h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The ones that flash & change should be banned from all roadsides, they are on motorways, people slow down to read them they are dangerous, there have caused 2 minor shunts near Birmingham so far.

While cyclists have been dying I wonder how many pedestrians have died due to lorries etc turning into a side street with a pedestrian crossing the road (not all side streets have traffic lights & sometime you are half way across the road when a vehicle swings in at speed).

When I am cycling I always try to take care when I come across a side street ahead - for a) vehicles overtaking me from behind at the last moment and swinging across or through me to take the turning & b) the possible vehicle that emerges from the side street into me or again across my path.

On the headphones thing though when you have the kind of "in ear" headphones that lots of cyclists and runners use they really do restrict your awareness of the world around you a fair bit.

I wouldn't listen to music with them in when driving as I find listening to headphones really does distract me more from the road aorund me than listening to the car radio.

FB

When I am cycling I like to hear as well as see what is going on around me (hearing vehicles approaching from behind etc), although when it is raining hard it can be difficult.

Close your car windows, turn on the radio. Can you hear approaching traffic?

No.

When I'm cycling, I can't hear anything over the pounding of my heart, the rasping of my breath, the clacking of my hips and the creaking of my knees.

Pedestrian only with cycle access seems to be the way. Southampton looks cycle friendly I would like th hear opinions.

Some communities set aside special lanes or paths just for cyclists. In my area, there are more and more of them every year.

This is something being discussed quite a bit in the How To Design A City thread.

As someone who drives to work every day, I can easily understand why its _very_ easy to blame cyclists...

I'll totally admit that the cyclists that I notice every day are in the minority, but when that minority are, to put it quite frankly, a bunch of suicidal imbeciles, then it's pretty easy to overlook that I'm actually co-existing with a larger bunch of quite normal road users who just happen to have a fetish for lycra....

By the time I get home at night, I've completely forgotten about 80 of the 100 cyclists I've run across (not over!). What I actually remember is the 20 who were either trying to undertake me dangerously, riding without lights in the dark on a rainy evening, ignoring red lights, jumping queues by weaving in and out of traffic then holding up all the traffic they've just overtaken, and basically doing everything they can to win a Darwin Award.

Oh, and here's an interesting little video...

http://digg.com/video/how-big-a-trucks-blind-spot-really-is

That's a really good video Whiskey.

What comes across to me though, is why don't trucks mirrors show that part? Why are they just so tight into the side of the vehicle?

When I'm cycling, and approaching a queue of traffic, I think I find a good balance. I'll go along the inside, but if the traffic is starting to move off, I wait behind the next car along at the time, and make sure I'm in good sight of the car I've just passed. If there's no cycle box at the front of the queue, I won't go along side any car that is indicating left.

I know not all drivers indicate, but they bleeping well should!

If there is a cycle box, and there's a car/van/lorry/bus in it, then regardless of whether it's indicating or not, I will go and move my bike in front of it. Yes, I'm probably being a dick by doing that, but they're breaking the law, and being dangerous. Plus, them being there puts me as a cyclist in more danger.

About the video, I've seen trucks with additional mirrors to cover extra areas, but the problem with that is you end up with the driver's suffering from sensory overload if you add to many... And if the bike rider is not dressed in a fluorescent onesy then they're likely to be missed anyway...

If you look at the video carefully, you'll see the cab is already turned slightly to the left with regard to the trailer, which actually makes the blind spot even larger.

As far as I can see, the moral of this story should be - Cyclists - don't even think about overtaking a lorry, regardless of what it's doing.

I think there'll always be a problem while vehicles and cyclists share roads. And the attitudes of both doesn't help.

I always stop at red lights, but often see other cyclists pass me and go straight through them. I don't weave in and out of traffic. And it is rare that I undertake a lorry in a queue, only when the lights have just changed to red, or I know I've got more than enough time to pass it and get in front before it's likely to set off.

So cyclists aren't all angels, but drivers aren't either.

I still see so many of them using their phones while driving, or adjusting their sat-navs, leaning over to change cds too. Talking to their passengers and turning their heads while doing so.

I think the only solution would be to ban idiots, the roads would certainly be a much quieter place.

1) Remove all seatbelts from the drivers seats of cars and fit a 12" spike to the centre of each steering wheel.
2) Position snipers on rooftops at all major road junctions with instructions to take out any cyclists who run red lights.
3) Sit back and let Natural Selection do its job.

Whiskey, I get the impression we share the same views on Proactive Darwinism

A cycle is the only common vehicle that can be taken on the road without a test. Cycling in a city could be allowed with a permit only issued to users that take the safty test. This could possably help improve awareness of things that the vidio has shown...

How often have you heard it said though that someone wouldn't pass their driving test again?

I'm not against a cycling proficiency test, I just think it might be better to test all road users regularly.

Just for city use, suburban tests may not be mandatory just desireable

Some accidents are just tragic events where no one was guilty of anything. Driving or cycling into the sun is very hard to do. I've heard of pedestrians or cyclists who were killed because the motorists were temporarily blinded by the sun. Then there's ice. The driver might do everything possible to stop safely, but if there's hidden ice at exactly the wrong spot, things sometimes go wrong.

In any event, I would hesitate to blame the victim unless more was known about the circumstances. In a perfect world, cars and cyclists would not have to share the same road. Wake me up when the perfect world becomes a reality