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Some perspectives on cycling the UK, via the BBC

  • 18-02-2014 10:53am
    #1
    doozerie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,830 ✭✭✭


    These links date mostly from December, but from a quick search I couldn’t find them posted here already. Some interesting/contentious/irritating/ridiculous/hysterical stuff in here, depending on your point of view:

    * 8 radical solutions to protect cyclists

    * Readers' radical solutions to protect cyclists

    * Could hi-tech accessories make cycling safer?

    * Chris Boardman says cycling safety MPs embarrassingly ignorant

    * New tech helps drivers avoid bikes by using audio alert

    * 'Safety fears’ over London bike commuting ...beware, contains alarmist reporting based on a very dubious poll. It was a poll of 1,070 adults of which 257 identified themselves as cyclists, but those very small numbers do nothing to diminish the enthusiasm with which the reporter latches onto statements like "20% of [the 257] cyclists believe that cycling is dangerous", etc. Proof that the BBC can do tabloid when they really put their mind to it.

    From the second link above, the following stands out for me as one of the more rational suggestions:
    "Another radical way to improve road safety - improve the relationship between cyclists and drivers to change road behaviour. Road safety could be radically improved if there were more respect between cyclists and vehicle drivers. As a Belgian/Dutch citizen and fervent cyclist (and urban anthropologist) in London, I am often surprised by how social groups are being formed on the roads according to which mode of transport you use in this city. You are either a cyclist, or a driver - as if people never switched between transport modes. Until I moved to London two years ago, I never realised that being a cyclist was like an identity. In The Netherlands it was never anything else but a mode of transport, and literally everyone rides a bicycle, every day or occasionally.

    "What surprises me is the passionate hatred that I've heard drivers express towards cyclists. Bus drivers shouting out of their windows that they're going to kill us, car drivers nodding their heads in disapproval when they have to move an inch for us, taxi drivers using their klaxons as if we were putting their lives in danger, rather than the other way around. This has a far-reaching effect on the behaviour of cyclists. We start behaving like we're fighting for our lives, protecting ourselves from the threats of death on every corner. In London, the more we have to fight, the more we are hated and the less we are understood. Both groups are moving farther away from each other, creating misunderstanding and conflict."

    Line Algoed, London, United Kingdom


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