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by Driver.cyclist
Wed, Jul 08, 2009 13:51
8

Can Allan Ramsay please provide the link to petitions/number10 demanding severe penalties for cyclists who ignore traffic lights, ride on pavements, enter from sideroads without looking, let their children ride without helmets, ride two-abreast on winding roads, themself use mobile phones, etc, etc, etc. Oh, I forgot, it's so much easier to vilify drivers than modify your own behaviour.

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8 comments

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poppa | 14 years ago
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Bleh. Its so much easier to villify cyclists than to modify your own behaviour. Do ya see what I did there?

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Barry Fry-up | 14 years ago
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oooh yeah. lock up those inconsiderate cyclists! that's *definitely* a crime on the same level as mowing down innocent bystanders with two tons of metal because you're so impatient and selfish you can't even leave your phone alone as you drive the hundred yards to the shops to buy your pie and fags.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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I love the suggestion by Driver.cyclist that there should be severe penalties for cyclist riding two-abreast on country roads.

This is just a demonstration of the usual impatience of the car driver, not prepared to wait 10 seconds to find a safe place to pass a cyclist, they beleive that they should be able to just blow by you un-impeded as they are after all a car.

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cat1commuter | 14 years ago
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Cars on pavements are more of a problem than cyclists on pavements. According to DfT data (1975 to 2005) in an average year over 50 times more pedestrians are killed on footways or verges by motorised vehicles (ranging between 37 and 56 per year) than by cyclists (between 0 and 1 per year).

Cycling is not a particularly dangerous activity. It's OK to let your children cycle without a helmet. Your child is more likely to sustain a head injury on the same trip if they walk.

From the point of view of the motorist, cyclists may exhibit some annoying behaviour, but they are almost entirely putting themselves at risk, not other road users. We should not push for anything which would make the environment more hostile towards cyclists. We need more cycling and less driving!

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TheHatter replied to cat1commuter | 14 years ago
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cat1commuter wrote:

Cars on pavements are more of a problem than cyclists on pavements. According to DfT data (1975 to 2005) in an average year over 50 times more pedestrians are killed on footways or verges by motorised vehicles (ranging between 37 and 56 per year) than by cyclists (between 0 and 1 per year).

Cycling is not a particularly dangerous activity. It's OK to let your children cycle without a helmet. Your child is more likely to sustain a head injury on the same trip if they walk.

From the point of view of the motorist, cyclists may exhibit some annoying behaviour, but they are almost entirely putting themselves at risk, not other road users. We should not push for anything which would make the environment more hostile towards cyclists. We need more cycling and less driving!

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Spot on Cat1 with that last paragraph. I think some motorists anger at cyclist is really hiding their guilt that they're not cycling themselves.
Also I think its far better for kids to ride without helmets than not exercise at all.

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OldRidgeback | 14 years ago
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Can we abolish Jeremy Clarkson instead?

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cactuscat | 14 years ago
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cyclists who ignore traffic lights: number of casualties?
riding on pavements: number of casualties?
entering from sideroads without looking: number of casualties?
let their children ride without helmets: number of casualties?
ride two-abreast on winding roads: number of casualties?
themself use mobile phones: number of casualties?

Quote:

it's so much easier to vilify drivers than modify your own behaviour

the behaviour of cyclists isn't causing lots of people to die on the roads. idiots using their mobile phones when driving is.

half of those things you listed aren't even against the law.

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TheHatter replied to cactuscat | 14 years ago
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cactuscat wrote:
Quote:

it's so much easier to vilify drivers than modify your own behaviour

the behaviour of cyclists isn't causing lots of people to die on the roads. idiots using their mobile phones when driving is.

half of those things you listed aren't even against the law.

I agree with Cactus - the amount of times I've nearly been killed on a bike or as pedestrian by car drivers is scarey. And yes occasionally an idiot cyclist, particularly in london, may nearly bump into me but I've never considered myself in life threatening danger from a bike. And the statistics bare this out with generally less than 1 fatality a year caused by cyclists.
I've found that the people that try to divert blame to cyclists as generally being the incosiderate Clarkson types who want speed limits abolished etc.

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