Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Are bicycles supposed to stick to the 20mph speed limit?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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There is no difference at all. A cyclist who hits someone / something at 30 mph will be more badly injured than if he were travelling at 20 mph.
As an aside, motor vehicles are designed to minimise injury to pedestrians: bicycles generally have sharp metal edges like mudgards, gear selectors pedals. I would much rather be hit by a car at 20 mph, than by a bicycle at 30 +.
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Permalink Reply by LSquared on
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John, you could take every single cyclist off the road altogether and the impact on road KSI numbers would be negligible and almost entirely due to the reduction in damage done to cyclists.
I appreciate you have personal experience of someone being seriously injured by a cyclist but statistics show the vast majority of damage done to people on the roads and pavements is done by drivers.
So, assuming you genuinely care about reducing damage to people and this isnt just some vendetta against people on bikes, you'll do more good advocating for proper enforcement of good driving standards. Yes, with unlimited resources of course we should enforce standards for all, but out here in the real world the priority should be to make most effective use of the limited resources by addressing the greatest dangers first.
(Also, 90kg @ 30 mph vs 1000+kg @ 20 mph? I think I'd take my chances with the bike thanks)
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I don't want to take any cyclists off the road, or drivers for that matter.
I would just like all road users to obey the laws, for my safety and theirs, not because they are forced to, but because they choose to.
And, again for reasons of safety and not because I have a particular down on bicycles, I think speed limits should apply to cyclists.
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Why is this hypothetical car doing 20mph and the bike 30, when the reality is far more likely to be vice versa?
As for the law, I believe one of the reasons speed limits don't apply to bikes (and horses etc.) is that they're not required to have a speedometer, so there's no way someone can be expected to know how fast they're going.
I'm confident and (relatively) fit, and would quite happily cycle around residential streets at 20 max, but am frequently intimidated into riding faster than I'd like to by the consistent aggression of drivers. Given that the authorities make *no* attempt to stop drivers breaking the law, expecting any sort of enforcement of cyclists 'speeding' seems unreasonably disproportionate.
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You missed my point. I'll put it another way.
Even if every single cyclist never broke the law and (more importantly) cycled with perfect care at all times, the impact on roaf KSI numbers would be negligible. (Even less effect than the "no cyclists" scenario because you dont even lose the cyclist injury component since statistics show it's usually wholly or partially driver fault.)
So while your desire to see all road users obey the laws is laudable, I still dont understand why you feel the need to rail against cyclists in particular. Seems perverse given where the actual danger lies.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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As a pedestrian I stroll around in the hope that road traffic vaguely sticks to the rules of the road. So if I'm crossing a one way street, I tend to look in the direction that traffic is supposed to be coming from. Something coming in the opposite direction is a bit of a surprise for me (and for people driving their cars I would imagine). Yes, of course I'd be far more damaged by a car hitting me than I would be by a bike. In fact the bike users would probably be as damaged as I was. But simple courtesy would seem to be uppermost here, and a recognition that pedestrians, almost without exception, have priority
PS - most cyclists I come across are very courteous but it's the barmy ones you tend to remember. Same goes for car drivers. -
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It would be more pertintant to refer me to threads where you expend equivalent effort objecting to lawless and careless behaviour from drivers (or ideally more effort, as befits the more serious problem)
It's terribly depressing that socially we accept driver behaviour which kills thousands annually and rail against cyclist behaviour that kills less than one person a year.
Of course both are wrong, but to treat the same offense if committed on a bike as of equivalent gravity to committing it in a car seems a triumph of the letter of the law over the spirit.
And incidentally I drive and cycle and I don't go the wrong way up one way streets in either vehicle. I would passionately like to see road users held to higher standards then they are today, but it should start with the biggest problem first, and that's drivers by both numbers and by consequence. -
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Permalink Reply by CanadianMichael on
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> But a significant proportion of them do.
I hope you didn't experience any discomfort after pulling this 'fact' out.
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We should set up vigilante group to patrol the ladder and gardens and deal with these so called cyclists.
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