Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Cyclists and Drivers Issue
We seem of late to be getting a rather high amount of posts which end up being diverted to the the drivers-are-bad-cyclists-are-good or cyclists-are-bad-drivers-are-good debate.
HoL is far from being the only place where these issues are debated and it is an issue that warrants discussion. However, my mailbox suggests that it's not one that perhaps deserves such prominence on a local website. So what we'll try for a bit is to divert discussions here when debate on the issue threatens to take over a thread seeking to address other ground.
As a starter for 10, two links (of which I'm sure there are many others and no HoL doesn't necessarily endorse the views expressed in them ):
- From Wired - 9 Things Drivers Need to Stop Saying in the Bikes vs. Cars Debate
- From the BBC - Why the war between drivers and cyclists?
A note to any who contribute - please recognise that this seems to be an issue which excites heated passions. Please debate with this in mind and keep it polite and respectful.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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Attached is the first diversion - from this discussion (click the image of the discussion to enlarge it).
- Attachments:
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Wightman Cycling.pdf, 1.4 MB
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Well thanks for doing this but your headline does not diverge enough for me from the more likely "Drivers versus Cyclists Issue". How would we feel about "The Gays and Straights Issue"?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Cycling and driving are things you do John, not who you are.
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Right then, let's get this out of the way. If I no longer cycle to work then I am no longer a cyclist, just someone who desperately wants to be one. Perhaps the reason is that I fear for my life doing my cycling out in public and I prefer to get it out of my system at home on a turbo trainer (back to being a cyclist but not offending everyone with my cycling in public).
Yes I'm being VERY provocative here.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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Flann O'Brien disagreed, Michael:
"The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.” Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman.
Hope I'm not treading on OAE's toes. But I do wonder about John M sometimes.
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I was asked to read that book a few years ago (and did) by someone who knew me well but was probably fed up with my out-there assertions. I'm not ashamed of them as over time, they end up right.
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Thanks Gordon. I was about to yell, "Hey, I said that first" as I've long regarded myself as Flann's fourth incarnation in possession of at least 25% of his atoms, but then I noticed your nod in my direction. Indeed I may have quoted that in John's direction some time in the past ten years.
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Permalink Reply by Peter Chalk on
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I do both and I think the best solution for everyone is an outer London congestion charge set at one half of the inner charge.
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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Good idea.
One thing I've noticed is that drivers get very angry when slowed down by a cyclist using the centre of the road. With that in mind I feel that when in a traffic jam drivers must move as far to the side of the road as possible, meaning hugging the kerb parked cars and irrespective of the danger they might cause to themselves and thier car or the public, to allow cyclists to whizz on freely.
I think this seems fair.
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perhaps, perhaps not. like a road this issue goes two ways.
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Permalink Reply by ThaiDi on
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Given the insane traffic in central London (St Paul's/Cannon Street/Holborn) around lunchtime today, I suggest it's time to double the congestion charge for central London too.
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