Safe Speed Forums

perhaps they don't want you filtering.

(i'd like to be able to say any cycle lane is a good cycle lane as far as i'm concerned but sadly many of them are useless.... its often safer to play in the traffic)

may as well take the car then.

every biker filtering queing traffic is one less sitting in a car making the queue longer and the smog thicker.

even the most environmentally friendly cars (and buses) do 0mpg at 0mph.

I actually think the planners don't think about it. They have a cycle lane target and will squeeze as many km of cycle lane in where ever they can. This typically ends up with lots of fragments that are no good to anyone rather than a proper cycle access road that actually goes somewhere and is used.

Well, I might moan about my local council....but in terms of being sensible for bikers, we can use the bus lanes, and imagine my shock when viewing a local safety initative for the first time, it was biker friendly (full height plastic chevrons)

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"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

Every single fixed gatso in Swansea is surrounded by 4 foot high - 4 inch diameter steel posts concreted into the ground presumably to save their precious camera from damage if something collides with it! "in the name of safety..." my arse!

Quick trip down to the army surplus for a ex-british army challenger I will sort out those steel posts. Imagine how much fun that would be

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"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

I think there has been one fatality when a car hit a speed camera post. Not sure of the details.

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Speed camera policy Kills

So we put posts around the post. do wee then put another ring around those made of softer material, and then another? I have a better idea...

I think it is pretty obvious that the erectors of road furniture don't usually consider what might happen to different types of road user of they fail to stay on the road.
One of the most common collisions is a single vehicle one involving a biker or a car driver in which failure to negotiate a bend results in hitting a tree or roadside furniture, usually with fatal consequences. No doubt some of this results from "Oh God, I am going to hit that tree" then fixing one's eyes on it and ensuring that result. Practical training in avoiding this situation is somewhat difficult.
All this road paint affects anyone on two wheels in the wet, the more the more the angle of lean and/ or power applied the worse the effect!

I've received practical training on that point. Being told to avoid a cone on a skid pan and experiencing 'fixation' is a powerful lesson. And of course once you're aware of the dangers of fixation it becomes second nature to try to preempt those dangers by planning escape routes.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Problem is... how do we get the general public to seek out this training - which goes beyond the standard L-test?

I'd like to see lessons on skid pan to be a compulsory element whoch must be taken like Pass Plus within 12 months of L-test success.

Training helps awareness which in turn helps perception and avoidance of danger.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

One major problem that we have to face up to and manage is that short skid pan courses have been shown to deliver a confidence boost that's greater than the skills boost. We sometimes end up with drivers whose risk level increases because confidence gets out of balance with skill.

I'm certain that the answer lies in course design, but the present thinking is that short skid pan courses increase danger.

I theorise that the right design of course may require closer constraints than most skid pans offer. Maybe we need skid roads instead (or as well as), where failures to keep the vehicle on the right track become very obvious (i.e. you slide off the road and you know it). I'm concerned that skid pans may be too forgiving (subjectively) of gross error.

There's a skid road at Brands Hatch. Anyone been on it?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety