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[quote=DezB ]"Tomorrow: is it safe to ride with headphones?" Oh dear oh dear
Where are you seeing that?
[i]Where are you seeing that?[/i]
I saw it on the telly coming out of the Minchin's mouth (just after a feature I missed, which appeared to be about getting motorists to ride bikes around, judging by the last few seconds of it.)
Because, again it's making the cyclist at fault.
Only if they say, "cycling with headphones is dangerous" if they say "cycling with headphones is not dangerous" then it's debunking a commonly held misconception about cycling.
I just don't think it should be part of the debate. It's an irrelevance.
DezB +1 - it's just another way of avoiding mentioning the elephant
Did you catch the guy on there who's been riding around with cameras on? "No ifs no buts, No coconuts" 🙄
He struck me as someone who thinks he's doing good, but was actually quite confrontational when there was little need. hitting a van roof for example, yeah he was close, but if it was that dodgy an overtake, why take your hands off the bars and potentially lose control to instigate confrontation? granted getting punched probably wasn't what he was after, but i couldn't help think he deserved it! if he'd just carried on riding, all that would have happened was...nothing!
Don't get me wrong, some car drivers are bad, some are good, as are cyclists, we just need to get along.
"Tomorrow: is it safe to ride with headphones?" Oh dear oh dear
So the BBC have been putting together a reasonably unbiased view of cycling safety. All of a sudden you don't like them looking at something you want to do in case they reckon it is unsafe. Nothing like approaching a subject with an open mind.....
That's what I said is it?
That's what I said is it?
Well let's look at the options. They examine the problem and decide that wearing headphones has no impact on safety = cyclists not to blame.
Or they find evidence that wearing headphones increases the risk of an accident= cyclist doing something which impinges on their safety. So it would be a good idea to accept that element of responsibility and act accordingly.
What's not to like?
I say it's an irrelevance to a safety debate.
You really think, with all the ****ing problems we get on the roads, checking whether a cyclist listening to music has any bearing whatsoever on the issues?
Can they investigate the safety of each and every cyclist and the environment they ride in?
I say it's an irrelevance to a safety debate.
It's relevant because it's such a common talking point in the existing debate. I agree that it's a tiny point but that didn't stop the bandwagon being jumped on in London last year.
Because you can guarantee that the next day won't be :
"tomorrow - is it safe driving with the radio on"
As DezB says, it's a distractionary, not-relevant, picking on minutiae, and avoiding the real issues which is where the focus should be.
oi! I resemble that comment 🙂yes, having previously disliked bike paths, like any recent convert I'm now an evangelist
you can get up to 20mph on smaller roads but you can't stay there, junctions, crossings, side roads, pinch points, parked cars etc etc. Big straight roads are faster and (should be) safer for cyclists aswell as drivers.But thats my point, you generally can be almost as quick and efficient using smaller roads because you are going the same speed on a bike, you don't need a trunk road to do 20mph on a bike.
+1, headphones vs car radio, it's like the helmet and hi viz thing, applying rules to one set of (outgroup) road users but ignoring the others, as has been said it's a distraction. I will be amazed if they say "headphones, no worries crack on" I will be surprised if they say "headphones can be just as distracting as car radios", my guess is they will say "music [i]can[/i] be distracting" without mention of car radios - or any of the more important safety issues."Tomorrow: is it safe to ride with headphones?" Oh dear oh dear
If every driver had to retake there driving test (never going to happen) mind maybe many of the inconsideate drivers would be off the road. The drivers that squeeze past are for the most part not being malicious but they are not thinking. You see it when they pass parked cars with on coming traffic and get a bit stuck. It happened to today in the village I live in. Lack of thought about what ahead and what might be ahead is the problem. cylists to be honest can be guilty of that too but bikes rarely kill other, cars do though.
A proper driver awareness campaign is needed to change attitudes and get drivers to think, that all it has to achieve.
Cars don't have high vis jackets on them so cyclist should not need them too. Good lighting when it dim or dark should be all thats needed. If a driver fails to observe what is around them then they should simply be removed from the road. As I said before cyclist rarely kill other but a car is deadly weapon which is why a licence is granted to drive it. Licences are not removed easily enough as it seen that a car is essential today. It most certainly is not essenital people just think it is.
I certainly won't let my 5 year old daughter ride on the road, especially on the way to school. Too many mental drivers around, especially during the morning rush. RTA's on the road outside the school are almost a daily occurrence.
I rarely ride on the road myself anymore, just too much traffic and general ignorance toward all other road users for my liking. It certainly wasn't like that 25 years ago when I was cycling to Uni/work daily. There was much less traffic and much less road rage (probably related).
^^ i reckon BANNING the use of cars to take kids to schools or within a mile of their school should happen.
Most people live near to their schools and choose to drive (my neighbour lives 150 yards from the entrance and regularly drives her daughters to school :roll:) and a mile walk is not a big deal if they don't.
^^ i reckon BANNING the use of cars to take kids to schools or within a mile of their school should happen.
Most people live near to their schools and choose to drive (my neighbour lives 150 yards from the entrance and regularly drives her daughters to school :roll:) and a mile walk is not a big deal if they don't.
Not always bad. There certainly are parents who drive kids to school and then head back home in time for daytime TV, but in the main it's parents dropping their kids then needing the car to get to work in time often miles away, the extra 20mins walking home again to pick up the car can be an issue.