London cyclists dropping like flies

[plugwash]

True. There's a law that seems to have had very little impact on how people behave. I'm surprised that, with today's technology, it doesn't seem to be possible to automatically pick out people travelling at driving speeds by the variation in their signal and the speed at which they are transferred from one antenna to the next.

It should certainly be possible.

The problem is that a phone moving at "driving speeds" while making a call does not imply that the person using it is breaking the law. It's perfectly legal for a passenger in a car to use their mobile phone while it is moving. IIRC it's also perfectly legal to use a phone with a hands free kit while driving.

 

[jockscott]

IIRC it's also perfectly legal to use a phone with a hands free kit while driving.

It is at the moment, although there's a call for even hands free calls to be made illegal. Reason being, tests have shown just how distracting it is to drivers. I refuse to answer my mobile when driving, and believe me, even when it's just ringing, whilst driving, it's bloody distracting.

 

[mattylad]

Yes ban hands free mobile but still allow cyclists to dress as ninjas, listen to music via headphones, get away with no lights and not following the rules of the road or riding within the cycle paths provided for them.

Has there been any investigation into what these dead cyclists were wearing (re hi viz) and if they were in cycle lanes etc?

 

[jockscott]

Has there been any investigation into what these dead cyclists were wearing (re hi viz) and if they were in cycle lanes etc?

Yes,, the conspiracy theorists are already working hard on the theory that these deaths have been caused by the Labour Party, in an attempt to discredit Boris's cycle schemes.

 

[JohnD]

There are plenty of cylists who wear high vis catsuits and shiny helmets, while aggresively insisting on their "right" to cycle across red lights, on pavements, and up one-way streets.

In my area we do get a lot of cases of darkly-clad cyclists with no lights riding on unlit roads.

Sometimes in an accident blame attaches to a cyclcist, and sometimes it doesn't. The result is not different.

 

[jockscott]

Here's a great example of poor planning. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...nces-street-cycle-path-danger-fears-1-3199784

So bad , even the pro cycling lobby say it's wrong.

 

[JBR]

True. There's a law that seems to have had very little impact on how people behave. I'm surprised that, with today's technology, it doesn't seem to be possible to automatically pick out people travelling at driving speeds by the variation in their signal and the speed at which they are transferred from one antenna to the next.

It should certainly be possible.

The problem is that a phone moving at "driving speeds" while making a call does not imply that the person using it is breaking the law. It's perfectly legal for a passenger in a car to use their mobile phone while it is moving. IIRC it's also perfectly legal to use a phone with a hands free kit while driving.

Yes, of course. I hadn't thought of that.

Me stupid.

 

[JBR]

Here's a great example of poor planning. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...nces-street-cycle-path-danger-fears-1-3199784

So bad , even the pro cycling lobby say it's wrong.

That's good!

There's nothing quite as stupid as councillors, except perhaps arrogant cyclists.

 

[Brigadier]

Here's a great example of poor planning. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...nces-street-cycle-path-danger-fears-1-3199784

So bad , even the pro cycling lobby say it's wrong.

That's good!

There's nothing quite as stupid as councillors, except perhaps arrogant cyclists.

....and idiotic car drivers, and morons who walk into you while reading their texts, and so on and so forth.....

 

[jockscott]

There's nothing quite as stupid as councillors, except perhaps arrogant cyclists.

Yep, where I live, the local council are responsible for all street planning. They site bus stops in the most idiotic places, like twenty yards past a traffic light controlled crossroads. So when the bus pulls up there, the vehicles following it, can't get passed and tend to block the junction up, until the bus continues on it's journey. What's really maddening is the fact that the very next bus stop is only about 80yds further on. They should lose the first one.

 

[sooey]

The attrition rate seems to have dropped off a bit now, it's been a week or so since the last one died.
It makes me wonder if there's some kind of natural defense mechanism at work.
i.e. A few cyclists get killed or maimed in a short space of time and other cyclists start behaving themselves for a while and being more careful with their road use, so the death rate drops off, until complacency kicks in again.

 

[Ricardus]

Driving home last night, in the dark. Just about to pull out from a junction when I noticed a cyclist coming towards me. NO LIGHTS!

Couple of weeks back I'm driving to work just before 7am, its dark, foggy, cold and damp with lot of cars about.
On the main road out of the estate there's a cyclist with no lights, no reflectors, no hi-vis, dark coloured clothing with the hood up, cycling along the busy and narrow main road. I barely saw the idiot and the only reason I didnt give him a blast of hooter was because I was pretty sure he'd either panic and fall over in front of my car or probaby had his headphones on and wouldnt hear me anyway.
And the local police station was quarter of a mile down the same road...

 

[mattylad]

I see nothing wrong with the above cycle path markings - its a shared space.

Or does the arrogance of the cyclists insist that they have exclusive right to the cycle path?

Unlike on the roads where car drivers have to share them with cyclists and pedestrians.

 

[AronSearle]

Can you give any plausible reason for not introducing number-plates for bicycles, other than the obvious drawback that you'd have to pay for them?

1. It has nothing to do with safety.
2. They have to be car sized for road cameras, such ideas have already been considered by government and deemed unsafe
3. It would be impossible to police
4. It would unfarily penalise the poor
5. It would increase the cost of second hand bikes, registration would cost more than what some second hand bikes cost
6. It's been tried in several countries, in all of them it cost more to administrate than it made.
7. What about horses

8. You really are a twit, licsence plates on cycles

Can you provide any reasonable evidence that...

People cycle through red lights, because they don't know what they are.

That's bloody rich,, coming from the very same person who advocates cycling through red traffic signals, because it "might be safe" ???? to do so, (on the most vulnerable type of transport on public roads)

And yet still, nobody can provide any evidence, at all, that people go through red lights do so because they don't know what a red light IS.

So in the context of the discussion, who honestly thinks liscences, will have any impact on safety.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=red+light+runners&search_type=&aq=0&oq=red+light+r

 

[jockscott]

Aaron, you really are bloody thick. Cyclists go through red traffic lights simply because they know the chances of getting caught and fined by the police for breaking the Road Traffic Act, is exceedingly slim. In other words, they INTENTIONALLY break the law, because they think it doesn't apply to them. Think about this,,, if a cyclist causes an accident, and isn't insured (how many are?) who do you think ends up paying for it? Not the bloody cyclist that's for sure.
As one of the most vulnerable groups on the roads, it should be cyclists that take more notice of traffic on the roads (and traffic signals). I suppose to be fair, it is the minority who get the majority a bad name though. They definitely need educating as to the error of their ways.