Calls to ban cyclists from listening to music intensified as the number of riders killed or seriously injured continues to rise.Why a ban? Isn't this a self-correcting phenomenon?
Who is calling for yet another pointless ban, then? Which bunch of Righteous is it this time?
Road safety campaigners fear the fashion for cyclists to wear earphones on crowded streets is partly responsible for the recent upsurge in injuries and deaths.Ahh, I might have known.
And you can always count on someone stepping forward to say yes, this is indeed a big problem, and government should dip a hand into that overflowing bucket of limitless cash we have and chuck some at it:
Edmond King, the president of the AA, called for the Department for Transport to launch a campaign warning cyclists of the risk.You know what, Edmond? You just have warned them. Well, all those that read the 'Dail Fail' anyway, though maybe they aren't the type that would be stupid eno...
Oh. Wait...
The alarming figures have prompted Youth for Road Safety, a new campaign group, to launch Tune into Traffic under the slogan 'Your earphones could kill you'.There! You see, Edmond, no need for 'government' to lash out money, a NGO is doing just that. And their money comes from...
Oh. Wait...
And what do the cycling lobby think of this? Not much, though they have their own spokesman making an idiot of himself:
However CTC, the national cycling group, said that riders should be left to make their own judgments./headdesk
A spokesman said: 'We encourage deaf people to cycle so we don’t think it’s essential to hear traffic in order to ride. You have to be sensible. The most important thing is that you look around you all the time - especially over your shoulder.'
Why, yes. Being deaf is exactly the same as intentionally blocking out your hearing...
6 comments:
Twats.
I keep reading articles saying that the majority of cyclists killed in London are women, even though only a quarter of cyclists are women.
So wouldn't it save more lives if they made it illegal for women to ride bicycles in London?
I think I'll keep on listening to my iPod whilst I'm out on my bike thanks.
However I do keep the volume at a reasonable level so that it doesn't completely drown out the traffic noise as well as keeping an eye on the traffic around me.
The biggest pain I find is pedestrians who step off the pavement without looking or - if they do - not noticing me. Yelling at anyone who looks like they might helps but is useless when they are jacked into their own iPods.
Still, natural selection works on them as well.
I do enjoy shouting " bad cyclist" whenever one of the twats does something stupid and am usually rewarded with a pised off glare.
Having said that, seems lots of
them get injured by lorries turning left at traffic lights so I'm quite happy for their general practise of ignoring the red light and turning left anyway to be legalised ( provided that they also turn most traffic lights to flashing amber after the evening rush hour (= proceed with caution, you know, like grown ups )
"So wouldn't it save more lives if they made it illegal for women to ride bicycles in London?"
Can't wait to see the CiF articles that would provoke!
"The biggest pain I find is pedestrians who step off the pavement without looking..."
Yup, it's geting to be a plague, especially around London. Try that in Singapore and they'd be a lot poorer...
"...proceed with caution, you know, like grown ups ..."
Problem being, grown-ups seem to be in increasingly short supply...
"We encourage deaf people to cycle so we don’t think it’s essential to hear traffic in order to ride." Followed by "You have to be sensible."
Cognitive dissonance 101.
Welcome to Merrie England, home of brains.
.............and in other news, the Equal Opportunity lobby want to encourage Blind Cyclists too.
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