Rob K:
EastAnglianTrucker:
I’m a truck driver and when I saw your video I have to say I had a lot of sympathy for you. Without question, the tipper shown was way too close.That said, I’ve often wondered why cyclists, if they’re worried about their safety, as you obviously are, don’t make more use of the very expensive cycle lanes that seem to proliferate like weed, so that you can exercise your right to use your chosen form of transport. So I read your blog and watched your “cycle path” video.
You describe a wide range of potential hazards that cyclists face. People opening car doors, passing close to cars emerging from junctions, badly designed paths that increase the dangers, bad surfaces, even other, slower cyclists get criticism.
But on reflection, the hazards you list as the reasons why you don’t use cycle lanes are exactly the same hazards every road user faces, every time they use the roads.
Believe me, you don’t have a monopoly on having to use dangerous roads. We do it every day, and are exposed to many more hazards and examples of poor road use than you’ll experience whilst on your bike.
Now I know that the bottom line of this argument is that you, as a cyclist, are much more vulnerable to dangers on the road, than I am in a HGV - which I might add I have had to have extensive training to drive, and am subject to stringent and continuous control to ensure, as far as possible, that the dangers the size of my HGV poses to other road users are kept to a minimum.
But the fact is, we are both exposed to dangerous roads, road conditions, and the vagaries of other, more or less experienced, road users.
Unfortunately your video merely underlines the near suicidal zeal you show when demanding your right to ride a bicycle safely. Sorry to be so unsympathetic, but join the queue. We all want to be able to use the roads safely! No-one goes out with the intention of using the roads un-safely!
I demand that other road users don’t put my life in jeopardy. But they do. I demand that bicycle riders don’t behave like complete numpties in front of my heavy goods vehicle. But they do. I demand that women picking up their little kiddi-winks from school, don’t simply ignore other traffic and don’t simply stop in the middle of the road, or on pavements. But they do. I demand that passengers getting off buses don’t walk behind the bus and simply cross the road in front of my truck. But they do. I demand that the government actually creates a sensible transport infrastructure that is simple to use for all who need to travel. But they don’t.
I sympathise with your right to cycle without having your life put in danger, I really do. But if you feel that the conditions are not the way you want them, and that your life is so severely threatened by badly designed road design, poor road conditions, and inconsiderate road users, there’s one simple, common sense solution.
Don’t use a bike on the roads. That way, whilst you may not be able to exercise your rights as completely as you’d like, at least you’ll live to be able to complain to the politicians about how you can’t exercise your God given rights. (And I’ll support you!)
Just think about that. You’ll be alive. Not dead! You’ll have the time to do something about it, rather than complaining about the few occasions where you’ve come close to death.
I’m not sure what you’d expect from the transport firm if you found out who owned the truck shown in your video. If it was my truck, I’d say, “Sorry. Thank goodness you’re still alive and I don’t have to explain to my insurance company and the Traffic Commisioner, why a cyclist was crushed by one of my trucks.”
I don’t want to get into a protracted discussion about the rights and wrongs of your case. But the logic of what I’ve written is irrefutable, and the choice is yours.
(P.S. Take heed. I know full well that if I put my hand in a fire I will experience pain and my skin will be damaged, despite the fact that it is my right to put my hand in the fire. I choose not to exercise that right, because I fear the consequences.)
I agree with all this except the first paragraph. I don’t have much sympathy for them at all, mainly due to the no tax/no ins thing which left me with a £500 repair bill to my own car many many years ago when a cyclist lost control and slammed into the side. I don’t think the tipper was that close either. Sure, he couldn’t have moved out more but it was hardly a brush with death and there would’ve been plenty of room if you hadn’t been riding down the middle of the road.
Until cyclists can maintain a minimum of 30mph on all gradients of road then they shouldn’t be allowed to ride on them imho, same for tractors, horses etc.
and donkies, snails, pedestrians, steam rollers, rain, monkies, toads, bears, lions.
