Death By Dangerous Cycling - New Laws

[rusty69]

8 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

I have a newt called Tiny.

Oh, go on then. Why is he called tiny? 

[doratheexplorer]

Just now, rusty69 said:

Oh, go on then. Why is he called tiny? 

Because he's quite small

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, doratheexplorer said:

Because he's quite small

No, no, no. Try again! 

[MHS]

3 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

Sorry, but I read this as:

"I'm not going to do that because I'm incompetent!"

Personally I was taught at 17 by my dad to reverse a boat trailer, and found it very easy. It’s very satisfying to put a trailer exactly where you want it at the first attempt. 

 

A friend recently admitted the reason he bought a camper van was that he hated the idea of having to reverse a caravan. 

[George and Dragon]

13 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

This has already been thought of ( http://www.patrol-log.com/2017/01/25/would-putting-a-spike-in-the-steering-wheel-make-driving-safer-for-everyone/  ) light heartedly

Hardly original though. A friend suggested this 40 years ago

[MHS]

1 minute ago, George and Dragon said:

Hardly original though. A friend suggested this 40 years ago

But to be fair to this theory, I was very aware when driving my old Riley that it had no seat belts or crumple zones. Modern cars are so comfortable they may well lull you into a false sense of security. 

[George and Dragon]

54 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Its the horrid, enormous SUV things that charge around all year round and jam up everthing with usually just one person in it trying to look important. They're getting wider and wider too, as are nearly all modern vehicles. Certain so called large performance cars as as wide as a bus and can hold up traffic behind them for miles because they're too wide to pass parked vehicles with enough clearance.

Personally, I'd like to see VED changed to take account of the dimensions of the vehicle (rather like CRT licences for widebeams). If tall, fat cars paid extra manufacturers might be discouraged from offering them in such numbers.

 

[jds_1981]

36 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

Personally, I'd like to see VED changed to take account of the dimensions of the vehicle (rather like CRT licences for widebeams). If tall, fat cars paid extra manufacturers might be discouraged from offering them in such numbers.

 

Seems like overkill. Lots of larger or active families find the space advantageous. New ved sort of takes 'luxury' into account. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vehicle-excise-duty/vehicle-excise-duty

 

[doratheexplorer]

56 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

No, no, no. Try again! 

I stand by my reasoning

[cuthound]

14 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Meanwhile Arguments about who is best qualified to determine stopping distance of a caravan aside :

 

 

 

 

 

As convincing a case as I have ever seen on why cyclists should be compulsory required to carry registration numbers and 3rd party insurance.

 

Also evidence as to why a cycling test and issue of a  licence if you meet the required standard of proficiency is needed. If they had the same points system as car drivers most of those cyclists in the video would have lost their licence before they reached the end of their journey!

Edited August 13, 2018 by cuthound
To add the last paragraph

[cereal tiller]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

No, no, no. Try again! 

He had a Cartilage repaired in Bangkok?

[George and Dragon]

27 minutes ago, jds_1981 said:

Seems like overkill. Lots of larger or active families find the space advantageous. 

 

There are a lot of larger families who should eat less and cycle more.

My experience as a driver suggests that most drivers of monster cars have no passengers, very little regard for other road users and considerable difficulty squeezing their oversized contraption into a standard parking space.

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

He had a Cartilage repaired in Bangkok?

Too cryptic for me CT. 

 

I know Murray hurt his head in Bankok and it made him mumble! 

[doratheexplorer]

7 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Too cryptic for me CT. 

 

I know Murray hurt his head in Bankok and it made him mumble! 

CT's response was fine.  Yours is mysterious.

[mrsmelly]

3 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

There are a lot of larger families who should eat less and cycle more.

My experience as a driver suggests that most drivers of monster cars have no passengers, very little regard for other road users and considerable difficulty squeezing their oversized contraption into a standard parking space.

All very true. Problem is people today buy and use all sorts of useless expensive crap when say going off on holiday in their cars

.when my two girls were young in the early eighties we travelled six times a year from Yorkshire to Cornwall on holiday in a variety of cars to include an Austin 1100 and a mark two escort 1300. We carried everything needed in those small cars which are now tiny against much of the monstrous crap people block the roads with.

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, bizzard said:

Certain so called large performance cars as as wide as a bus and can hold up traffic behind them for miles because they're too wide to pass parked vehicles with enough clearance.

 

Indeed,  if there isn't enough clearance to pass a parked car, you will have to wait until the owner moves it ?

[rasputin]

4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

*If you passed your driving test after 1/1/97 you are not allowed to tow a trailer in excess of 750kg

 

 

That is not correct

[Alan de Enfield]

3 minutes ago, rasputin said:

That is not correct

I accept there is a bit more to it :

 

If you passed a car test on or after 1 January 1997 you're limited to vehicles up to 3,500kgs maximum authorised mass towing a trailer up to 750kgs, or a vehicle and trailer combination up to 3,500kgs MAM providing the MAM of the trailer doesn't exceed the unladen mass of the towing vehicle.

[rasputin]

and that bit more changes the weight limit from 750kgs to a theoretical 1750kgs

[Wanderer Vagabond]

14 hours ago, MJG said:

Yes I was a registered nurse but I began my career as a nursing assistant, when I get home from France I can scan and copy my SRN certificate and post it here. Qualified in 1980 at South tees district school of nursing.

 

The relevance is about credibility. You have purported to be an ex copper, so are you?

 

 

This nonsense regarding caravans began with your facile comment,"...Cycling on the public highway should be banned.They are a bloody nuisance.

Cycleways only for them that insist on riding a bike and a jail term if they don't wear a helmet.End of...." I have merely pointed out that there are a number of drivers (I wouldn't class myself as being amongst them) who hold caravans in a similar light and would prefer them (and lorries) to only travel at night.

