BBC confuses motorcycle with e-bike (deliberately?)

hawkinspeter wrote:

Personally, I think that if someone is close enough that merely lifting your hand up causes contact, then they're within your personal space and shouldn't be travelling at speed as that's clearly dangerous (to themselves by the look of things).

Which is the argument used on here a lot, that if your car was close enough for me to touch it then you were driving too close! 

It looks to me as if the pedestrian deliberately knocked the rider off, but it's difficult to say for sure. What we can see from the streetview, is the pedestrian would have been able to see the rider coming from quite some distance, as the road is quite straight.

As pointed out by jh2727, vehicles can be expected on this road from 5pm and loading/disabled vehicles prior to this time, so it's not exclusively pedestrianised. Add to that the wet conditions, with a covered walkway available to the pedestrians left side and I do wonder why this pedestrian was walking in the road - they didn't appear to be crossing the street.

Seeing some footage a few seconds prior would be interesting, to see if the pedestrian moved from the pavement into the road; a deliberate action in order to obstruct the rider perhaps? They could have seen them coming from some way off.

The hand behind the back is perhaps telling too - almost like they were primed to lash out. I guess this wasn't probed too much, as it was the rider being prosecuted, not the pedestrian.

Irrespective of the actions of the pedestrian, it was dangerous driving.

HoarseMann wrote:

It's a pedestrianised street that allows motorised vehicles for loading and disabled access, overnight between 5pm and 10:30am. 

Google streetview for that area is about 13 years old, but if it's still the same restrictions, it isn't "a pedestrianised street that allows motorised vehicles for loading and disabled access, overnight between 5pm and 10:30am"

It is a pedestrianised street between 10:30am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday, where loading and disabled access are permitted at all times. Before 10:30am, after 5pm and all day on Sunday, there are no restrictions.

*edit - the Streetview photos which show the signage are newer - from 2022.

*edit2 - not that this in anyway legitimises riding an unlicensed motorbike there, at anytime.

Whilst I do not condone violence...

The rider was riding at excessive speed on an area which is evidently not meant for motor vehicles.
The rider rode towards and exceptionally close to the pedestrian, probably in an attempt to intimidate/scare him and thus feel "empowered" when it had plenty of space to pass more safely (which is debatable anyway given the speed etc).

I'm glad the pedestrian didn't appear to be significantly hurt by the impact, regardless of whether he intended the rider to fall off by extending his arm/hand.

Basically, the rider was an idiot.
It F-ed about and found out the results of its actions.

mitsky wrote:

Whilst I do not condone violence...

The rider was riding at excessive speed on an area which is evidently not meant for motor vehicles.
The rider rode towards and exceptionally close to the pedestrian, probably in an attempt to intimidate/scare him and thus feel "empowered" when it had plenty of space to pass more safely (which is debatable anyway given the speed etc).

I'm glad the pedestrian didn't appear to be significantly hurt by the impact, regardless of whether he intended the rider to fall off by extending his arm/hand.

Basically, the rider was an idiot.
It F-ed about and found out the results of its actions.

The pedestrian suffered a fractured wrist - scaphoid bone, which is quite slow healing. One of the articles reports that he had to wear plaster cast and was 'under the care of medics' for 2 months. He will have been in a cast and unable to drive or cycle for at least 6 months.