"My brush with a psycholist"

[Origamist]

After a recent encounter in a London cab, I know what a Lycra lout is. But I’d still advise you to hug one if you see one.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/carol_midgley/article6846227.ece

 

[yello]

yello.... take deep breaths.... chill.... it's only a journo comment piece... you know they write in deliberately one-eyed manner to provoke a response...

..but even so, this is just rank stupidity...

Cycling England, an agency funded by the Transport Department (presumably from motorists’ tax money) , wants <snip>

...and to think it got past a sub-editor too!

 

[Dayvo]

yello.... take deep breaths.... chill.... it's only a journo comment piece... you know they write in deliberately one-eyed manner to provoke a response...

..but even so, this is just rank stupidity...



...and to think it got past a sub-editor too!

Yeah, I got that far and gave up!

 

[Crackle]

The bottom half of the article was a bit more reasoned but really I couldn't care less as it's all London centric again.

 

[yello]

Yeah, you're right Crackle. She did turn it around in the 2nd half.

 

[Wheeledweenie]

Unfortunately negative headline and pacing of the article as her overall message seems to be we should all be friends.

 

[jimboalee]

Useless twattle.

Do people really get paid for writing this stuff?

 

[u9ge]

I think the same woman wrote another piece in Saturdays times, which was fairly well measured and helpful.

There seems a lot more press comment at the mo, whether it's the proposed law changed or the coming to the surface of serious problems between motorists and cyclist I'm not sure...

 

[jonny jeez]

I'm with Wheeliedweenie, I actually thought it was a good article, well written and casting an overall message that ..to one degree or another...we are all capable of being twats when motivated well enough.

Admittedly the headline and opener were aimed at raising temperatures...but the message got through in the end.

I was however interested in her opinion that said cabbie had done "nothing wrong that she had seen" when she stated moments earlier that she was in a state of daydreaming and seemed oblivious to the outside world.

But then, she was in a cab and as her piece suggests, that made her territorially defensive of her cabbie/mode of transport.

I'm off to hug a WVM!!

 

[sadjack]

The article taken as a whole I think was well written and thought provoking.

There is no one section of road users better than another. We can all be tw*ts

At least she seemed to be looking at the issue from all angles.

My only question is "What sort of person carries gravel in their pockets?"

 

[swee'pea99]

I'd love to know who these cyclists are who 'triumphantly quote figures showing cars kill 50 times more people than cyclists'. They must be morons, since the actual ratio is around 3000 to 1.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistic...pletablesfactsheets/pedestrianfactsheet07.pdf

 

[jonny jeez]

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesgbar/suppletablesfactsheets/pedestrianfactsheet07.pdf[/url]

Jonny- "Makes a mental note as he fill's pockets with gravel"

 

[rh100]

IMO - It doesn't matter what you drive or ride - I have a lot experience driving cars and trucks upto 7.5 ton, now I don't have a car just a bike which I've ridden for about a month. I've been the same person on all these modes of transport - sometimes just a bit more stressed. The same goes for other's, they will be a tw@t regardless if in a car or on a bike - their nature will shine through whatever it is they are doing at the time.

Since riding on the road, I've had some right gits coming too close etc. But then the other day I was on a very busy tight road in the rush hour, and a WVM was sat behind me all the way past a load of parked cars, and didn't overtake till I had a chance to move aside for him. It's the person, not the mode of transport.

 

[swee'pea99]

It's the person, not the mode of transport.

Absolutely. But there *is* of course a massive difference, in that a twat in a car/lorry/van kills people; a twat on a bike doesn't.

 

[Amanda P]

The point of the article, surely, is to suggest that the Strict Liability proposals are A Bad Thing. All the rest is just attention-getting flummery.

Clearly they are not such A Bad Thing, since most of the rest of northern Europe gets along with them quite nicely, and most of the rest of northern Europe is, I think, a pleasanter place to drive, and to cycle, than Britain.

Whether that's because of the Strict Liability laws, I couldn't say, but I'm pretty sure it helps.