no more racing through towns

markwalker

especially for pro messenger riders
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6946724.ece

type:epyt

just ride round in black so you can't be identified ... unless Moser works for the council now ...

CyclingBantam

It says they are going to stop cyclists who ride listening to Ipods. Quite how they are going to justify that. Are they going to stop all deaf cyclists as well?

BikingBernie

Right-wing and hierarchical to the core, Westminster Council has an appallingly lax record when it comes to dealing with the real source of danger on the roads - such as carelessly driven lorries and cars - and has a long record of targeting cyclists instead. Now, according to the article, it seems it is to go the next step and start targeting cyclists who are not actually breaking the law. For example, those who ride whilst listening to an i-pod. I wonder if they will also target motorists who go around with their radio on and windows closed?

As to targeting 'pavement cyclists', for the most part this amounts to a huge abuse of the Fixed Penalty Notice system, something that was never intended to be used as part of a 'zero tolerance' approach to cycling offences.

When FPN's were introduced Home Office Minister Paul Boeteng issued a letter stating that:

'The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of traffic and who show consideration to other pavement users when doing so. Chief police officers, who are responsible for enforcement, acknowledge that many cyclists, particularly children and young people, are afraid to cycle on the road, sensitivity and careful use of police discretion is required.'

This guidance has been reiterated by John Crozier of the Home Office who in a letter dated 23/02/04 (Ref T5080/4) with reference to the use of FPN's by Community Support Officers's Stated:

The Government have included provision in the Anti Social Behaviour Bill to enable CSOs and accredited persons to stop those cycling irresponsibly on the pavement in order to issue a fixed penalty notice. I should stress that the issue is about inconsiderate cycling on the pavements. The new provisions are not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of the traffic, and who show consideration to other road users when doing so. Chief officers recognise that the fixed penalty needs to be used with a considerable degree of discretion and it cannot be issued to anyone under the age of 16.

Bhima

A council determined to make them obey the Highway Code is to deploy enforcers in a hunt for so-called “Lycra louts” as they whizz through red lights or ride listening to iPods.

Are ipods banned according to the highway code? :?

BikingBernie

Meanwhile...

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/foru ... 6230352300

Family slam jailed trucker who mowed down cyclist

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 5780942.jp

A FORMER champion showjumper has been jailed for 33 months over a hit-and-run crash that left a cyclist with life-threatening injuries.

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/20605 ... gone_wrong

A drink-driver who mowed down and killed a cyclist after an all-day Bank Holiday pub session had his sentence slashed by judges.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 5017136.jp

Vino

BenBlyth wrote:

It says they are going to stop cyclists who ride listening to Ipods. Quite how they are going to justify that. Are they going to stop all deaf cyclists as well?

Pardon?

Ave bad taste Calves

frenchfighter

Nice BB.

This is so bloody ridiculous:

“So many people are frustrated with it. We’re always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist, who leaves them on the ground as they ride away.”

mididoctors

BikingBernie wrote:

Meanwhile...

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/foru ... 6230352300

Family slam jailed trucker who mowed down cyclist

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 5780942.jp

A FORMER champion showjumper has been jailed for 33 months over a hit-and-run crash that left a cyclist with life-threatening injuries.

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/20605 ... gone_wrong

A drink-driver who mowed down and killed a cyclist after an all-day Bank Holiday pub session had his sentence slashed by judges.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 5017136.jp

madness

Le Commentateur

Wouldn't the so-called "enforcers" be better employed dealing with the huge number of people who drive around London chatting on mobile phones?... At least that is actually an offense and they would only have to wait a few seconds to find an offender.

SpaceJunk

Bhima wrote:

A council determined to make them obey the Highway Code is to deploy enforcers in a hunt for so-called “Lycra louts” as they whizz through red lights or ride listening to iPods.

Are ipods banned according to the highway code? :?

Not sure. But if you are driving your car with the music up so loud you can't fully evaluate the environment around you, you can get booked.

moray_gub

BikingBernie wrote:

Meanwhile...

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/foru ... 6230352300

The lorry drivers actions in that case are outrageous, how he escaped a death by dangerous driving conviction is hard to comprehend.

bompington

frenchfighter wrote:

"So many people are frustrated with it. We’re always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist, who leaves them on the ground as they ride away.”

