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news
The AA Cyclist's Highway Code coverAA launches Cyclist's Highway Code, backed by Boardman
A Cyclist’s Highway Code has been launched today by the AA, with backing from Chris Boardman and BikeBiz editor, Carlton Reid.
Last month the Road Safety Minister, Andrew Jones, told the House of Commons “There were no plans to publish a cycling specific excerpt of the Highway Code.”.
However, the AA believes a Code is necessary to help people stay safe cycling on Britain’s roads, and has aimed the book at parents and new cyclists.
AA warns of "zombie" pedestrians and cyclists
Edmund King, AA president, hopes the guide will encourage more people to cycle.
“Cyclists and drivers are often the same people and the Highway Code is important whether you are on two wheels or four,” he says.
“I am grateful to cycling expert Carlton Reid, executive editor of BikeBiz magazine, who has helped to check this publication in terms of good advice and accuracy. As a keen cyclist and father of three cycling children, I would urge you to check out this book. Today more than one fifth of AA members regularly cycle and this guide will encourage a new generation to join them.”
The book is designed as a companion guide to help cyclists, and parents whose children are learning to cycle. It includes sections on Your Bike, including choosing and maintaining a bike, and accessories, Safe Cycling, including all the Highway Code rules, and Learning to Ride, encompassing cycle training.
Carlton Reid said: “I welcome the AA’s Cyclist’s Highway Code. It is practical, timely and useful – and it’s also an indication that more and more people are taking up cycling, for transport, for leisure, and most definitely for pleasure.”
Although the Highway Code has a section titled “you and your bike”, covering rules for cycling on the road, the government says it has no plans to produce a cycle-specific Highway Code. Instead it is investing £50m over four years into Bikeability training for children in schools.
Chris Boardman says: “The bicycle is such a simple tool, but one which can improve your health, reduce congestion and make our towns and cities more liveable. British Cycling welcomes the AA Cyclist’s Highway Code as it should encourage new cyclists and help parents get their children into cycling.”
AA’s Cyclist’s Highway Code is priced £4.99, and available from bookshops and online
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 2 sec ago
Yup - although as a more "distributed" / low cost kind of "good" (which the public purse pays towards) cycling will likely always be susceptible to...
- andystow 7 min 14 sec ago
I suppose I could take a chance on aliexpress, though. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806030349283.html
- quiff 28 min 54 sec ago
If the sashes are original (single glazed?) then it's likely any company quoting will be quoting for new, sympathetic, double-glazed sashes. It's...
- quiff 1 hour 6 min ago
I'm sure they'd ask Lime to do that too. Come and collect your bikes and my neighbour - they're in pieces.
- brooksby 1 hour 12 min ago
Ireland seems to have a lot of problems with their cycle lanes… Almost as many as England
- quiff 1 hour 32 min ago
Fair point - I was restricting myself to pedal bikes. As I've never spent that kind of money on anything though (mortgage doesn't count), it's kind...
- brooksby 2 hours 34 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
- Doug_D 4 hours 10 min ago
Another book suggestion - I can highly recommend "Lost Summers and Half-Forgotten Afternoons: A Mint Sauce collection" - a beautifully presented...
- mdavidford 6 hours 1 min ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
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79 comments
@giff
You wrote:
Meanwhile Boardman Elite (Chris' new company) sells bikes and components while the only kit is shorts, jerseys and socks - not a helmet in sight. So I think you can absolve Chris of all hypocrisy.
I think the implication is pretty clear that you have absolved Biardman of all hypocrisy because he does not sell helmets while denouncing the users.
The only question left is does Boardman profit from his branded helmets on sale in Halfords? If the answer is yes then the other answer is hypocrite.
It's about time drivers (yes I'm one too) have to learn how to treat cyclists.
I've cycled plenty in Spain and in France, and they really do give me 1.5m when passing, and don't pass on blind corners, unlike 95% of UK drivers.
The driving test needs a mandatory section on consideration for cyclists.
Further, and I'm not being facetious when I say it, I think the driving test should have the prerequisite of having to cycle for an hour in rush our traffic in your nearest large city.
It's about time drivers (yes I'm one too) have to learn how to treat cyclists.
I've cycled plenty in Spain and in France, and they really do give me 1.5m when passing, and don't pass on blind corners, unlike 95% of UK drivers.
The driving test needs a mandatory section on consideration for cyclists.
Further, and I'm not being facetious when I say it, I think the driving test should have the prerequisite of having to cycle for an hour in rush our traffic in your nearest large city.
