Wednesday 2 July 2014

Well, Karen, How Should Buses Operate, Then?

Neighbours have raised concerns over the safety of a bus route after an eight-year-old boy was knocked down on his bike.
Hmmm, have they really?
Karen Marchant, who has lived in Chesterfield Road for 26 years, said: “We have had a lot of issues with buses.

“They don’t need to be constantly coming up and down, it’s not a good environment for children. “I’m surprised there hasn’t been a bus accident before this.”
So…buses ‘don’t need to be constantly coming up and down’, eh? You mean, ‘sticking to a timetable’? Odd. I thought that was desired.

Maybe Ms Marchant isn’t a bus user, and doesn’t care one whit for those who have no choice?

Of course, in the comments, we get a far, far better standard of journalism, as usual:
LocalMummy2014 says...

I live just off of Chesterfield Road and my child attends the same school as the child involved in the collision...and as another mother I can only imagine what his family are going through right now! The 184 buses are frequent...which isn't a bad thing if people who don't have a car need to get somewhere. The real issue is the lack of Road safety the local children have! There are forever boys in small groups (between the ages of 7 and 16) on bikes in the middle of the road around here (none wearing helmets)...many a time I have had to swerve my car to miss them. They mess about in the road (not saying this is what happened in this collision as I wasn't there to witness it) with no regard for their safety. It could have quite easily been a car instead of a bus...so the answer isn't to reduce the buses or cars for that matter! Children need to be educated properly on road safety...And at the age of 8 I doubt the child had done his cycling proficiency test - the school he attends does it in year 5 and 6 and he is only in year 4. This tragic accident highlights the need for parents to educate their children to stay out of the road and keep safe. Fingers crossed he makes a full recovery!
I dunno about that, LocalMummy2014, I hear Darwin calling…

10 comments:

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX cycling proficiency test XX

Hahahahahaha!

The old superstition that this test keeps you safe from everything, from mad drunken drivers, to the sky falling on your head.

Whilst I was at school, and later a copper in the station that was responsible for these "tests" for the local area, it was always my experience that the biggest idiots, and number of accidents came from those that had taken the cycling proficiency test, NOT those that had not.

Anonymous said...

Furor Teutonicus said...
The old superstition that this test keeps you safe from everything, from mad drunken drivers, to the sky falling on your head.
--------------------------

The commenter was not suggesting that the Cycling Proficiency Test did any of the above but that it might impress on the dim-witted the dangers of pratting around in the middle of a road.
Unless the tests you know of are markedly different from the tests I took as a kid I can't see how they aren't better than no training at all.
The stupidity of kids (and "adults") on bikes around my way suggests that training for a test would at least improve the lives of injured pedestrians and whoever has to scrape untrained morons on wheels off the tarmac.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX it might impress on the dim-witted the dangers of pratting around in the middle of a road.XX

But the test DIDN'T! That is my point.

It was thoe that had passed the "test" that WERE pratting around.

We see the same with Volvo drivers "You are not my problem, I am driving a tank!" Those that took this "Test" were exactly the same mind set.

As always, YOU may be the most perfect driver/cyclist the world has ever seen, but you are sharing the roads with people who can not tie their own shoelaces without endangering the life and safety of whole countys.

MTG said...

@ FT

I am in awe at those bringing unique talents to bear upon cycling safety.

So permit me to be the first who will acknowledge top input from a safety trainer whose supreme efforts only failed in the most profound sense.

Ed P said...

The adults, "educated" under Blair's misrule, are the ones in need of safety training. Then perhaps they could teach their feral ratlets.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX
MTG said...

@ FT

I am in awe at those bringing unique talents to bear upon cycling safety.

So permit me to be the first who will acknowledge top input from a safety trainer XX

Hahahaha! Melvyn the pretend doctor shows his ultimate idiocy once more.

WHERE did I say I was ther trainer, Melvyn the idiot?

I would not touch it with a barge pole, for the reasons stated in my post.

Just go and take some cyanide Melv. You will be much more usefull as fertiliser than you are as a "human."

Anonymous said...

Gosh, Führer.
Far be it from me to suggest that wearing a Pickelhaube whilst declaring WW3 from a bunker commode, isn't the best way to spend one's final days.

MTG said...

Dear Fuehrer,

Acquired immunity to Zyklon B resulted in the family tradition of sprinkling cyanide on our Kasha each morning.

Just let me know when you want a pinch for your nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.

JuliaM said...

"The old superstition that this test keeps you safe from everything..."

Well, it's got to be better than 'nothing at all', as anon points out, surely?

"We see the same with Volvo drivers "You are not my problem, I am driving a tank!""

Seems to be Audi drivers over here.

"As always, YOU may be the most perfect driver/cyclist the world has ever seen, but you are sharing the roads with people who can not tie their own shoelaces without endangering the life and safety of whole countys."

So VERY true!


Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Seems to be Audi drivers over here.XX

Nope.

Ask the Motorcycle action group about Volvos. MAG BRITAIN!

HERE it is Mercedes drivers, but....