 

Why you have chosen some infantile 'willy waving' I have no idea but since you demand the details, I have spent 30 years as a front line response patrol officer, Vehicle Pursuit trained (yes, I'll be the one following the stolen vehicle), HOSTD trained (placing the vehicle 'Stinger' across the road), Search Team trained (looking for explosive devices. etc), PSU trained (Riot Officer, passing the annual fitness test every year up to retirement), HOLMES trained (having worked on a number of murders) and have certainly had far more dealings with the mentally ill than you are ever likely to have had. I chose to remain on the front line as I had no interest in becoming a 'desk jockey' which it seems you may have decided to do in later years. What has all this got to do with the current discussion? Nothing, as far as I can tell.

 

[Alan de Enfield]

10 minutes ago, rasputin said:

and that bit more changes the weight limit from 750kgs to a theoretical 1750kgs

No - it changes to weight limit to the weight of the car - someone towing with a VW Golf can only tow an 800kg trailer.

 

The ever increasing introduction of Hybrid cars opens up another can of worms as the majority of the 'standard family saloons' have not been homologated for towing.

[rasputin]

but someone towing with a Vitara can tow 1200kgs and a Kia Sportage 1400kg

 

Edited August 13, 2018 by rasputin

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

This nonsense regarding caravans began with your facile comment,"...Cycling on the public highway should be banned.They are a bloody nuisance.

Cycleways only for them that insist on riding a bike and a jail term if they don't wear a helmet.End of...." I have merely pointed out that there are a number of drivers (I wouldn't class myself as being amongst them) who hold caravans in a similar light and would prefer them (and lorries) to only travel at night.

 

Why you have chosen some infantile 'willy waving' I have no idea but since you demand the details, I have spent 30 years as a front line response patrol officer, Vehicle Pursuit trained (yes, I'll be the one following the stolen vehicle), HOSTD trained (placing the vehicle 'Stinger' across the road), Search Team trained (looking for explosive devices. etc), PSU trained (Riot Officer, passing the annual fitness test every year up to retirement), HOLMES trained (having worked on a number of murders) and have certainly had far more dealings with the mentally ill than you are ever likely to have had. I chose to remain on the front line as I had no interest in becoming a 'desk jockey' which it seems you may have decided to do in later years. What has all this got to do with the current discussion? Nothing, as far as I can tell.

 

This nonsense was started by my making some quite opinionated comments to see if any body would bite, and of course you did.

 

I also finally got an answer to my question too, bonus.

 

As to the infantile desk jockey comment, unfortunately remaining as a 'frontline' nurse back then wasnt really an option if you wanted to raise a family and have a comfortable lifestyle with extras like holidays so i opted to go into management. 

 

Things have changed in recent years with different roles and higher corresponding salary but for me that wasn't an option.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

1 hour ago, MJG said:

This nonsense was started by my making some quite opinionated comments to see if any body would bite, and of course you did.

 

 

Your 'opinionated comments' were not, sadly, backed up with much knowledge. During the last 25 years of my working life I cycled to work every day, a distance of between 18 and 24 miles each day (excluding the occasions I rode to headquarters a 50 mile round trip). This equated to about 5000 miles per annum. Oddly enough the views/opinions of someone who clearly doesn't ride a bike, trying to tell me that I'd been getting it all wrong for the past 125,000 miles doesn't have very much in the way of credibility. I may well die on the bike tomorrow but it wont be because I'm not wearing a helmet, it will be because someone has hit me with either half a ton of car or several tons of lorry, neither of which a helmet will do anything remotely constructive to prevent. The statistics of helmet use is ambiguous to say the least. In Australia where they were made compulsory the number of people hurt in cycling accidents dropped because it discouraged people from cycling and there were therefore fewer cyclists. What this probably did was increased the obesity problem so people were selecting other ways to die.

 

In keen cycling countries, The Netherlands, Denmark, cycle helmets are a comparative rarity, except on children for the reason I indicated earlier. They will prevent injury for someone who is falling sideways off a stationary cycle and hitting their head on the road unbraced, which is what a child may well do, I stopped doing that many years ago. If cycle helmets were constructed to the same standard as motor cycle helmets (rather impractical since the user would then seriously overheat) there would be more of a case, wearing half a melon on your head as a 'safety helmet' barely addresses the issue.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Wanderer Vagabond

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Your 'opinionated comments' were not, sadly, backed up with much knowledge. During the last 25 years of my working life I cycled to work every day, a distance of between 18 and 24 miles each day (excluding the occasions I rode to headquarters a 50 mile round trip). This equated to about 5000 miles per annum. Oddly enough the views/opinions of someone who clearly doesn't ride a bike, trying to tell me that I'd been getting it all wrong for the past 125,000 miles doesn't have very much in the way of credibility. I may well die on the bike tomorrow but it wont be because I'm not wearing a helmet, it will be because someone has hit me with either half a ton of car or several tons of lorry, neither of which a helmet will do anything remotely constructive to prevent. The statistics of helmet use is ambiguous to say the least. In Australia where they were made compulsory the number of people hurt in cycling accidents dropped because it discouraged people from cycling and there were therefore fewer cyclists. What this probably did was increased the obesity problem so people were selecting other ways to die.

 

In keen cycling countries, The Netherlands, Denmark, cycle helmets are a comparative rarity, except on children for the reason I indicated earlier. They will prevent injury for someone who is falling sideways off a stationary cycle and hitting their head on the road unbraced, which is what a child may well do, I stopped doing that many years ago.

I didn't say wearing a helmet protected you from a collision/impact with a car, so you wasted a lot Of time typing that little lot.