@L.Willy waver - I'm still waiting for the attributable quote. When you have finished going off at ridiculous tangents and insulting people, how about you put up or shut up. Please let it be the latter.
Listen up, fool, you get this piece of advice for free.
When you decide to join a debate, familiarise yourself with that which has already been discussed. Do not expect the participants to accommodate your unwillingness / inability to do your homework.
What you are asking for, including a link to the article where the quote was made, was supplied by me long before you made your lazy ill informed request.
In any debate if you make a claim you should back it up. Its not the responsibility of those that question the validity of your claim to either prove of disprove it.
And as I posted in another article haven’t you got a Daily Mail article you could be responding to?
@ Wookie - you can't debate with "zero fucks given" trolls. As for Daily Mail articles, I wouldn't be suprised if Willo Wonker writes them.
@L.Willy waver - I'm still waiting for the attributable quote. When you have finished going off at ridiculous tangents and insulting people, how about you put up or shut up. Please let it be the latter.
I think we need to issue a book of common sense before anyone reads the highway code. For the general safety, well being and simple consideration of 'Human Beings', an execution of common sense would be far more 'Safe' than the result of just reading the highway code. Regardless of the 'vehicle' you are using, bike, car, lorry, bus, shoes etc etc it should be on everyones mind to be safe for themselves and for everyone else around them. We have traffic signals, road markings, road traffic act which is designed to allow a controlled movement on the infrastructure we actually have. You will probably find that most of the people who read Road.CC will not be the general cyclist who use a bike for commuting but for fitness and as a way of life. The different mindset of the cyclists is equal to the different mindset of car drivers. There are a wide range of attitudes towards both users and there are the extremes within each types of transport user. We should focus more on tolerance at all levels and dropping the selfish attitude to take in the bigger picture. The book of common sense, available at all good bookstores or as part of good parenting.
@superpython, you are the exception that proves the rule. You are already on record stating that your brain takes at least one second to respond to a stimulus. In your specific case, a helmet won't make any difference if you suffer a serious skull injury.
@wycombe, I cannot for the life of me understand roadies who wear a helmet for sport (high speed crashes - helmets not very effective at impact speeds > 30mph) but refuse to wear one for utility cycling (low speed crashes - helmets very effective at impact speeds < 30mph). No logic to that, whatsoever. Pose value? Looking the part? Aero? The mind boggles.
However, totally irrelevant to your average punter who pops into Halfords with a few hundred quid or a C2W voucher to buy a bike.....
Hmm ... which brand? That Boardman bloke is on telly a lot promoting cycling. He is likeable. Seems as honest as the day is long. Not the type to try and sell me useless shit. I'll get one of his bikes .... now accessories ..... do I need a cycle helmet? .... Yeah .... I'll get one of these Boardman ones to match my bike, after all he is likeable, seems as honest as the day is long. Not the type to try and sell me useless shit that is irrelevant for utility cycling .....
Ding! One more user of cycle helmets scaring other people off. Well done, Boardman!
A few more users sending the wrong message and terrifying certain would be cyclists:
http://youtu.be/XRAat11mwjg
Recreational / sports cycling is the exclusive preserve of well-heeled, white men.
Right, let me go and send the original wrong scary message about cycling to thousands of people on my commute ....
At absolute worst, I'd say Boardman is guilty of opportunism. Helmets are a red herring in so much of the cycling safety debate. They're useful in very specific circumstances, useless in others. They don't do anything to reduce the risk of close passes (and arguably increase that risk) which is probably the scariest thing for most people trying out cycling, long before they come close to actually being involved in an accident. So no, helmets aren't much use. But oh, you want to buy one? Well, here you go.
For what it's worth, I wear a helmet when I'm cycling. I find it severely reduces the risk of getting moaned at, and I just want a quiet life, after all...
Help me out, I'm an idiot who needs to sup from the altar of El Willy wisdom.
Wait
Ha, ha. No it really doesn't, you plum.
Hat Hat Hat, Mr Clete.
Well, if this page is anything to go by, publishing it only in hard copy isn't going to matter too much. Can't see them selling something which looks a bit like the Ladybird Book of Bicycles from the sixties. It isn't only the publication method which is fifty years out of date.
http://s32.postimg.org/j2jrq3ud1/AA_Book_of_Cycling.jpg
And, as suspected, blatant helmet promotion. Really, really, really surprised at Chris Boardman and Carlton Reid allowing their names to be associated with this. I thought they had standards.
Feck me! L.Willo rides a bike? Would never have believed it. What's the bets he's a politician, the way he just rubbishes others arguements with a statement that's never qualified with a source, though can find sources to back whatever shite he's trying to put across.
