london - Six cyclist dead in two weeks
 

Stay safe out there - eek

Did they drown - it's rained a lot

Cyclists in London are proper idiots

As are most of the drivers

Seen this genius last week , 6inches from a tractor trailer on a dual carriageway.http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psdaee0bfe.jpg

At least he's wearing a helmet and hi-viz.

Went to London a couple of weeks back and most cyclist didn't have either!

Tonight a cyclist came towards me at an intersection with two lights brighter than car headlights on full beam. 1 pointing down fair enough but the other was pointing straight ahead. Blinded the hell outta me , then he came behind me in traffic and got me again in the mirror ! I swear I was partially blinded for about 1min , if he had've caught up with me I would have had words.

Some of them do tend to go for some pretty stupid headlamps that have the above effect and make it difficult to recognise them as cyclists. eg. Very bright helmet lights which are not fixed obviously.
Might be OK in well lit areas, but on country roads - what are they thinking? Quite clearly not at all.
I would normally use High Beam when I see them coming towards me on B roads just to identify vehicle type and numbers.
The six families must be pretty gutted though, so maybe spare a thought for them.
And maybe a thought for the drivers of the vehicles involved. Can't be much fun to feel you played a part in killing someone either.

9 of the deaths this year involving HGVs....

A huge assumption on my part here, but WHEN are cyclists going to realise that you DO NOT go up the inside of long or large vehicles, it is cycling suicide

RIP all those that have lost their lives and everyone else, stay safe.

The numbers of deaths are frightening, excluding portion of who is to blame. I have done a fair bit of travelling around Europe, the cyclist networks in Holland Germany and Austria are fantastic and should be an example of what can be achieved. Even in large cities and towns there were old and young cycling everywhere. Just think about the health, economic and environmental benefits to the UK if they would adopt the European model.

I travel about 70 to 150 miles a week by push bike, but I will go well out of my way to stay off main roads, having had several close encounters of trucks trying to make me a new piece of tarmac!

Wouldn't mind betting the bigger proportion of the fatalities were user error ,outlined by Sipie.
Especially when you see, presented for you on YouTube, the standard / risk taking involved by certain individuals in the capital.
Remember , when I was a kid, it has to be said, cycling down he gap left by an incoming Brickyard truck. I didn't quite make it, but just ended up cutting my knee.
But the guy thought I was a goner, he was shaking,found my mother told her what had happened and that that was his day over, he now had to drive 30 miles away and fill in an accident form.

You sound like a sensible cylcist and yet even you have had close encounters with trucks...... I think this is a good illustration that HGVs and cyclists probably shouldn't be mixing on the roads. As said we need to look to other countries to work out how to make the roads safer for all.

My neighbour is an HGV driver and he told me of an incident the other month where he was indicating to turn left and swung right to make the turn (as HGVs have to), as he did so he just caught in his left mirror a cyclsist moving into the gap he had opened so halted his turn just in time to see the cyclist emerge from under the left side of his windscreen. He gave said guy a blast on his horn which solicited a torrent of abuse and two fingers.... now if he had got killed it would have been completely his fault yet the media and the cycling fraternity would be up in arms about another death!

The fact is my neighbour for all being the big burly truck driver was quite shaken up by it as he admitted as he was seconds away from wiping this guy out and through no fault of his own. It was he who opined that maybe it is time to separate cylists and HGVs on the road... as he will freely admit some of the places he is expected to take his truck are unbelieveably narrow and not suitable for trucks especially when sharing them with other road users!

I had two years riding two and a half miles each way to work and back.
In that time I had ONE accident, which was caused by North Lincs Council having repaired a stretch of tarmac with some not suitable for the job, I skidded and came off.

However, I was VERY wary of HGVs. I had one near miss, where the guy in the cab was obviously looking OVER me and didn't give way at a mini-roundabout, but when I shouted at him, he stopped, got out and threatened me. I just wrote down his truck number and the telephone number on it, and rang his boss when I got to work.

The worst was on the way home, when I had to come 3/4 way round a VERY busy roundabout. I cheated: I stopped and crossed on foot with the school crossing patrol.

One of my closest accidents was a stupid kid stepping off the path in front of me: I shouted at him and his chavvy mother unleashed a torrent of abuse at ME for shouting at HER son. You couldn't make it up.

Blame the cyclists as typical per SN.

As a part time cyclist All Drivers need to be educated about them, Give them room to move, And Cyclists please wear a lid and hi-viz at ALL times.

