Rider Taken Out!

rjsterry

This will disappoint.

http://road.cc/content/news/69879-nottingham-politicians-cyclists-should-be-forced-wear-helmets-and-carry-lights

Go get'em Buns!

EDIT: This quote is particularly depressing:

Councillor Ian Morrison added: "The latest trend to sell fixed wheel bikes without brakes is simply immoral."

I always knew that fixie crowd were a rum lot, but...

First.Aspect

rjsterry wrote:

This will disappoint.

http://road.cc/content/news/69879-nottingham-politicians-cyclists-should-be-forced-wear-helmets-and-carry-lights

Go get'em Buns!

EDIT: This quote is particularly depressing:

Councillor Ian Morrison added: "The latest trend to sell fixed wheel bikes without brakes is simply immoral."

I always knew that fixie crowd were a rum lot, but...

Funnily enough, I sent this to his parliamentary office this morning (day off sick)..

Dear Mr Allen,

I have been motivated to write to you as a result of your plans to lobby the transport minister regarding cycle safety, with a view to mandating helmet use, provision of reflective clothing, exclusion of certain types of bicycles from our roads and additional cycle training.

Whereas it is heartening that an MP has noticed that cycle safety is an important issue, your views are predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of the problems. If I may say, your conclusions are tempting but superficial and simplistic.

I would like to give you some background. I am a cyclist and a professional in the legal field. I have been cycling for 20+ years and until recently was a 5000 mile a year cyclist. I have over four hundred pounds' worth of lights on my bike, I rear high visibility clothing, a helmet and I cycle in the same manner in which I drive - within the law. Last year I was knocked from my bicycle by a driver who had been able to see me on a quiet residential street on a sunny May afternoon for over 20 seconds, before driving through me, placing me in hospital for a fortnight, off work for 3 months and permanently damaging my ankle. If I follow your reasoning, I should have been wearing even brighter clothes and even more body protection and I perhaps may have benefited from training to help me to avoid getting run over or to land more softly.

Statistics from studies in several countries, including the UK, show that between 75% and 90% of accidents between drivers and cyclists are the fault of the driver. If you cut away the age group of cyclists who are not drivers (i.e. below age 17) this statistic is closer to the 90%. So despite a public perception of errant lawless cyclists, statistics demonstrate that 9 times out of 10, accidents are caused by drivers.

Really, if one has a rudimentary comprehension of physics, these statistics are entirely to be expected. A cyclist and their bike weighs little more than a pedestrian and travels up to 20mph. A motor vehicle weighs at least 10-15 times as much and typically travels much faster and has poorer visibility. It is an inherently more dangerous arrangement to everyone not actually in the motor vehicle.

So why are you lobbying for improved standards of cycling, more mandatory safety equipment and so forth?

You are tackling the wrong problem. At best this will address those 10% of accidents caused by the cyclist, but cannot significantly influence the other 90% of accidents. There is absolutely no amount of protective equipment that can prevent a cyclist being run over by an inattentive motorist, or crushed against an unnecessary railing by an overtaking HGV without safety mirrors or cameras, etc., etc.. I believe that an analogy proposed by Chris Boardman was to gun crime. Is the answer to gun crime to mandate the wearing of bullet proof vests?

I was interested to read the other day that the government is investing 8 times as much into motorcycle awareness campaigns for each of five years, than it is investing in a single cycle awareness campaign over the coming year. If you should be lobbying for anything, it should be for better driver training and better campaigns to help to make drivers less likely to drive into, injure and kill cyclists. I further believe that if you take it upon yourself to champion a cause, it is incumbent upon to you educate yourself as to the true nature of the problem. Or, to put this another way, if you would like to help cyclists, please talk to some of them first.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

veronese68

First Aspect wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

This will disappoint.

http://road.cc/content/news/69879-nottingham-politicians-cyclists-should-be-forced-wear-helmets-and-carry-lights

Go get'em Buns!

EDIT: This quote is particularly depressing:

Councillor Ian Morrison added: "The latest trend to sell fixed wheel bikes without brakes is simply immoral."

I always knew that fixie crowd were a rum lot, but...

Funnily enough, I sent this to his parliamentary office this morning (day off sick)..

Dear Mr Allen,

Lots of good stuff about the nonsense he spouted.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Excellent well done. Amazing how many people seem to think it's my fault for getting doored by a person getting out of a car in the right hand lane of what is effectively a dual carriageway.

jimmypippa

Veronese68 wrote:

First Aspect wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

This will disappoint.

http://road.cc/content/news/69879-nottingham-politicians-cyclists-should-be-forced-wear-helmets-and-carry-lights

Go get'em Buns!

EDIT: This quote is particularly depressing:

Councillor Ian Morrison added: "The latest trend to sell fixed wheel bikes without brakes is simply immoral."

I always knew that fixie crowd were a rum lot, but...

Funnily enough, I sent this to his parliamentary office this morning (day off sick)..

Dear Mr Allen,

Lots of good stuff about the nonsense he spouted.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Excellent well done. Amazing how many people seem to think it's my fault for getting doored by a person getting out of a car in the right hand lane of what is effectively a dual carriageway.

Yes, and why when I buy a new bike should I have to buy some crap reflective clothing and helmet when I already have better kit?

First.Aspect

I'm sure they could devise a streamlined system whereby you could provide certified receipts showing proof of ownership of reflective clothing and a helmet to friendly notary public or something like that.

A BMX can be defined by the hood of the person riding it, surely?

I can't see any other problems so lets crack on.