Interview

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

A bit of product placement there!

Where did they find that cyclist at the end? Apparently we should just learn to live with the way we are treated on the road . Numpty. Although his near collision with the pizza delivery man at the end was priceless!

Yep - and it would have been avoided had he been in primary - gutter hugging caused it!

I am surprised you didn't already get this in Magna, are you losing your touch

 

[magnatom]

"15,000 cyclists killed or injured last year"? A sensationalist use of statistics to say the least. Cyling is after all fundamentally safe. You would think their trying to sell cameras or something.

Yes, that is a bit sensationalist! 15,000 where, of these how many were actually killed and how many of the injuries were minor. In fact I cut my finger a few months ago doing some DIY. I am a cyclist does this count?

Lets keep this positive. At the very least we need the 10 year statistic in there!

 

[magnatom]

Yep - and it would have been avoided had he been in primary - gutter hugging caused it!

I am surprised you didn't already get this in Magna, are you losing your touch

Not so, if you look in the magnatom dictionary 2008 you will find:

Numty (noun): Cyclist who gutter cycles and has regular near misses especially with pizza delivery boys who are prone to stepping out into the road without looking. Numpties (pl) often receive 'The pavements' for 5 year olds, mate' comments from good looking well behaved cyclists (cf magnatom).

 

[Bollo]

Just managed to watch the full evening report and they used my crash footage at the start! I "survived". That's good to hear.

Anyways, I had a phonecall today from Ben Webster from the Times, so you publicists are doing your job. We had a longish phone chat and I got the impression he'll be doing a piece on camera-use sometime soon.

He asked most of the questions I would have expected (why d'ya get a camera, what sort of behaviour have you caught). He seemed to be very interested that the police didn't prosecute the driver, despite being made aware of the footage. He was keen to ring B'stoke police, even though I'm quite ambivalent. I don't get the impression he'll write a "dontcha just hate 'em!" style piece a la 'London Tonight', and I tried to get across the positive reasons for using a camera (shared learning and all that) as well as the negative.

Unfortunately, he might also send out a snapper to get a picture of me+camera. Lets just say I'm not expecting the modelling or pro-cycling offers to come pouring in.

 

[sheddy]

BTW there may be an item on cycle couriers on this Saturdays Culture Show BBC2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/

 

[BentMikey]

I wrote this a little while ago:

http://www.londonskaters.com/cycling/article-helmet-cameras.htm

 

[pbjohnson]

bollo and Ben

Hi Bollo,

Great news that Ben got in touch. I'm afraid he didn't let me know he was going to pursue the story otherwise I'd have tipped you off. He was very keen on the idea and is a hugely respected journalist so I feel anything he does write will be well balanced.

On another note, the was a good piece in the Evening Standard on the story today (the link, I hope, will appear here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand...ycle-cam+shames+drivers+on+YouTube/article.do I know it's London based so not great for a huge amount of people here on the forum but it does show that this is something that will get coverage as we roll it out to other cities. Someone's just been in touch offering their services for Guildford so we are working towards some good round UK awareness raising. Also, The Independent blogged it: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/02/police-helmet-c.html

Cheers,
Paul

 

[magnatom]

Good stuff everyone! If drivers start suspecting that we are all wearing cameras, then they might start behaving a little better.

No sign of any of my videos appearing, I wonder if that's because I talk back a little too much....

 

[AndyB]

Yeah this is great stuff.
The Evening Standard got my name wrong but it's still great publicity.

Today on the way to work I was followed by the most considerate and patient white van driver I have ever encountered.

The roads are so slippery today, they seem to be coated in that horrible mixture of fog and diesel so I have been taking extra care especially after my painful off. Nearly lost the back wheel again last night on the way home.