So a device thats made to sense cyclists cyclists undertaking large vehicles to save lives, if you don`t put yourself in that position then your less at risk of getting squished.
So your saying that becuase you are aware that the vehicle has a blind spot your going to squeeze into it anyway?Yes the vehicles should do everything to eliminate those blind spots but surely you have a responsibility not to put yourself if possible in a dangerous position? If both sides work together then maybe there would be less chance of a fatality ?
No, I am saying that responsibility is different to survival tactics. I strongly recommend cyclists try to keep clear of lorries in general and where they need to interact to be very, very careful. These are survival tactics. I don't like the mantra of "don't put yourself in danger" because it may be used by some to place all responsibility on the cyclist and not ask why we have machines operating in dense cities which have such limited visibility.
I admit I may be considered somewhat militant on this. Lorries need not have such huge blind spots. Design and regulation have allowed this to happen. Whilst
responsibility is foisted on those most likely to be hurt there is little imperative for those bringing the machines into our cities to change what they do and how they do it. In my world, blind spot mitigation wouldn't cut it. In fact it would be viewed as then the operator being negligent with health and safety to allow a machine to be operated with such obvious problems.
I do not squeeze past lorries. In fact I am verging on the paranoid with them. I will sit for 10 minutes in a queue rather than go past one where I consider there is any risk. But we have roads which make interacting with lorries more dangerous, not least because the limited infrastructure for cyclists tends to be shepherding them directly to danger areas.
I have some more general questions which I cannot answer. Why is it tipper trucks in particular that seem to be involved in so many accidents? Is it simply that there are more in London than artics? And why do buses - which operate in much closer proximity and are more numerous - seem to be safer for cyclists if one considers how many operate on our streets? Do they not have blind spots?
