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War on Britain's Roads NOW BBC1

  • 05-12-2012 10:00PM
    #1
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 98,142 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    War on Britain's Roads
    BBC 1, 21:00 - 22:00
    Documentary using cycle helmet camera footage to give a unique insight into the unfolding tension and conflict on Britain's roads. From everyday incidents that get out of hand between cyclists and motorists, to stories of near-death experiences and fatal collisions, the programme shows that the battle between two wheels and four has never been so intense. It shows both sides of the story, retelling dramatic incidents from both the cyclist's and driver's point of view.


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Comments

  • #2
    ThisRegard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,833 ✭✭✭✭ThisRegard


    Sounds like the visual equivalent of one of those After Hour or Motors threads on cyclists.


  • #3
    buffalo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,229 ✭✭✭buffalo


    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056819139

    Why oh why must it be characterised it as a war? Much easier to call it a collection of idiots. Will anybody come out of this looking good?


  • #4
    colm_gti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭colm_gti


    Your man with the glasses is a moron!


  • #5
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 98,142 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    just noticed it was on and changed over

    TBH looks more like something you'd see on SKY, thought it would have been more informative.


  • #6
    shaka
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,086 ✭✭✭shaka


    Jumping lights is just plain stupid


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  • #7
    buffalo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,229 ✭✭✭buffalo


    This is Cynthia's story - it's inspiring to see some good come from a death.

    http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/cycling-death-uk-mom-takes-on-global-giant-and-wins/


  • #8
    buffalo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,229 ✭✭✭buffalo


    Also, I think this is the website of the guy with glasses - Gaz. I recognise the voice from his videos.

    http://www.sillycyclists.co.uk/

    edit: also
    http://www.youtube.com/user/gaz545
    http://www.youtube.com/user/CycleGaz
    http://www.youtube.com/user/sillycyclists


  • #9
    happytramp
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,627 ✭✭✭happytramp


    Brilliant!! A happy ending by giving everyone something they can agree on........ Hipsters on brakeless fixies are complete twats!! ;)


  • #10
    Tenzor07
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,862 ✭✭✭Tenzor07


    buffalo wrote: »
    This is Cynthia's story - it's inspiring to see some good come from a death.

    http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/cycling-death-uk-mom-takes-on-global-giant-and-wins/

    Heartbreaking, what a brave woman...


  • #11
    Caroline_ie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,400 ✭✭✭Caroline_ie


    I am glad my mother didn't watch it.


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  • #12
    buffalo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,229 ✭✭✭buffalo


    I don't think the alleycat race added to it. Up to then it had been a story about regular people making their way in and out of work, or just cycling around. The underlying message had been clear - sure we're all just people, using different methods of transport.

    The race was like a sensational headline tacked on at the end, so that they could get some publicity.


  • #13
    happytramp
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,627 ✭✭✭happytramp


    buffalo wrote: »
    The race was like a sensational headline tacked on at the end, so that they could get some publicity.

    It was 100% purely there to bookend the debate. Give the drivers P.O.V, then the cyclists P.O.V, then neutralise everyone's pent up frustrations by giving them a 'easy' target to vent on. i.e muppets that everyone hates. Personally I think it worked. I instantly forgot everything that had happened in the previous hour and just ranted at my girlfriend about them.


  • #14
    Wishbone Ash
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,145 ✭✭✭✭Wishbone Ash


    colm_gti wrote: »
    Your man with the glasses is a moron!
    He was embarassing. I thought he did a complete dis-service to all the ordinary decent cycling commuters. He seemed to totally overact to fairly mundane traffic encounters and I couldn't see anything wrong with the taxi driver's driving. The taxi driver came across as very reasonable.
    Caroline_ie wrote: »
    I am glad my mother didn't watch it.
    I glad my mother, wife, and daughter didn't watch it!

    The incident with the artic oil tanker was pretty scary alright. Is that cyclist the annoying Scot who has loads of stuff on You Tube?

    I didn't think "Traffic Droid" :rolleyes: did us any favours either. I'm surprised that cyclist who he pulled back by his backpack didn't deck him.

