2715673 said:
I might have mentioned this once or twice before in other threads on the same subject. I reckon that it is the lorries.
This is a perfectly reasonable point of view. It is often the lorries (and the obstructions to the driver's field of vision that their design entails) which are the primary cause of the person-squidging behaviour that brings so much tragedy.
Nonetheless, we all see on an almost daily basis cyclists who appear quite unaware of the dangers of riding up the nearside of a slow or stationary truck.
Many years ago I (a civilian, but in an uncivil place) was taught how to avoid minefields and snipers and so on. There is no doubt that the risk was entirely a function of the presence of mines and tripwires and claymores and snipers and bad people, but I didn't just say "Look, tell them to stop being horrid."
I thought the training worthwhile and it may have benefitted me. I do not liken lorries to landmines, but there is a similarity between the situations. Similarly, rabbits fear the shadow of the buzzard, they do not lobby for more door mirrors on buzzards.
Cyclists have choices about how they act and how they prepare themselves for the highway. Many, it seems to me, do not prepare themselves.
That doesn't mean that lorries are lovely, but we do have a degree of responsibility for our own safety.