campaigning for measures that they know to increase danger on the basis that other people mistakenly believe to offer safety.

You've got the words slightly wrong, but I know what you mean and it's not something I campaign for.

[MikeF]

'Experts' advise sticking to the speed limit. Sickening

And so do some police. It should be stick below the speed limit.