Cars, taxis and lorries will be banned from one of London’s most notorious junctions in a ground-breaking road safety measure to start in April.
Well, I suppose it's
one answer. It's an utterly stupid one, mind you...
It comes after Cambridge graduate Ying Tao, 26, died after being hit by a turning HGV as she cycled through the junction on her way to work in June 2015.
And what were the circumstances?
Other witnesses told how she ‘struggled to get momentum’ when trying to start moving, and that neither the lorry nor a taxi behind it were indicating left as they waited for the lights to change.
Witness Ian Hamilton said: ‘Given the congestion that morning, the lorry was quick away from the lights. Given the number of cyclists there, it wouldn’t have hurt to have held back slightly.’
It wouldn't have hurt
her to do so either. Would it?
Trevor Merralls, of the United Cabbies Group, said he they (sic) would fight the plan “every inch of the way.”
I wish them the best of luck. Because this is the future, unless these idiots are stopped from demanding all other vehicles are subordinate to them...
Ying Tao was criticised by the police for being too slow. You claim she should have hung back. Which means she would have been on the inside of a truck turning across her. If she had waited she'd still be dead. The driver wasn't indicating, his truck warning sensor was broken and he turned across a cycle lane without checking.
ReplyDeleteSince it is cyclists that are in the most danger here, wouldn't it be better to ban them because they can't use the junction safely?
ReplyDeletePresumably banning cyclists from the location was never on the table as an obvious solution?
ReplyDeleteAs yet larger tranches of our streets are given over to these lycra clad parasites, I wonder just how long it will be until there is no space left for the rest of us who actually pay for the 'privilege'
ReplyDeleteWhy is the answer to things like this always to ban things? What happened to personal responsibility? I would never dream of cycling up alongside a truck at a junction and if one pulls up alongside I would be very wary of the fact that the driver probably can't see me.
ReplyDeleteRobert, Are you suggesting that riding a bicycle means that I don't pay any taxes? Road building and maintenance is paid for out of general taxation, toward which I pay roughly half my income. I also have a car which I have to tax even though, during the summer, I hardly use it.
Stonyground
Stonyground
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, that is almost EXACTLY what I am saying.
I also tax my Jeep though I only use it a bit on weekends, that taxation does NOT get me free use of one or other of my motorcycles. Road building etc. is indeed paid for out of general taxation, ever since 1936 when MacMillan decided that the road tax should just be thrown in the pot with everything else instead of being used only for the roadsa as designed. There was, and is , a big surplus so government decided to steal it 'for our own good'.
For information, I currently work as a motorbike courier, Oil and Gas being in the doldrums, and spend much time avoiding lycra clad parasites and other pedalscum going through red lights, wrong way up one way streets and doing illegal turns to give much of a shit about any of them; if you are not such, good, but perhaps you should police some of your compatriots.
"You claim she should have hung back. Which means she would have been on the inside of a truck turning across her. If she had waited she'd still be dead."
ReplyDeleteNot if she's hung back long enough to see the driver indicate as he moved off, no.
"Since it is cyclists that are in the most danger here, wouldn't it be better to ban them..."
Yes. But clearly no-one has the balls for a fight with these entitled dicks.
"..I wonder just how long it will be until there is no space left for the rest of us who actually pay for the 'privilege'"
When the powers that be realise they aren't getting their Ocado deliveries, the cyclopaths will see a 180 change in their favoured status!
"Why is the answer to things like this always to ban things?"
Because those in charge are cowards. Lazy cowards, at that.