The Times Campaign for safer cycling

[reohn2]

^ Its a bit like politrickians who start a war (pointing at the heinous sins of the opponent) when there popularity is fading,knowing they can win that war due to their overwhelming military superiority.
And as the aggressor,also make the rules theres little chance of justice when the battlefields are strewn with the dead.

[snibgo]

Talking of speeding, I note that the Sunday Times asks: "The government wants to increase the basic motoring penalty charge from £60 to £100 to raise money for crime victims. Are drivers being used as a cash cow?"

[meic]

Yes they ate just milking us.

I for one am not standing for it, I will beat the government at their filthy game.
I am not going to speed ever again and they will not get a single penny out of me in speeding fines.
That will show them!

Please join me in this rebellion, everyone.

[NUKe]

Yes they ate just milking us.

I for one am not standing for it, I will beat the government at their filthy game.
I am not going to speed ever again and they will not get a single penny out of me in speeding fines.
That will show them!

Please join me in this rebellion, everyone.

Meic I like your style. And yes I i'll join your cause

[Guy951]

...Are drivers being used as a cash cow?"

They certainly think so. They never seem to learn that if they didn't do whatever* they wouldn't have to pay for it

It's all part of the "war on motorists" innit

*Speeding, hand-held mobile phone etc

[thirdcrank]

... If we fall into the trap of saying that ALL cyclists have to be saints before any of us are taken seriously, then I may as well get back in the car where I can break the law much more seriously yet with public approval.....

I hope I've neither done that, nor suggested that anybody should do that. Like it or not, anybody who is trying to get a point across on radio or the telly has to look sharp, make their point, stick to their point and avoid being ambushed or bogged down discussing somebody elses point. Offending by cyclists is going to crop up time and again because it's the stuff of controversy. It's totally predictable.

"Cyclists should obey the law like everybody else but" and then immediately into the cycle campaigning agenda is the way to deal with it. That short opening clause answers the question, punts it into the long grass and then straight into the bullet points. This isn't something I've dreamt up. People go on courses to learn how to do it but something similar is being done by every politician who is interviewed. It's a no brainer. (But already there are people on here preparing to lecture me on the complete unimportance of offending by cyclists and all the rest of it.)

[Steady rider]

Sometimes I wonder about cyclists and how they should behave. The next bits may cause a ripple.

Take some examples,
arm signals - Ok they should be provided but many cyclists would feel a little less easy about taking one hand off the bars and in some cases both hands are needed for braking on gradients. Braking a car the foot pedal does the job and indicators the signal, inexperinced or less able cyclists should be given a degree of undestanding.

Traffic lights, pedetrians may cross a road in say 4 seconds, a cyclist perhaps 3 seconds, both can have a better view than a car driver sat behind a wheel. Crossing on red, an illegal move, can probably carry a similar sort of risk for both a pedestrian and cyclist. Crossing any junction if it has traffic lights or not carries a level of risk. Effectively a cyclist would be treating the junction like a give way or stop sign junction. If cyclist/pedetrian accident data was available for various types of junction it would give some indication of the relative and absolute level of risk and could be compared to roundabout risk or risk passing a side road or risk for various types of roads, say A roads. The main problem seems to be some cyclists may cross on red without taking too much care to look carefully or the junction design may be more complicated than it appears and unexpected turning traffic. On the other hand many cyclist may know a junction well. some sort of estimates could be made.

A TfL report mentions 5% of serious injuries (23 cases it seems) occured for cyclist disobeying traffic controls and one fatality. If this was a red light is not clear. Suppose 1 million minutes each day were saved by cyclists jumping red lights, 16.6k hrs, 694 days,1.9 years in time, 694 years in time saved per year, compared to say 1 fatality and say 40 years lost life. I am not saying people should jump red lights but I am surprised by the figures.

I stop for red lights.

