Panorama's 'Road Rage: Cars v Bikes' reaches the masses... with painfully predictable outcome (+ anti-cycling bingo tally); Quintana loses appeal against Tour DQ; View from the Netherlands; Pogačar v Vingegaard... on FIFA + more on the live blog

They never go for the head on collision, but always involve you in their "accident".

I've just been depressing myself by totting up the tally of getting up close and personal with the tarmac.

It now stands at:

2 Hit and Run.  One failed prosecution (driver had an alias); bike beaten up and insurance paid.  The other - no harm.

1 left hook.  Driver no licence.  Car insured.  Drove over front wheel of bike, cut fingers.  No police action.  Insurance paid for bike. Didn't bother with the fingers.  The passenger in the car tried to claim for whiplash.  Video showed otherwise.

1 due care, T-bone from the right.  On a cycle superhighway.  No police action. Insured.  Bike written off, 9 hours in A&E.  Bike paid for, still waiting for injuries.

1 pothole on a roundabout.  Scrapes and bruises.  Pothole filled two days later

1 operator error - all my own work on a tightening, descending bend.  Road rash. 

That excludes the years of London commuting and recreational close passes.

I think that sort of thing came across well in Panorama...

My wife has got a point......3 trips to A&E. 

PS - this is over 45,000 miles ps (post strava).  Noting much that I recall bs (before strava)

Not something I like talking about as like the P-word, they happen if you think it has been awhile since one happened. However in the 5 years and 22k milles of my cycling, 

One hit and run on an island. Have posted the video before. 
One dooring. Buckled the front wheel.
One operator error. Decided to try the slightly off-road route instead of walking down the steps to get back on the canal after swapping sides and it was slightly muddy.
Several clipout failures.
One icy right turn at some lights when the council decided -5 overnight was not gritting weather. 
And the recent - One slippy tow path side of canal in Brindley Place. I was only doing 8mph approaching a bridge when a woman appeared with her dog. I touched my brakes and the back wheel locked and slid out. I didn't move forward any further but the bike was facing back the way I had come. Those paths are really slippy.

Hmm, seven years and 45000 miles, I've got:

One hit and run from a pickup truck driver who ran a stop sign, no injury or damage, basically shoulder-checked the bed of the truck.

About five falls caused by me that injured me enough to require more than a plaster, usually being silly going too fast on gravel, snow or ice. One from turning onto a gravel road from a paved road at about 30 MPH nearly required stitches, but the doctor ended up just taping it shut. One destroyed a helmet when something went between my front wheel and mudguard and stopped the wheel instantly. The steerer actually pivoted more than 360° and ripped out some of the derailleur and brake cables.

Maybe ten minor falls, again usually me being silly, no injury or bike damage worth mentioning. I suspect 25 years of judo is both causing and helping make up for a lack of fear while I'm riding.

Edit: one water balloon thrown at me and two others cycling together at night, missed.

You have the Right to use the public highway on foot, horse or bicycle. A driver needs a licence to operate their machine on the public highway, but only if they adhere to the Highway Code. So why is it then, that the police/CPS/judge fail so regularly to remove sociopath drivers from the highway? Is it a special club?

Were you a member of CUK or BC?  I'm sure they would have helped; CUK were brilliant when I've been knocked off.

Bungle_52 wrote:

From the article :

"Watching from the Netherlands, the UK looks like a different universe. What causes this aggression? Here in NL drivers are all cyclists too, tomorrow it could be you in the saddle - but surely it's more complex than that?"

I don't think it is, it really is that simple.

I suspect there's more to it that. Perhaps compare the mainstream media in NL with UK.

Daily Mail, Telegraph and others regularly publish what we might call 'anti-cyclist bingo', both opinion and editorial. The BBC has done its share of harm, and not just via news and current affairs programmes.

Are their popular media outlets the same? I doubt it.

essexian wrote:

I wonder what the BBC would make of this:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/02/girl-seven-died-after-cycl...

Why on Earth do we let lorries of that size on country roads?

 

Poor child, poor family. 

