The wider good of video recording, what does it achieve?

DonDaddyD

What good does video recording and posting every instance and example of bad, dangerous and/or poor driving achieve? You're trying to raise awareness to the perils of cycling and you've video footage recorded should an accident occur. Fine great and dandy but truthfully if we bottomline this basically it's 'naming and shaming' and frankly who has ever responded well to that?

So I ask, when motorists, collectively, have finally had enough - much like it seems cyclists had had enough and collectively decided to film motorists - what do you think is going to happen? And I say collectively because people do generalise.

And because I'm looking at this from the perspective of what good does this do for all of us, I ask the run-on question:

How does recording and uploading the very worst of the commute to the internet benefit cyclists and cycling general?

It doesn't promote the virtues of cycling and the the endless footage is largely depressing. Add to that the now expected phrase "smile you're on camera" or "you're going on youtube mate" and I struggle to see how this trend does anything but alienate "us" from the rest of the motoring community. Honestly, many of the footage I've seen on youtube that result in arguments I believe could have been walked away from.

I honestly think there are some cyclists who take this campaigning thing too far. It seems, to me, that for some commuting by bike has become more about protesting, complaining, campaigning than it is about riding the bike for fun.

The camera atop a helmet invites confrontation about as much safety wing.

Discuss.

tailwindhome

DonDaddyD wrote:

Discuss.

We did.

Last week.

Do keep up.

DonDaddyD

I know but (i) that thread degenerated and (ii) it was more about a thread on this website. I'm addressing the whole filming the commute culture in general.

EKE_38BPM

DonDaddyD wrote:

I know but (i) that thread degenerated and (ii) it was more about a thread on this website. I'm addressing the whole filming the commute culture in general.

Yawn.

Is filming the new RLJ/helmet thread? Some do, many don't, I'm bored of it. I'm going to watch the Gran Prix.

tailwindhome

DonDaddyD wrote:

(i) that thread degenerated

LOL. There's always hope.

DonDaddyD

EKE_38BPM wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

I know but (i) that thread degenerated and (ii) it was more about a thread on this website. I'm addressing the whole filming the commute culture in general.

Yawn.

Is filming the new RLJ/helmet thread? Some do, many don't, I'm bored of it. I'm going to watch the Gran Prix.

1. The question wasn't how many people film their commutes.

2. Don't participate then.

shouldbeinbed

+ 1 DDD. Apart ftom the rare as finding hens teeth in rocking horse poo likelihood of it supporting a prosecution, I'm very much meh where videos are concerned.

I don't waste my time watching others, usually a very boring 5 mins of filtering & wind noise followed by 5 secs of yelling 'woooah' occasionally followed by an argument at some traffic lights . I dumped my wee md80 clone in the drawer very quickly.

Eventually satnavs will incorporate cameras or people will be using smartphones in car mounts making windscreen videos more commonplace and all of us cyclists will get slaughtered by video for RLJ, bad filters/overtakes & general nodderism which like it or not is prevalent amongst the cycling demographic that we all belong to - no one in reality but a few deluded snobs makes a distinction between proper cyclists and PoB's.
My totally dystopian self thinks it would be counterproductive for cycling all round & force through the (ignorant) majority public view that cyclists should undergo compulsory training & competence test , necessary registration, insurance and MOT & paying a fee for riding on roads, with plenty of easy to do police spot checks backed up by fines for not carrying your cycling licence.

estampida

its more a point that you can drown in bad driving clips on youtube, too many of anything will breed contempt

really bad crashes with drivers tend not to be uploaded, and (like my bro) when someone opens a car door on and has 32 stiches across the wind pipe the vid helps with any questions anyone has on the incident from your point of view

say you were run down and killed, the only other person on the road was the driver,

his defence will be that you were weaving across the road or what ever, main point - not his fault. With out your helmet cam how can you put your side across

or if the poor sod had done nowt wrong and you dove under the wheels and he is then being done for a crime he did not commit

would the footage help?, say the car has a data recorder and he is using it in his defence and you don't have the same luxury

and some commuters might review footage and change the way they approach the daily commute, as the camera does not lie

meanredspider

EKE_38BPM wrote:

. I'm going to watch the Gran Prix.

Is that granny racing? And do they film it on helmet cams? 8)

DonDaddyD

estampida wrote:

Many points.

Yeah I completely get that and agree that video footage helps in an accident as a piece of supporting evidence but that is very much a specific thing.

My query relates to the endless streams of "c'lose calls", "close passes" cut ups and other driving infractions where no real infraction has happened. Scary, annoying, dangerous yes. But I'm not sure what putting it on youtube and promoting it to as many people as possible achieves.

Don't get me wrong some footage is beneficial, even the footage of actual accidents, as it can help cyclists motorists become aware of the perils. But not every single and sometimes questionable incident where a vehicle might have gotten too close.

EKE_38BPM

meanredspider wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

. I'm going to watch the Gran Prix.

Is that granny racing? And do they film it on helmet cams? 8)

Oops, typo. And yes they do!

iPete

Is it last week again?

I post on a car forum that has a good few riders.

Last week someone posted up some videos from Gaz and the general concensus was youd have to be stupid to ride in London. So yes, they are damaging to those who have never ridden in the city, especially the number of incidents he has on his channel. These are people who already ride as well! To someone who is thinking about riding its very damaging, I think they'd rather get an Addison lee cab.

optimisticbiker

On the other hand I admit I posted a few vids but got bored of doing so. I still video my commute. I have had success by sending the video to the MD of a haulage firm who actually took it up with his drivers and transport manager because it showed, apart from the bad driving, they were not putting number plates on their trailers. This resulted in a positive exchange of emails. And while I've not used one for a prosecution thankfully, I have had an insurance company payout without quibbling knowing there was a video of the incident. So I will continue to video.

Slightly OT but not much... A friend of mine has 4 camera recording in his performance car. It recorded the scum that keyed it.. and the police used it to prosecute successfuly. And it successfully upheld a claim against a driver that changed lanes into him without signalling who claimed that my friend had rear-ended the idiot. It wouldn't surprise me that such technology will become standard equipment one day; many cars have reversing and blind-spot cameras as options now and the technology is so cheap (the camera modules now are under a $1 in bulk) building it into wing and centre mirrors is only a matter of time.