Very uncool....

daddy0

I agree that this article isn't very helpful for cyclist/everyone else relations. But it is helpful to raise awareness about the issue of guide dogs being hit. I'd never considered that the owner makes the decision to cross and that they can't always hear a cycle approaching. Agree that the stats seem to have been cooked somewhat, which needn't have happened really. The very fact that guide dogs get hit by cyclists at all is bad enough to warrant being written about without the need for fake stats.

I'm interested - has anyone on this forum hit a dog or guide dog before?

rjsterry

They - Guide Dogs for the Blind - were handing out those slap-on wrist bands at the end of Kennington Road this morning. All done in a friendly enough "please look out for blind people" manner and it seemed churlish to refuse a wrist band, but if the 7 or 8 men and women in tabards, plus tent, plus umpteen hundred wrist bands were all deployed on the basis of such lousy stats, their fundraising must be doing well.

UndercoverElephant

cyd190468 wrote:

If guide dogs are failing to see/hear/smell oncoming cyclists, I would suggest they need a better class of dog as I would have thought avoiding such things is their job. :shock:

No, no it's not.

elbowloh

Daddy0 wrote:

I agree that this article isn't very helpful for cyclist/everyone else relations. But it is helpful to raise awareness about the issue of guide dogs being hit. I'd never considered that the owner makes the decision to cross and that they can't always hear a cycle approaching. Agree that the stats seem to have been cooked somewhat, which needn't have happened really. The very fact that guide dogs get hit by cyclists at all is bad enough to warrant being written about without the need for fake stats.

I'm interested - has anyone on this forum hit a dog or guide dog before?

No, but a dog has hit me. Was going through Richmond Park, cycling straight line when this dog runs straight into the side of me at full pelt. It was some sort of mountain dog, so had quite a bit of heft. knocked me sideways so I kind of bunny-hopped onto the verge. Somehow managed to stay upright and on the bike. Was quite funny really.

il_principe

Mikey23 wrote:

@rower63... I trust that your diatribe was correctly attributed as a personal response rather than representing the views of the cycling community?

Represents my views. Terrible reporting. No one should pay any attention to surveys, plenty of evidence to suggest that they are rarely accurate.

anonymousblackfg

Il Principe wrote:

Mikey23 wrote:

@rower63... I trust that your diatribe was correctly attributed as a personal response rather than representing the views of the cycling community?

Represents my views. Terrible reporting. No one should pay any attention to surveys, plenty of evidence to suggest that they are rarely accurate.

Mine too. I'd rather have poor reporting picked up than be scared to come to a city where there are cyclists. To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

dhope

anonymousblackfg wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

Mikey23 wrote:

@rower63... I trust that your diatribe was correctly attributed as a personal response rather than representing the views of the cycling community?

Represents my views. Terrible reporting. No one should pay any attention to surveys, plenty of evidence to suggest that they are rarely accurate.

Mine too. I'd rather have poor reporting picked up than be scared to come to a city where there are cyclists. To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

Far more likely than that. I surveyed 100 people killed by their bedding and not one of had been killed by a cyclist.

MonkeyMonster

anonymousblackfg wrote:

To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

See, I keep telling people my duvet tries to eat me as I wrestle out of it each morning!

dhope

Il Principe wrote:

Mikey23 wrote:

@rower63... I trust that your diatribe was correctly attributed as a personal response rather than representing the views of the cycling community?

Represents my views. Terrible reporting. No one should pay any attention to surveys, plenty of evidence to suggest that they are rarely accurate.

'Thinking, Fast and Slow' is an excellent book, with plenty of research about how the phrasing of a question can effect a result.

anonymousblackfg

MonkeyMonster wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

See, I keep telling people my duvet tries to eat me as I wrestle out of it each morning!

Are you wearing a helmet and high viz?

cookeeemonster

Ultimately how many blind people or their dogs have been killed by cyclists, ever?

Yet we all know cyclists get killed every year by neanderthals that believe this kind of anti cyclist bullsh*t every couple of weeks it appears in the mail/sun/local paper.

Accusing 25% of all cyclists (ALL) of being guide dog slaughtering scum makes us out to be the lowest of the low and people will potentially suffer physical harm because of it.

Nothing wrong whatsoever with highlighting the problems blind people face - and what we can do to help them - couple of very good posts on here clarifing what guide dogs can and cannot do, but the charity need pulling up on their methods.

Colinthecop

anonymousblackfg wrote:

To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

And let's not even start on the number of people who receive fatal injuries each year from incidents involving frozen poultry...

:shock:

elbowloh

Colinthecop wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

And let's not even start on the number of people who receive fatal injuries each year from incidents involving frozen poultry...

:shock:

Or the number of people killed each year putting on their socks.

MonkeyMonster

anonymousblackfg wrote:

MonkeyMonster wrote:

anonymousblackfg wrote:

To put things in perspective you're 24 times more likeley to be killed by your own bedding than by a cyclist in the UK.

