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.
*URGENT*
Closes tomorrow (Friday 1st June) at 11:45pm
The UK government consultation - Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) safety review.
This is the "cycling safety" review brought about by the Charlie Aliston case, but it actually a well written consultation with 6 free-text boxes for you to write what you like in. Strongly recommend to fill it out.
Cycling UK have also created a "quick response" webpage: https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/making-it-safe-cycle-why-wouldnt-you
If anyone wants a template to crib, here's what I wrote:
1/6
Infrastructure:
Build segregated cycle tracks on main and arterial roads. Provide cycle tracks that are convenient, direct and safe. Filter out through-traffic from residential & suburban roads. Give cyclists and pedestrians priority where footways & cycleways cross side-streets. Don't waste time on painted-on cycle lanes. Pedestrianise town & city centres. Pursue a policy of motor traffic reduction. In cities & towns, remove all on-street parking in favour of off-street parking. In cities & towns, all parking should be paid-parking (no free parking). Copy what works abroad e.g. in the Netherlands & Copenhagen - don't reinvent the wheel. Stop building new roads as these only increase traffic via induced-demand. Design roads so that it is physically impossible to exceed speed limits.
2/6
Laws & rules:
Mandate a minimum motor insurance excess of 2 months of salary. (Loss of 2 month's worth of salary would make people think twice about crashing and drive more carefully). Default urban speed limit to be 20mph. Default rural speed limit to be 40mph. 12 points on licence to be an actual ban (no hardship get-out clauses). Drivers who kill should face an automatic driving ban and automatic jail time and a hefty fine (no more £500 slaps on wrist). Introduce strict liability laws. Road safety to be treated the same way as the Health & Safety at Work Act, including a proper safety hierarchy: Elimination, Substitution, Engineering, Admin control, Education, PPE. All crashes and near-misses to be investigated in detail and ways found to prevent re-occurrence (as they do for every other form of transport, planes, trains, ferries, etc.). Make hatred towards cyclists (or any other transport choice) a hate crime.
3/6
Training:
Mandatory for all HGV, bus & coach drivers to attend cyclist awareness training on a regular basis e.g. every 2 years. Mandatory & regular (e.g. every 10 years) competence testing for all drivers. All drivers, that are physically able to, must cycle on a busy main road as part of the driving test.
4/6
Education:
Education doesn't work and is low down in the safety hierarchy
5/6
Vehicles & Equipment:
Mandate GPS controlled speed-limiters in all motor vehicles. Mandate "black box" (vehicle performance recording) in all motor vehicles. Mandate automatic emergency braking in all motor vehicles. Mandatory direct-vision HGV cab design.
6/6
Attitudes & public awareness:
Counter "them versus us" (motorists versus cyclists) type press articles through Police engagement with Social Media - good examples are the West Midlands Road Policing Unit. Cyclists are also motorists & vice-versa. Cyclists are a disparate group - there is no definition of a typical cyclist.
I did this quickly yesterday lunchtime. Suggested:
Also a general moan about crap cycle lanes.
Done. Thanks neddie, I took yours as a template and modified it a bit (added some of Frenchy's comments and some stuff of my own).
Done, thanks @neddie. Some really good points there
For 5 I put in blocking mobile phones in cars and also that touch screens are a major distraction and a safety hazard.
For 6 I added
Less of a them vs us mentality.
Some sections of the press like to demonise "cyclists" and some of the language is downright offensive. This is then picked up and quoted as fact in taxis, offices and pubs around the country. Substitute Cyclists, for "Women" or "Muslims" and ask if they would get away with it.
"Cyclists" include the 6 year old riding to school, the mum doing her shopping, the retiree out for a gentle ride, the commuter, the tourer who is exploring our country. It could be your Mum, child or grandparent. Is that what you mean?
By definition, all cyclists who pay income tax pay road tax too, and most adult cyclists are drivers too.
If PoP or Spokes have shared those, I haven't seen them, so posted on their FBs.
'"Cyclists" include the 6 year old riding to school...'
I'll try and include stuff like this when I rush through it this evening.
Some other good suggestions from others, above ^^
One thing I wished I'd put into 5 (Vehicles & Equipment) is:
Mandatory driver attention and awareness trackers. i.e. a camera facing the driver that detects sleepiness, drunkeness, eyes-off-the-road-for-too-long (e.g. looking down to text), hands off the wheel, etc. In the event of detection, the car should automatically come to a stop.
The options for the 'How frequently do you walk anywhere for 20 minutes without stopping?' question are depressing:
Dunno if I can be bothered with Yet Another Consultation. What are the chances they'll listen to the responses over listening to frothing tabloid outrage at "dangerous cyclists"?
The options for the 'How frequently do you walk anywhere for 20 minutes without stopping?' question are depressing:
Does pausing for the dog to sniff every blade of grass it passes count as stopping? I might not be in the "at least once a week" category if it does...
"Increased and enforced penalties for infractions by drivers of large vehicles which represent a greater danger to the public either through their size/mass/speed or number of passengers - including endorsements for the use of commentary microphones by the drivers of tour buses of all sizes, use of visual devices which are not dedicated satnavs in the driver's eyeline, use of printed/electronic checklists/dockets by delivery drivers when not stopped with the engine off etc."
'How frequently do you walk anywhere for 20 minutes without stopping?
What a bizarre question, trying to weed out ramblers?
Even people ‘going for a walk’ are likely to stop and look at things, or wait every few minutes to cross the road...
I've been asked a similar question about walking in other surveys. I assume this is some kind of definition of "walking as transport". I don't walk for 20 minutes as transport very often because it is usually quicker to cycle!! (I'll walk for hours to get to the top of a hill but that's a whole different thing. I run for 20 minutes or more a lot, but that isn't transport either!)
After getting bicycle I dont walk much, may be cycling is a lazy way to walk-)
I have completed it using many of the points from above (Thanks).
One change I made was to put presumed liability rather than strict.
I would remove rule 61 from the highway code (cyclists should use cycle facilities).
I also added vehicles reporting their location and being traceable in the event of a collision.
"Turnips are not exclusive to cycling - some pedestrians barge along pavements with no thought for others - some act deliberately maliciously. Some drivers drive without thought and consideration, some deliberately drive offensively. The regrettable (but extremely rare) instances of cyclists injuring other cyclists or pedestrians are incomparably small compared to the damage wrought by motor vehicles on pedestrians and cyclists and other motorists."
"Expand the driving theory and practical tests to include several notes on the motor vehicle's potential for causing fatalities - death rates for impacts at various speeds, perhaps an awareness of the huge difference in kinetic energy between unenclosed humans moving at walking, running or cycling speeds and >1000kg vehicles moving at 15mph or more, a breakdown of the stopping distance increase if the reaction time is impaired by the use of electronic devices, but perhaps not the charge or persecution rates of careless or dangerous drivers, which are pathetically low."
Perhaps I should have added a request for better pedestrian priority at traffic light controlled junctions. Having to wait after pressing the button at a puffin/toucan crossing is normally a failed idea.
Still time to get it done...
Does anyone know if this site is reliable?
"In 2016, 18,477 cyclists were injured in road accidents, including 3,499 who were killed or seriously injured."
Can't comment on the site as a whole, but they link to the government's published figures in that article, so those numbers are right at least.
@Frenchy - thanks
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