I’ve concluded that people only respond to something they see as a threat to them. Whether driving or walking, most people recognise that a cyclist is likely to come off worst from any collison, so at a very basic, animal level, they simply don’t give one…

+ we’re very conditioned these days to the most common threat on the road being a tonne+ of metal driven at unsafe speeds – and relatively speaking a person on a bike represents no threat at all…

I don’t know if human beings are becoming more stupid, or are just animals with animal instincts. Either way, there’s a lot of daft behaviour about 😯

Riding in London you have to learn to anticipate pedestrians doing really, really stupid things – basically walking straight out into traffic without looking.

I’ve a nice line in shouting loudly at them at the moment they step off the kerb – nothing nasty, just “EASY!” usually gets people to pay attention. I’ve never had abuse for it – a few apologies, a lot of very startled looks (did you not realise you’re in the middle of a road?) and a few who looked like they wanted to abuse me but realised they weren’t really in any position to do so…

Re mobile phones – I did have a word with a guy on his phone whilst driving. He tried to tell me I’d damaged his car when knocking on the passenger window with my gloved hand… 😀 tbh everyone knows using your phone is dangerous and illegal so you’re unlikely to get an apology and a promise never to do it again… people are only abusive because they know they’ve been caught

just don’t forget to switch it off before you or the family walk in front of it, you’ll only do it once or twice

Surely you can;t get close enough to turn it off without the motion sensor picking you up and giving you a jetwash? 😀

Are you talking about self-pay or insurance? e.g. Bupa
Self-pay can get very expensive – and you can’t necessarily just drop out and go NHS half-way if you run out of ££
Bupa have been in financial difficulty for some time now – costs are going up and up but customers don’t want to spend the premiums required to keep up with these costs – the ageing population is a big pressure here. One way to deal with this is to pay out less in claims… so you have to be very careful with the small print, or it could cost you a lot more than you think
As mentioned above – private A&E is very limited in the UK so if you’re in for an op and something goes wrong, being taken down the corridor to ITU is a better place to be than in the wrong building!

Look at your socks as well

Superfeet are your friend[/url]

They’ll last several pairs of boots and are a lot lighter than Sorbothane

OP – whilst I endorse the comments on here about the speed awareness course being very thought-provoking and having a long term effect, when I went on mine it was about general driving, very little focus on how to drive around cyclists.

Daft as it may seem, if you’re still in contact with the guy, directly or indirectly, encourage him to get on a Bikeability course – usually provided free of charge by the Local Authority and they will sometimes supply a bike if needed.

That will give him a much better perspective on what a cyclist needs from other road users – walking a mile in another man’s shoes and all that…

I think there’s a lot of truth in the excuses angle… you hear the same as an excuse for not eating a healthy diet “too expensive”, “haven’t the time”

You know it’s an excuse when you provide a solution or an example which demonstrates it can be done and the resistance just carries on, as opposed to “thanks, that’s a great idea”

I wonder why, when spokespeople like Chris Boardman comment on research like this, they never mention the quality of driving. He’ll be fully aware it’s a problem so it must be a deliberate decision…

I suspect he might know that the hard-of-thinking driving majority will just start on the old “RLJ, pavement-riding etc etc” nonsense and we won’t actually get a reasoned debate or any real level of behaviour change.

That said, my experience over the last couple of years is that the number of people taking time to either wait, or give a clear pass, is increasing, so at some level the current approach is working.

I suspect it’s because as more people ride, or know someone who rides, the stark realisation that it’s the standard of driving which represents the main risk, is getting through. And this personal experience is more powerful than some ‘figurehead’ banging on about it.

At the end of the day, I don’t need a cycle lane and potholes are not a problem, if the traffic around me is driving properly…

The big elephant in the room though, is those drivers that deliberately attack cyclists – it happens all-too-frequently and the consequences for the cyclist are usually very severe – knackered bike, injury or death… That’s the piece that needs stamping down on hard – greater enforcement, proper punishment and making it socially unacceptable…

Had someone overtake a cyclist coming in the opposite direction, at exactly the point we were level with them yesterday (on a country B road). So it was 2 cyclists (single file), car, cyclist on the width of the road. Really dumb, and pretty effing dangerous. It didn’t help my perception of Audi TT drivers…

This is where the debate about single file/2-abreast/primary position becomes more nuanced. If the riders on the other side had been 2-abreast, the driver would have more likely waited as the visual and physical barrier in front of him would have been bigger…

Unfortunately, current thinking appears to be that the people cycling have to take responsibility for the poor quality skills of the driver ie: 2-abreast would have deemed to be ‘blocking the road’ rather than ‘the driver made a dangerous overtake’.

