Surprised at this considering the car is king line usually taken. An effect of having a pro team?

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/save-our-cyclists-thunders-the-times/012551

How about saving your scorn & supporting the campaign instead?..

Sounds a good scheme.

I’ve just tweeted and G+’d that. From talking to various drivers the human side of accidents tends to be lost on them whilst they are in their cars. Maybe this might make a couple of them think a little more about the potential consequences of their actions.

Heard about it on R4 on the way to work, it’s good to see action being taken.

My support has been pledged at the Times website.

The media is all powerful so let’s hope some good comes of it.

lol at Lebowski. No scorn mentioned, just suprise… wrong side of the bed this morning? 🙂

to be fair on the op considering some of their columnists (clarkson, Matthew parris, etc) and the majority of posters on any cycling article on their website I’d say this was a radical and welcome change from their usual tone

Being cynical, perhaps they have noticed the reaction clarksonesque anti-cycling stories get on the internet, it seems to generate massive reaction and hit rate for any site that publishes.
Considering that this probably means that the cycling crowd are internet media savvy and stories spread quickly through forums and contacts, getting them onside for a pay-per-view news site could be considered worth trying.

It is after all not just the mouthpeice of Clarkson, but also Matthew Parris.

The Sunday Times in particular but also The Times has always been pretty good for reporting cycle sport (Tour de France, track stuff etc) and Sunday Times runs regular “lifestyle” pieces in it’s supplements which are generally very positive about cycling.

Nice to see them going the extra mile though.

I can see the inclusion of this stat

since 2001, 576 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq; 1,275 cyclists died on British streets.

Upsetting a few folk, makes you think though.

Good thing to see in a Tory-supporting daily national paper. I’m very surpised I have to say!

crazy-legs – Member
The Sunday Times in particular but also The Times has always been pretty good for reporting cycle sport (Tour de France, track stuff etc) and Sunday Times runs regular “lifestyle” pieces in it’s supplements which are generally very positive about cycling.

Nice to see them going the extra mile though.

^^This^^

In addition, look at the amount of money Sky have been pumping in to British Cycling. Not just with Team Sky, but on the track front as well.

Why has the “Tory-supporting” element got anything to do with supporting the campaign? I dont get how their political allegiances are an issue.

If it saves just one life and the effect it has on their families, then we should all be thankful.

I have thought for a long time that the only way the general population would wake up to cycling casualties on the road would be if a high profile person was killed or injured on their bike. Tragically, this seems to be true. Hopefully, this is the small rock that starts the avalanche which will result in a major change to road sharing.

In November, Times journalist Mary Bowers was just yards from arriving at work on her bike when she was hit by a lorry. Mary, 27, is still not conscious and is making a slow recovery in hospital.

However nothing but good can come of this

Why has the “Tory-supporting” element got anything to do with supporting the campaign?

hasn’t the tory party always been viewed as pro car?

why is point 3 covered up by an advert?

Well, I’ve signed up and written to my MP asking him to sign up too.

I encourage you all to do the same, finally a media big-hitter on our side 🙂

Actually, couldn’t we have a link to the sign-up as a sticky thread?

with crazy-legs and cfh here – The Times has always seemed pretty pro cycling, certainly as far as recreation nd sport go.

Fair play to them! As has already been pointed out, Sky have already done a lot at grass roots level, rather than just cynically slap their logo on a successful team. Apparently it was James Murdochs baby. I read somewhere he’s a keen cyclist himself

Can we expect compassion and common sense to break out in the rest of the Murdoch press?

There’s a big difference between supporting cycling as a sport or even recreation and supporting cyclists on the street when they’re ‘getting in the way’ – the same way that I’m sure a lot of the people who are agressive and rude with cyclists while in their cars were cheering on Chris Hoy et al at the last Olympics.

The cynical side of me says that the Sun, etc have always been very good at making sure they’re on the winning side – eg changing political allegiances to ensure that ‘their side’ wins the election (though obviously there’ll always be debate about whether that’s chicken or egg…) and maybe they’re just seeing that cycling’s getting to the point of critical mass where enough people are using their bikes to commute that it’s no longer a minority activity and it’s likely to become even less so.

