Call for lower speed limits to protect New Forest ponies - somehow veers into anti cycling

The Daily Echo has this video which shows the standard of driving you can expect in the New Forest:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17823599.moment-4x4-driver-misses-baby-donkey-inches-new-forest/

Nothing in the comments about cycling, but it's probably only a matter of time...

Fluffy and Hirsute, Gary Hart fell asleep while driving whilst towing a range rover on a motorway, eventually came to rest blocking a fast rail line, derailed an express train and killed 10 people on board.  He still denies he was doing anything dangerous, blames everyone but himself.

Drivers I worked with at the time were saying how they had fallen asleep at the wheel before, can't be dangerous, why weren't there more barriers on the motorway?  But more barriers on the motorway would have meant more dead on the motorway, massive pile ups and all that.  Cancer medic (whose job was to try and save people with arse cancer) was blaming the hospital for making him drive tired, no personal responsibility there at all.

They had obviously never felt the mass and solidity of a motor vehicle on an essentially naked and unprotected human body.

They had never gotten back from working a late at McDs, to meet their parents who were off to hospital to have to perhaps identify their son, killed on the way home.  No ID, the old bill had phoned McDs, uniform in the bag.  Could have been 2 people, not me (of course), bloke called Mark Malone, knew him from school, I'd been riding home that way a year, year and a half.  He's been riding home about 3 weeks, still a green badge.  I couldn't go to the funeral, couldn't let his parents see me, the person who pure odds said should have been the one killed.  I saw his lights lying on the road (A30) as I rode past Camberley cinema up the strange slip road, redirected.  There was sand on the road there the next day as I went to work.  I'm guessing his head must have been mashed in, no description to the managers, quick at least.  Hit and run, probably drunk.  

That and me being run over too many times are the reasons I've never learned to drive.  I just can't do that to people.  We all make mistakes, best not to be in charge of tonne of metal at speed when you do.

I saw an interview of a bloke in prison many years ago, (Thomas Munch-Peterson, the correct search terms and the internet) tried to get a mint from his jacket on the back seat while driving on the motorway, crashed and killed 3 people, one of whom was pregnant, he just could not accept what he did was in any way dangerous.  I was screaming at the TV at this point, how many more people do you have to kill before it becomes "dangerous".

There is something about driving.

Why else would a councillor when asked about dead ponies start having a go at cyclists.  Do you reckon he drives a Jag or a Range Rover?

As a regular visitor to the area, I see the speed camera van parked up on the stretch of road we use. But once you've passed it, then the gammon driving range rover drivers stick their foot down. Even through the village's. These roads aren't designed for speed, but Gammon man doesn't understand this.

The cyclists have a positive slowing down effect on the traffic

Because it's those pesky cyclists you really have to worry about.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-norfolk-49206600/a11-attleborou...

I’ve commented on the article (awaiting moderation) that the speed limits are fine, it’s a bit of enforcement that’s needed.

Speeding motorists kill ponies.

No mention of the cyclists that have been killed on 1 particularly bad stretch of road ( Ipley heath crossroads ) from that complete idiot in the article then? Which “Races” was the tw@ referring to? The Sportives and few club TTs that happen round certain bits? Not really races are they? The thing is, that the vast majority of motorists I encounter on my regular New Forest area rides, are considerate, both of the animals, and the cyclists. It’s the ones that aren’t from round the area, who try and use it as a shortcut, that are the problem. It only takes one of those to cause a big problem though:

I'll take his word that he is not anti-cyclist, I expect that some of his neighbours are cyclists and that he may even have invited some to a BBQ at his house once to show his non anti cyclist credentials.

I reckon he his just using the cyclist nonsense to demonstrate that he is a moron.

Quote:

Cllr Alan Glass said: “Having recently attended a road safety meeting I am sorry to say that we have the worst record for safety in the area.

“A lot of the reason for that is down to cyclists. They ride all over the road and I wonder if there is anything we can do to mitigate the dangers.

Quote:

Speaking to the A&T after the meeting, Cllr Glass said: “I am not anti-cyclists, far from it. But there are a minority who do not respect other road users.

“The other day a friend of mine who is a lorry driver was coming up to the brow of a hill when he was met with a large group of cyclists heading straight towards him at speed, spread right across the whole of the road.

“Two of them bounced off the front of his truck. Unfortunately some cyclists are just very anti-social in the way they treat the roads and the Forest.”

Words fail me, here.

He believes that speeding motorists using horses as ping pong balls is the fault of cyclists?

And, I trust his friend who is a lorry driver reported this incident to the police, and that the incident can be independently verified and isn't just made up to serve an agenda...?

I think that rather than 'bouncing', a horse hit by a speeding car would sort of crunch the front of the car, knocking the engine block toward the driver and probably KSI-ing the horse in the process.

A horse hit by a speeding bicycle would probably blink slowly, look around and wonder what that was, and then carry on eating grass.

I like the bit that ponies 'are being used like ping-pong balls' by drivers. Yes, Councillor Twat, I'm sure people are LITERALLY going out to crash their cars into large animals just for a laugh as apparently they bounce about like balls? Sounds like Rocket League but with animals! Will try tonight.

"Two of them bounced off the front of his truck."

Were they made of rubber ?