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This happened at Nuttall street junction mid morning. It was cleared up when I went past at 12 but man working near by said the woman cyclist was taken to hospital with broken leg. We don't know how seriously she was hurt. Hoping that she heals up soon.
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@skydancer @ Broadway mkt
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go naked -
Do you still have your anti motorcycle bias?
That's an interesting question, which of course has no validity as I don't think I ever had such a bias. I used to own and ride motorcycles but I more or less stopped that when I came to Britain and discovered how cold and wet it is.
I am perhaps known as the person who leads opposition to plans for allowing people on motorcycles to use bus lanes. That oppositions was based, in part, on predictions of increased casualties to people on bikes or on foot. After various trials and impact studies there wasn't conclusive evidence on the impact on other road users. What was clear from the data was that allowing people on motorcycles to use bus lanes increased the risk of casualty to themselves. TfL now spend a lot more on enforcement and training to counteract this increased risk. So opposition to people on motorcycles being allowed to use bus lanes is in their best interest. -
It's amazing how much money people will spend on tat when advertisers play up fears of what is never likely to happen.
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while writing the above I was interrupted for 20 mins by the RAF red arrows doing silly things in jets over the back garden. The pigeons in the plum tree were not impressed. I wonder what they thought of the pilots?
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+1
I am a motorist. I think I am an ok sort of person, most of the time.The Personal Construct Psychology perspective suggests that
People develop constructs as internal ideas of reality in order to
understand the world around them. They are based on our
interpretations of our observations and experiences. Every construct
is bipolar, specifying how two things are similar to each other (lying
on the same pole) and different from a third thing.So maybe the problem is that we have too many socio-psychologists (*) out on the streets looking for tribal warfare where it may not exist.
I suspect that when we are motorists much of the feeling towards unprotected road users comes from our own fear, perhaps subliminal fear, that we are not totally in control of our machine, and we are afraid of hurting other people. It is human nature to externalise those fears, creating a fictional "other", rather than admitting and embracing our own inadequacies.
Much the same is true when we are riding bikes. I often have to deal with people complaining about dangerous pedestrians being a threat to people on bikes. The standard response "have you considered cycle training" is not always well received.
(* should that be "psycho-sociologists")
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apc - where is this small town route? It could make a good case study. Most UK traffic engineers are unaware of the poor safety record of two way cycle tracks beside roads, especially one way roads. The problem is that at junctions drivers only look in the direction they expect traffic to be coming from and so hit the cyclists coming the other way. EU research has shown the 'wrong side' junctions have much higher casualty rates than normal junctions.
One of the reasons for replacing the two way track on Camden's Royal College St/St.Pancras Way route was the high level of casualties, including one fatality, at junctions with cross streets. The new route with one way tracks on each side of the road puts cyclists where drivers expect to see them.
Two way tracks can work well where there are no or very few cross streets, for example on the new East-West Cycle Superhighway along the Thames embankment.
Hi