We had a ‘fun’ one on the club run today – driver tries repeatedly to shove his way into the group from a side road (12 riders, all coming down a fast descent so fairly spread out) he pushed his car further and further into the road to the point that by the time I came down I had to take to the white line to avoid piling straight into the side of his car. I was shouting ‘no, no, no!’ to get him to stop driving out, for which I got the coffee bean shake 😯
Even when I drive I get scared these days by all the close calls. I’m glad I live in London so barely need to use the car

I think some people lack the cognitive ability to distinguish between a video game and real life… seriously… the obvious risk of injury and death from some driving manoeuvres appears to be not obvious at all to some people…

There’s a theory I heard about of ‘risk appetite’ – we’ve evolved to live with a certain amount of risk/threat to survival but for most people these days, life is very, very safe – all the safety features and the sheer size of modern cars is just one example.

So life is very boring for many people. Some go and seek out the risk – participate in risky sports like rock climbing, base jumping, skydiving, mountain biking etc, but for those who don’t do this, driving in a dangerous manner is one of the few routes left for a shot of adrenaline…

Of course, the safer cars get, the more you have to push your driving…

Years ago I jumped out of planes every weekend and it was interesting, in both my own experience and watching others, how the basic ‘falling through the air’ thing lost it’s appeal after a while – you got used to the risk – so you started to do other things… free flying, formation, pulling low, swoops etc… to get the buzz back. In a sport like that where the risk is so high, you’re aware you’re doing it. But I don’t think Joe Public has that kind of self awareness…

Lemmy comes on for Overkill?
Or Ozzy for Sabbra Caddabra?

Lighters aloft time!

Metallica are owning Glasto 🙂

Pixies rocked.

Still not understanding how these stay back stickers make some of you feel that they give tbe drivers the right to tell cyclists what to do. Seems to be some weird hybrid of paranoia, hysteria and insecurity based on a theoretical reaction from a small minority of drivers.

Well LCC, Road Haulage Association, Freight Drivers Association all agree as well…

Road safety organisations have for several months been pressuring TfL to act on the stickers, described as “offensive” by London Cycling Campaign (LCC). Evidence has mounted that drivers of stickered vehicles have acted as though the stickers gave them the right to harass and endanger cyclists.

Even the Freight Transport Association and The Road Haulage Association have expressed frustration at the confusion caused by mixed messages and hostile reactions resulting from the stickers, according to LCC.

Original story from Roadcc

There’s nothing about my driving licence which gives me any authority over other road users to tell them how they should drive or whereabouts in the road they should be positioned – this is what;s wrong with the ‘stay back’ stickers – it suggests the driver has some kind of authority over the cyclist to tell them how to ride – when in fact they have no legal or moral right to take that position…

Something advisory letting cyclists know the limitations of the ability of the driver is something quite different…

Do you genuinely believe that these badly worded stickers are part of some master plan to halt the growth of cycling? Really?

Not at all. There’s just a generalised anti-cycling attitude from a lot of people at the moment, which wasn’t there 10 years ago. Sometimes it pops up as stickers, sometimes as screaming at people riding a bike, sometimes as driving at them… every regular road cyclist has anecdotes about being given grief when they’re just riding along…

Try getting involved in the comments section of newspaper story about cycling and see how much rabid, irrational anti-cycling frothing goes on…

It’s quite amazing the lengths people will go to, to try and stop the growth of cycling. I don’t think there’s anything else I do in life where there’s so much resistance from so many people… we’re a very conservative country really…how people can get in such a palaver about more people riding bikes is a bit mental…

There’ll be French people there. You have been warned 😀

I suspect the overuse of these things has come from a legal standpoint – allows corporate lawyers to argue that when the van driver does a left hook on a cyclist he just overtook, that they warned the cyclist not to be there and therefore they can’t sue for personal injury…

Bit like all the ‘warning, hot water’ nonsense on hot taps and ‘caution, contains nuts’ on packets of peanuts… it’s not about honestly trying to help people avoid risk/injury, it’s about corporates and others who can be sued, putting in a pre-emptive defence against silly people, and also to avoid taking proper responsibility for themselves…

No-one else has BASEd without a BASE – takes vision to have an idea like that and massive cojones to follow it through!

Most of my direct reports have been promoted. Two in particular were being bullied or had been bullied by their bosses and their lack of confidence was seriously holding back their obvious potential. 6-12 months work with each and they thrived.

To me it seemed like the right thing to do, and the very least a manager should do. 10 years on I realise very few managers care in the slightest about such things so I’m still very proud of what I/they achieved…

I hope that no one on here needs to be told that going up the inside of a tipper truck at a junction is a daft thing to do.