It would be interesting, wouldn't it, to find out the actual number of times pedestrians are knocked down by cyclists: anybody got any stats? And maybe the percentage of those times that the cyclist abuses them as well. Perhaps also the percentage of peds who are in fact knocked down after stepping out onto the road in front of cyclists, something that I've narrowly avoided many, many times.

BikingBernie

Moray Gub wrote:

The lorry drivers actions in that case are outrageous, how he escaped a death by dangerous driving conviction is hard to comprehend.

Not really, when one considers that trials of motorists are generally judged by 'twelve other motorists, all overseen by yet another motorist wearing a wig'.

Also, it is perfectly easy to comprehend such travesties of 'justice' when one considers that cyclists in Britain constitute a low-status 'out-group' who are held to pose a challenge to the car-centric dominant social norm. As such they are subjected to the sort of hostility, discrimination and prejudice that all out-groups tend to experience, especially in strongly hierarchical societies.

The Transport Research Laboratory published a major piece of research in 2002 called 'Drivers' perceptions of cyclists'. This noted 'cyclists are not perceived to be high on most drivers’ road user status hierarchy. This perception also has implications for driver behaviour and safety of cyclists, as other research has shown that road users who are deemed to be of low status are treated with less care and consideration.'

Will Storr, writing in The Observer of 4 June 2006, accurately summarised the findings of this report as follows:

A recent report for the government commissioned by the Transport Research Foundation found that drivers treat cyclists as an 'out-group'. According to social-identity theory, this means that there is a multi-forked bias against us, which takes the form of that pernicious trident of hate - discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice.

So, in the head of a typical driver, subconsciously and automatically, things like these happen: the behaviour of the worst cyclist is used to judge them all; any cash the council visibly spends on them seems maddeningly unfair; any accident is the cyclist's fault; when making a decision, the motorist puts the needs of other motorists first; any behaviour at all that is 'different' to the driver's own is wrong. And so on. These are precisely the same primeval mental sparks that lead to football hooliganism, gang warfare and racism. Provocative and hateful newspaper reports about 'two-wheeled terrorists' merely stir up tribalism - basic, brutal and bad. It's the most dangerous and atrocious human impulse there is.

Also, the sort of irrational hostility that is directed towards cyclists in the UK is symptomatic of a greater social trend: the move towards an ever- more right wing, hierarchical and authoritarian society. In 'societies' (I use the word loosely) such as Britain the targeting of minority and social out-groups (beggars, 'asylum seekers', the poor, cyclists etc) is one way in which the inequities of the social hierarchy are validated and reinforced.

It is no coincidence that the most cycling friendly countries are those that traditionally hold egalitarian values in high regard, such as Denmark. Conversely, those countries that are the most cycling unfriendly tend to be those that are the most hierarchical and anti-egalitarian. In turn, such attitudes underlie the view that motorists are the 'masters of the road'. (A term coined in 1949 by the West Bromwich coroner, one Mr. Lyon Clark, when passing comment at an inquiry where a driver had killed a child).

Similarly, look at just how car-centric Germany was in the 1930's with its autobahns, 'the peoples' car' and so on. At the same time as speed and motoring power were being worshipped, cyclists and even pedestrians were demonised as being 'dangerous'. Things got to such a ridiculous level that one German magazine of the time even printed a cartoon showing a huge pile-up of cars with a commentator looking out of a window and saying 'That will be those cyclists again'!

northernneil

[quote=" Perhaps also the percentage of peds who are in fact knocked down after stepping out onto the road in front of cyclists, something that I've narrowly avoided many, many times.[/quote]

+1

usually because they are wearing ipods

BikingBernie

bompington wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

"So many people are frustrated with it. We’re always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist, who leaves them on the ground as they ride away.”

It would be interesting, wouldn't it, to find out the actual number of times pedestrians are knocked down by cyclists: anybody got any stats? And maybe the percentage of those times that the cyclist abuses them as well. Perhaps also the percentage of peds who are in fact knocked down after stepping out onto the road in front of cyclists, something that I've narrowly avoided many, many times.

Here are some figures I complied a while ago...

in 2004 670 pedestrians were killed after being hit by a motor vehicle and 34,628 injured, 6,765 of these seriously.