Its a tragic death but not necessarily one that should cause any major changes.   The fact of the matter is the poor kid lost control and ended up on a major road.  The article is clear on the point that the driver was not at fault and doing approx 12mph at the time.

Accidents are sometimes genuinely that.

And to be clear - this is a country A road - not a country lane.

One solution to this problem might be to build a bypass - is that what would be best though?

Sriracha wrote:

Is there nothing in the BBC Charter that prohibits them peddling lies? Knowingly pursuing discredited statistical methodologies and then using the results to frame the debate, in a flagship factual programme, is criminal. I'm sick of hearing presenters trot out the line, "Obviously this isn't a scientific survey, but our results suggest..." They might as well scribe a range of opinions on coloured cards, ask a five year old to pick their favourite colour, then use the result to inform the debate.

The BBC doesn't seem too interested in quality investigative journalism these days and instead they just go for cheap and easy productions.

There is always a connundrum for the BBC, go for popular or go for quality/unpopular.  If one looks at their "Top programmes trending" then it is clear to see that the public likes absolute trash and there is nothing considered too low brow to be popular.  If the BBC goes back to the 'quality' days then I fear they risk alienating the masses...and then get criticised for being elitist.

People often say that they don't watch the BBC because it isn't as good as it was, but the BBC does have big audiences...just not for the stuff that people used to watch, because those folks are dying off (literally).

bobbinogs wrote:

There is always a connundrum for the BBC, go for popular or go for quality/unpopular.  If one looks at their "Top programmes trending" then it is clear to see that the public likes absolute trash and there is nothing considered too low brow to be popular.  If the BBC goes back to the 'quality' days then I fear they risk further alienating the young/old/people...and then get criticised for being elitist.

People often say that they don't watch the BBC because it isn't as good as it was, but the BBC does have big audiences...just not for the stuff that people used to watch, because those folks are dying off (literally).

I don't think audiences are necessarily dumbing down, but are probably more discerning nowadays with the increased choice. If you look at the really successful series on subscription services such as Netflix, you'll see extremely high quality writing and acting and I think they're starting to replace films as a well produced series gives the story a lot more time and space to develop. The BBC is finding it tough to compete with those kinds of series as they're expensive to produce and they definitely benefit from being continually available, so if someone recommends "Severance" (on Apple TV), a person can then go and watch the whole series. That's trickier to do with the BBC even despite iPlayer.

I think the BBC is now being used as a kind of between-tv service - you switch over to it when you don't want to focus on a deep and convoluted story and just want some relaxing nonsense.

I hope you are not counting BBC2 and 4 in that, still some very good stuff. A shame that BBC4 will become repeat only, some of its original programming was exceptional.

ktache wrote:

I hope you are not counting BBC2 and 4 in that, still some very good stuff. A shame that BBC4 will become repeat only, some of its original programming was exceptional.

I can't say that I watch much BBC at all these days. What programmes do you recommend?

hawkinspeter wrote:

ktache wrote:

I hope you are not counting BBC2 and 4 in that, still some very good stuff. A shame that BBC4 will become repeat only, some of its original programming was exceptional.

I can't say that I watch much BBC at all these days. What programmes do you recommend?

Beeb show some excellent music documentaries on 2 & 4, two I can think of are "Five Years" earlier this year about Bowie from end of Ziggy Stardust to Ashes to Ashes via Berlin-era Heroes, and (much older) "Synth Britannia" part of a wider "% Britannia" series. Don't think they're on iPlayer anymore but worth a YouTube search. That said Sky Arts are doing more of similar. 

mark1a wrote:

Beeb show some excellent music documentaries on 2 & 4, two I can think of are "Five Years" earlier this year about Bowie from end of Ziggy Stardust to Ashes to Ashes via Berlin-era Heroes, and (much older) "Synth Britannia" part of a wider "% Britannia" series. Don't think they're on iPlayer anymore but worth a YouTube search. That said Sky Arts are doing more of similar. 

I do like a bit of Bowie - I'm downloading Five Years now. I couldn't find it on iPlayer.