garryn

The numpties that step infront of the bike always seem to be wired up to something, Ipod or phone. I don't use one on the bike as even if you turn the volume down low or even only use one earpiece, it still creates a distraction from what's happening around you NOW. Too many distracted numpty drivers to add even more risk. Personally I'd be in favour of removing all in car entertainment from vehicles.

?? But legally, you still have to inform your insurers if you're caught and presecuted for driving without valid insurance. Its also one of the questions asked when renewing. and doesn't driving without VED or MOT invalidate your insurance?

I don't know who you are gd1, but I like you

Unfortunately it was an old, unmarked van - no employer details. Probably one of those 'Clear all your rubbish for £30' guys. I was 50/50 about going up to him when I saw him park up - only thing was one of us would have been arrested! Would have depended on what his answer to a 'D' lock was! I guess I was that wound up I had to let it eat at me for days or let it go completely there and then

Some aren't bothered about the second. Coming thro attercliffe a couple of weeks ago. Blue luton box van decided he didn't like cyclists filtering when he was stuck in solid traffic. Meant that when traffic started again he accelerated, hit his horn, turned his wheel left and tried to drive me into the kerb :loopy: Gained him loads as he turned left just after the stadium (worksop rd?) and parked up 50 yards on. If I'd got a helmet cam it would've been forwarded to the coppers

why mention RLJing again? What we need is drivers who actually remember the highway code after their test: 212 When passing motorcyclists and cyclists, give them plenty of room (see Rules 162-167). If they look over their shoulder it could mean that they intend to pull out, turn right or change direction. Give them time and space to do so. * 162-169: Overtaking 213 Motorcyclists and cyclists may suddenly need to avoid uneven road surfaces and obstacles such as drain covers or oily, wet or icy patches on the road. Give them plenty of room and pay particular attention to any sudden change of direction they may have to make. -------- What motorists actually DON'T want is a load of trained cyclists out there. Because trained cyclists would be assertive cyclists as opposed to gutter huggers. A trained cyclist will be claiming prime position in the road prior to a pinch point. A trained cyclist will pass parked cars and give them 3' of space to stay out of the door zone. Generally trained cyclist will stay OUT of the cycle lanes. What it'd probably actually do in city/urban situations is even out traffic flow to a more constant but lower speed - instead of the stop/start of car driving.

Here we go again - no you don't. Not unless you're referring to a payment made pre 1936. Churchill commented it had to be abolished because having road tax or road fund would eventually give motorists the idea they owned the road. VED is now a payment to allow a polluting motorised vehicle to be put on the road (with an anomaly for vehicles pre 2000(?) which will slowly become irrelevant). Why should cyclists pay when some cars don't? Did I read right - you're proposing means tested cycling? Cycles are there by right, a right held by everyone in the country. You can give a better description of a cyclist than you can of a pedestrian, because you can describe the cycle as well! What threat does a cyclist pose? I'd guess the best estimate would come from the insurers. My car £200 after a 65% NCD for a 40+ driver My bike, I get it as part of CTC memership. £10m 3rd party along with legal cover, good two monthly magazines, website and its funding lobbying etc. £35pa -ignoring the fact I've got insurance thro my house insurance to start with. What we need is coppers out there, taking enforcing road laws seriously - for all road users.

I think enforcing fining cyclists for jumping red lights would be a great idea. Lets start down near the Wicker on the new IRR. However, lets not just enforce the fines for cyclists. Whilst we have enforcement officers in the area, lets also enforce the fines and 3 penalty points for crossing the advance stop lines and sitting in the advance box - You know, the bit of road painted bright red with a big white cycle on it. There was a recent calculation done which looked at the costs around issuing VED type licences to cycles. The end result was: 0% emissions equals £0 tax, therfore cyclist pays nowt but gets a licence/tax disc. However the cost of issuing the licence has to come from somewhere. They reckoned it would basically mean an increase of £6 to every other road user who did have to pay VED, if spread evenly.

OK - taken as such now....