[reohn2]

I picked up The Times in a cafe yesterday to check on the campaign's progress,I couldn't see any mention of it

[thirdcrank]

I picked up The Times in a cafe yesterday to check on the campaign's progress,I couldn't see any mention of it

If I believed in the supernatural, I'd think that was uncanny - evidence of telepathy or something. I considered buying a copy of The Times yesterday, too. Then, I thought of having a free read (I was marking time in a supermarket waiting for my wife) then, I thought "astonishing?"

This morning I was thinking of posting something like "Has it all gone quiet over there?" and thought better of it. (If I'm really honest, I probably forgot what I had in mind. )

As it is, it's evidence that this was probably predictable, and was predicted IIRC, higher up the thread.

[Steady rider]

Something they could add to the parliamentary debate on the 23 Feb.

Cyclist falling behind in road safety and better legal protection required.

Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain 2010 – PDF files (ZIP — 765 KB)

http://www.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releas ... eport-2010

No 6, see
Chart 6: STATS19 serious injuries and fatalities, and HES emergency road traffic admissions for 2 or more days by road user type: England 2000-2010

Also see inforamtion listed table 8.3STATS19: Seriously injured casualties
Compared with 2006, cyclists +17%, pedetrians -17%, diference 34%, needs investigating for miles cycled compared to walked?

The UK fatality rate per billion km cycled, about 22, Netherlands about 11.

My suggestions for change,
The Highway Code to add a caveat, accident compensation for cyclists and pedestrians should not be reducted due to not wearing additional safety aids. This would mean full compensation when justisfied and no reduction for not wearing a helmet or hi vis or armbands. This would send the messsage to motorists you have to be very careful as people may be wearing normal cloths and drive accordingly.

Introduce a minimum passing clearance for cyclists, requiring not to pass within 1 m of cyclists if their speed is 30 mph or lower and 1.5m for passing at speeds above 30 mph. The highest dangers come from HGV and buses who have been measured to pass closer than cars on average.

DfT to investiage the potential benefits of introducing 25 mph zones on busy roads with medium use by pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas. In the EU they have 40 km/hr (25 mph) zones and the UK miss out from this zone.
Some information from down under.

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/sp ... index.html

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/do ... g_dl1.html

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/Saf ... Limits.htm

This last link shows the effects of mobile speed cameras when speed reduced across all zones.
http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/opinion- ... -to-speed/

[drossall]

I picked up The Times in a cafe yesterday to check on the campaign's progress,I couldn't see any mention of it

I'm not sure that it's reasonable to expect it to continue in every issue. If they're in for the long haul, it will appear from time to time.

[reohn2]

I picked up The Times in a cafe yesterday to check on the campaign's progress,I couldn't see any mention of it

I'm not sure that it's reasonable to expect it to continue in every issue. If they're in for the long haul, it will appear from time to time.

Ok,but I'd have thought if The Times was determined to keep cycling in the public eye and the pressure on for a "campaign" for safer cycling (however it sees fit) you would have thought a regular daily column would be the way to go,as it is we've had a blast then what?

[snibgo]

They have a new article online. The president of British Cycling "bemoaned the loss of the cycling proficiency tests in schools".

[skidd]

Re: The Times with no mention of their campaign, I agree it may be unfair to expect The Times to put something in every edition about the slow eradication of cyclists from the gene pool.

PS. Are their any adverts, articles or references to cars in the offending edition, and if so in what light? After all we all know that within minutes of buying a car you will be speeding along some empty Italian autostrada with your hair grown back wearing Goochi* loafers before scrunching up a drive of a Tuscan villa to be greeted by the young Sophia freakin Loren.

*Serious question.. Why when I wrote the name of the Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Goochi Group, which is owned by French company PPR. founded by Guccio Goochi in Florence in 1921, did the words [theiving scum] appear in the text instead.

I will write it again and see what happens... Gucci

[Vorpal]

They have a new article online. The president of British Cycling "bemoaned the loss of the cycling proficiency tests in schools".

Huh? BC is a provider of cycle training. I'd be very surprised if they weren't one of the biggest Bikeability providers in the country. And plenty of independent providers are BC affiliated because their insurance is cheap.