Comments on: Too big? Too fast? Too bad…

By: Treadly and Me

Treadly and Me — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:52:11 +0000

Yep, that would be right: it has the definite ring of a ‘Clarksonism’ about it.

By: mtrauts

mtrauts — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:46:13 +0000

The ‘spike in the steering wheel’ idea is from a column by the very same Mr Clarkson!

It’s available as “Safety measures – who needs them?” in his book “Clarkson on Cars”. It’s a good one.

By: Treadly and Me

Treadly and Me — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:39:31 +0000

I agree entirely with Charlie that driver distraction is a serious problem, in fact I've had a bit of a rant on the topic just recently. The advert that he mentions is part of the "Distracted Drivers Are Dangerous" Campaign by Victoria's Traffic Accident Commission. My reaction was similar to Charlie's, although I'm also disappointed that we have to spend tax payer money to reinforce a message that's so blindingly obvious. Frankly, we shouldn't have to.

And the distraction thing is a large part of my concern about speed: the faster you go, the less reaction time you have. Then add on some of our modern in-car distractions and…well, I'm sure I don't have to draw a picture.

That said, I also take Charlie's point about slow-moving vehicles having their own peculiar dangers for cyclists. If I recall my high school physics correctly, conservation of momentum suggests that a dirty big car (an SUV, perhaps?) doesn't need to be travelling very fast to do a shirtload of damage to an unprotected cyclist or pedestrian.

On Clarkson, I happen to find him a likeable buffoon but it seems his message on speed cameras doesn't travel well to these shores. Assuming what Charlie says is correct—and I have no reason to doubt him—the installation and operation of speed cameras is far more draconian in the UK than here. But I still maintain that speeding fines are not revenue-raising, they are a voluntary contribution made by the reckless, the feckless and the witless.

Nice one from granty. Yeah, I've heard that one before but I'd forgotten all about it. (And I just went looking for who said that but I couldn't find out.)

By: granty

granty — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:56:34 +0000

I wish I could remember now who said it but the quote goes something like this – greatest addition to vehicle, pedestrian and cyclist safety is not a little sign on the steering wheel reassuring the driver that they’re protected by an airbag, but the installation of a large metal spike pointing right up at the drivers head. It reinforces the idea that you are not safe and what you are doing is potentially very dangerous.

By: Charlie B.

Charlie B. — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:19:50 +0000

Looks like a straw-man of Clarkson’s position to me from the articles you’ve linked to. The point is not that going slower is safer – it obviously is. It’s that the situation in the UK where cameras are more frequent and speed limits on some stretches of road have been lowered to well below the natural driving speed for that road, appears to be nothing more than cynical revenue raising (the A3 through my old stomping ground in SW London is a 3 lane divided freeway which was reduced from 70mph to 50mph with the addition of several cameras…). Too many cameras, set at near to zero-tolerance, at limits below what would normally be expected for that road, lead to far more attention being paid to the speedo and less to hazards. Clarkson, as well as decrying cameras, has also said that more traffic police should be on the roads actually doing policing, and with that view I cannot find fault.

The biggest issue in the UK, and I’ve noticed it here in Oz too, is that speed alone is treated as the major cause of accidents in road safety campaigns, when it’s not.

The other day I saw the new TV advert showing the dangers of distracted drivers, and I cheered out loud. About time! It’s almost always inattentive drivers that endanger us cyclists, not speeding ones – every incident I’ve had while riding in cities has been cars travelling at low speed either cutting me up or reversing into me, or idiots opening their door in my path…