Sad

[PBancroft]

Right from infancy it's drummed into us that the car is supreme: Stand on the curb, look left, look right etc. It is the pedestrian's duty to ensure that it's safe to cross. Nowhere is there thrown upon the car driver the responsibility of ensuring that his ton and a half of lethal machinery is not a threat or hazard to more vulnerable members of society.

Err... actually I take umbrage at that. Slightly.

Anyone learning to drive should have it reinforced upon them that they need to behave appropriately to more vulnerable road users - its all over the Highway Code.

That people instantly forget it the moment they pass their test is another matter.

 

[Arch]

64 years since the end of WW2 at 2500 a year (in this country) is a total approximate avoidable death toll of 160,000.

Well..... I don't know that the death toll would have been so high in the 50s and 60s - are there figures for that?

Of course the one stat I do know is that more people were killed in Britain in the early months of the war due to the blackout and cars, than in bombing.

Banjo has a point about the possible danger of slowing, if some clown just races past you - so you can't even reliably be a good driver anymore, because of the possible idiots behind you. I've certainly stopped at zebra crossing on my bike, only to have the car behind come past me - so youy have to have the guts to stop in a way that totally blocks people - easier in a car, but still difficult sometimes. And try driving at or under the speed limit and watch people have anurisms of rage behind you...

Once a week we collect the recycling from a little estate beyond the university, and that involves driving our little electric truck along University Road - a long (well, quarter mile?) straight, with numerous pedestrian refuge islands to let people cross from one half of campus to the other. Our top speed is not high - 10mph on a good day, so traffic does build up behind us and the islands mean there isn't a long enough bit to get by. The first few times a car came flying by, on the other side, not only of the road, but of the pedestrian island, I was amazed. I'm not amazed any more. The silly thing is, they can see the end of the road, the point at which they will be able to get by. It's probably about five minutes to walk it, max. But they MUST get ahead. God help the person one day who sets out to cross one day, and just looks right, thinking they'll look left once they reach the middle... (Alas, there isn't really another practical way for us to go. It shouldn't be a problem, if everyone was just patient, but it does worry me).

 

[ComedyPilot]

Arch, there's the problem with drivers in this country. They feel NO remorse or responsibility for their driving, they abdicate that vicariously onto other motorists/peds and cyclists who in turn HAVE to take avoiding action to remain safe.

Then we have a judiciary that are unwilling to impose harsh penalties for bad/careless/dangerous driving.

Welcome to Status Quo UK.

 

[661-Pete]

I think it was Arch that suggested somewhere that all cars should have a sharp spike in the steering wheel to make people drive carefully.

An idea borrowed from somewhere, not originally mine...

It was Mayer Hillman (though he may not have been the first):

"The problem is you can't show how many cyclists have avoided head injury by riding with more vigilance. However studies show that when you don't wear a protective device you compensate for the risk you run. For instance, if motor vehicles were fitted with a spike in the centre of the steering wheel which pointed towards the driver's chest, the driver would drive slower in the knowledge that should they hit something they'd be the first to get hurt."

quoted from here.

I once tried writing a humorous short story based on the concept. But maybe this is not the place for levity. A very tragic event, the account in the OP.

 

[Corvette chic]

"Once a week we collect the recycling from a little estate beyond the university, and that involves driving our little electric truck along University Road - a long (well, quarter mile?) straight, with numerous pedestrian refuge islands to let people cross from one half of campus to the other. Our top speed is not high - 10mph on a good day, so traffic does build up behind us and the islands mean there isn't a long enough bit to get by. The first few times a car came flying by, on the other side, not only of the road, but of the pedestrian island, I was amazed. I'm not amazed any more. The silly thing is, they can see the end of the road, the point at which they will be able to get by. It's probably about five minutes to walk it, max. But they MUST get ahead. God help the person one day who sets out to cross one day, and just looks right, thinking they'll look left once they reach the middle... (Alas, there isn't really another practical way for us to go. It shouldn't be a problem, if everyone was just patient, but it does worry me). " posted by Arch
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Blame Dear Jeremy Clarkson.... the b*****d

 

[Arch]

Blame Dear Jeremy Clarkson.... the b*****d

Maybe, but I think people were impatient bastards before he was widely well known. I just think there are more now - the same people who barge into you in crowded shops, or let doors shut in your face, or huff and puff if they get stuck behind a dithery old lady in the supermarket queue. It's all me, me, me, and you must have whatever you want, now. Pay later, if at all.

And there's the anonimity. Once upon a time, if you were a git, your whole village/street knew it, and you felt their reaction. More and more people these days aren't part of such a community, so they just go on and on being gits....

 

[RRCC]

It was Mayer Hillman (though he may not have been the first):
quoted from here.

I once tried writing a humorous short story based on the concept. But maybe this is not the place for levity. A very tragic event, the account in the OP.

Risk compensation is a term coined by Canadian psychologist Gerald Wilde in the 1970s to describe the behavioural adjustments of people to perceived changes in safety or danger.

The concept of Risk Compensation is delt with by John Adams in his Book Risk.

His book Risk and Freedom: Record of Road Safety Regulation also look fasinating.

 

[Origamist]

His book Risk and Freedom: Record of Road Safety Regulation also look fasinating.

RRCC - it is well worth a read, check out the online pdf: http://john-adams.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/risk and freedom.pdf