That's a really thought provoking post. Who is FM?
it happens a lot. I know one of BentMikey's victims. He's still smarting about it months after the event, but that's because he's worried. He's really quite nervous around cyclists now.OTOH I recently found myself on the end of a completely unjustified tirade from a motorist (no camera so no proof either way) which was abruptly halted mid-sentence after he appeared to glance at my helmet. He then sped off & I was left pondering on the resemblance of my helmet light to a camera.
As for the normal thing - people react to the idea that such and such behaviour is not thought to be generally acceptable. Now that Maggers' vids are going on the telly (thanks, in part, to a primetime ITV show coming your way soon, courtesy of the Cosmodemonic Telly Company) he will play a part in re-forming civility. In the 70s people thought that drink driving was acceptable - now they don't because the mass media made it unacceptable. Thusly with crap driving of the type filmed by the redoubtable Maggers.
Bingo's most definitely on. Our thoughts turn to Tahrir Square!Sorry DZ! Bingo's off, then, is it?
I use the Tom Forrest argument on this one. Old Tom was a gamekeeper in Ambridge who thought of himself as a nice person. He wasn't. He was a shoot from top to bottom. Now there are a lot of people like Tom, people who read the Mail and go tut-tut, people who think of their car as the last word in personal space but they care about public esteem. You'll always get a minority of drivers who are just nasty, and know they're nasty, but if you undercut the self-esteem of those who behave badly, but don't think they behave badly then you'll achieve something.You've struck at the heart of it here. I'm ambivalent about helmetcam footage being posted but the jury is out as to whether it does any good. judging by the arguments on here and the difference of opinion, right now, I'd say no, it doesn't.
Do I want my values dictated at me by media opinion driven by a small, vocal, slightly odd, broadly unrepresentative group, again, no, I don't. Will I accept it if it delivers a greater cycling nirvana; tricky. I happen to think it won't, it strikes me it sounds more populist journalism, than investigative journalism and I do believe there was some strong evidence on the effect of drink driving and it wasn't just the swaying of popular opinion.
I use the Tom Forrest argument on this one. Old Tom was a gamekeeper in Ambridge who thought of himself as a nice person. He wasn't. He was a shoot from top to bottom. Now there are a lot of people like Tom, people who read the Mail and go tut-tut, people who think of their car as the last word in personal space but they care about public esteem. You'll always get a minority of drivers who are just nasty, and know they're nasty, but if you undercut the self-esteem of those who behave badly, but don't think they behave badly then you'll achieve something.
That's how it was with drink driving. The threat of prosecution, combined with the worry that people might think less of you if you drove under the influence made a big difference. I think helmet cams might really help raise driving standards. The helmet cam-istes don't have to be representative, and you may not like them (I'm proud to know BM as a friend) but they are doing a job for us all.
I question only if this is misguided. Certainly it's turned up the heat for most cyclists and I don't think we've seen the half of it yet.
Where it ends up, only Russell Grant can foretell.
In what way has it turned up the heat Crackle?
Simply put, exposure. Over the past 2 years or so, we've seen a number of cyclists with cams on TV. Arch and Maggers are but two, both from this forum. Likewise cam footage has featured on TV. The result is a rise in consciousness of commuter cycling and the natural forming of opinion that that creates. However, the use of cams, seems to make that opinion far more divisive.
1611686 said:That sounds like paranoid nonsense to me.
Have you experienced a change in attitude from either cyclists or motorists as a result of this?
On the road no, off the road more people seem to have views on cycling.
Then I'm struggling to see how it's turned up the heat I'm sorry, turned up the heat for whom and how? Also where do you think it's leading to, you say you think we've only seen the half of it, what does this mean?