On 31/07/2013 13:09, David Cantrell wrote:
On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 06:42:55PM +0100, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 30/07/2013 13:11, David Cantrell wrote:
for the ****wits in the audience, safety failures hardly ever have a
single cause. Yes, drivers also cause those risks, but IME of actual
and near accidents, yer average cyclist who is involved in an accident
is more at fault, and even if they aren't at fault, they're still the
ones who, when **** goes wrong, suffer the most. Therefore it behooves
them to do the most to mitigate the risk.
But how far should they go - should they drive instead? Or ride on the
pavement, which lowers the risk of _serious_ injuries to someone,at the
increased(?) risk of _minor_ injuries - as well as being illegal and
massively antisocial?

They should ride with awareness of their surroundings, consideration for
other road users, and stick to the rules of the road.

No, really? Although I suspect people who ride without awareness of
their surroundings will sooner or later remove themselves from
circulation anyway.

It's a sorry state of affairs when, on my walk from home to the station
(which is all on suburban roads, with one road crossing) I have to spend
more time looking out for cyclists than for all motorised vehicles put
together.

OTOH, on my walk to the station I have to look out for motorists. There
are rather more of them, and it only takes the odd one who sails through
the puffin crossing for me to end up very dead. At least in the event a
cyclist were to go through a red light I would do them more harm than
they would do me. A motorbike went through the lights the other day -
straight into the back of car stood on the road ahead.

When I'm on a bus or train or tram it is all someone else's problem, and
I'll probably be on the winning side in any collision (unless someone
does an Ufton or Great Heck or Lockington).

One thing motorists don't generally have to worry about is deliberate
attack, which is a minor but non-zero risk on a push bike, and much less
common but I guess still non-zero on foot. Fortunately the people who
think throwing things at bikes is a fun thing to do are (by definition)
idiots, and usually overlook the need to aim in front of a moving target.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK