CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Letters written to some lenders-of-support to the NWC who, in my opinion, should have known better and at least have abstained from it altogether.
They're not mad, or angry, they're dissapointed letters and I hope in a productive tone of voice.
Will work on some letters to elected persons next.
Thinking more about this, the thing that really annoys me about the red light advert - and confirms the car-centric bias of the whole campaign - is the fact that cyclists are being asked not to jump red lights as it gives cyclists a bad name, not because:
1. It's illegal
2. It's potentially dangerous to you
3. It's potentially dangerous to other road users, especially pedestrians
All better reasons for not doing it, I think.
Even more annoying is the fact that all the reasoned responses to this campaign are being rejected on the basis of "research" or claims that because we are cyclists that we somehow "don't understand" the campaign.
Has anyone seen the NWC bus ads yet?
Couldn't snap as picture but basically it has arrows pointing left saying "NEVER" to bikes passing on the left, and an arrow saying "If you must" pointing to the right.
Am I just being indignant or is this totally patronising drivel once again?
It adds to the idea that we're an annoyance that needs to be tolerated. "Overtake a BUS? Don't be ridiculous - oh well if you have to - try and not kill yourself with your crazy completely road legal manoeuvre."
Seriously???? Okay, I'm looking out for that on my way home tonight....
They're on the back of a lot of Lothian buses (I saw one that was almost falling out and was tempted to grab it but then remembered that's vandalism)
It does show even the NWC aren't that impressed with the usefulness of the QBC ...
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Almost a year ago, the BBC made a program entitled “War On Britain’s Roads”. Many people who were approached about the idea welcomed it with open arms, as if it was finally something that evenly shows what is really happening on the roads with no bias. Wrong.
It turned out to be, essentially, a 60 minutes of cyclist-shaming that mostly showed the most extreme cases of cyclists being at fault. The cycling community was angry, and were right to be.
- See more at: http://insalita.com/editorials/the-nice-way-code-safety-campaign/#sthash.wWBoa41W.dpuf
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http://insalita.com/editorials/the-nice-way-code-safety-campaign
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tom watson (@EdinburghTom)
07/08/2013 18:49
@cocteautriplets Here's 1 4 u: Cyclist may pass vehicles, but only "if they must".
http://pic.twitter.com/582HsZn23s
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Nice one - tell potential cyclists that passing a bus on either side is near lethal while giving drivers who see cyclists passing a bus another reason to criticise them, in four words - impressive.
I'm assuming the posters telling drivers to stay out of cycle and bus lanes, as required by the highway code, are being published tomorrow...aren't they?
This poster really annoyed me when I was sitting behind a bus today though couldn't put my finger on why. Just seems like campaign is full of "don't"s for cyclists, and feel like we're being treated like naughty children.
Although the overall message is right, in fairness the "If you must" wording is not great. The previous warning stickers that started appearing on buses a wee while ago were better.
If we're not supposed to overtake buses, my commute home is going to take longer, as I'm sure most of yours will too. Sod that.
So, taking an authoratative/authoritarian tone is okay if:
1. The target is cyclists
2. It's done in a "nice" way.
3. The phrasing conveys a vague overtone that you might be joking/not entirely serious (except that you are *very* serious, if you see what I mean).
1. There are many occasions on which it is safe to go down the left of a bus. There are many when it's not. It is not a clear cut "Nope".
2. "If I must"? Where's the big poster of a car saying "if you must". Yes I bloody well must as there's no other way to get past the bus seeing as this sign has banned me from using a cycle lane or a filter lane up to an ASL.
Ridiculous. I thought I was angry already, this has taken it to a new level.
What was wrong with the Streets Ahead Edinburgh posters? They were good, looked nice and had a message of care, not outright banning or otherwise.
Maybe I did it all wrong, using the marked little lane for cyclists to access the advance stop box placing me to the left and slightly ahead of the bus. He'd certainly seen me. I'd looked round to see if he was indicating left or right. We were each aware of the other.