At least some companies seem to take road safety seriously: http://www.roadtransport.com/Articles/2008/03/26/130197/cemex-follow-our-safety-lead.html

riding on pavements is illegal, you saying cycles should have a warning device fitted if they're going to ride illegally?

I'm with sccsux on this. I've been hit by a RLJing cyclist on a ped crosing at red. You can't complain about bad driving if you pick and choose which road laws to obey. Anyone complaining about RLJing cyclists - check this. BTW Magnatom is a Doctor, commuting to his job and posting bad driving. He's aided First bus in introducing a cyclist awareness course for its drivers and is currently being consulted by glasgow council. His vids have led to death threats against him - to the point where police are now investigating.

and what did cycles travel on before cars.... what did horses get ridden on before cars....

So fetch in legislation for cyclists because speeding motorists pass too close? Ref HC rule 163

Tell you what, its got to be getting more popular lately. 'Ashes to Ashes' commissioned for a second series - they could film in Rotherham, its stuck in the 80s

Problem with Rotherham is a labour council stranglehold. If they don't get their own way they just make it impossible for their opponents. Last elections they lost Maltby (shock - 5 years ago if they'd put a red rosette on a donkey it'd have won) Since then they've just stopped the new council doing stuff for the sake of it. Guess they reckon they'll get in next time and say "look how little was done when we weren't in power"

Locksley! I'm gonna cut your heart out with a spoon. Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe? Because it's DULL, you twit. It'll hurt more.

"Teen cyclist killed in collision" Nice bit of sloppy journalism. Star and a few more had this headline. Which is a bit strange - as he wasn't cycling...... Apparently it happened outside school, one of his teachers had a bike and dropped it to rush over when it happened. Journo's put 2&2 together and ran with the answer 5

