Barbelier
Senior Member
....errrrr why?older drivers need re-educating (and by older I mean anyone over forty years of age)
Based on my experience aggressive, selfish and thoughtless driving around cyclists has no correlation with age. If I was going to make gross generalisations, which I don't think are relevant here, I'd say the following categories of driver are more likely to cause danger to a cyclist:
1. Young (inexperienced) aggressive drivers in "fast" cars - the hot hatch or small BMW/Audi brigade
2. Van drivers (lorry drivers on the other hand seem to be far better)
3. Women drivers in larger cars, who seem to lack an awarness of the size of the vehicle or good road positioning
4. The 4X4 "I've got a big, noisy tank so you'd better get out of my way brigade"
My experience of older drivers is overall pretty good - they tend to be more cautious, considerate and experienced.
However, as I said, don't think we can generalise. It's got much more to do with selfishness, aggression and arrogance than age and that's driven by upbringing, life experience and what society allows. Sadly I can only see it becoming worse the more we continue to slid into a materialistic, "want it now", lawless society.
Education fine and will potentially change the behaviour of the small open-minded minority who are willing to learn. For the majority the stick seems to work better.............but then I don't see increased penalties for endangering cyclists anytime soon. Oh what a cynically sod I've become!