Michael

wish people would quit wittering on about helemts for push bikes...hi-viz, reflectors and lights yes, but helmets no.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/campaign/cycle-helmets-evidence

Anybody that rides on the road should watch this...

I'm all for that, but how about all cyclists get educated about riding on the road too, complete a CBT as they they do for mopeds to ride on roads.

How about pedestrians do one too?

Cyclists should be forced to use number plates and have bike insurance! they ride around like idiots in London!

The government should enforce a bike tax! that will sort em out.

<sniggers> and how would you go about that...this is typical of someone who does not ride a bike. :p

Next topics will include jumping red lights and 'road tax' :brickwall:thumb:

I must admit, I've never understood the fascination within the cycling community to try to discredit helmet usage.

Being someone who, in 1997, came off a road bike at considerable speed in Liverpool City Centre. The first thing to contact the road was my head - thankfully I was wearing a helmet.

The helmet did it's job, the ferocity of the impact broke several teeth and to give an indication of just how hard I hit, the next thing to contact was my left shoulder which dislocated.

Once I'd literally ground to a halt, leaving most of the skin on my face, left ear and left shoulder embedded in the tarmac an ambulance was called.

That helmet, the one that might or might not work according to the CTC, bore the full brunt of the impact, the outer shell held the inner together and in place until it was removed in A&E and duly posted off to GIRO for their crash replacement scheme.

The bike was 'written off' too and I spent several months recovering and still suffer with my shoulder and teeth as a result. That said, I'm happy that I can at least feel that my shoulder and teeth were damaged - the impact was such that I'd not have been able to type this:freak3:.

For the sake of what you'd spend on a pair of pedals or a set of mudflaps at least give yourself an improved chance of surviving a head-first crash. All of this 'learning to fall-off' counts for nothing when you're thrown off at speed.

lol..i have a bike, and a motorbike..

yes raod tax for bikes sounds good too.. :luxhello:

To retain some freedom of choice...it seems moat arguments are helmets are about fatalities for which there is a measured argument. Crashes like the one dwscribed above are a different matter...there is an art to crashing but it takes crashing to learn so not optimal :)

What kind of push bike, how many miles do you do on road and where do you do those miles?

So different from the VED you pay for your car and motorbike? :p

I do agree that cyclists should have to register to be on the road and have a licence plate/disc. It doesn't need to cost the earth but it would stop that small proportion of cyclsts who act the goat because they know they are untraceable and therefore can and may make them think twice before doing some of the daft things they do lieke running red lights or riding on the pavement etc.

Before anyone starts I know it is a small proportion and not all of them, but we've all seen some of them doing things like this!

I also love how many cyclists always ask how this could possibly be enforced like it is the most ludicrous suggestion on earth. .... a coment so daft I am not even going to comment other than to say of course it can be introduced and enforced, just as it was all those years ago for cars!

How old would you have to be to qualify for one
??
,and presumably this'll mean everybody will have to sit the test

Nope, not suggesting there should necessarily be any test although I did my Cycling Proficiency test when I was 12, it was a good thing really.

I just think anyone cycling on the road should be 'road licensed', the cost should be set at whatever it costs to administer it and that is all maybe less (we want to encourage cycling after all).

I just feel there are an awful lot of good cyclists out there who would benefit from being licensed, but more importantly it would:

a) make car and van/lorry drivers realise that these people have as much right to use the road as they do

and

b) provide traceability in all incidents which will benefit cyclists and other road users.

The other benefit as I said before is it would make some of the idiots behave... not all as not all in cars do, but I can only see positives!

The question of insurance is to my mind something that should still be optional as to lump compulsory insurance on top of a licence would only deter people from taling up cycling and obviously we don't want to do that!

I also feel that the governmetn have to look at the way cyclists have to mix with other road users and how that can be improved in busy cycling areas like London as to me cyclists and HGVs on the same road in many parts of the UK is a recipe for disaster no matter how good the cylists and the truck drivers!

"All those years ago with cars..." and how many cars were then then versus bikes Chris?

And what about owning multiple bikes; I have seven in one piece...do I need SORN for thowe not in use or under construction?

If registration of cyclists/cycles were a practicle option do you not think those I power would have implemented it...think of the revenue. Flawed argument sorry :)

Sorry, I just don't see it as that difficult to introduce. If you have 7 bikes then those that are to be used on the road should be licensed, those that aren't who cares. SORN is a nonsense even with cars tbh! It should be got rid of!

Been counting the cyclists in West London recently during the dark mornings and evenings and on average six out of every ten are riding around with no lights at all. Many also not wearing hi-viz clothing, when you look in your wing mirror you just can’t see them.