BBC and a show called 'War on Britain's Roads'

thelawnet

kerby_crawler wrote: »

Most media presentations do indeed appear to set out to promote one particular argument against all others (Panorama, for example). But this programme seemed to me to simply point out the futility of putting cyclists and motorists together in the same space.

The problem for cyclists is that they are unprotected against physical harm, but they don't seem to be able to up their game. The Scottish guy who was nearly run down by the articulated tanker just couldn't believe that the tanker driver might not have noticed him. To me, that is simply poor anticipation on the part of the cyclist.

Again that's the point of the programme.

To have you shouting at the TV.

It's nothing to do with 'cyclists' as a whole, it's just a selection of inflammatory webclips from an unrepresentative sample of camera users. Cheap TV, this stuff is all on youtube and well-known and not the product of any kind of research.

kerby_crawler

thelawnet wrote: »

It's nothing to do with 'cyclists' as a whole, it's just a selection of inflammatory webclips from an unrepresentative sample of camera users

The title of the programme did not include the world 'cyclist', so potentially there are many motorists who are equally upset by the one-sidedness of the content.

But most of the footage came from cyclists.

Mostly, cyclists cannot cause much damage except to themselves, but they are extremely vulnerable to quite minor mistakes by other road-users.

glasgowdan

kerby_crawler wrote: »

The Scottish guy who was nearly run down by the articulated tanker just couldn't believe that the tanker driver might not have noticed him. To me, that is simply poor anticipation on the part of the cyclist.

Are you for real? He said the truck appeared to slow approaching the roundabout, plus he made eye contact with the driver. Who would expect the truck to suddenly charge onwards directly onto the roundabout illegally in front of oncoming traffic?

jaffa30

interesting show, it proves that there are some idiot cyclists and some idiot drivers...

i cycle regulary and have been cut up, shouted at, things thrown at me from cars, had a bloke in a van threaten me, but i aint been hit as of yet.

Dekazer

Some people in the world are idiots SHOCKA.

Increasingly I find that the less journalism I encounter on a given day, the happier I feel.

Dave_C_2

I watched this 95% of the way through and was amazed at the way the program emphasised this imaginary war on our roads.

It reinforced the usual stereotypes such as all cyclists are arrogant and don't obey traffic laws and all taxi drivers hate cyclists. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This program has done nothing other than increase the anti-cycling feeling of some drivers and vice versa.

What was missing was how to improve the road system to the benefit of all. This was a fine chance to improve safety by showing how cycling should be with good Dutch infrastructure, where these conflicts are designed out of the system.

Dave

kerby_crawler

glasgowdan wrote: »

Are you for real? He said the truck appeared to slow approaching the roundabout, plus he made eye contact with the driver. Who would expect the truck to suddenly charge onwards directly onto the roundabout illegally in front of oncoming traffic?

I would like to see the videoclip a few more times, but the cyclist's comments about the eye-contact were fairly uncertain, and his final conclusion was that the driver had simply failed to see him. During the clip, I don't recall the cyclist turning his head towards the lorry at any time - any useful amount of eye-contact would surely have been clearly recorded on the head-cam. Incidentally, I don't recall the cyclist making any rearward glances at all during his approach to the roundabout, nor during his short-lived ride straight across the middle of 'no-man's-land'.

The cyclist was indeed lucky to survive a quite atrocious bit of truck-driving, but, as others have said, the UK's road system is far from being a safe haven for cyclists.

As a point of interest (in no way intended to be any kind of justification for the truck-driver's error), in the scenario which this clip illustrated, the cyclist and the truck were on steadily converging paths, probably at similar speeds. In this situation, which most often occurs at roundabouts, it is possible for bicycles and small cars to remain completely hidden from view until the very last second before collision behind the physical bulk of the truck's offside door mirror. The onus is clearly on the driver to move his head around a little bit, but I think there is a fair chance that in this videoclip the cyclist was genuinely (albeit inexcusably) completely invisible to the truck-driver.

Dave_C_2

kerby_crawler wrote: »

I would like to see the videoclip a few more times

Here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fqACT1jNV0

but the cyclist's comments about the eye-contact were fairly uncertain, and his final conclusion was that the driver had simply failed to see him. During the clip, I don't recall the cyclist turning his head towards the lorry at any time - any useful amount of eye-contact would surely have been clearly recorded on the head-cam.

The problem is that there is something (maybe the camera was on the side of the helmet) blocking the helmet cam's view to the left where the lorry was coming from.

Dave

kerby_crawler

Dave_C wrote: »

The problem is that there is something (maybe the camera was on the side of the helmet) blocking the helmet cam's view to the left where the lorry was coming from

Thanks for the link - I think it confirms that the cyclist and the truck driver never made eye contact. It also reinforces my guess that what the driver 'saw' was a completely clear path across the roundabout. The driver was completely in the wrong, but I think the cyclist should have paid more attention to the presence of the wagon, especially given his own very exposed and ill-defined position.

On his approach to the roundabout, the cyclist does in fact glance to his right on three occasions, but it is only when he has left the roundabout and is looking back towards the where the lorry has gone that he makes what I would describe as a proper rearward look.

The fact that cyclists generally have very lttle idea about what is happening behind them contributes to the frequency with which they are surprised by closely-overtaking vehicles. The 'lifesaver' look was invented for motor-cyclists, and is intended to supplement good mirror use.

Horizon81

That cyclist with the glasses had a terrible attitude and seems to have devoted his sad life to antagonising motorists with a view to recording their frustrations on his helmet cam. The taxi driver whose cab he banged on summed it up perfectly by saying he wasn't a violent man, but one day that cyclist will antagonise someone who won't show the mercy he did, and ultimately, in not so many words, he will get what's coming to him.

It was as pathetic as the vigilante cyclist who took it into his own hands to again antagonise other road users and police the streets then take pleasure in telling them he'd recorded it and would be putting it on youtube. Absolutely pathetic and shame on the BBC for broadcasting such sensationalist nonsense.