The general cycling public appear to need to be told, by my observation this week…

road space should be taken from cars to make it harder to drive’

why not? Tens of thousands in the UK are dying each year from obesity and pollution-related diseases, and before they die, they cost £billions in healthcare, at a time when NHS is under huge cost pressure from an ageing population…

Let alone the noise pollution…

Cars only came into mass usage in the 1950’s, and they have a massively negative impact on society, which is why they’re taxed (so drivers (me included) can make a contribution towards the costs they impose on the everyone else…

I’m not anti-car (I have one) but I am anti this excessive and careless use of the things which people seem to want to insist on, despite massive, massive damage to our daily quality of life. Nothing wrong with change you know 😯

You are not suposed tob e overtaing a vehicle on the inside anyway,

So why are cycle lanes on the left hand side of the lane then? If we can’t undertake stationary traffic there’s no point cycling is there? We’ll either sit in the queue getting carbon monoxide poisoning or might as well just drive!

Don’t get me wrong, as a cyclist I’m very well aware of my vulnerability and take great care not to put myself at risk, but vehicle drivers have a great responsibility not to kill and injure people just because they can’t be bothered looking properly… these stickers are being used as a get-out according to the campaigning organisations.

Personally I think education and training sessions (for all road users) would be the best option…

The bits about drivers using the stickers as an excuse to drive without due care and attention is more than a little worrying… as in, given any excuse for it, some drivers will deliberately stop caring about anyone else on the road…

Glad the campaigners have been able to make some quick progress on this. Anecdotally there’s more and more people riding these days and with Wiggle potentially about to float on the stockmarket and Halfords making increased profits from cycling, it suggests more and more new riders are coming into the roads – so if there was ever a time when drivers needed to drive with a sense of responsibility, this is it.

I still think a campaign of direct action with more appropriately worded stickers being placed over these things, would be most effective. Maybe something like “I’m probably not looking, or fiddling with my phone and don’t really give a damn about killing you, so I’d steer clear if I were you” That’s basically the mindset I have when I ride… 😕

I like the idea of a guerilla campaign of placing more friendly stickers over the existing victim-blaming things (especially with really tough glue), but that message walks straight into the ‘smug cyclists’ territory which will do nothing to win over the general public

I remember hearing rumours about about this kind of thing years ago, but I assumed it was all made up. Then all the paedo stuff came out, which made me think twice. If it did happen though, how did he get away with it? I mean, was he really THAT big of a celebrity?!?!!

I also remember these rumours too – 15/20 years ago…

We have a senior manager at work who shows a lot of the signs of a psychopath and it’s very widely known she’s a problem but it’s interesting how a) effective her rather amateurish attempts at manipulation are and b) how reluctant people are do admit she’s a problem and stand up to her.

IME, because psychopaths have absolutely no limit to their behaviour, they can be very tricky to pin down, very tricky to confront and very tricky to get people to stand up to them (people are terrified they’ll turn on them if they do speak out.

That’s why they get to positions of great power and why they get away with so much, and do so much damage to the world around them… they’re almost inhuman in their lack of connection with the usual facets of behaviour.

Bob Hare is the best book to read on the subject

I bet a robot couldn’t do that. We’re all saved! 😀

I bet you robots won’t be able to have an argument like an STW argument. Question is, how do we monetise this collective skill? 😀

Don’t understand this. The water evapourates, is the paint actually dry? Cheap paint will come off if you do this. If you want paint you can wipe down then you need to get better paint.

Being a painting virgin, I’m not sure what he’s done exactly. It’s Dulux paint – and if you wipe it with a damp cloth it just comes off on the cloth and you take paint off the wall. When I painted over the marks with undiluted paint (with a brush rather than a roller) there was way more paint on those areas than over the rest of the wall. So it seems that somehow he’s spread it much more thinly. Maybe it was just a single coat rather than several.
It basically means I’m destined to have to repaint – the smallest contact with the wall seems to leave a mark, which then can’t be wiped clean

The Economist said there’s a near 100% chance estate agents will disappear. Woooh and indeed, hoo 😀

Getting back to the more serious issues, what happens if a self-repairing robot cat eats another self-repairing robot cat?

Robot Cat Wars obviously. It’d make a great TV show 😀

A simple understanding of capitalism could of course have predicted all that.

Communism, of course, delivered a better outcome for ordinary people.

And no ordinary people in China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Africa, Brazil etc became better off under globalisation.

On the other hand, increased automation/use of computers has almost certainly led directly to the obesity crisis. I’m sitting here at my desk all day rather than moving, which is what my body was built for…

We’re going to need more call centres for people to call when their robot stops working or eats the cat.

That’s where you’re wrong.
It’ll be a self-repairing robot cat

It is a bit weird though. Like sitting on your own on the train, someone else gets on, and rather than sit somewhere else in the carriage, they come and sit right next to you.

To me it’s about respecting someone’s personal space. If you go out on a ride on your own, maybe you don’t want company. To turn up and sit behind someone without saying anything is a bit inconsiderate and invasive

I’ve not seen the programme but it strikes me the point of it is threads like this, rather than to educate/inform or otherwise provide any kind of solution to the problem…

Is that anywhere near SDW?

The real problem with wheel-sucking a total stranger is you’ll end up at someone else’s house miles from your own with no idea how you got there or how to get home…