On 22/12/2010 17:41, Mrcheerful wrote:
Matt B wrote:
On 22/12/2010 16:35, JNugent wrote:
On 22/12/2010 14:27, Matt B wrote:
On 22/12/2010 14:19, Mrcheerful wrote:
Matt B wrote:
On 22/12/2010 13:55, Mrcheerful wrote:
But 100 per cent of the cyclists I have seen in the last 24 hours
broke the law in one significant way or another while I watched.

What were the top 5 "offences" committed IYHO?

Red light jumping (2) and no lights after dark(2), followed by
wrong way in
a one way (1) and pavement cycling (1).

Your sample size was 6? Did any of those "offenders" cause any real
danger to
anyone?

Does it matter what his answer (which would necessarily be based on
only a fleeting impression of the overall situation) would be?

If they'd all caused buses or trucks to swerve out of control, or
similar, we'd have a different picture to the one we now have.

As a parallel, only a small proportion of drivers over the
drink-drive limit on any one night are ever caught. And that's
partly because most acts of drink-driving cause no real danger to
anyone and don't attract the attentions of the police for various
reasons. That doesn't mean that drink-driving is harmless or worth
ignoring, does it?

You tell me. Is there evidence that drink-drivers are over
represented in the accident statistics? I know that a few years ago
some police force somewhere did a Christmas campaign against
drink-driving and "randomly" tested drivers who were not involved in
accidents or traffic offences. They found a larger proportion were
over the limit than for those in the same area who were tested after
being involved in an accident or committing an offence. I've no idea
though how representative that was of reality or whether there have
been studies and there is real evidence that drink-drivers cause more
harm than sober ones.

"I always drive more carefully when I am drunk" someone said.
I have known many people that drove when absolutely hammered on a very
regular basis, many are now dead, but they didn't have crashes as they were
used to it and drove accordingly. whereas an irregular drinker might get
drunk on a smaller amount and be unaware of their condition and not take the
extra care needed.

Just to be clear: the comment immediately above is not reflective of my
position on this topic.