    Cycle cops bit was interesting. It would be great to have a job which gives the opportunity to gain physical fitness and get paid for it.


  • #15
    tomasrojo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 12,049 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    MPs have joined motoring and cycling groups to condemn a BBC1 documentary which purports to show the "war" between cyclists and other vehicles on British roads, with some warning that it could actually endanger cyclists by wrongly stereotyping them as reckless.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/30/cycling-documentary-bbc1-road


  • #16
    buffalo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,229 ✭✭✭buffalo


    Wishbone Ash wrote: »
    He was embarassing. I thought he did a complete dis-service to all the ordinary decent cycling commuters. He seemed to totally overact to fairly mundane traffic encounters and I couldn't see anything wrong with the taxi driver's driving. The taxi driver came across as very reasonable.

    I felt like he provoked the response in that instance. He was alright in taking the lane, and the taxi came in a little bit close for comfort, but Gaz had left himself plenty of space on the inside to move into, but didn't. It was the cycling equivalent of a car driver doing close a overtake because you're not in the cycling lane.

    I used to watch his videos a couple of years ago, and he captured some crazy cycling and driving. Maybe the fame has gone to his head a bit, and he's become "traffic droid"-lite.

    And yes, traffic droid was outrageous, but when he had the little breakdown, I felt for him. Then I started thinking that it was a bit like when Bruce Wayne's parents were killed. To the Batbike!


  • #17
    Konkers
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 364 ✭✭Konkers


    Have never cycled in London but have noticed the numbers of cyclists have gone through the roof in the last 2/3 years. Have friends who do short commutes through London on bikes and they say it's grand for the most part.

    I did think it was quite sensationalist (both extrems)...... but they brought both sides together quite neatly (3 cyclists, both taxi drivers and the Lorry driver and the Mother of one of the cyclists - was she not great???).

    I got the impression from the other thread on this progamme yesterday that the last piece was a race filmed for commercial purposes???????????


  • #18
    Konkers
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 364 ✭✭Konkers


    buffalo wrote: »
    And yes, traffic droid was outrageous, but when he had the little breakdown, I felt for him. Then I started thinking that it was a bit like when Bruce Wayne's parents were killed. To the Batbike!


    :pac: agreed.


  • #19
    smackyB
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 764 ✭✭✭smackyB


    No mention anywhere of the inadequate cycling infrastructure which causes a lot of these conflicts in the first place..


  • #20
    Wishbone Ash
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,145 ✭✭✭✭Wishbone Ash


    Konkers wrote: »
    Have never cycled in London
    I only cycled in London once. I hired a bike and did 90km over the course of a day. I didn't notice anything particularly different about the traffic as such, but the road surfaces seemed much more slippery that in Dublin and there appeared to be an excessive amount of surface ironmongery. I would have liked to do the same route on my own bike for a proper comparison.

    (Watching the track standing at the major junctions was most interesting and I didn't see a single clipless incident! :))


  • #21
    CramCycle
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 26,777 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    Cycled in London for years when I was younger and again recently on a work trip. No different than here other than I thought it was easier to predict what people were going to do, and the majority +99.9% stuck to driving with common sense.

    So in revision, it was better than cycling here.


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  • #22
    beans
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,886 ✭✭✭beans


    Haven't seen the piece, but thought I'd chime in on London cycling in general.

    I've cycled a 34km round-trip through London from north to south-west every day for the past 2 years or so. I've commuted through Dublin for years before. Initially, I thought London drivers more considerate, and predictable than those at home. Infrastructure-wise, the roads on my route are good, lanes are well-defined and respected. Cycle-lanes exist, but are not very useful and occasionally dangerous, albeit less often so than Dublin's.

    Recently, I've noticed more and more dangerous driving - ninja lane-changes and sudden, unannounced left-hand turns for the most part, but undertaking on a roundabout this morning was a new one. Every day recently, I've had at least one near-miss, or witnessed some road-user do something stupidly dangerous.

    Cyclists are on the most part well-trained and well-behaved. Like anywhere, lots of bikes on paths / salmoning / alleycat lunacy / autopiloting etc to be witnessed too.


