Safe Speed Forums

OK- probably the reason why my hot little fingers drove me to some "quiet forum moments"


Not sure whether this belings in "Cycling".. "Improve" or here..


As you know I get CW each week. Rob Garbutt (editor) usually talks some sense


This is his leader column and an anecdote of a recent ride of his.

However, it does raise one or two issues and basically tells weepej what Big Tone has been trying to this week


OK Rob Garbutt refers to this driver as

THE NEW MENACE



Note .. these are the words of a keen cyclist who edits a SERIOUS CYCLING MAG. At first I thought "another case of the cylist not knowing what they want and vever being satisfied .. but perhaps my initial reaction was very wrong.. or ...

In Rob's editorial he writes that he was aware of a car beind him for some time and wanting to overtake.




A bit like the speedo glances becoming more rapid as a driver goes past a speed cam Be honest.. you all do it. I noted some drivers I observed today in a big cam-infest 'burb doing this. :yikes;

I think Rob might have been being followed by our "hedgehog," ( only pulling your leg - don't get all prickly here , ) Jub Jub or even spinny here

cos..

he goes on to remark that his glances just seemed to "unsettle the driver who dropped further back




Exactly like we all mean by "evaluating the ride or drive and just considering how ach action was interpreted by another road user


I think he lurks

Rob convinced himself that this driver was never going to pass. But he was totally unprepared for what happened next..

:popcron:



Hmm. The dangers of swallowing the "slow is great" message.

Speed.. no one denies the lethal impact of kinetic forces should a collision occur. But you can die or feel just as meanced at low speed as Rob has just commented on... and in equal danger of being killed too. - which is really what we've be saying all the time on this site and Rob has just proven and supported one of the late (and much missed, but remembered with respect) Paul Smith's many observations on the dangers out there

But slow speed does not make one feel safe as Rob has discovered. It does not make me feel safe if someone in a car is hovering behind me either. I position for an overtake .. move into secondary position to assist this. If they hover behind and are nervous - it does not make me feel safe. I fully understand Rob here.

And as for usual - we are back to COAST. Back to Franklin's Cyclecraft.. Richard Peace's excellent writings in C Plus mag.. and various in CW mag.

But thank you Rob Garbutt - editor of CW mag for a very thoughtful comment and thought provoking comment - and I trust - if you do lurk - that you do not mind my posting it up for comment on a motoring site. I know exactly what you mean and it's just like coming across the "insanely slow" or poorly parked on a normal A road

I do have an edge on most though.. I can make sure the twazak gets brought ot account for such stupidity

I do suggest all browse and buy if something of interest. It's a good mag though.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

No, No! This can't be right! Surely slow is good? And so even more slow must be even more gooder?

You must be careful. You will scare our "please drive slllloooowwwllllyyyy guests out of their complacency!

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www.thatsnews.org.uk / www.thatsnews.blogspot.com / http://thatsmotoring.blogspot.com/

"courteous"???!?

Completely flippin' incompetant would be somewhat more accurate- why does this cyclist chap, who is obviously on the ball enough to be "unsettled" by a follower, therefore reconising insecurity on the part of the driver, decide to use the word courteous?

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

This 'invasion' of space is a real clue as to the 'dangerous drivers around us'.

I think - although there are some real downsides to it that pulling up and stopping - i.e. indicate left and stop, (on a straight) to allow the following car to overtake can avoid this potentially disastrous scenario.
it also occurs to me when he 'turned to look' did he do so just to the 'right' or did he too look back left i.e. to see if a left indicator was on? This would have told him that he was following slowly to go left and was simply following him waiting, and perhaps he just got fed up going so slowly ... so 'punished, by scarring,' and deliberately cut him up. Very bad & not COAST...

I assume it was a bicycle? When I cycled around London, when the seat belt guide became Law I was slightly hit by a car, cut up by many all in that one week. And one was a bit like this but in London the car can be around you for a while when it is v busy. But I have had cars just turn - either because I am in their blind spot, or they just forgot to pay attention and 'look'.
It was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for Sherlock Holmes, who said that 'they see, but they do not look!'.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

As Paul (and others) have stated in the past, anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all.

However.

I find slow drivers tend to be bad drivers when it comes to skills such as, oh, I don't know, say:

Consideration
Observation
Anticipation
Space
Time

Not to mention lack of spatial awareness and the notion that indicator usage is discretionary.

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Simon