Either way, I’ll not be looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Road.cc article on it

Whatever the motivation of the campaign, the more we do to support it, the more momentum it’ll receive and the better the message will get out there. I’ve signed up to “support” the campaign (whatever that means), and sent my MP (the PM) an email briefly outlining my concerns about road safety for cyclists & what I’d like to see done about it. Took 5 mins. Come on people! 🙂

I want to see it in The Sun… then I think it’ll have real impact though it’ll be interesting to see what this leads to.

Trending on twitter (if that means anything) and someone posted this pic… (apparently cyclist unhurt!)

https://twitter.com/#!/biggsy321/status/164988745249062912

Mods – any chance of having a direct link to the campaign and petition as a sticky? STW is such a popular forum, and it would be good to see it getting behind this campaign to try and make cycling safer.

IMHO, the politics of the paper concerned don’t matter. It’s finally put across the true impact of cycling casualties as a ‘human’ affair, and from that it will hopefully allow non-cyclists to have a bit more empathy.

Oh, and crazy-legs / CFH +1

All good stuff!

Point no1

1. Trucks entering a city centre should be required by law to fit censors, audible truck-turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.

sounds like it should come after many of the others. Surely there needs to be some research done to find out the cheapest and most effective ways of stopping cycling accidents before insisting on things like this. Perhaps Murdoch owns a truck fit-out business </cynic>

1. Trucks entering a city centre should be required by law to fit censors,

I think a sensor would be more effective than someone with a clip-board, but otherwise, yes.

🙂

I largely approve and applaud this campaign, but the manifesto needs one extra point: it should demand that drivers who kill or maim on the road pay for their crimes. Sentencing in most cases is derisory and insulting to those whose lives have been destroyed by carelessness behind the wheel. The biggest problem for cyclists in the UK is that drivers just don’t give a **** about the possible effects of their actions – and why should they when you can kill someone, and it can be shown to be your fault, and you can still get off with community service and a temporary ban?

While I agree with you mintimperial, the pragmatist in me says that that would guarantee that the campaign would fail. Too many people still view it as the cyclist’s fault in a lot of accidents and as such it’d be like trying to get turkeys to vote for Xmas.

I think that changing the mindset first is the key thing. After that, I reckon that people might start questioning the lenient sentences without a campaign being necessary.

I approve, I think the scare stories are necessary but may have a detrimental effect on encouraging people to cycle. However once the infrastructure is improved, we should reach “Critical Mass” of cyclists and things can only get better. One thing I am slightly annoyed by is the London-centric attitude of most tweets/posts about this (not necessarily on here). London cycling is dangerous because a higher percentage of people are forced to do it because transport costs are higher. As I’m sure most will agree, there are cities in the UK where cycling infrastructure is worse than London, this also needs focus.

Make the Times link a sticky please!

I think that changing the mindset first is the key thing. After that, I reckon that people might start questioning the lenient sentences without a campaign being necessary.

Yeah. I hope you’re right. 🙁

I’m pleasantly surprised – this is the sort of thing which could result in more positive change than years of campaigning by the CTC (not that I think the CTC don’t do a good job). Chapeau!

Posted on FB – I suggest those of you who use that or other social media do the same.

I signed up for it.

Wonder what sustrans think of clause 4?

Well I’m sure they’d love it – it’s what they’ve been campaigning for, isn’t it?

Only good can come of it – IMHO the politics of the paper concerned are of note due to the fact we’re being run by a Tory govenernment. If they think there’s votes in the campaign, they’ll support it (or elements).
As mentioned above, NewsCorp papers like to be on the “winning” side, so the fact that the Times is behind this can only be a good sign.

why is point 3 covered up by an advert?

It’s not, I checked the source and it’s just partially missing.

On the trucks – there is a chunk of research that shows cyclists getting squished in the blindspot down the side. Mirrors can be fitted to cover this easily and cheaply

I for one would like to see proper enforcement of Advanced Stop Lines. They are cheap & easy to implement and make life so much safer for the cyclist.

Well, they would be safer if they weren’t always full up with a car, or a bus, taxi, van, lorry, bus, motorbike, etc