A Crash Course in Cycling (or, why everyone should be a cyclist)

[Wolfshade]

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29796039[/url]

A stretch of glow-in-the-dark road markings has been installed in the Netherlands after being proposed as one of several "smart highway" features that could be put to wide use.

Route 66 of the Future uses special green paint, charged by daylight.

It is designed to be clearer than existing cat's eye reflective spheres.

Its creators are also due to test glow-in-the-dark cycle lanes, which they said had already attracted the interest of UK planners.

"The glowing lines are a little ... Daft Punk look-alike but they are to do with safety," said artist Daan Roosegaarde, one of the road markings' designers.

[Wolfshade]

Going back to the topic of lights.

Oxford’s latest annual blitz on people riding bikes without lights has resulted in nearly 100 more riders being fined than was the case 12 months ago. In all, 267 cyclists given £50 fixed penalty notices in the space of three hours on Monday evening – a rate of one every 40 seconds or so.
The operation took place on the High Street and on Abingdon Road, reports The Oxford Times, and riders can avoid having to pay the fine if they produce a receipt to police within seven days showing that they have purchased a set of lights for their bike after being fined.

Blimey!

I must say that I am quite in favour of this, after all it is a legal requirement and it might just save their life. I do not understand why anyone would cycle without a light in the dark.

[Wolfshade]

New figures from the Metropolitan Police show that 896 cyclists were victims of hit-and-run collisions in London last year.
The total number of people injured in hit-and-run collisions went up in 2013, the fourth consecutive year of increases since 2009. While fatalities and serious injuries declined in line with the general decline in London KSIs last year, road danger reduction campaigners have cautioned it's too early to tell if that reduction is the beginning of a downturn or just a blip.
Pedestrian hit-and-runs have also increased, with 1,043 people on foot falling victim to what Green Party member of the London Assembly Jenny Jones describes as London's "lawless roads".
Jones pointed out that hit-and-run collisions are linked to other driving offences such as drunk driving, speeding, being disqualified or simply having no insurance.
Almost a fifth of collisions leading to injuries in London now involve a driver leaving the scene. The proportion has risen every year since 2009, when it was 13 percent.

[Psychosplodge]

Nearly got my first cyclist last night. Dickhead possibly came through a red light against a right turn filter in the dark with no lights on. Or shot the amber, but the lack of lights meant I only saw him at last minute either way.

[Wolfshade]

I don't understand the light issue. fr £5 you can get a cheap and cheerful light pack that would enable you to be seen. But then having said that look about and see those fools driving around without lights on cars.

So, I have been considering my first month cycling into and out of the city centre I have made certain observations.

1. I am using the shared footpath much more than I thought I would.
2. Where the shared footpath stops at a mjaor road junction, these are wholly poor design. The only way to safely join is wait for a red light then pop into the cycle box.
3. Surface of the pavement is crap to cycle on, its all undulating in a way that would be intolerable to motorists
4. Street furniture is placed without consideration to where dedicated on pavement cycle facilites are situated. The worst are where pedestrian crossings dump pedestrains into the cycle lane. Does the pedestrian cross the lane forcing the cyclist to avoid or does the pedestrian wait in the road forcing the motorise to avoid.
5. The amount of free parking for cycles is very good.
6. Vehciles blocking box junctions seems to be a far bigger issue than red light jumping.
7. Motorbikes think they are pedal cycles.

[Wolfshade]

Also in the news a couply from Aunty.

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29894590[/url] Cycling Myths v Realtiy

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29853789[/url] Chris Boardman: Cycling in the city (which prompted outrage as he woukld die without his helmet, which prompted:


[url]http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/campaigning/article/20141103-campaigning-news-Boardman--Why-I-didn-t-wear-a-helmet-on-BBC-Breakfast-0[/url] Boardman: Why I didn't wear a helmet on TV as it is ineffective and largely irrelevant in the safety argument.

[Wolfshade]

Gareth Johnson, the Conservative MP for Dartford, has called for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to more frequently consider charging with manslaughter rather than death by dangerous driving. He argues that this would allow life sentences to be handed out, rather than a maximum of 14 years.


CTC, the national cycling charity, have been one of the groups campaigning for a sentencing review. Roger Geffen, Campaigns and Policy Director, said:
“Driving is unique among day-to-day activities, in that a momentary lapse of attention can lead to another person being killed or maimed. CTC’s Road Justice campaign believes the legal system needs to reinforce the responsibilities of drivers for the safety of other road users – particularly pedestrians and cyclists – while recognising that jurors will sometimes be reluctant to convict drivers for crimes they know they could easily have committed themselves.
“The courts need to be much more willing to use long driving bans as a sentencing option, with long custodial sentences being reserved for really serious cases – like that of Alexander Farrar Walter – where there is a significant risk of the driver reoffending. This approach ensures public protection, as well as providing a strong deterrent to prevent bad driving occurring in the first place.”

[Wolfshade]

Following Oxford's light clamp down, the number of cyclists without lights has dropped by 40%

Utah have devloped traffic light singals that sense cyclists:
Matt Luker from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) said that modern bikes were rarely picked up by the old system.
"The old detection system we had relied on detecting metal. Bikes don't have a lot of metal these days so a cyclist can pull up to an intersection and never get a green light. They'd either have to get off and push a button or they would have to wait until a car pulled up to get a green light."

Boardman: 'Get your kids on bikes now or they will die younger than you are'

Boardman said: “For the first time there is now a danger that the next generation’s lifespan will be shorter than ours. Obesity in children is a ticking timebomb across Britain and until we start prioritising cycling as a form of transport and building exercise into young people’s daily lives this problem will only get worse.
“Cycling is a vital life skill that all children should have and is something that children carry with them throughout their adult lives. Bikeability training shouldn’t just be the preserve of children whose schools or local authorities happen to promote cycling - it should be for everyone.
"We’ve taught thousands of young people how to ride bikes but there are still millions of children who are missing out on cycling. Our partnership with Modeshift to encourage positive action at local level will strive to turn this situation around. Positive action at a local level, however small, can have a powerful ripple effect if those actions are replicated widely.”

[Wolfshade]

So a newspaper wrote to the Met for a FOI request to understand the amount of revenue generated by "operation safeway", which saw 2,500 police officers at 170 junctions for a six week period.

During that time 14,000 fixed penalty notices or reports for summons to drivers and cyclists in six weeks.

In that period, 4,085 FPNs or reports for summons were handed to cyclists, over 90% for three offences: riding without lights, contravening traffic signals and riding on the pavement.
The most common driver offences were failing to wear a seatbelt, using a phone and contravening traffic signals.

Operation Safeway, after it was extended into 2014 aeem to raise over £1m for the government.

However, the Met concedes that as it was focused on cycle safety they were fined more frequently than drivers as the met had other means to catch drivers.

The whole purpose was to make cyclists safer in the capital, unfortunately, the TfL stats show that this just isn't happening.

[Deadlift]

Breath taking video, amazing scenery.