That didn't stop him flooring it when the lights were amber and, in effect, racing me round the corner onto Princes Street. The scary bit was just the moment when he was bringing the front round and his tail was coming in a little too close on the left when I had to decide whether to stop (no), leap onto the pavement, go faster or be squished. Went faster. I looked back at him and got the silent hands up big "WHAT?" Maybe he was in complete control and was planning to stop or something. Scared me.
As I say, I'm willing to accept that for some reason I shouldn't be legally using appropriately marked bits of the road where it involves passing a bus on the left but really if you can't pass a bus in Edinburgh you're not going to be going anywhere. It seems to me that in general, and in this specific instance, the problem is (a) the system - the design and arrangement of the road and mixing two fundamentally incompatible types of vehicle and (b) the driver. I mean racing round a corner? With his bus?
I'm worried this will make previously "nice" bus drivers feel that cyclists don't have the right to pass them and therefore be "not nice" instead.
"if you must" use the road at all, then learn your place, to be lectured and looked down on by all and sundry
the f***ing c***s treat us like p***ks
Don't use cycle lanes in the city. Don't cycle on the pavement. Don't go right side of a bus unless you're feeling brave.
Is this legal, honest and truthful? Will play to the gallery very nicely and give drivers like the one Insto met a sense of civic duty by making cyclists scurry around in fear of their lives.
Worse still is the effect such unhelpful messages will have on less cycle - friendly cities.
Instography's experience is unusual here as LRT are bike aware. Other parts of Scotland less so.
Is there anyway these posters can be cancelled? I'm happy to take whoever created them across central Edinburgh using the stay behind the bus method versus a responsible shared road use method (as Insto was doing). Either way there will be scary moments but one will take twice as long...
Net effect of this is that some bus drivers will ensure they queue on bike lanes to enforce being 'nice' to us.
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The whole argument over the Nice Way Code has been pretty heated. Emotions have been, understandably, very high. But in the cold light of day, when you apply a bit of logic I think it is pretty clear. Spending on education just won't work where the environment is designed with only one mode of transport in mind. Get some real investment in proper infrastructure going and yes, advertise away. Then you would have something safe to advertise about.
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http://www.magnatom.net/2013/08/the-infrastructure-is-fine.html?m=1
Well the Nice Way Code has done a good job of pointing out the woeful lack of infrastructure for cyclists in this country and the failure of the Scottish Government to take it seriously. However, one suspects that was not the intended aim of the Ad campaign. They were told that it go down like a lead balloon, but choose not to listen. Call me Cassandra...
On Sauchiehall Street this evening I watched as a lady looked behind her and pulled out from a parking space on the right-hand side of the road, crossed the road right in front of me and then stopped, and started to reverse into a different parking space to my left.
I saw it all in plenty of time and had stopped, half in amazement, thinking "Do I even exist?", then rode around her 4x4 to avoid getting run over, paused at her window to have a word, but it was shut and she was looking over her left shoulder.
I thought she was ever so nice for not killing me for occupying the same bit of road she wanted to park on.
The creatives -
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MTP (@MTPtweets)
05/08/2013 17:37
See the final creation after some horsing around for @CyclingScotland - directed by @guypfilms with @NewhavenAgency
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Lance Fuller (@lfuller)
05/08/2013 09:29
It's On! Cycling Scotland Nice Way Code Horse Ad w/me & @RileyMadincea
Thanks! @MTPtweets @RCStweets @NewhavenAgency
The actors acted well and they were well produced, so in that respect they earned their money. They can't be held responsible for what they were being asked to do (and of course wont have seen the end product until well after their work was complete).
They're the talent. The creatives are the <remembers where he is and that he should pretend his mum is in the room> people who came up with the ideas.
I keep meaning to congratulate Uberuce on getting that bike over the gate in that jacket.
"They're the talent. The creatives are the <remembers where he is and that he should pretend his mum is in the room> people who came up with the ideas"
True, though a bit of both.
