Safe Speed Forums

I'm trying hard to understand the motivation for this attitude.

I figure it's all about making sure we can blame the victim as it's usually not the motorist. So cyclist/ped get's hit by a car, it's the cyclist's/ped's fault, gets squished by a lorry, it's the cyclist's /ped's fault.

This leaves you able to brush aside cyclist and pedestrian deaths at the hands of motorised vehicles as their fault right?

Commonsense?

The foundation of all safety systems is the responsibility of all those involved to look after the safety of themselves and others.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

HO,HO,HO (santa hasn't left the building yet!)

Good old weepy, his jokes are better than those found in Xmas crackers, any chance of writing some more before next yuletide, Weeps?

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

I agree, but that's not what safespeedv2 said, there was nothing about looking out for the safety of others.

SafeSpeedv2 wrote:
but frankly they need to say that cyclists need to look out for themselves as all road users have to.
Better now weepy. Perhaps a change of glasses is needed .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

You need to work on your English comprehension skills.

Where in Safespeedv2's statement did they mention others?

It was just "[road users] need to look out for themselves".

But we all need to look out for ourselves AND others, right?

Why did safespeedv2 leave the "others" bit off?

When i was little my mum used to say to me something along the lines of....

When you are older you will have to look after yourself and not expect others to look after you.....

It seems like some cyclists have never grown up.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

graball, your mum was wrong I'm afraid.

If I'm walking along a pavement and am hit by a motorbike that mounted it at speed there really was nothing I could do, I was relying pretty much entirely on the rider not to lose control of their vehicle whilst doing a wheelie.

I cite this example because this actually happened in London. Are you suggesting there was anything the peds that got struck by the vehicle, which mounted the pavement, could have done?

The motorbike rider failed in his responsibility to behave in a proper manner and actually injured people who had no option but to be struck by the vehicle.

So yes, very well, you expect that motorcycle rider (and by extension all motorcycle riders) to look after you by not doing something that causes his bike to mount the pavement.

Or how about on a motorway, you slow down for a hazard and stop in a line of traffic, but somebody coming from behind you isn't paying attention and slams into the back of you at 70mph. Again they failed to look after you by not paying proper attention to the road.

WEEPY - YOU ARE AGAIN nitpicking, something Trolls are known to do .
Perhaps the clue to a cycle sodden brain is in the words "as all road users have to", I'd suspect that most folk (except a spitfire cycle member) would accept that as "ALL OTHERS".

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

No, Mum is right and you have interpreted the advice incorrectly.

In the case which you cite, the pedestrians are "looking after themselves" by being in the the correct place, the pavement, and not playing in the road. The motorcyclist was acting wrongly and not looking after the safety of others.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

This really is like trying to reason with a five year old so I will give up gracefully.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Precisely. You can look after yourself as much as you want, but you still put your safety in the hands of others every day.

I'm not nit picking, it's a very important point.

Cyclists do have to look after themselves, as do all other road users (look after themselves); this is what safespeedv2 said.

We all also all need to look out for others, which is what safespeedv2 didn't say.

Your safety is NOT 100% in your hands I'm afraid!

I think those that suggest it is are just victim blaming, e.g. if they looked out for themselves they wouldn't be in that situation now, which is sometimes true, but not always.

Ah, I get it! So Derek Bird was "looking after me" when he went on his shooting spree in Whitehaven, because he didn't shoot me? And United Utilities are "looking after me" by not poisoning my water supply? Sorry Weepy, but under no (sane) definition of the term does "looking after" simply mean "not actually causing harm to"!

Interesting though, there's something "special" about cyclists, I think. The most vulnerable group of road users has to be pedestrians and I think it's safer to say that there are more of them than there are cyclists, and yet the group we seem to hear shouting loudest that "something has to be done (usually be everyone else!) to improve their safety" are cyclists? With few notable exceptions, pedestrians seem to be pretty quiet about their lot.

Looking at the 2012 figures, there were 5979 Ped KSIs, 6029 car DRIVER (not counting any other vehicle occupants) KSIs and 3430 cyclist KSIs.

I'm beginning to think it's the poor old car drivers who are the most vulnerable road user group!

are we still going ? ...righto...

i'll come back in a few weeks and see if you've made any progress

It's people in motorised vehicles doing the killing and injuring, pedestrians and people on bikes are being killed (with motorcyclists occupying some sort of weird middle ground).

Overall for year ending March 2013 there were 188,890 reported road casualties (slightly and seriously injured casualties, and fatalities), don't you think something needs to be done or is this acceptable?




Did you ever do percentages at school?

[quote="weepej]



Your safety is NOT 100% in your hands I'm afraid!

[/quote]

CAREFUL. You're starting to sound like the speed kills mob, who came out with a figure of how many accidents were caused by speed. And then in light of proof had to modify their figures. I agree that my safety is not 100% in my hands ,but I can get it closer by using my experience and driving so as to stop in the distance I see to be clear to stop in and basicly not behaving like an idiot. Road safety is the concern of all road users ,not just a few . But certain groups as you demonstrate , are determined to drive wedges between all road users.
I treat all cyclists as kai kazi cyclists, as I've seen too many do daft things, like swerve out in the face of overtaking traffic, or race down the pavement and without warning go back on the road, without a rear glance. But it's not just cyclists - I also take care with small Pugs ,too- as they either are weaver birds or close enough behind to wipe the rear window.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I AM one of the people who IS doing something about it! (I work in vehicle safety) - and you?




Yes. Did you ever do sarcasm though?