On Fri, 13 Jan 2006, Laurence Payne wrote:

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:37:58 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

Ah, but is that her being a demon cyclist, or a stereotypical Oxford
student with an overactive sense of entitlement?

We lived in Colchester, an army town. Public roads went through the
barracks area. A military policeman was directing traffic. My mother
ignored him, as she was not a soldier. He was very nice to her about
it :-)

Ah yes - one of the few times a Colchester teenager on the lash in town
is glad to see a policeman while drunk is when they're an MP, since you
can be quite sure they're only going to arrest *other* drunks!

And before anyone asks, i speak from experience on both counts here!

So if you were a teenager in Colchester and attended Oxford, do I deduce
that you also wore the purple blazer?

You do indeed infer the wearing of the accursed violet jacket - does that
'also' mean you're a survivor of that place yourself?

tom

--
The future will accost us with boob-slapping ferocity. -- H. G. Wells

Laurence Payne wrote:

Doesn't Australia do this?

I think that was the country, yes. Might have been NZ, as another
poster suggested.

The insurance companies would fight it tooth-and-nail of course. And
the chattering classes would object to subsidising high-risk drivers.
Though I suspect the economies from the simplicity of the system would
more than compensate.

Indeed. No complexity, no uninsured drivers, no issues. The only
thing that'd need to be actively tracked, were it on the price of
petrol, would be the MOT.

The insurance companies could, of course, still compete over the
provision of fully comprehensive insurance over and above the basic,
which I suspect most people would still choose to take to protect their
investment. I certainly would.

Neil

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 13:01:16 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

So if you were a teenager in Colchester and attended Oxford, do I deduce
that you also wore the purple blazer?

You do indeed infer the wearing of the accursed violet jacket - does that
'also' mean you're a survivor of that place yourself?

Yup. A long time ago. Left in 1969.

Why do all those reasons not apply equally to cars and motorcycles?

In case you hadn't noticed a bicycle isn't a motor vehicle. And as I
pointed
out in a previous post (a point which was ignored), if you start having
to
license non motor vehicles where do you draw the line? Scooters?
Skateboards?
Roller skates? Anything with wheels? Perhaps wheelchairs will have to
have license plates too. Its as stupid idea. Which is why its never
been done.

Problem is like most things a few idiots spoil it for everyone else.
Having
registration just to stop a some maniacs (who wouldn't bother to
register anyway
just like lots of people don't register their cars) would just make
life difficult
for law abiding people and do nothing to prevent the problem it was
designed to solve.

B2003

Boltar ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying :

Umm, the police use bicycles too...

In some places, not many these days.

In an increasing number of places.

And you'd end up with some sort of keystone cops scenario with knackered
coppers

Fit people who ride a bike all day every day.

trying to chase someone on a bike because they don't have a
registration plate. Whats the point. They have more important
things to do.

Again, the same could be applied to cars. What's the point in chasing a car
with no plates?

Phil Clark wrote:

I fit a half hour walk from Waterloo to Green Park into my schedule
(and back again in the evening). I reckon I get an hour's exercise a
day for the net expenditure of around half that - I have to allow 20
minutes on the way home for the tube; walking, 35 minutes gets me
there easily.

Fair enough - looks like that works for you. I used to walk to work
when I lived about 2.5 miles from it; now I work further away (about
5.5 miles) I cycle or drive instead, as to walk would take something
like an hour and a half each way, which is a little excessive.

Central London traffic isn't *that* bad on a bike, as you can usually
go faster than the rest of it, so speed isn't as much of a threat as it
is elsewhere. However, I can see why walking would be preferable, as
you do still need your wits about you!

Neil

In message .com,
Boltar writes

Umm, the police use bicycles too...

In some places, not many these days.

Currently more than 400 bicycle-equipped police in the Met, and the
number is rising fast.

--
Paul Terry

On 15 Jan 2006 08:17:42 -0800, "Boltar"
wrote:

Why do all those reasons not apply equally to cars and motorcycles?

In case you hadn't noticed a bicycle isn't a motor vehicle. And as I
pointed
out in a previous post (a point which was ignored), if you start having
to
license non motor vehicles where do you draw the line? Scooters?
Skateboards?
Roller skates? Anything with wheels? Perhaps wheelchairs will have to
have license plates too. Its as stupid idea. Which is why its never
been done.

Problem is like most things a few idiots spoil it for everyone else.
Having
registration just to stop a some maniacs (who wouldn't bother to
register anyway
just like lots of people don't register their cars) would just make
life difficult
for law abiding people and do nothing to prevent the problem it was
designed to solve.

So why is the criterion "powered vehicles" rather than "vehicles which
use the highway"?

In article ,
Laurence Payne wrote:
So why is the criterion "powered vehicles" rather than "vehicles which
use the highway"?

Because powered vehicles have the potential to do more damage to others.
With the increased potential damage, comes the justification for increased
regulation.


--
RIP Morph (1977-2005)

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006, Laurence Payne wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 13:01:16 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

So if you were a teenager in Colchester and attended Oxford, do I
deduce that you also wore the purple blazer?

You do indeed infer the wearing of the accursed violet jacket - does
that 'also' mean you're a survivor of that place yourself?

Yup. A long time ago. Left in 1969.

Yikes! Must have been 1998 in my case. I imagine things were pretty much
the same, though - it's hardly a hotbed of up-to-the-minute dynamism.

tom

--
I think it would be a good idea -- Mohandas Gandhi, on Western
civilisation