| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Cycling on the pavement | |
| Posted by: | Richard Carter | |
| Date/Time: | 28/07/10 14:38:00 |
| If someone else can join in, there are several points in Richard H's latest post to take issue with. 1) The "sole solution is to slow down the cars." In residential areas, which is what I think this thread is mainly concerned with, the main solution *is* to slow down cars, because of the simple fact, which even you seem to accept, that faster driving causes more serious injuries and deaths. 2) The comparison with slowing down trains to stop level-crossing jumpers getting hurt is, frankly, stupid. How many people are hit by trains? The number is tiny, and anyway rail tracks are quite separate from roads: most houses have roads going past their doors/gates but not many, in this country at least, have train tracks. 3) You refer to a car "correctly" doing 20mph in a 20mph zone. Quite wrong: 20 mph is the MAXIMUM speed. Para 125 of the Highway Code sets out clearly that "the speed limit is the absolute maximum and does not mean it is safe to drive at that speed irrespective of conditions. Driving at speeds too fast for the road and traffic conditions is dangerous. You should always reduce your speed when .... sharing the road with pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders, particularly children." 4) In your example of the child running out, one of the alternative actions you deride is "to shout 'Stop Speeding' at the driver who's [sic] actions saved their kid." As I said in 3 above, 20 mph in a 20mph zone is speeding when there are pedestrians, especially children, about. 5) Of course pedestrians should "responsibly and ... increase [their] chances of survival 10-20 fold," but it's incumbent on drivers of heavy large steel boxes to take extra care, especially when they are driving in residential areas. Running through your posts is a horribly cold attitude; your reference to saving your "sympathy for those who deserve it" typifies this. |