Close Pass Analogy

[Tynan]

I think everyone would be happy with passes if they knew that the passing vehicle would be a fixed distance away from them at all times, never mind if that passing vehicle was in a trench

it's almost like riding along a cycle track raised three feet above the road

umm

 

[jazzkat]

View attachment 100737

A similarity - being next to something much larger than you whizzing by at great speed. It doesn't have to be 125 mph - a 30 mph train would probably do. That is similar, yes? Therefore it is an analogy.

An analogy does not have to replicate every aspect of the thing being modelled. But for the motorists who don't see the problem 'because I didn't hit you, did I?' - the analogy may help to give them some idea of the things wrong with close passes. No one said it was a statistically accurate model - it is a tool to help the unthinking think a little.

In fact, it can be used to help them think about several aspects - imagine you're walking between the yellow line and the edge of the platform...

- doesn't that wall of steel whizzing by feel threatening?
- what if you trip over as the train is whizzing by and fall into it?
- what if you don't hear it coming (in cycling terms, because of the noise of other traffic) - might it make you wobble a bit as you walk, or jump
- if it does make you jump, what would happen if you flinched towards the train and it hit you?
- if it makes you fall the other way, you're better off than the close-passed cyclist because you will only fall onto a flat platform, not under the wheels of a following vehicle

An excellent post.

Each to their own...

Agreed

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Quite a mixed bag of responses

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

deleted by moderator

A little uncalled for really, argue the point not insult the person.

Personally I think its not a bad analogy, basically would you walk in the narrow gap - no because it would be uncomfortable and nerve racking as is being close passed at speed.
The only way to replicate it truly would be to stick a motorist on a bike and close pass them at speed and see how they like it , which is wrong and never going to happen therefore we make analogy's

 

[subaqua]

A little uncalled for really, argue the point not insult the person.

Personally I think its not a bad analogy, basically would you walk in the narrow gap - no because it would be uncomfortable and nerve racking as is being close passed at speed.
The only way to replicate it truly would be to stick a motorist on a bike and close pass them at speed and see how they like it , which is wrong and never going to happen therefore we make analogy's

Drago was arguing it was a crap analogy . it is not, it is a fairly good analogy.

last time i looked a container trailer, or a bus was certainly as big as a train above a platform. ( for the record in case people think i didn't argue the point. )

 

[subaqua]

[QUOTE 3861581, member: 9609"]not sure why but i found this quite funny

i liked the womans warning - "You Hoo"[/QUOTE]
what made me laugh was the (class 37 ? )diesel banking at the back

 

[Spinney]

Mod note - some personal comments have been removed. Please stick to the topic.

 

[Stinboy]

Next time a 10 foot tall 250 foot long car comes past me at 125mph with inches to spare I shall think of this analogy.

and the train is on rails running along a route three or feet below the 'cycle lane'

it's not a very good analogy

Theres more holes in the analogy than in a string vest


Depends if they're through trains or not. The air displacement is nothing like comparable either, hyperbolic exaggeration does nothing to enable a sensible conversation between people that have experienced such a pass on a bike and those that haven't.

The nearest I could equate to a car driver is an articulated truck going past when parked up.

I would also suggest that the proportion of people surviving being hit by a car is stratospherically higher than those surviving a train strike and such obvious discongruities just switch people off too.

Guff like this is more dangerous to me as it is so far from fact.

Awful analogy.

Oh dear ...

It's this kind of attitude that gives cyclists a bad name.

It's a good analogy - if only because it might make even one facestalk user think before blasting inches past my right elbow.

 

[Tynan]

What kind of attitude?

One that pays any attention at all to relevance and accuracy?