Red Alert

UK approach to bad drivers

Posted by Trevor Mallard on November 8th, 2009

A cross-party group will have a discussion in a couple of weeks following my incident and Nikki’s accident. We think that there is an opportunity to promote cycle safety.  This article in The Guardian outlines one approach.

In the interim, I will try a 115k fun ride in the Waiarapa today as the last long ride before the Nikki-less Taupo ride.


10 Responses to “UK approach to bad drivers”

  1. Spud says:

    Great article but I don’t think they should be worrying about the decision prosecutors make because they aren’t part of those cases and don’t know all the facts, I’m sure they had their reasons.

    I’m sorry that you and Nikki have had such lousey experiences with drivers. A safety awareness campaign sounds like a great idea. :-)

  2. Spud says:

    My comment vanished without a trace 8O Maybe it got hit by a cyber car. :-(

  3. Spud says:

    vrooooooommmmmmm

  4. Nathan Mills says:

    Just spent a couple weeks in the Middle East, in one of the countries whose driving is regularly mocked (organised chaos with a soundtrack of blaring horns) Funny thing, I felt safer there than driving on the motorway from the airport at rush hour when I got back to Auckland! Kiwi drivers are so damn aggressive, it’s not funny. For every driver whose courteous, there’s another who’ll cut you off or speed up to prevent you merging. Don’t know why, I guess it’s so they get there that millisecond quicker!

  5. Spud says:

    A cycling saftey compaign sounds like a good idea. :-)

  6. Spud says:

    Sorry, Trev, I only wrote vrooom because I was certain that the thread wasn’t receiving comments, I didn’t think it would appear :-(

  7. Clare Curran says:

    Your comments were stuck in cyber-space until I approved for some reason Spud. So vroooom got the green light. Wasn’t sure what it meant.

  8. Jeremy Harris says:

    Why not take this as an opportunity to push for cycling infrastructure..?

    I find it humourous when people are adamant it’s a motorist vs cyclist issue, it isn’t, it’s a public vs local and central government issue…

    NZ has some of the worst cycling infrastructure in the first world, if we look at North American cities such as Portland in the USA and Vancouver in Canada they have managed to get 10% – 12% of commuters riding to work, Auckland has 1% – 2%…

    They managed it by steady investment in a smart, integrated cycling network, lockers, cycle parks, cycle priority measures and bike racks on buses and trains, they did all this for fractions on the dollar of the cost of road and rail infrastructure to move the same amount of commuters…

    Don’t blame motorists or ,ask why they are on the same unseperated road and ask, “National and Labour where is our cycling infrastructure funding”..?

  9. Spud says:

    @Clare LOL – It was the sound of the cyber car.

  10. Jeremy Harris says:

    *Don’t blame motorist and cyclists,

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