See, I keep telling people my duvet tries to eat me as I wrestle out of it each morning!

Are you wearing a helmet and high viz?

Had to when it started using mallets to "help me get back to sleep" Hi-viz for the bed monsters natch

Colinthecop

elbowloh wrote:

Or the number of people killed each year putting on their socks.

Should that not be - Putting on someone elses socks...?


:shock:

alan_sherman

I hit a dog once. I flew through the air, the cheap mild steel forks bent. The dog got up and ran off (apparently unharmed!). Not recommended for either party. Usually avoidable and unecessary.

My incident was a farmer let his dog out of a field who ran across the road. I braked and swerved to the left to go behind it. Then I saw the other 4 dogs running out after the first one! Swerved right to avoid them and hit the first one. I was a young teenager so can't have weighed much, but was interesting that the forks bent! Farmer paid for them too, which was good. also it was winter so I was wearing thick gloves and clothes so no grazes even though I went over the handlebars and flew down the road a few metres!

notsoblue

Mikey23 wrote:

@rower63... I trust that your diatribe was correctly attributed as a personal response rather than representing the views of the cycling community?

It represents my views.

rower63

Mikey23 wrote:

@rower63... I trust that your diatribe was correctly attributed as a personal response rather than representing the views of the cycling community?

I made an "official complaint" under my own name, in the category "Poor Quality". Aside from that, all they will read is exactly what I copied up here. Pretty sure I don't have the position or authority to claim to represent anyone else.
The fact they chose cyclists as the "strong views about..." group is sort of irrelevant to what I was complaining about, except it's the mechanism by which it came to my notice. It could equally have been about motorists or other pedestrians, the point would have been the same.

cookeeemonster

The Guide Dogs For London charity are sounding more and more and more like a total, utter bunch of c**ts: http://road.cc/content/blog/128474-anat ... k-cyclists

Disgusting. Plenty of other charities for blind people you can and should support.

As I implied in my previous post, the damage has already been done. This is now fact, we are all guide dog murdering scum who hate blind people. Running over cyclists should get you a medal!!! No more cycle lanes!!! Ban cyclists!!!

elbowloh

I would also question, of those (14) who had been involved in a collision with a "cyclist", was the cyclist a child or a youth who just happened to be on a bike?

cookeeemonster

elbowloh wrote:

I would also question, of those (14) who had been involved in a collision with a "cyclist", was the cyclist a child or a youth who just happened to be on a bike?

+1000

Still angry at this...

slowbike

Daddy0 wrote:

I'm interested - has anyone on this forum hit a dog or guide dog before?

I've kicked one before....


well, two actually, but I wasn't on my bike for one of them ...

both times when the dog was running towards me aggressively - barking, teeth etc etc ... the mutts were in attack mode so I got in first...

no they weren't tethered and neither were guide dogs ...

dhope

CookeeeMonster wrote:

elbowloh wrote:

I would also question, of those (14) who had been involved in a collision with a "cyclist", was the cyclist a child or a youth who just happened to be on a bike?

+1000

Still angry at this...

One definition of a cyclist is someone on a bike. Just not the definition we like to use.
I'm sure PedRadar has people complaining that we tar careful folk that glance around buses before walking out with the same brush as the iphone wielding lemming.

It's just the general problem of picking a distinguishing characteristic. And that distinguishing characteristic is never 'inconsiderate idiot with no common sense'. Hence the short black posh male bisexual cyclist gets all the flack.

Avenger197396

.[/quote] I surveyed 100 people killed by their bedding and not one of had been killed by a cyclist.[/quote]

Actual lol.

In any case I blame Wiggle.

jedster

Clearly awful use of stats and bad reporting - perfectly appropriate to have a go at the journalistic standards and PR campaign wording.

That said I do think the comments in this thread suggesting that the burden for avoiding cycle / guide do collisions and near misses should be better guide dog training rather than better hazard awareness and consideration by cyclists as utterly laughable.

All road users are supposed to make special allowances for more vulnerable road users. Hard to see who is more vulnerable than blind people...

tgotb

jedster wrote:

Hard to see who is more vulnerable than blind people...

Ummmmm..... Blind cyclists? :twisted:

meanredspider

If you want to practice your dog avoidance skills, try riding Ireland end to end. Bloody things appear from nowhere like Exocet missiles. Seriously, I have no idea why I didn't have an accident as I was convinced several times that I was going to hit one. For a "dogs/mile" experience, nowhere seems to come close IME.

danlikesbikes

Just reading the road cc review and seems totally ridiculous now but as it's already been reported is too late for the anti cycling types, but even if a retraction was made the same anti cycling types would not really change their minds just revert to other "poor behaviour" points I guess.

First.Aspect

One in three deer in Richmond Park have been nearly killed by Fenton.

davis

Absolutely spot on. Nothing wrong with your thinking at all there, which is why HSE is now insisting that every company with more than 100 employees is going to have a dog employed as a safety officer.

If you've never seen a poodle in a hard hat, you haven't lived.