  • #23
    Hungrycol
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭Hungrycol


    beans wrote: »
    Haven't seen the piece, but thought I'd chime in on London cycling in general.

    I've cycled a 34km round-trip through London from north to south-west every day for the past 2 years or so. I've commuted through Dublin for years before. Initially, I thought London drivers more considerate, and predictable than those at home. Infrastructure-wise, the roads on my route are good, lanes are well-defined and respected. Cycle-lanes exist, but are not very useful and occasionally dangerous, albeit less often so than Dublin's.

    Recently, I've noticed more and more dangerous driving - ninja lane-changes and sudden, unannounced left-hand turns for the most part, but undertaking on a roundabout this morning was a new one. Every day recently, I've had at least one near-miss, or witnessed some road-user do something stupidly dangerous.

    Cyclists are on the most part well-trained and well-behaved. Like anywhere, lots of bikes on paths / salmoning / alleycat lunacy / autopiloting etc to be witnessed too.

    Whats Salmoning?


  • #24
    colm_gti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭colm_gti


    Hungrycol wrote: »
    Whats Salmoning?

    Slapping bad drivers wit a wet salmon?


  • #25
    Dermot Illogical
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,131 ✭✭✭Dermot Illogical


    Hungrycol wrote: »

    Whats Salmoning?

    It's when you go against the flow of traffic to the tuna 'I want to ride my bicycle'.


  • #26
    positron
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,564 ✭✭✭positron


    I caught it last night - and thought it was very good.

    Great cam clips and interviews and very real human stories from both sides of the debate. I could not believe how the two vans could over take a cyclist on both sides at the same time like that - that is beyond any reason or sense. A lot of proper tw*t drivers, but even more often than not the drivers genuinely hasn't seen the cyclist(s). And a lot of cyclists taking all sort of stupid risk like overtaking a truck on the left when the truck is indicating to turn left etc. It was hard to watch over all.

    And the gang of cyclists nut cases riding all over the place scattering pedestrians and endangering everyone on the road near the end of the program - if one of them crashes into me, it wouldn't end well - even at the risk of ending up on a video on Youtube.


  • #27
    colm_gti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭colm_gti


    positron wrote: »
    I could not believe how the two vans could over take a cyclist on both sides at the same time like that - that is beyond any reason or sense.

    Well what was he doing cycling in the middle of two lanes in the first place? If you looked ahead you could see that they were both turning left.

    I think a lot of the driver reactions were provoked by the cyclists, especially by that twat in the glasses who gave the impression that he was morally superior to everyone in a car. In that video with the taxi driver that was completely in the right, when he started clapping, I'd be embarrassed to be a cyclist in his vicinity...utter moron! There's one thing holding your lane, but it's a hole other thing taking up a lane when you don't have to just to provoke a motorist!


  • #28
    happytramp
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,627 ✭✭✭happytramp


    colm_gti wrote: »
    Well what was he doing cycling in the middle of two lanes in the first place? If you looked ahead you could see that they were both turning left.

    I was confused by this too. Both lanes were turning left, would the safest position not have been on the inside of the inner lane? From where he was positioned I would have imagined that being passed on both side to be fairly common place.


  • #29
    Ole Rodrigo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,013 ✭✭✭Ole Rodrigo


    He could have been positioning himself for a right turn after coming around the corner. Even at that, he should have taken a wider position to ensure nobody could overtake.


  • #30
    positron
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,564 ✭✭✭positron


    colm_gti wrote: »
    Well what was he doing cycling in the middle of two lanes in the first place? If you looked ahead you could see that they were both turning left.

    Perhaps he was in the wrong place, and perhaps he provoked it. But if I were a van driver, I wouldn't dream of driving so close to a cyclist, not to mention when another van is already squeezing the cyclist from the other side. Not unless I have a serious lack of respect for human (or any) life. It doesn't matter if someone was wrong - it doesn't give me the power to punish them for it - imho, of course.


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  • #31
    Tenzor07
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,862 ✭✭✭Tenzor07


    Whatever about being overtaken by the van with the trailer, being undertaken by the other van is just as dangerous, one slip/wobble left or right and he was finished... :(


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