Rather than have a go go at cyclists, what about pedestrians? I think they need to be brought further into line with other road users. The current situation is that they pay no attention to the highway code, dont pay road tax, dont have insurance, dont have numberplates, arent registered as pedstrians, dont have to take a test cause massive damage to public property and littering. We need to step back and take a realistic look at just how dangerous the pedestrians are over 500,000 people a year are Killed or injured by pedestrians each year. These pedestrians can be hard to trace and identify due to their lack of registration. We need to start of by issueing all pedestrians with registration plates, to avoid confusion with other forms of tranportation(an easy mistake to make when looking for number plates) we would need a form of barcode that could be read by road side cameras. This "barcode registration plate" would be prominently displayed to the front and rear of all pedestrians. Using a barcode over number plate system for pedestrians we could avoid many of the challenges that face vehicle registration, for example the twice annual rush problems caused by the year code changes in the automotive industry. By issueing non year based barcodes there would be no rush to procure a new pedestrian for the vanity sake of having a current year "number plate". We could also by using barcodes avoide the pitfalls of running out of year codes and limited numbers of plates able to be issued per geographical area each year... Registration would be the first step to bringing pedestrians within the framework of the law. After registration we need to work out road tax bands for pedestrians. Now some might say that the act of walking is naturally environmentally friendly as it doesnt involved the burning of fossil fuels, this however is a fallacy. In fact pedestrians produce quite large amounts of CO2 for the distances covered by their mode of transport, Pedestrians in fact produce CO2 even when not walking to get to a better understanding of total life time CO2/ per mile emissions for pedestrians we would need to carry out extensive laboratory testing of various models of pedestrians in order to decide how best to tax them. Pedestrians actually become more CO2 \ mile efficient the more miles they do, thus the lowest mileage pedestrians would likelly fall into the highest road tax bands, some particularly high mileage pedestrians may even fall into the same realms of CO2 as hybrid cars etc and hence have very much reduced raxes to pay. This allows the world to reap the benefits of higher levels of pedestrian CO2 efficiency. At a later date it may make environmental sense to force some pedestrians to traverse longer distances on foot in order to reap the benefits of greater CO2 / mile efficiency as little as 10 miles a week on a treadmill could double the CO2 / effective mile efficiency of many pedestrians, enabling them to move into lower tax bands. Of course inorder to more fairly tax pedestrians we need to know just how much mileage they are actually doing, it is therefore proposed that we track and record pedestrian mileage via gps and satelite, the cost of which would be offset by the new tax in come on pedestrians. The paying of road tax by pedestrians will bring a great deal of personal satisfaction to the pedestrians as they will know they pay their fair share to make use of the road system of this country. With these steps taken we now have a situation where pedestrians are identifiable, traceable, and contributing to the upkeep of the road system which until now they have used at the motorists expense. Please note: many motorists may also be pedestrians, this will not be an excuse for a tax break under current rules full tax is paid if two cars are owned by one person and so there will be no tax breaks for dual status as pedestrian and motorist If you enjoy two forms of transport then you pay both due taxes. Further to bringing in thise hitherto unvailable level of pedestrian registration and tracking, we will be able to bring in a mandatory "walking test" modelled after the current driving test, this will compose as does the driving test, a theory test with hazard awareness section and a practical test on the public road. Pedestrians will be expected to show the same level of knowledge of the highway code and the soon to be introduced Pedestrianised traffic act. Pedestrians will have to demonstrate an ability to safely traverse the highways and byways of our road system before being allowed to "walk" without a qualified instructor present. This new test will necesitate the creation of a pedestrian testing network, and the creation of a walking intructors licensing agency both of which would be self funded through the walking examination testing fees. We would require all pedestrians to hold minimal 3rd party liability insurance cover, which would be necesary inorder to obtain a tax disk (to be displayed on forehead when walking in public) Insurance industry analysts have assured us that the insurance industry in this country is more than capable of dealing with the expected initial flood of new business. Unlawfull pedestrianism is most likelly to be rampant during early months withoutstrict enforcement therefore we shall apply the same rules as Road vehicle taxation to unlawfull pedestrianism, any person caught walking in public without a valid pedestrian license, insurance, gps tracking device and road tax disk will be liable to have their legs impounded on the spot and destroyed by the relevant authorities. We believe this will be sufficient deterrant to quickly stamp out unlawfull pedestrianism. Legal experts have voiced an opinion that these measures will have a immeasurable impact upon society not only encouraging efficient and carefull pedestrianism, but also lowering many other forms of crime due to the ability to track and identify any pedestrians commiting non road related crimes.

Think you'll get about an hour of footage on a card, which I'd probably pick up off ebay. Where you buy the camera they tend to add £20 to the bundle for it. Cheapest I've found for the camera (so far) is Decathlon, its not badged as the Oregon Scientific ATC2000, but its definitely the same camera. £69 +SD card

Archers been posting her vids for a while, Magnatom in Glasgows posted some better ones. The vids are admissable as evidence although its not happened yet as generally the drivers hold their hands up when they realise its recorded. Originally the cameras were sold for extreme sports. Sales of the cameras are now 4:1 to commuting cyclists.

Instead you've got one more car with only 1 occupant....

Well I'm back cycle commuting. 14 mile each way. 2 days back and enough 'incidents' with ignorant car drivers for me to decide to get an ATC2000 helmet cam. It was the guy who deliberately tried to drive me into the kerb with a luton van whilst blasting his horn on Attercliffe road that was the final straw. Definitely a case of brake or wake up in hospital! Don't be surprised to start hearing stories of prosecutions being brought against drivers with this type of evidence. Although the helmet cameras were brought out with a target customer base of climbers and other extreme sports, sales are now 4:1 to commuting cyclists. I've heard plenty of stories now of drivers changing their stories to coppers once its pointed out the cyclist has it recorded. Regarding VED, it was Churchill (so that shows how long back it was) who stopped 'road tax'. He reckoned if you called it road tax it wouldn't be long before car drivers tried to use it to claim they owned the road. Looks like he was right. They still do - although there aren't many that were even born the last time anyone paid it.

Then buried with their ass sticking up to provide bike parking:hihi:

No probs with that. Theres no reference to the neighbours having any problems with it before.