Safe Speed Forums

Yup, and I'm up for seeing cyclists fined, but that still doesn't mean you should drive at a speed that means you won't be able to stop if an unlit object appears in front of you, if you do you've only got yourself to blame, or do you disagree?

Can I remind you you are driving a one ton machine in a public space? Damn straight you've got to be careful.

It is quite possible that you could be driving perfectly safely on a unlit motorway on dipped headlights and not see, for example a tyre carcase.

If road user A is unlit at night and road user B hits them, why is the responsiblity on road user B? Surely road user A, regardless of whether they are a bike, car or something big, has to share at least half of the responsibility? Surely it is not fair to shun your own personal responsibility and place it on a third party?

...and cyclists are soft and squishy, so need to be carefull when interfacing with nasty, hard 1 tonne machines...

Today, while not going very fast I happened upon a cyclist. I was on a DC and moved to lane 2 in my tractor to give a whole lane for the cyclist to wobble about in, without his lights or helmet.

Surely then if you strike it and come off the motorway then you were NOT driving safely?!

Well, I'd go with that, but in my mind if a car driver rear ends an unlit cyclist there's two offences there; cyclist not lit up correctly; car driver driving too fast for the conditions.

Why do you nfeel that cyclists should wear helmets?

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than when overtaking bare-headed cyclists, increasing the risk of a collision, a British researcher has found.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/653/ ... s-cyclists

According to this guy a blond wig is the best thing to wear when out cycling.

Jeremy Clarkson, nice man that he is, upon reading this stated that before he thought helmets were useless, but now he wished that more cyclists would wear them.

And accordingly the people who would benefit most from wearing helmets (apart from motorcyclist who are compulsed to wear them) are, car drivers and pedestrians. Why don't people tut at them for not wearing a helmet?

That was my point. The only person I know who has suffered a head injury suffered it from falling down stairs when going to the loo in the middle of the night. So make sure you wear a helmet in bed in case you need to go to the the loo

In Holland, where everyone and his spaniel rides bikes helmets are not very much in evidence. And there doesn't seem to be carnage amongst cyclists.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Yeah, but if it's so damn dangerous, why would an 'object' not light themselves up? To prove a point?

Even if you don't care about hitting an unlit cyclist it is worth considering that the unlit object might be something large and heavy such as another motor car or a lorry

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

By Weepej's reckoning then it would be alright to walk along a railway track at night and if you were hit by a train, it would be the train drivers fault for not stopping in time...yep right!

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Because they're f****g idiots?

But then, as I say, so are the people that hit them.

No, train tracks are fenced off, people are NOT permitted to trespass on them.

However, roads are a public space, they are not train tracks.

Two very different situations.

That you appear to think you can drive your car like a train driver drives a train is very telling. I see many people that drive like they're on rails and obviously think the road in front is exclusively theirs.


However if a train driver does strike somebody and it was shown he could've stopped (but at the time was not paying attention) then you would expect them to get into trouble.

You appear to make judgements on peoples driving without knowing any facts. You seem to be the one taking a very blinkered view of road safety. It is every road users responsibility to make the roads as safe as possible and only a total fool would condone behaviour which puts other road users at risk by their own stupidity. Riding a bike without lights, walking on a dark country road without lights or reflectors is both dangerous, frightening and stupid. Driving in fog or poor visibility without headlights is dangerous and highly stupid, regardless of whether the lights on your car help you pick out objects or not, it is the point of lights to help others see you as well as you see them. Your attitude to road safety is a little immature and not really what I would expect from a site dedicated to "safe" speed. Why do you think that laws have been around for many decades insisting on vehicles displaying reflectors and sidelights when parked in dimly lit areas? Do the people who make these laws have less common sense than you....I think not.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

No, I make judgments based on what people write. When people try to draw a comparions between trains and cars for a start it tells me that the car driver spouting that would really rather roads were like train tracks so they didn't have to bother thinking about what's in front of them.




I certainly don't go out on my bike without lights and would'nt recommend anybody does, because there are some idiot vehicle drivers out there that WILL hit you, and it only takes one.

Then again I wouldn't recommend anybody drives at such a speed that means it inevitable that there will be a crash if there's anything unlit in the road ahead of them.

I'm not saying that cars are anything like trains but if people are stupid enough to walk along train lines, cycle without lights, drive with limited lights , walk without trying to make themselves seen and get into the path of traffic moving at ANY speed without taking precautions for THEIR OWN safety AND the SAFETY OF OTHERS, then they are the irresponsible ones.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

"I certainly don't go out on my bike without lights and would'nt recommend anybody does, because there are some idiot vehicle drivers out there that WILL hit you, and it only takes one."

This statement alone just goes to prove how blinkered you are because straight away you are saying that the cyclist without lights isn't the idiot BUT the vehicle driver is!

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

No, they're both idiots. The guy on the bike for not lighting up, and the guy in the car who's driving at such a speed that menas they've no option but to strike an unlit object.

Is it really that hard to understand?!