PSA: War on britain's roads on BBC1

I’m off to bed, up early to commute through that very roundabout.

ah so you may know some important detail about it that I missed on the clip. But so far yeah agree to disagree.
Happy trails roads

Im sure you, like me, are a competitive cyclist who cycles thousands of miles on the road each year.

over 2000 miles on his blog on the road to sept about the same off road

HTH

Copper didn’t witness the incident

true did seem more deferential to the driver tho, I guess he had seen the cyclist rlj but not whatever the taxi driver was supposed to have done, but cyclist stated his reason for rljing and other cyclists backed up his story of dodgy driving by taxi man, editing tho so who knows

Love the bag-grabbin’ encounter – made me chuckle.

Some cowbag once overtook me with little space given and then positioned the car near to the kerb immediately stopped and indicated right to join another street all in the space of about 50 yards… I still to this day can’t understand why she did it. Just seems to be this mentality that vehicle users must get in front/get past as if i’m holding their journey up. Why is a ten second wait to make a safe pass or just to hold back so difficult, just impatience end of the day.

There is no way I would cycle in London… Or get a road bike.

I bet cyclegaz likes peanut butter on toast

Not much being said about cyclists wearing earphones got to be the daftest thing to do, you need your wits about you at all times and don,t be afraid to stand up to any clown who gets out of his motor , he may be in for a bit of a surprise.

I can’t believe some people seem to think the cyclist on the roundabout was somehow at fault for not stopping to let the lorry pull out on him. Staggering.

edlong – Member
I can’t believe some people seem to think the cyclist on the roundabout was somehow at fault for not stopping to let the lorry pull out on him. Staggering.

Doing something just because it’s ‘right’ doesn’t instantly make it ‘wise’

The guy with the tanker on the roundabout did everything right as far as I can see. The lorry driver was completely at fault.
I’ve ridden 5,000 miles so far this year on my commute from west to east London and I think I’ve seen or nearly experienced pretty much every situation shown in the programme. There’s arseholes on all sides in all walks of life – sometimes you just have to get on with it.

i find if I ride somewhere I don’t know it’s normally more enjoyable, probably ride slower, more cautious, unsure of route and traffic so give way to pushy drivers more

Yeah good point. We weren’t in a hurry either. We commuted from Streatham to the Olympic park (12 miles ish) right through the centre of town. There’s LOADS of bikes around at that time of day, people of all sorts riding. OK London doesn’t have the best cycle network in the world but its and old, densely built city and it must be tricky to fit new stuff in. But the marked and numbered cycle routes are great for finding your way round and for the most part all the road users seem to be on the ball and not in too much of a rush to kill anyone 🙂
Anyone who “would never cycle in London” would be presently surprised I think. 🙂

I thought it was ok, def not as bad as I was expecting.

We are all cyclists so we will always take the view that we where hard done by. But I’m guessing so will lorry drivers and taxi drivers.

The documentary really could have ended with “**** are **** doesn’t matter if they drive a car/taxi/truck or ride a bike.”

Not much being said about cyclists wearing earphones got to be the daftest thing to do, you need your wits about you at all times and don,t be afraid to stand up to any clown who gets out of his motor , he may be in for a bit of a surprise.

No worse than drivers with their stereo on bangIng out toons. I wear headphones and can still hear traffic around me.

doesn’t matter if they drive a car/taxi/truck or ride a bike

I am getting a bit tired of this attitude, cyclists are more vulnerable road users, it’s like taking a knife to a gunfight then finding out everyone else has apache gunships.

Cycling in London is terrible but it’s better than almost any other city in the UK and way more pleasant than riding on rural A roads.

No worse than drivers with their stereo on bangIng out toons. I wear headphones and can still hear traffic around me.

What utter pish.

The look on the red light jumpers face when the big fella gripped his shoulder was priceless. Wearing headphones in traffic is moronic.

What utter pish.

Good debate reply there. 😉 🙄

I’ll raise your utter pish to, you have no idea at what volume I play my music at. Cant hang about I have an appointment with certain death <pops ear phones in> tell my wife I love her.

Cant hang about I have an appointment with certain death <pops ear phones in> tell my wife I love her

Is she fit ?

legend – I’m following this on a car forum too, they seem to agree – minus a bit of a moan about flashing lights

Clio drivers loave a good moan.

” way more pleasant than riding on rural A roads.” You obviously missed a memo all rural roads have been reclassified as motor skills test tracks so drivers can enjoy driving to their or their cars limits.

My hero. Swoons

What utter pish.

Springsteen for me this morning for some reason. Not looking behind you when changing road position or being aware of your surroundings is what is dangerous, not a bit of background music. Deaf people cycle too and motorcyclists can hear nothing.

How can you possibly watch that show and think headphones are in any way significant?

motorcyclists can hear nothing.

I must have bat like ears then

doesn’t matter if they drive a car/taxi/truck or ride a bike

I am getting a bit tired of this attitude, cyclists are more vulnerable road users, it’s like taking a knife to a gunfight then finding out everyone else has apache gunships.

I never said they weren’t the most vulnerable, I’m talking about attitudes, T**ts act like t**ts because that’s what they are not what they ride.

Bike DOES NOT give you the right to be a T**T

Copper advises buying a whistle!
If we all get whistles London is going to sound like 24 hour 80s rave!!
All we need now are industrial quantities of glowsticks!
And, if we all have whistles, how are we going to know which one is a copper wanting us to stop?

motorcyclists can hear nothing.

Utter rubbish 🙂 but your point is sound.
As a motorcyclist I actually wear earplugs for any journey over about 10 miles. You have to or you wreck your hearing. 2-up we have an intercom so we can talk to each other.