Anyway, y'know, we've all got bills to pay. People gotta eat so if they got paid the union rate for the job, good luck to them. I'd no more spread their twitter accounts around than I'd publicise the details of a moron who posted a stupid tweet wanting cyclists run over (or whatever it was you deleted from crowriver's post). ;-)
@Insto, the moron locked his Twitter account, but not his Instagram. Doh!
They didn't even let me keep the jacket...
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Stephan Matthiesen (@St_Matthiesen)
08/08/2013 09:02
#nicewaycode official advice is actually dangerous in many situations
http://nicewaycode.com/2013/08/05/nice-way-code-campaign-update/comment-page-1/#comment-147
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Detailed analysis of that bus ad.
EDIT: Beaten by chdot above, probably a better analysis!
It was interesting posting on Twitter last night about the ad on the back of the buses. A lot of people who cycle commented saying actually it was common sense, that you shouldn't go on the left, and that while 'if you must' could have been worded differently it amounted to the same thing as 'if it's safe'. I really thought this was spectacularly missing the point, but couldn't really put into words. But thought I'd try this morning with a little list.
1. Bus Stops
It was mentioned by many that passengers get on and off on the left of a bus, so it's not right to go up there. Surely this means you shouldn't go up the left of a bus when it's at a stop - whereas while stuck in traffic, if there's space, it should be fine? LRT are remarkably strict about not letting you on or off unless you're at a stop.
2. It's safer on the right
Undoubtedly often true, but not always. There isn't a blanket, 'it's always dangerous on the left, safe on the right' consideration. Sometimes it'll be safer and easier on the left, sometimes on the right. Everything boils down to the circumstances, and those circumstances may dictate that passing on the elft is the better option. The NWC advert doesn't allow for any of that subtle nuance of road use. Just 'NOPE' for passing on the left. Ever. Bus stopped in a queue that's not moving and a clear cycle lane to the left, don't use it. Instead, use it to go up the inside of cars, then when you reach the bus swerve round the back of it, to emerge blind 'if you must/if it's safe', then move back into the cycle lane once past. Repeat for each bus you come to.
3. Contradiction
Cycle lanes, and feeder lanes to ASLs, are put on the left by the powers that be. They tell us these lanes make for safer cycling (viz. the QBC). Motorists tell us to stay in them, and gripe that we don't use facilities when they're provided. Then we're told, actually, those lanes aren't safe, you better not use them to go past buses, and see where we painted a cycle lane that goes past a bus stop... Well... We were only joking. The worst thing about this aspect is that cycle lanes are most certainly the prime domain of the novice cyclist - because they've been told they're safe, and because they don't necessarily have the roadcraft yet to apply the nuances. Novice cyclist in the lane, told they have to go to the right of a bus thinks either, "Ooh, I don't like that, I think I might stop cycling if this lane is dangerous", or "I must be breaking a law here by going inside a bus."
4. Driver Psyche
So you're cycling along in a cycle lane. There's stationary traffic, a bus ahead, nowhere near a stop, you go past the bus, the world keeps turning. The motorist behind the bus thinks, "See those bloody cyclists,l always breaking the rules", the taxi driver tells his fare "I'll bet he goes through the red light ahead, just like on that advert, they all do it", and the bus driver thinks, "I've got a sign on my back telling cyclists not to go on the left, so I don't really need to check there anymore."
5. It's just plain wrong
So far the NWC ad campaign has said: cyclists aren't really people but more like animals; cyclists, stop doing things that annoy drivers, I mean, if you run a red light it really should be expected that a driver will shout at a completely different cyclist and assume that you all transgress in the same way; and cyclists, don't use the facilities we put in for you, and try not to pass buses if you can help it because the roads are a dangerous place even when we're telling everyone to be nice on them.
Essentially the bus ad is an admission by the NWC that telling people to be nice on the roads will change nothing because passing a bus on the left is suicidal and on the right is still pretty risky.
It would be interesting tow know the stats for Scotland on just how many cyclists had been injured going up the left side of buses at all, as well as how many were so injured going up the left while using a cycle lane.
NWC doesn't do subtlety or nuance. Or even correctly targeted campaigning.
Ramble over.
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