Jdsk wrote: ↑23 Mar 2023, 12:51pm
Mike Sales wrote: ↑23 Mar 2023, 10:22am
This cyclist, who was doing everything advised to protect himself, was nevertheless stopped
three times to try to persuade him not to ride. The police even thought it necessary to use blues and twos!
Would it not have been more reasonable to stop cars entering the foggy mountain road in order to advise
them that in the conditions it would be best to observe the advice "drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within the distance
you can see to be clear". Obeying this would remove danger to the cyclist, the drivers and their passengers and any others up there.
...
I wouldn't want to play whataboutery between those two courses of actions. Perhaps both would have been wise.
Do we know what steps the police took to warn all road users of the conditions and the danger? We know that the road wasn't closed but I haven't seen anything else that they did or didn't do. Until they reminded all motorists that cyclists frequently use that road and that both types of road user should behave safely.
https://twitter.com/TweetbeatIOM/status ... Hs8LUtAAAA
Jonathan
I do not think that I am guilty of "whataboutery". What I want to do is concentrate on trying to tackle the danger at source, which is very much neglected. On the contrary, it is assumed that drivers will be going too fast, but there is nothing to be done except to get cyclists to wear hiviz. (which the police clearly did not think was enough for safety on this occasion at least) Slowing down if you cannot see there is nothing in the way is an elementary precaution, and we should be reminding drivers of this as often as possible, until it becomes the accepted wisdom.
Warnings to drivers about 126 are mentioned nowhere in the reports of this incident. I think that such warnings would have been mentioned, if they had been given. Such warnings to drivers are vanishingly rare.
When reminded of this basic way of driving safely I have often heard drivers object that they would have to go much too slowly. A campaign to inculcate safer driving in this respect is badly needed.
Attempting to close roads to cyclists is not an equitable solution to the problem of dangerous driving. We should be encouraging more cycling, not continuing to scare us off the roads.