Another Cyclist Death

Originally Posted by Osem

My understanding, if I heard correctly, is that in Paris the ban is all day not just peak hours. Given the vagaries of London traffic, what'd happen to those lorries which enter London off peak but are stuck there due to traffic problems or whatever? They can't just park up for the day can they. How is all major development work going to be carried out in London if lorries are banned all day and if some of the night time restrictions are lifted I'm sure there'll be an awful lot of Londoners complaining about being woken up in the night? Am I missing something here?

Anyway why are we suddenly considering banning lorries after half a dozen cycling deaths when thousands of pedestrians and other road users are killed year in year lout by cars and other vehicles every year and very little seems to be done.

French lorry ban details

http://about-france.com/hgv.htm

Anyway why are we suddenly considering banning lorries after half a dozen cycling deaths when thousands of pedestrians and other road users are killed year in year lout by cars and other vehicles every year and very little seems to be done.

Part of the reason is because the cycle ways in London are Boris' baby and he is determined to make it work no matter who else it inconveniences ,i think he would gladly see everyone on a bike with buses ,cars and lorries banned from central london and to be honest most truck drivers will have no problem at all with being banned from London and just dumping the cornflakes at a warehouse near the M25 for customers to collect themselves .

[Osem]

I could understand it coming from Boris but Harriet Harman? Wonder if her street has a lorry problem?... lol I'm sure many drivers detest coming into London during the day but then if they're not going to be able to, more people will have to be hanging around out of hours for deliveries. collections etc. and all that adds up to a considerable knock on effect I'd have thought.

Originally Posted by Osem

I could understand it coming from Boris but Harriet Harman? Wonder if her street has a lorry problem?... lol I'm sure many drivers detest coming into London during the day but then if they're not going to be able to, more people will have to be hanging around out of hours for deliveries. collections etc. and all that adds up to a considerable knock on effect I'd have thought.

Absolutely it would ,a ban during rush hour would simply move the rush hour or at least extend it ,any lorry ban would have to be during the day forcing lorries and other delivery vehicles to the night hours .

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Its really strange as several companies that l know, there lorries and vans only deliver at night.

Parking is easy and they don't pay the congestion charge.

[Hom3r]

Ban the cyclist who break the highway code.

[Pierre]

Ban cyclists from the roads

Everyone wins!

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

Its really strange as several companies that l know, there lorries and vans only deliver at night.

Parking is easy and they don't pay the congestion charge.

That's why they only deliver at night

[jonbxx]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Ban cyclists from the roads

Everyone wins!

Apart from the health benefits of cycling, the reduction in the number of cars, freeing up space on public transport and the effect on the UK cycle industry, it's a great plan!

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Ban cyclists from the roads

Everyone wins!

Ban cyclists from the roads

More overcrowding on public transport
More vehicles on the road; increased pollution
Less healthy population; increased pressure on the resources of the NHS

Yup everyone wins.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

This molrning for example, driving through St Margarets. Two cyclists went through a red light.
I shouted ' you've gone through a red light' there reply F.O

[Doug P]

Banning cyclists is obviously not a good plan but something needs to be done with a large minority of cyclists who simply haven't a clue what they are doing on roads or pavements.

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Doug P

Banning cyclists is obviously a good plan but something needs to be done with a large minority of cyclists who simply haven't a clue what they are doing on roads or pavements.

Starting with the fact that they shouldn't be on pavements. There should be some form of testing to allow adults to use cycles on the road. It doesn't even have to be practical.

It annoys me when I'm sitting at the traffic lights on my cycle and other cyclists jump the light, or worse, veer from pavement to road.

Unfortunately we all get labelled the same.

[Doug P]

I have been hit by a cyclist once and had a near miss recently.
The first was not looking where he was going on a pavement and I couldn't react in time he was going so fast.
The second was going the wrong way on Fleet Street of all places with two buses coming straight towards him. Unbelievable.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

http://news.sky.com/story/1170704/bo...-headphone-ban

This is farcical coming from Boris. What he should be saying is:
Cyclist SHOULD HAVE LIGHTS, HI VIS and abide with laws of the road NO JUMPING RED LIGHTS etc etc.

You start from the most important parts of cycling first EDUCATING.

[MovedGoalPosts]

I suspect very few cyclists are ignorant of the rules of the road. They just choose to ignore them. Education, licencing, etc won't make a lot of difference where there is a common place blasé attitude and a general feeling that if incorrect behaviour is OK for one, then it's OK for another.

Some things should be common sense such as no headphones (you might still hear stuff, but not as clearly, but then in a car with windows wound up and radio on you aren't hearing others around you so is it a part of the issue). Lights, hi vis, etc all help, but the real issue needs to be defensive riding, not the gung ho attitude frequently seen.

And as for banning heavy vehicles, what is the proportion of incidents that have occurred peak times to off peak. A couple of the recent deaths have involved buses. Are we going to ban them too?

The ideal solution is segregation. If one could demolish our cities and start from scratch, that might be achievable. Of course we can't do that and so everyone has to fit into our road network that goes back to medieval times. Inevitably that creates conflict.

Every road user has to take their share of responsibility, be that driver, rider or pedestrian.