A sensible MP

shouldbeinbed

http://road.cc/node/30023

And typical pro car response from RAC, Hierachy of the righteous - hadaway an shi*e. I don't ride cos I'm righteous I ride cos I enjoy it and eating and drinking stuff that would otherwise see me very porky.

Edit : before certain types jump in. I know its an old debate on here but getting new exposure so worth a nudge

iPete

“On the continent, it has helped foster a culture of respect among road users. Experience has shown it improves the awareness of those who have responsibility for the most vulnerable of road users.”

Its oh so very true, the space and respect you get in France is amazing as cars overtake, they then proceed in trying to kill each other.

W1

I don't disagree with much of that - I do find "automatic" liability difficult to accept though.

Mr Plum

That's a pretty irresponsible reaction from the RAC.

This is a pipe dream, but I'd love to see some more creative sentencing from judges of drivers who are found guilty of causing accidents with cyclists - such as having to cycle an agreed route through their city at rush hour every day for a month. Never going to happen, but fu*k me it would help some people to appreciate how vulnerable cyclists are.

cjcp

Do the RAC suggest how harmony can be encouraged?

schweiz

Having lived with it for the last 7 years I've been in Switzerland, I think proportionate liability is a bad thing.

As pedestrians are the lowest in the food chain they just seem to walk out onto zebra crossings without looking and I can only assume that is because they know that they are always in the right. I've seen someone getting flattened by a Landcruiser doing just that. The Toyota was going quite slowly, certainly much less than the 50km/h speed limit, it just didn't have time to stop. There have been a few articles both in the regular and motoring press about the accident rates in and around zebra crossings and whether to bring back belisha beacons (or whatever they would be called in Switzerland!). The funny thing here is that young school children are all taught very well how to cross the road as many of them walk to school on their own or with their friends from a young agae (6-7). They stand at the side of the road and won't even start to cross until traffic has completely stopped even when I've slosed down to a slow walking pace and have waved for them to cross they won't! However there seenms to be a switch when they hill secondary school age and then they just walk out without stopping!

IMO, having equal liablility and basing the liability of an accident on the the actions of the people involved make people consider their actions more carefully.

shouldbeinbed

cjcp wrote:

Do the RAC suggest how harmony can be encouraged?

having only motor vehicles on the roads?

agree PL is a bad thing it encourages reckless dickheads to be even bigger reckless dickheads by the perception that they will have the law on their side and people will do whatever to avoid hitting them. wrong legally and if it goes wrong physically pretty disasterous consequences for them and theirs too.