30mph cyclists "more alarming" than 50mph motorists says Dartmoor Speedwatch Group

Don't post here, send your comments to the reporter:

lindsay.turpin [at] tavistock-today.co.uk

@lindsaymturpin

But someone just threw a Hi Viz waistcoat on that cow, and it doesn't look impressed.

And cows with retroreflective ear tags

As I understand Burt, they have already tried Hi-Viz

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/dartmoor-ponies-painted-reflect...

KE = ½ m v2

Bike/rider 86kg at 30mph          KE =     8Kj

Car         1500kg at 50mph          KE = 375Kj

47 times more energy in death by car

I'm guessing Greg isn't a member of the Tavistock Mensa society.

It seems to me that the issue here, disregarding Mr Manning’s woeful misreading, is having such a high speed limit through a village and no anti-speed infrastructure to enforce it.

I’ve toured quite a lot in France where many, perhaps most, villages on well-trafficked roads put all sorts of measures in place to bring speeds of both motor vehicles and bicycles down to a good deal less than 20mph. This includes rumble strips at the outskirts, chicanes, different road surfaces in the village, plateau-type speed bumps/crossings, very narrow carriageways and other measures. They seem very effective to me and make the villages far more pleasant.

What is the stopping distance of a cyclist doing 30mph? Well pros like Chris Froome can stop in 0m, so no problems there.

Sorry, dark humour helps some times. This Manning is a real muppet and his inbox will be toast right now. The only fortunate thing is his BS is so transparent as to be meaningless. Although it seems like people these days have no critical thinking of their own, they just give in to their own prejudices immediately, media bubbles and all that. We here on road.cc are probably just the same, lets just hope 'the truth has a cycling bias.'

I once stopped from 30mph within less than 1,5m (because a motorist cut me off when he had to yield). Try that with a car and then tell me again who's more dangerous.

The top story from the journalist and the local rag is about a dead pony at a speeding hotspot.  I couldn't be bothered myself to explain the illogical aspects between the two stories.

Messaging that email at all is a losing game. Anyone prepared to make such a bold statement is not going to be swayed by emails which are obviously coming from cyclists. Debates like these are won in the wider public arena.

I seriously hope nobody is abusive or sweary with that email address.  It surely has to be possible to point out the flawed reasoning involved while staying entirely polite?

Looking at that on streetview (I think I might have been there, but a lifetime ago) makes me disgruntled at how much prettier some people's environment is than others.  It's a bit nicer looking than Croydon or Peckham.  Looks like breathable air as well. 

But I wonder 'even if it slightly adversely affects the prettiness, can't they just build a separate pedestrian bridge so the problem goes away?'.

  There's bound to be a problem if you have 50mph traffic and a choke-point like that, but it just makes no sense to see cyclists as a bigger issue, when they have a tiny fraction of the momentum that a 40mph+ motorised vehicle will.

This is insane!  I can't believe someone, Greg, is complaining that cyclists are going to fast on a road rated for 50, does that mean motorists are really going way to fast?  This is the most obsurd thing I've ever read.  Not sure what the laws are there but in the States the simple answer is pedistrians in a crosswalk must yield to traffic UNLESS, if you read this, there is something else going on: https://driversprep.com/do-pedestrians-always-have-the-right-of-way/   I think Greg hates cyclists.

In the states a bicycle has the same rules as a motorist unless otherwise posted, and that means following speed limits as well.

Danger? Greg is least concerned about the safety of cyclists, he hates cyclists, and is trying to make a mountain out of an ant hill.

Greg needs to look at cyclists in an entirely different light.  Iris Murdoch once said that the bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.  Maybe Greg needs to take up cycling.

Just checking in....has he been flamed yet?

Slightly weird concept of danger from this guy - seems to think a cyclist doing 30mph is more dangerous than 2 tons of metal doing 50 mph. The last speed awareness course I went on was banging on (quite rightly) about how  a couple of mph more makes a huge difference to the injuries.

Also - it is far easier for a narrow (1human wide - ish) cyclist to avoid someone than a car which is several humans wide with a  slightly worse view of the outside world

Interesting point about stopping distances though (in the commenst - not from Greg obviously!) - any seen any actual test on stopping distances of bikes - road bike v mountain bike and road tyres v knbbly tyres v halfway all purpose ones? Would be intersting and we could send the results to Greg

What is the point of answering this nonsense here? Clearly you have to write to the  Tavistock Times Gazette. Or burn it down or something.

Gregg's a fruitcake. Or possibly a vegan sausage roll.

What is that bloody idiot going on about? A car doing 40 will severely mess up a pedestrian, let alone a car exceeding the limit, a bike with a rider on it really pales into relative insignificance.

Dear Gregg

would inserting ‘Spokey Dokes’ or similar oscillating spoke embellishments that make my bicycle sound a bit like a motorbike satisfy your velo-strations? I can also attach an air horn to alert pedestrians as they cross the road, if that helps?

Keep the curtain’s twitching, love and peace,

D

Have any of you been posting on the Tavistock Times site?

It will only increase the us and them mentality...

Those of us who have a little grasp of physics, and then them that don't.

Somebody buy this bellend a TV

You couldn't make it up. Ultimate Facepalm.

Gregg Manning doesn't have the sense he was born with.

Some people don’t realise how stupid they are making themselves look 

Play nicely if you do decide to email him.

 I think the point, with a very big such as it is, is that cars are in his view “normal”, and there’s something impersonal about that, less impactful (irony noted) than person on a bike - personal. 

I’d like to see car / bike stopping distances objectively tested - 25 or 30 mph feels very fast on a bike and can feel woefully slow driving.  I’m pretty sure, and this may be the perception of speed talking, the car stops better than would the bike. 

I’m growing weary of all the “if you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you”  type “warnings”. Actually, who’s problem is that - clearly mine as I’m the one who gets crushed.