Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
With cyclists numbers doubled on rural roads. Risk of death unchanged.
Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England
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With cyclists numbers doubled on rural roads. Risk of death unchanged.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
How do you work that out?
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
During this period I distinctly remember lots of new wobbly cyclists and the massively reduced traffic. However, there were many, many times I experienced that the reduced traffic was driving like absolute lunatics. Lockdown cycling for me was not all sweetness and flowers. It is interesting that the big increase in deaths were on rural A roads, typically the roads an experinced cyclist will avoid.
However, all that is just based on my observations, no hard evidence at all.
glasgowcyclist
Charming but somewhat feckless
- Location
- Scotland
Making it expensive for those who can run a car means getting them to be much more selective about how they use their vehicle and when. It needn't mean that their annual costs necessarily increase unless they fail to adjust their usage.
There are simply far too many on the roads we have and building more roads only brings more cars.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
We're going OT I know, but a scheme that charges to drive can be effective, but only if it is accompanied by other measures. The London Congestion Charge has been effective, but it's focused on a small, dense area that is well served by public transport, and IIRC there was a boost given to bus services when it was introduced. Just charging to drive alone is unlikely to have much effect apart from making driving more expensive. It might deter frivolous short journeys, like 1 mile to take the kids to school, but it might not - as people might just carry on as before but just complain more.
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Why respond to my post with something that just totally ignores what I said?
byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
We had one of them. School was < 400 metres walking, but nearer 1.5 miles if you drive, don't ask a really 'imaginative' traffic calming system. He drove them to school in the Morning, at Lunch time back to the house and return to school and afternoon home. With his return home* it was about12 miles a day to save the little darlings walking about a mile a day. Then he complained they didn't want to go to bed.
* In his early 30s fit and idle, never showing any sign of working, he owned a nice motorbike, a succession of 6-7 yr old cars and never seemed short of a bob.
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Brandane
Legendary Member
- Location
- Costa Clyde
Keeping the population down might be a better idea then. Now, how can we possibly do that?
. Remember, politics not allowed... 
When it comes to rural roads, there are many kinds.
Some have grass growing down the middle. Some are heavily used B roads from villiages to town. The drivers know the road well and can drive too fast.
Rural A roads are something to avoid where possible.
I wonder if lot of new or returning lockdown cyclists aporoach rural cycling too naively. There are dangers just as there are in the city and you have to be aware what may be ahead and behind you on blind corners with banked verges and no escape route.
Some have grass growing down the middle. Some are heavily used B roads from villiages to town. The drivers know the road well and can drive too fast.
Rural A roads are something to avoid where possible.
I wonder if lot of new or returning lockdown cyclists aporoach rural cycling too naively. There are dangers just as there are in the city and you have to be aware what may be ahead and behind you on blind corners with banked verges and no escape route.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Most schemes to reduce driving will hurt those drivers who can barely afford it, who have structured their life around it. Of course we should have a transitional scheme to support them stopping driving.
But continuing to make driving cheap will hurt those least able to survive it (asthmatics living in cheap leaky housing in pollution zones, for example), so should a bit of financial pain for the misguided on the financial borderline really stop us helping vulnerable people on the borderline?
Cycling politics is still allowed in the advocacy forum. Party politics probably not. But I don't agree with those who advocate so-called "human population planning" when it amounts to coercion and state regulation of births.Keeping the population down might be a better idea then. Now, how can we possibly do that?
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
Have to say every time I leave The Hellhole That Is London for the leafy glades of Herts/Essex, it's really noticeable just how much worse/more dangerous the driving becomes. 100% pointless high speed close passes, eg - all but unknown in the big smoke, regular occurrence out in the sticks.
Brandane
Legendary Member
- Location
- Costa Clyde
....
That's not what I was meaning. It was a wee dig at @glasgowcyclist and a previous political thread. About Glasgow... and, well, politics!
glasgowcyclist
Charming but somewhat feckless
- Location
- Scotland
I'm not sure how I've done that. What do you mean?
glasgowcyclist
Charming but somewhat feckless
- Location
- Scotland
I can't remember which one that was (I'm not asking to re-ignite it either!).....
That's not what I was meaning. It was a wee dig at @glasgowcyclist and a previous political thread. About Glasgow... and, well, politics!
I thought you were on about birth control or something...