On the cycling in headphones thing it’s really just about being sensible.. I wore them at 6.30am in Farnborough but there’s not much traffic about and a lot of the route is traffic free or back roads. On the way home, different kettle of fish. More traffic and I preferred not to. You just have to assess the risk. But you CAN hear the traffic with them on, to say you can’t it just dumb.

LOL @ Roger 😆

I can’t believe some people seem to think the cyclist on the roundabout was somehow at fault for not stopping to let the lorry pull out on him. Staggering.

Doing something just because it’s ‘right’ doesn’t instantly make it ‘wise’

I maintain that stopping in the middle of a busy roundabout to let traffic that doesn’t have right of way to pull onto it in front of you is far from wise.

If I was a motorist following a cycle round a roundabout, I wouldn’t be expecting them to suddenly stop, and in fact I reckon there’s a fair chance I would rear-end them if they did.

And creating an expectation in motorists (i.e. the truckie) that the normal rules of priority / right of way are reversed for bicycles creates much more, not less, danger for everyone.

Not much being said about cyclists wearing earphones got to be the daftest thing to do

cause it doesn’t make a huge difference, what about car radios? are you going to ban them? what about deaf riders, you going to ban them too?

Personally I usually don’t wear headphones while commuting on the road (and I wear a helmet and a bit of hi viz) but don’t see it as a crime if other riders choose different. The dude with the cans on did RLJ I think and maybe didn’t look around much, criticise him for that but wearing headphones doesn’t suddenly make you unable to ride

Ah, I knew this was a good thread to avoid. Typically, its now about STW rather than the TV programme of the title 🙄

What shocked me last night was the footage from that guys cement lorry. I couldn’t believe the amount of cyclists squeezing up the tiny gap on the the inside of trucks and buses as they approached junctions. Absolute insanity IMHO!

Seriously… are you really in that much of a hurry that you can’t just sit behind until it pulls away in front of you? At least give yourself a fighting chance of not getting squashed!

Oh… and I’d happily have decked Gareth the web developer. The smug, sanctimonious git

I had to stop watching that after a while, never thought I’d find a bloody Taxi driver, who I generally hate with a vengeance with more common sense than a biker. I have to say it made me realise what a bubble I dwell in, I hand’t realised just how many more roadies there now are, if they are anything like the born again (motor)bikers of the late nineties and early noughties then it is hardly surprising there is this increased level of intolerance of one another from a road commuters perspective.

And as for Plod on a bike, Geez doesn’t it just make you hate them even more..

Sadly it also goes to explain what has happened here during the period from before when the place crashed and now, just so many more who cycle but seem to no longer have either that ‘savvy’ or sense of commonality that we as a minority group used to have back a while ago.

A sad programme and scary reflection of just how crowded and dangerous our roads are and how little awareness of their own mortality some riders appear to have.

I couldn’t believe the amount of cyclists squeezing up the tiny gap on the the inside of trucks and buses as they approached junctions. Absolute insanity IMHO!

Me too, I really can’t believe anyone would do that

I used to commute by car to the tune of approx 150 miles per day. when I started I was really uptight about being on time etc, and frankly drove like an utter cock. About 3 months in I had a bit of an epiphany and realised that unless I modified my behaviour I would end up dead either by car or by heart attack. One of the things I did was to amuse myself by trying to drive without using my brakes unnecessarily. timing my run up to traffic lights/junctions etc allowing the vehicle to slow by taking my foot off the gas etc etc. Curiously about the same time I started to suffer less sinlge finger salutes and road rage style cut ins across my line of travel and so forth.

IMHO: You can excaerbate situations and you can mollify them by pretty simple actions. Generally speaking the show focussed on folk who seemed intent on exacerbation. The bottom line is we live on a crowded planet, and there are no simple solutions other than a bit of courtesy and consideration in both directions. Obviously townplanners taking their head out of theor arses wouldn’t go amiss either, but hey its the real world.

Apparently not.

amuse myself by trying to drive without using my brakes unnecessarily

I used to find a spot on my windscreen and use it as a crosshair of my imaginary gun (complete with noises). Strangely cathartic.

Thought the lorry driver was hyper aware of cyclists, but then it did show he had gizmos to let him know when he had riders alongside. He was very good and had all the gear and I can see how a driver in a lesser lorry who didn’t have the improved mirrors and maybe less urban experience may kill a cyclist coming up his inside whilst he turns left.

Well done to the lady who lost her daughter, she was so broken by it. Sad to watch. Her approach to the company and how she went about getting them to implement changes to their fleet and subsequently the companys actions were commendable. Outside of that individual case though, is it financially viable to kit out lorries in that way? They said that on average their fleet killed 1 cyclist a year, how much does it cost to kill a cyclist? Is it a reasonable ‘business'(not moral) decision to invest in preventative measures for these type of companies?

On another point…how **** are some peoples brakes!?! From watching the incident with the lorry, I think he could have reacted to the lorry quicker and stopped before he was that close to the tail. Not saying give r.o.w. as a matter of course but do react to the situation. Guy who rear ended the lady on the cycle path, again I reckon I could have stopped. etcetc (MOTs for bikes?? *ducks*)

I wish I knew. I might be able to afford a couple.

cause it doesn’t make a huge difference, what about car radios? are you going to ban them? what about deaf riders, you going to ban them too?

That’s a good point: I wonder how many “near misses” are the result of people fiddling with the radio, or listening too intently and not concentrating on what is happening around them. I would suggest that maybe more than you think. This may also be accentuated by the fact that modern cars are far more insulated against sound, making it harder to be aware of what is going on around you.

Deaf people: I have heard they tend to have heightened awareness through their other senses, and therefore are probably more sensitive to what is going on around them than most other people with all senses working perfectly.