"that in 2% of cases where cyclists were seriously injured in collisions with other road users police said that the rider disobeying a stop sign or traffic light was a likely contributing factor. Wearing dark clothing at night was seen as a potential cause in about 2.5% of cases, and failure to use lights was mentioned 2% of the time."
Quite simply, this means that Cyclists disobeying stop signal and not wearing high viability clothing is rarely the cause of accidents!
So what is?
"We believe this report strongly supports our view that the biggest problem for cyclists is bad driving. With that in mind we are greatly concerned that the government still seems fascinated with analysing and promoting cycle helmets, the value of which appears to be inconclusive. We believe that the government should now focus on tackling the causes of injury which appears to be mainly inconsiderate and dangerous driving. Reduced speed limits, stronger traffic law enforcement and cycle-friendly road design are the solutions."
I like this quote from Real Cycling: There are many places where jumping red lights - oh, alright then, getting off your bike and remounting just the other side of the red lights which is perfectly legal and achieves the same effect - is the only safe thing to do.
ReplyDeleteToo bad can't watch the BBC video that was the source of his blog post.
I hope people don't confuse this with the recklessness of some cyclists who do jump the lights when it is clearly dangerous for everyone ie with oncoming traffic
Maybe if these lights spent less time on Red, people would be less inclined to jump them - but then I'd lose a little piece of anarchy from my day :)
ReplyDeleteA pedestrian crossing on red is also wrong isn't it? If we did away with lights altogether we'd cope somehow.
Could be a bit messy till we get things sorted :)
Kenny, you are right. Oh, and a free left turn would help ease Auckland's traffic woes considerably.
ReplyDeleteAs for Banks, what a tosser, it should have been a pat-on-the-back speech, not a telling off. As for saying next year he'll come by bike? Should have been this year, promises from political figures count for nothing.