This place is far the worse for his input, don't know why
halfany of you bite, maybe it's time to petition the site for an 'ignore user' function...........Oh, and I've no points on my licence and never recieved a speeding ticket either, but that's due to lack of enforcement (And luck if you believe in it.) rather than the dream I am an impeccable driver.
Maybe we do need an 'ignore user' function but when so many are already using the 'bait user' function to set him off a-seething and a-correcting all those people who are clearly wrong, and on his internet too.. damn, don't they know just how right he is about everything?
Makes me cry with laughter to see all his pomp and rage and absolute inability to leave it or let it go, coupled with the mental picture of him smashing that keyboard in apoplectic abandon and hitting the send button like a rocket-launcher!
if ever I've had a shitty day I come on here and look, and it doesn't take long, for his bleating and I feel better, happier, safer in the knowledge that I am not him and all my troubles wash away.
Right, I'm off for more popcorn...
L.Wilo - Boardman has NEVER denounced people for wearing helmets, he has questioned whether the constant media pressure suggesting that cycling is dangerous and helmets are a must is counterproductive, as it reduces the number of people who may take up cycling. I challenge you to post a direct attributable quote (not a para-phrase) where Chris Boardman has denounced/condemned individual cyclists for wearing a helmet.
Hmmm .... research from 1997 is relevant to last year's airbag packed Volvo ...
Next.
Leg and arm protection, injuries generally not life threatening. Torso? Evidence isnt there that sufficient protection offered to unfortunate cyclist trapped under a vehicle in low speed accidents. The overwhelming cause of death in cycling fatalities is HEAD INJURY.
People. Why do you interact with the tiresome individual? If you want to know what a tosser thinks, then read the comments on a Daily Mail article.
Just as an aside on this topic, which started in one place and then veered off somewhere else, I'm curious how many cyclists wear protection for their arms, legs and torso when out riding? Bear in mind please that the vast majority of injuries received by cyclists are to the limbs.
Depends on what I'm doing - technical offroad or downhill, I'll happily wear helmet, arm and leg 'protectors' - they probably stop scrapes, but not bruising.'
Pretty much the same as me then - MX type helmet for BMX/off-road MTB riding plus leg and arm protection, and for racing I'll have my MX type body armour too.
It's a very good point. In addition, the only major head injury I have sustained happened to me whilst I was *lying down in a bed* (true story). I've seen evidence of Boardman lying down on a bed *without wearing a helmet*. What a hypocrite.
Body protection is often less practical because of bulk, movement restriction and plain WTF ugliness for non sports use, and hurting a limb usually won't cause a life changing injury or kill you, but a helmet can stop skin injury and stop or attenuate worse injuries/impairment up to the effective protection of each helmet design. Limited, more practical body protection can be provided by slip/padding layers of ordinary or sports clothing, including outer clothing containing Kelvar.
One issue is that much of the Highway code is mince... especially the wooly stuff regarding cycling two abreast. It says not to it on narrow roads, but what is narrow? Is it it a 6m carriageway with a line down the middle? Or do they mean a 3.5m single track? Even then, out on the fens several miles clear visibility it's fine riding two abreast- can see cars coming literally a mile off and don't want people overtaking even if single file. But the same width road on a cornish lane needs much more thought when you've got high earth banks and blind corners.
Then there's all the rountinely ignore stuff regarding parking that's all down as "should not" when it really should be "MUST NOT". And various MUST NOTs that are freuently ignored and rarely enforced (eg entering cycle lanes denoted by a solid line).
As well as a funademtnal rebuilding of most of our highways the HC and road traffic laws need ripped down and re-written. The roads, the rules and and official advice and the enforcement of the rules contribute to conflict and death.
This has really brightened my journey home. Thanks peeple. Stay awesome.
I hope you are not riding/driving and reading Road.CC on your commute
LOL!
Let me tell you that legalising marijuana send the wrong message about healthy living. Now excuse me while I go and sell some puff ....
Nah, not hypocritical at all ....
They've not exactly gone out of their way to list it on their own website have they!
http://www.theaa.com/search?q=cyclist%27s+highway+code
I'm pretty sure I read something about the percentage of injuries in car accidents, that were acute head injuries was 30%+.
Why is nobody calling for helmet use in cars? It probably actually would save lives. Mess up your hair though so probably not worth bothering.
1. Airbags are rather more effective at impact speeds greater than 30mph.
2. Not in the Highway Code. If it was, I would be arguing that drivers should comply with the recommendation. I dont like a pick and choose approach to such an important safety code of conduct.
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