Petition to Boris

natrix

Sign up to persuade Boris to save cyclists lives, read the story here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/apr/18/boris-lives-cyclists-trixi-mirror

shouldbeinbed

natrix wrote:

Sign up to persuade Boris to save cyclists lives, read the story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... ixi-mirror

Spaced the link so it works

Bradders87

Whilst the loss of any life is awful, and I agree that these mirrors are useful and that they'd save lives, our safety as London cyclists (and cyclists in general) isn't in Boris' hands, it's in our own. It's time people got some road sense and took responsibility for their own actions. Specifically in this case, don't sit tucked in on the left of a junction regardless of what the first vehicle is - but even more so if it's a lorry with a blind spot exactly where you are. If you're not competent enough to cycle on busy London roads, don't do it.
I'd hazard a guess that a lot of the accidents caused by left turning lorries are because the cyclists involved do not have the confidence to take primary road position because of the all-too-frequent pushy motorists that force the less able riders into the gutter. Had they had the confidence to take a more obvious road position at traffic lights, things like this wouldn't happen so frequently, and it would be down to the cyclists' personal input, not the reliance on government and local rules and regulations wrapping us up in cotton wool.

deptfordmarmoset

Bradders87 wrote:

Whilst the loss of any life is awful, and I agree that these mirrors are useful and that they'd save lives, our safety as London cyclists (and cyclists in general) isn't in Boris' hands, it's in our own. It's time people got some road sense and took responsibility for their own actions. Specifically in this case, don't sit tucked in on the left of a junction regardless of what the first vehicle is - but even more so if it's a lorry with a blind spot exactly where you are. If you're not competent enough to cycle on busy London roads, don't do it.
I'd hazard a guess that a lot of the accidents caused by left turning lorries are because the cyclists involved do not have the confidence to take primary road position because of the all-too-frequent pushy motorists that force the less able riders into the gutter. Had they had the confidence to take a more obvious road position at traffic lights, things like this wouldn't happen so frequently, and it would be down to the cyclists' personal input, not the reliance on government and local rules and regulations wrapping us up in cotton wool.

So, if I'm the first to the lights (or the last one to get through on the tail end of the green light, whichever way you look at it...) I tend to plonk myself in primary and stand on my right foot (i.e further out into the road). What then happens is another cyclist comes up and passes me on the inside before stopping at some imaginary ASZ a couple of metres in front of the stop line.

On the question of left-turning lorries, it cannot be right that a HGV driver should be expected (by his or her employer) to drag their rear axles over a part of the road that they cannot monitor. Even when it may be no fault at all of the driver, several tons of rear axle in a blind spot does kill, but what is effectively corporately-condoned manslaughter will play on the driver's conscience maybe for the rest of their life. Just think what an immense burden it must be when that licence to drive HGVs turns turns out to be a licence to kill cyclists.

Trixi mirrors are just one aid for HGV drivers to help them avoid having a cyclist's death on their conscience. As such they can't be the whole solution but they at least give the unfortunate cyclist a better chance of surviving and the driver a better chance of sleeping peacefully.