Have we seen this yet?

Jesse Norman writes to all cycling organisations

Norman has written to British Cycling, Cycling UK, the Bicycle Association, Sustrans, and Chris Boardman and Will Norman, Cycling and Walking Commissioners for Greater Manchester, and London, respectively, asking for their help highlighting the rules relating to cycling, including use of equipment, clothing and the use of lanes and crossings to their networks.

Norman’s letter, which directly references the recent case in which Kim Briggs died following a collision with cyclist Charlie Alliston, has prompted ire from cycling groups, who question whether Norman has written to motoring groups on the issue, given the relatively greater risk posed by motor vehicles.

I think the article says it all really. It seems like the headmaster is telling all the teachers to keep us scrotes in line….. or else!

Politician on Today guffing on another law needed for when cyclists kill Peds.

Scum

How can a someone who represents a rural county with rubbish roads be minister for transport?

How can someone with such a weak cv end up in a role managing a nations infrastructure, it would appear that the government holds transport infrastructure in low regard when it assigned the role to him.

Who here isn’t surprised by this?

Lame, weak, shite petty point scoring – whose fooking surprised???

He can get f****d!

Write to the AA or Churchill or Ford and ask them to have a word with their customers about the two and a half thousand people they kill each year.

You get the (zombie) politicians you deserve.

Meanwhile in Amsterdam

What happens if you turn off the traffic lights?

Dutch people don’t read the Sun, Mail, Express,Graph so can think, it would never work here.

It’s a bit like the local busy body writing to the towns university telling them to control the behaviour of their students and copying it to the local rag.
It should be met with reference to Ariel vs Pressdram

How can a someone who represents a rural county with rubbish roads be minister for transport?

You don’t even need a driving licence to be minister for transport:

Barbara Castle

The cockchafer can take his views as tattooed on his **** enormous forehead and shove it so far up his arse that it enters into a symbiotic relationship with his full of shit tory-privaliged colon, and if that’s not enough then i’ll strap him to the front of my bike as i go about my daily life to show the inept waste of **** space exactly what cyclists encounter many times a day due to fuctards behind the wheel, i’d have him dribbling piss and shit down his leg whilst crying for nanny before we get across the town.

I really shouldn’t read stuff like that (or view the news) as i always end up firing off a vile expletive ridden email, oh well….too late to unsend it now.

So to clarify, you don’t agree with him soma? 😉

I’ll buy soma a pint if I ever meet him. Brilliant rant.

Can we please send soma’s epistle to Jesse Bawbags email.

It should be met with reference to Ariel vs Pressdram

If anyone is looking for this reference, it’s Arkell v Pressdram

Its just an obvious extension of the cycling hatred
Its rare a cyclist kills a ped and if you are interested in saving lives you wont be targeting ONLY cyclist to behave better you would focus on the big metal boxes that do the overwhelming amount of the killing
The car is King though and they hate us – even perfectly sane rational folk at my work hate cyclists TBH we need to address the us and them mentality with an acceptance of which users are the most dangerous on the roads and it is not cyclists.

I read Bez’s blog after Allison’s sentencing and it’s prompted me to rethink the whole “legal reform” thing…

I, like many, had assumed that because the charge he was convicted under is ‘old’ it is inappropriate, but it’s clearly not as a conviction was secured. Similarly the sentence he received was about in line with what a motorist might expect under similar circumstances…

So then we come back to Jesse Norman’s decision to admonish cycling groups… He’s a politician in the age of “popularism” he responds to whatever is grabbing headlines, and the media were keen to report the Alliston case and painted a vivid picture and that’s what prompts him…

IMO The appropriate response is to thank him for his concern, list all the activities, training and published materials those organisations already provide, suggest that the government may wish to fund further initiatives on the topic, then politely segway onto motoring safety and ask if similar (well publicised) correspondence will be sent to key motoring groups to remind them of their members and the wider motoring publics responsibilities…

Such measured replies should be CC’d to the press.

It’s worth noting he apparently wrote to Christian Boardman directly, who is usually very measured, moderate and concise in a ‘cycling debate’. I look forward to seeing the two of them interviewed together…

Isnt he the chap who canceled electric trains past Cardiff to Swansea and trans pennine, and is now promising a digital railway that Network rail and the TOC,s dont want and dont need.

I don’t mind him asking for cyclists to be reminded of the rules of the road – as there is a proportion of cyclists severely in need of such a reminder.
I do mind, however, the implication that other road users – pedestrians, motorists, etc. – do not need the same reminder.

If we are to remove the stupid tribalism that exists in this country (and move towards the more pleasant coexistent situation that can be found on the continent) then we all need to be both respected and held accountable in equal measure.

On the subject of turning off the traffic lights, my town has one of those ridiculous roundabouts with several sets of traffic lights around it. It’s in a really busy part of town, and it always takes quite a while to negotiate – apart from when the lights aren’t working at all. This speaks volumes about the way that ‘planners’ deal with traffic, and how little they follow up their installations with analysis. Sometimes, it’s best to force people to actually think, rather than herding them like sheep.

Bring it on, fine, but at the same time sort out laws for things such as…

Pedestrians walking out on to roads without checking it is clear both ways, sometimes near road crossing aids like pelican crossings, sometimes concentrating more on visual updates from their smart phone/tablet etc.

Passing a law that will penalise “punishment pass” motorists that overtake with less than 1.5 metre overtaking room by banning them on an exponential scale eg. first offence one week, second offence one month etc.

Dealing with the common issue of motorists not giving two hoots about speed limits in their 1+ ton cars, unless they are about to encounter a speed camera.

Etc. Etc.

Mr Norman is my MP. Guess which one is him:

Or:

The bloke is useless. Actually if he improved someone might, just, consider him useless. Next time I see him mugging it for the local rag I’ll be asking him some questions, loudly.

My “go to” for a sensible take on the issue is the WMP Traffic Unit blog. Always worth a read and the whole issue of where to concentrate efforts to improve road safety has seldom been better put.

So drivers need to expect a zero tolerance approach for any offence involving a vulnerable road user, or an offence that could contribute to a collision involving a vulnerable road user. The only way to change driver behaviour and concentrate minds on looking out for vulnerable road users and change driving habits is through enforcement, and the resulting fear of being prosecuted. Now for those who will no doubt be spitting out their finest percolated roasted bean brew at this moment screaming “what about the cyclists !” well…….statistical analysis shows they aren’t to blame, innocent in the majority of KSI collisions it would be a waste of our time, and thus public time and money to concentrate on cyclist behaviour. The figures speak for themselves…….driver’s don’t let your prejudices get in the way of the truth…….

If road safety was genuinely the concern here the Transport Minister wouldn’t be playing to the gallery with well-publicised crowd pleasers like this oblique attack on cyclists.