Cyclists hitting an invisible gate.
- Thread starter Beebo
- Start date
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Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
It is in Bristol. Most of those bollards are newer than the latest streetview photos, but are there on the "satellite" image
https://www.google.com/maps/place/B...4035423!4d-1.9808843!16s/g/1tdn82_c?entry=ttu
wiggydiggy
Guru
Inconsiderate parking from people visiting the school has caused it: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/55-bollards-been-installed-a38-25897399
T4tomo
Legendary Member
a.twiddler
Veteran
Brilliant!
presta
Guru
It's a rule that gets bandied around as if it's some sort of general solution to the trade-off between risk and performance though, when it isn't. The point of the philosophy is supposed to be that if you can't see/know, then err on the safe side.
I had a pensioner step off the pavement in front of me once. I had no reason to think he hadn't seen me, or that he was about to go into the road, and my left shoulder caught him square on the jaw, leaving him spitting out bits of his false teeth. He was only about 2m in front of me when he stepped out, so to avoid that kind of collision we'd have to ride everywhere at about 5mph.
That's the point, people compromise between risk and benefit every day of their lives, but it's the elephant in the room that everyone ignores, and every risk debate always starts from the patently false premise that people don't want risk.
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
I agree
I hear too many people appearing on TV/Radio and saying "this must never happen again" when it would be easy to prevent it but the impact would be horrendous
for example - if you made all car limited to 10 mph maximum then it would massively cut down fatal road accidents
but no-one would be able to go anywhere
it is a trade off between mobility/life style and the inevitable consequences
(note - and even 10 mph would produce a few fatalities - just very few)
figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
I was taught in defensive driving that nothing should happen "suddenly". If it did then you failed to anticipate. Of course there are limits to this - you can't anticipate a meteor falling on you or some other genuinely unexpected occurrence, but in the case above the pensioner was there to be seen so whilst they may not have shown any inclination to step out, the point is they could have, so behave accordingly.
In motorcycle training I was taught never, EVER, assume someone has seen you. Even if they appear to "make eye contact".
matticus
Guru
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
IS there a down-side to this??
;-)
But But But
think of the horror suffered by "Daily Mail man" when his car gets overtaken by someone - who will CLEARLY be poorer and possibly working class - overtakes then on his bike
even WORSE - what if it is a woman on a bike
The HORROR!!!
A tip I picked up on how to cross the road in Italy was just to walk out into the traffic. Don't make eye contact with any of the drivers because if you do, they will know that you've seen them. If they think you haven't seen them they will (albeit reluctantly) make allowances and won't mow you down. Otherwise you'll be left standing on the pavement forever.
I don't advocate using this as a tactic for crossing the road in the UK. But if you've seen the traffic in an Italian city you'll know.
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
But you should also note that in Southern Italy, every other car, no matter how new, will have one or more dents.
It is the only place I have ever taken a hire car back with a new small dent (not our fault, happened while it was parked), and the hire car office just didn't care.
The only part of Northern Itakly I have ever driven was the Sud Tirol, and it is very different there - much more like the Austrian standards of driving.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I just saw a VERY near miss which could easily have resulted in a dead child!
I was packing my bag next to the window at my local Aldi and looking out over a pedestrian crossing. I saw a situation suddenly develop which I could do nothing about...
Cars were approaching the crossing from both directions. I saw a small child sprint out of the Aldi car park from my right and along the short stretch of nearside pavement to the crossing. The nearside car was just reaching the crossing. The other car was 5-10 metres back from the crossing and its driver would probably not have been able to see the child because the nearside car was directly in between.
To my horror, the boy abruptly veered off the pavement and ran straight over the crossing immediately behind the car which had just passed him. He emerged right in front of the other car just as it arrived at the crossing!
Fortunately the driver of car #2 had his wits about him and instantly braked. The car stopped about 50 cm from the boy.
I honestly don't see what driver #2 could have done differently other than to cross every pedestrian crossing at sub-10 mph rather than at about 20 mph.
Anyway... a scary moment, but the boy got away with it. Hopefully, he will have learned from his mistake but I'm not sure about that because he then ran across the side road to the nearby bus station. I assume that his bus was in...
presta
Guru
The human race survived just fine for thousands of years without any cars at all, that we don't still do so demonstrates that society has made a tacit decision that ~1500 deaths a year is a price well worth paying for the benefits people see in motor transport. It was worse, in the 1930s deaths were ~8000 a year, and we were far less dependent and committed then. Higher cost, less benefit, easier to stop, but we didn't.
Behaving accordingly is driving around everywhere at 5-10mph, and people don't do so because they don't want zero (or even as low as possible) risk. All safety debates make this same mistake.
The only place I've hired a car (excepting those I drove at work) was on Corfu. It had no first gear when it was delivered to the hotel, and by the end of the day, second and reverse weren't working either. Reverse decided to pack up whilst it was parked pointing downhill with the front up against an earth bank.
I just saw a VERY near miss which could easily have resulted in a dead child!
I was packing my bag next to the window at my local Aldi and looking out over a pedestrian crossing. I saw a situation suddenly develop which I could do nothing about...
Cars were approaching the crossing from both directions. I saw a small child sprint out of the Aldi car park from my right and along the short stretch of nearside pavement to the crossing. The nearside car was just reaching the crossing. The other car was 5-10 metres back from the crossing and its driver would probably not have been able to see the child because the nearside car was directly in between.
To my horror, the boy abruptly veered off the pavement and ran straight over the crossing immediately behind the car which had just passed him. He emerged right in front of the other car just as it arrived at the crossing!
Fortunately the driver of car #2 had his wits about him and instantly braked. The car stopped about 50 cm from the boy.
I honestly don't see what driver #2 could have done differently other than to cross every pedestrian crossing at sub-10 mph rather than at about 20 mph.
Anyway... a scary moment, but the boy got away with it. Hopefully, he will have learned from his mistake but I'm not sure about that because he then ran across the side road to the nearby bus station. I assume that his bus was in...
I was walking on the right hand pavement here, in the direction the camera faces, and paused at the crossing. On the far side was a stationary queue, and a woman in a car appeared round the corner, turning left out of the road on the right. When she saw me, she stopped to let me cross.
Or so I thought.
Fortunately I looked back up the road over my left shoulder, because she'd actually stopped for a police car racing up the wrong side of the road past the queue with no siren on....
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I just saw a VERY near miss which could easily have resulted in a dead child!
I was packing my bag next to the window at my local Aldi and looking out over a pedestrian crossing. I saw a situation suddenly develop which I could do nothing about...
Cars were approaching the crossing from both directions. I saw a small child sprint out of the Aldi car park from my right and along the short stretch of nearside pavement to the crossing. The nearside car was just reaching the crossing. The other car was 5-10 metres back from the crossing and its driver would probably not have been able to see the child because the nearside car was directly in between.
To my horror, the boy abruptly veered off the pavement and ran straight over the crossing immediately behind the car which had just passed him. He emerged right in front of the other car just as it arrived at the crossing!
Fortunately the driver of car #2 had his wits about him and instantly braked. The car stopped about 50 cm from the boy.
I honestly don't see what driver #2 could have done differently other than to cross every pedestrian crossing at sub-10 mph rather than at about 20 mph.
Anyway... a scary moment, but the boy got away with it. Hopefully, he will have learned from his mistake but I'm not sure about that because he then ran across the side road to the nearby bus station. I assume that his bus was in...
But the boy never made a mistake, under the hierarchy of the road the driver has a duty of care which it seems like in the vicinity of a crossing they showed.
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