Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

[BoldonLad]

Giving parents a choice of schools was a backward step, in every town across the land thousands of kids are being driven to & from school that isnt the closest to their house. If they were allocated the nearest school most could actually walk to.

Could walk to does not equal will walk to.

We live near a school, there is one parent Neighbour at least who drives their child to school, every day, a distance of less than 1 mile!

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Except that, according to the OP, it seems that clogged roads are safer than quieter rural roads. Which makes sense in a way; a lot of slow moving cars are probably less dangerous than one whizzing past at 60 mph..

Yes, I acknowledged that my reference was not to rural but city roads. However, my intent was to underline just how many motor vehicles are now on the roads. I should have used a different reference and I am very, very sorry.

 

[Brandane]

We live near a school, there is one parent Neighbour at least who drives their child to school, every day, a distance of less than 1 mile!

Yebbut; it will be too dangerous to let little Johnny/Johnette walk to school with all that dangerous traffic to negotiate .

 

[derrick]

The standard of driving dropped a lot since we came out of lockdown, The lack of police does not help.

 

[mjr]

I'm not sure that pricing car drivers off the road will work. As we've seen with fuel, nearly double the price it was 10 years ago and very few have given up their cars or driven any less (it seems).

Who told you that? On 25th May 2012, petrol was 135.44p/l and diesel 141.26p/l, according to the RAC Foundation. Yesterday they were 147.4p and 150.73p. That's not even keeping up with inflation. I don't remember when petrol was 74p/l, but it can't have been this century because tax and duty was 76.2p/l in 2000 and it hasn't been cut!

There are so many myths about how hard-done-by we motorists are, when the reality is we don't pay our way and we're paying less and less ever passing year, yet still the motoring lobby wants more more more. Just like with road space, motoring always wants more of the pie, no matter how big a slice it has already.

So should we at least try pricing drivers off the road before dismissing it?

I think the only way to make a difference is education. Having an entire module in the theory and practical test about vulnerable road users. And much harsher penalties for anyone who has an at-fault collision with a ped or cyclist, no matter what the outcome. Maybe 3 year ban even if the ped or cyclist is not seriously hurt?

I'm not sure about that length of ban for minor injury collisions, but I'd favour some automatic minimums, as well as a much greater use of bans and retests generally. And lots more cameras to catch the likes of the daffodil last night who reacted to a red light at a carriageway/cycleway crossroads by accelerating, presumably because all the cyclists will get out of the way of a revving car, it won't hurt him much if they don't and there are no cameras near there to prove he had a red.

 

[Milzy]

Promoting empathy won’t work. Some humans are heartless & selfish. However if they had real punishing consequences like long term prison sentences & 10 year driving bans I believe the driving would become a lot more careful.

 

[BoldonLad]

Yebbut; it will be too dangerous to let little Johnny/Johnette walk to school with all that dangerous traffic to negotiate .

In this particular instance, because I live there, I know it is possible to walk the route, on a pavement, along a street, with a light controlled crossing at the school. The “driving route” is actually longer, I would guess, if you factor in loading child in car, reversing off drive etc, it is actually quicker to walk, it is such a short distance.

You are however right to a degree about the traffic. There are so many parents/grand parents dropping of children at the school gates, that there is significant congestion. Solution, Council occasionally sends round a “camera car” to spot cars causing an obstruction. So, yet another car added to the mess.

 

[Cycleops]

We need to make it prohibitively expensive to use motor cars for unnecessary trips. This figure isn't rural but shows the massive increase in motor vehicle use that is choking everything. Between 2009 and 2019, the number of miles driven on roads just within London increased by 3.6 BILLION.

Yes, billion.

The trouble is motoring is now viewed as an 'uman right. Any measure to make it more expensive or restrict it in any way will be met with a huge outcry and will be a vote loser for any political party.

 

[oldwheels]

Centralising lots of services like hospitals certainly leads to more car use where I live.
I was recently invited to attend a hearing test at our local hospital which is 21 miles each way and possibly up to 35 minutes each way. Bus is possible but would be nearly a whole day and in tourist season impossible as any buses passing for return home would probably be full.
Next week I have an optician appointment in Oban for which a car is essential and if further investigation is required it would be a referral to Paisley about 100 miles each way and take 2 days. Again there could be public transport but a long tortuous journey and probably 3 days.
These services used to be available locally but everything is centralised now.

 

[MontyVeda]

We need to make it prohibitively expensive to use motor cars for unnecessary trips. This figure isn't rural but shows the massive increase in motor vehicle use that is choking everything. Between 2009 and 2019, the number of miles driven on roads just within London increased by 3.6 BILLION.

Yes, billion.

View attachment 620159

I was wondering the other day after a news report mentioned introducing congestion charges to cities outside of London, if the congestion charge has actually deterred people from driving, or if it simply raises lots and lots of revenue. Looking at the graph, there's a decline from 2007 to 2009 (when the charge was introduced)... then it just steadily rises for the next decade. So it appears that congestion charges don't actually relieve congestion in the long term, but do make a lot of money.

 

[simongt]

On the way back from a festival at Skeggy on Monday after the snow and ice, saw three cars and one van in ditches before we'd even got to Boston.
Nuff said about attitudes like 'I'm the world's best driver in the world's safest car.'

 

[Milzy]

On the way back from a festival at Skeggy on Monday after the snow and ice, saw three cars and one van in ditches before we'd even got to Boston.
Nuff said about attitudes like 'I'm the world's best driver in the world's safest car.'

We came across a young lad climbing out of his wreck. He tried to turn too fast and gone to the wrong side of the road & hit a tree on a field edge. If we had been 20 seconds in front he’d have wiped us all out. He was very shaken up & made a genuine daft mistake of speed turning on a gravely patch.

 

[Drago]

We need to establish who is responsible for these extra deaths before we get too excited. For the period in question cycling numbers are up, but car road miles are down so any correlation is not immediately clear.

 

[cyberknight]

it was a click bait article
cyclists deaths up 50 % overall up 66%

 

[Dogtrousers]

I don't remember when petrol was 74p/l, but it can't have been this century

Useless fact: it was 1979 when petrol went over £1/gallon. I know that because I was working at a petrol station and we had to change some of the older pumps. I got my hand crushed and it swelled up like a balloon (nothing broken). By my calculation that would have been about 26p / litre.