House of Lords question: Highway Code

cyclopsbiker

Oral question asked in the House of Lords yesterday by Lord Palmer:

"To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that cyclists abide by the Highway Code."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 1325000358

SimonAH

Is that Lord Rosie Palmer of the five daughters? anker.

cyclopsbiker

you can also view the whole Lords session here:

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Playe ... ingId=6654


the only Lord Palmer listed is:
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/ad ... lmer/26762

UndercoverElephant

That's a cracking read, by the way. With more than a little bit of humour in places. I recommend it.

cyclopsbiker

I recommend watching it too...the House can be more amusing when viewing than reading

AndyOgy

Has anyone actually read the Highway Code recently? The whole thing needs re-writing!

There is almost nothing in it about cyclists. Nothing about correct road positioning. There is a sentence about right turns. One sentence! And that sentence is misleading. It states that one should position themselves in the middle of the road whilst waiting for a space to make their turn. This implies that you should wait on the white lines. Middle of the lane would have been a better and more accurate way of wording it.

There are just a few pages, all of which list the things that we're not allowed to do. There is nothing stating how to correctly do the things that we are allowed to do.

shouldbeinbed

cyclopsbiker wrote:

Oral question asked in the House of Lords yesterday by Lord Palmer:

"To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that cyclists abide by the Highway Code."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 1325000358

tell you what lords, get the motorists (largest and most dangerous group on the roads) abiding by it first and work your way back from there to the odd non motoring cyclists, peds and hebridean sheep drovers.

UndercoverElephant

shouldbeinbed wrote:

cyclopsbiker wrote:

Oral question asked in the House of Lords yesterday by Lord Palmer:

"To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that cyclists abide by the Highway Code."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 1325000358

tell you what lords, get the motorists (largest and most dangerous group on the roads) abiding by it first and work your way back from there to the odd non motoring cyclists, peds and hebridean sheep drovers.

That's almost exactly the point made rather excellently here:

Lord Haskel wrote:

Does the Minister accept that most cyclists abide by the Highway Code purely out of a sense of self-preservation from the motorists who do not?

Edit: and here:

Lord Davies of Oldham wrote:

My Lords, I ride a bike-in fact, I was riding one this morning-so I declare that interest, but, in balance, I also drive a car. Let us get the issue of bike problems into some kind of perspective. What percentage of the road accidents in which our fellow citizens died last year were due to lawbreaking by cyclists?

And indeed here:

Lord Greaves wrote:

My Lords, I speak as a motorist and a cyclist who seeks perfection in both areas and fails miserably a lot of the time. Does the Minister agree that there is a real difference between traffic offences committed by cyclists or anyone else and breaches of the Highway Code? Simply breaching the Highway Code may be impolite, foolish or dangerous, but it does not necessarily amount to an offence. Does he agree that cyclists are far more vulnerable than drivers of cars, lorries, et cetera?

further

And here's a list of Lord Palmer's shareholdings:

BP (oil)
Barclays plc (banking)
British American Tobacco plc
Fidelity Funds America Fund (banking)
Forth Ports plc
GlaxoSmithKline plc (pharmaceuticals)
PepsiCo Inc Capital Stock (leisure)
Royal Dutch Shell (oil)

Seems like a decent chap :roll:

W1

further wrote:

And here's a list of Lord Palmer's shareholdings:

BP (oil)
Barclays plc (banking)
British American Tobacco plc
Fidelity Funds America Fund (banking)
Forth Ports plc
GlaxoSmithKline plc (pharmaceuticals)
PepsiCo Inc Capital Stock (leisure)
Royal Dutch Shell (oil)

Seems like a decent chap :roll:

Relevance?

Anti-social cycling is an issue for many people and regularly a top complaint to police/community bodies. I don't have any problem at all on a clamp down on it.

further

Relevance?

Context. If you know where someone's coming from it gives you an idea where they're going.

mybreakfastconsisted

Lord Palmer:

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl for that slightly unexciting reply, but does he not agree that it is a scandal how remarkably few prosecutions are made against cyclists who do not adhere to the Highway Code-most especially driving on pavements?

http://www.bikehub.co.uk/news/bike-to-w ... ke-police/

More than 900 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) of up to £60 issued to drivers and motorcyclists.

Over 400 FPNs of up to £60 issued to cyclists.

There are seven times as many private car journeys in London than bike journeys.

So it looks as though the commuters least likely to kill or injure anyone are the ones disproportionately targetted by the cops.



Exactly the opposite of what the Lordy claimed.

dhope

further wrote:

Relevance?

Context. If you know where someone's coming from it gives you an idea where they're going.

Tobacco, fair enough. The rest seem perfectly reasonable.

jonginge

Anyone else got a pension? I'll just ring my fund manager to make sure they're not investing in anything "dubious"...

He who casts the first stone and all that...

further

Tobacco, fair enough. The rest seem perfectly reasonable.

A few Nigerians and Amnesty International might disagree with you regarding the oil interests.

Also, I'm more of a Coca Cola man myself.

shouldbeinbed

UndercoverElephant wrote:

etc

sorry was at work and with the rather draconian web limiters I couldn't open the links. I'll try harder next time

bloody miracle I can get BR, every other forum is a no no

tailwindhome

further wrote:

And here's a list of Lord Palmer's shareholdings:

BP (oil)
Barclays plc (banking)
British American Tobacco plc
Fidelity Funds America Fund (banking)
Forth Ports plc
GlaxoSmithKline plc (pharmaceuticals)
PepsiCo Inc Capital Stock (leisure)
Royal Dutch Shell (oil)

Seems like a decent chap :roll:

If you have a pension you probably have invested in most, if not all the companies listed above.

further

If you have a pension you probably have invested in most, if not all the companies listed above.

As it happens I'm self-employed and was able to choose my pension carefully. That isn't to say I'm holier than thou, I can tell you I'm definitely not. But this fella appears to have knowingly accumulated wealth (not through a pension scheme but) via investment in what I judge to be ethically dodgy companies. To my mind that's telling and makes me distrust his motives on other matters.