By comparison in 2004 1 (one) pedestrian died after being hit by a cyclist and 2 cyclists died in such collisions. All 3 of these collisions occurred on the road, not a footpath. (It is worth noting that the basic statistics produced by the DfT combine both the pedestrian and cyclist casualties arising from such collisions, so when such figures are quoted they often include cyclist casualties as well. Also, having found the relevant reports, it is clear that at least two of these deaths - including one of the cyclist fatalities, were caused by a pedestrian stepping into the road and into the path of a passing cyclist.)

The available figures show that a pedestrian is far, far more likely to be killed or seriously injured by the user of a motor vehicle than a cyclist when walking along a roadside pavement. For example, In 2005 50 pedestrians were run down and killed by someone driving a motor vehicle as they walked along a footway and over 3,300 were injured. Another 69 pedestrians were run down and killed by a motor vehicle user as they used a pedestrian crossing and over 3,100 injured.

The official DfT figures combine collisions which occur on the roads, on cycle paths which are within the highway boundary, pedestrianised areas and footways. As such they include many collisions where the cyclist cannot be held to be totally responsible, such as when they are on the road and a pedestrian steps without looking into their path. Such collisions account for most of the serious pedestrian injuries sustained and almost all the fatalities, as is to be expected given that the speed of cyclists on the highway tends to be higher than on footways.

The figures below for casualties arising from collisions between pedestrians and relate to all collisions, including those that occurred on the road. They relate to the year and, in order, the number of pedestrian deaths, pedestrian serious injuries, pedestrian slight injuries, cyclist deaths, cyclist serious injuries and cyclist slight injuries.

2001: 0, 53, 162 ..... 0, 4, 46

2002: 3, 40, 127 ..... 1, 9, 29

2003: 4, 38, 172 ..... 0, 7, 42

2004: 1, 42, 167 ..... 2, 6, 51

With regards the recording of 'off carriageway' collisions the 'stats 19' guidance given to police regarding the recording of such injuries includes pedestrianised roads with limited access for motor vehicles, cycle lanes, cycleways or shared access footways (if part of Highway) and the footway or pavement (again if part of highway).

An answer in Hansard gives the following figures for pedestrians injured (including slight injuries) on the 'footway or verge' as a result with a collision involving 1) a motor vehicle and 2) a cyclist between 2000 and 2003.

Year. Motor vehicles. Pedal cycles.

2000: 3,445 ..... 77

2001: 3,504 ..... 78

2002: 3,432 ..... 65

2003: 3,453 ..... 72

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 316w01.htm

It is not stated but it seems likely that these figures relate to all 'not on carriageway' collision, that is including those which also occurred on shared use paths, pedestrianised areas and so on where the cyclist may well have had legitimate access. A House of Commons written answer given on 20/11/02 supports this assumption as this states that in 2001 there were 64 collisions between cyclists and pedestrians on pavements in the whole of the UK which resulted in a pedestrian injury (most of which will have been minor), rather than the '78' figure given above.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... html_sbhd3

A reply to a further Parliamentary question in Hansard for 16 Jan 2006 notes that in the 5 years between 2000 and 2004, not a single pedestrian was killed in the UK as a consequence of being in collision with a cyclist riding on a footway. See

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 116w12.htm

True, not all casualties get reported, but this seems to affect cycle casualties far more than any other road user group. The OECD report 'Safety of Vulnerable Road Users (RS7)' Found that in the UK 82-91% of serious injuries to pedestrians were reported and 60-80% of slight injuries. In comparison only 12-41% of serious injures to cyclists were reported and 9-29% of slight injuries to cyclists. This suggests that there is not a large scale under-reporting of injuries arising from cycle/pedestrian collisions. Also, given the rather irrational level of hostility to 'pavement cyclists' in the media, there is no reason to suspect that any pedestrian injured in such a collision would feel inhibited about reporting any resultant injury. Indeed, even very minor injuries arising from such collisions may well be given a significant amount of publicity in the local media.

BikingBernie

True to form, the BBC get in on the act...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/t ... 399511.stm

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy... and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. "

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

bompington

@BB - impressive & useful stats, all cyclists should learn them by heart to quote in arguments with pub/online bores!

frenchfighter

BikingBernie
Very good posts.

jocksyboy

BikingBernie
Very good posts.

+1