And sometimes it IS the cyclist's fault

[ufkacbln]

The problem is with the basic data.

The main database for the UK is a single database which relies hevily on the OS system.

The OS System has a number of road types... before you ad the byways, BOATs etc

However when the data is used for SatNav use then these are greatly simpified.

Minor roads, tracks, drives and some BOATS are given the same value and this is used as part of the algorithm to calculate the route.

For this reason you may think that you are on a 4 m wide road, when it is in fact a narrow track


The trick is to realise that like any computer it is not foolproof and use it with caution

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Give the man a Darwin award. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-26336618

The guy's obviously a muppet but you've got to marvel at the moronic reaction of some drivers though, particularly this guy, who, despite knowing of a cyclist ahead on the motorway, still drove at a speed where he was able to be surprised by seeing the cyclist:

"I was keeping an eye out for him, because I heard it on the radio.
You didn't notice him until you were right up close to him.
He came out of nowhere.
No-one could react to him until you were almost on his backside."

What are his observation skills like when he's not on the lookout for a cyclist?

GC

 

[Sara_H]

Ha ha! I'm one of those muppets that followed the sat nav somewhere stupid.

I was going to a friends house and it sent me on a track though some woods. It started off ok, but got woodier and woodier. Turned out ok ad I came out of the woods a couple of hundred metres from my friends house. Glad I was only in a teeny car though, and that I didn't meet any dog walkers on my way through!

 

[Gasman]

But the guy was on a bike! How did any of the drivers manage to see him at all?

 

[benb]

"He was also ordered to pay £500 costs and a £15 victim surcharge."

How does the victim surcharge thing work. Who was the victim in this case? Unless he was so stupid that stupidity took form.

Victim surcharge is levied on a lot of (all?) offences, regardless.
It goes into a fund for helping the victims of crime.

 

[benb]

BTW: http://beyondthekerb.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/idiots/

 

[marknotgeorge]

So what's the difference between cycling in your own full-sized lane with traffic passing at 70mph and cycling by the kerb, dodging drains with traffic passing inches away at 60mph?

One's a public right of way, and the other isn't.

 

[ComedyPilot]

I bet the cyclist was taking up less room, and travelling a lot faster than a broken down vehicle on the hard shoulder...

We (as cyclists) shouldn't be there (by law), BUT (and it's a big one) that doesn't abdicate the onus of responsibility for ALL road users to drive with due care and attention.

Were they all to do that, then the cyclist was no danger to himself or others.....

As others point out, the foaming-at-the-mouth, knuckle-dragging, car-centric public are up in arms that a (harmless) cyclist rode somewhere they shouldn't have and didn't kill/hurt/cause harm/endanger ANYONE - This caused national media outrage/headlines/commentary.

However they seem perfectly comfortable that, within a couple of days of the cyclist not really doing any REAL HARM, people can actually be KILLED in collisions on the roads of the with little thought*....

http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/n...s/newsevents-pressreleases-item.htm?id=275215

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Abbe...ar-crash-car/story-20703777-detail/story.html

*Thought - as in the foamy-mouthed car-centric public don't get up in arms about the deaths

 

[Colin B]

Would never happen to a motorist?

Ah the lost ASDA van this ones in the driver training I think but I agree satnavs are not always right and you have to use common sense too .

 

[surfdude]

at work we had a huge concrete lorry turn up . to get to us he had to go down a lane far to narrow for his lorry . he nearly lost it in one of our deep quarries on the side of the lane . the thing was he past the massive concrete works on the main road on the way down to us . when asked why he past it he said sat nav told him to .