Calderdale MBC warn against 'killer bikes'.

This will cheer you up...

First read this from the Bike Biz site...

Is this man fit for his job?

Think carefully before buying a child a bike for Christmas, is the
message from Calderdale's road safety officer, reports the Huddersfield
Daily Examiner. RSO Peter Shepherdson blames the child cyclist victims
involved in RTAs. Peter Shepherdson, Calderdale's road safety officer,
said:

"Pre-teenagers, bicycles and roads are a cocktail for disaster. We warn
young children away from knives and fire, yet we give them bikes
knowing that in most cases they will be ridden on the road without
supervision or any regard for the Highway Code."

Shepherdson told Huddersfield Daily Examiner that in the last five
years 74 Calderdale children had been hit by vehicles, nine seriously.
The newspaper reported that Shepherdson said "it was impossible to
think of anything else which was given to children which had such an
unenviable safety record."

The great majority of road safety officers in other areas will be
shocked by Shepherdson's victim-blaming stance but it's a sad fact that
a small minority of RSOs would love to see less cycling on their patch
because the easiest method to reduce cyclist injury statistics is to
reduce the numbers of people who cycle.

Britain suffers from an epidemic of 'Health & Safety' measures yet the
step that would have the greatest impact on injury reduction for all
vulnerable road users - the taming of cars - is a measure beyond the
ken of some RSOs.

OK, now read this press release from Calderdale MBC...

4 November 2005

Killer Bikes

Every Christmas it seems that there are stories of dangerous and
defective toys, but can there be any bigger killer and crippler of
children than the humble bicycle?

http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/council...8844&ref=index


You may, if you wish, contact the Calderdale transportation team on



Or the newspaper ....

Huddersfield Examiner
Switchboard - 01484 430000
Fax - 01484 437789

Email (Newsroom)
(Reader letters)

Address -
Huddersfield Daily Examiner,
PO Box A26,
Queen Street South,
Huddersfield,
HD1 2TD

P.s Google seems to have done something weird with the e-mail
addresses. They should read

transportationteam (at) calderdale.gov.uk

editorial (at) examiner.co.uk (Newsroom)

letters (at) examiner.co.uk (Readers Letters)

wrote in message
oups.com...

tale of numptyism

That's SingletrackWorld's area isn't it?

cheers,
clive

On 10 Nov 2005 12:43:08 -0800, said:

Think carefully before buying a child a bike for Christmas, is the
message from Calderdale's road safety officer, reports the
Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

Just for the record, Huddersfield is in Kirklees, not Calderdale.

Halifax has large signs on the approach to the town cent "Halifax -
a car friendly town". Halifax also suffers greatly from its geography,
possibly making it "about the worse place anywhere to be doing any
cycling"[1].

The story doesn't seem to have been (yet) picked up by the Halifax
local rag: http://www.halifaxtoday.co.uk/

though Mr. Shepardson does seem to be getting a lot of coverage:
http://www.halifaxtoday.co.uk/template/results2.aspx?SearchText=Shepherdson&SearchType=No rmal&PageId=1

[1] http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.cycling/msg/8a17c05ca9e9dd78

--
Alan J. Wylie http://www.wylie.me.uk/
"Perfection [in design] is achieved not when there is nothing left to add,
but rather when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Hot on the heels of my comments about bigotry...

Having taken the trouble to read the newspaper article, I see that the
most inflammatory language is not cited as quotations of Mr.
Sheprdson's views (amazingly, the reporter seems to have embellished
the story). What Sheperdson does say is:

1. There is an age below which children should not be allowed onto the
road without adult supervision. Anyone here who would let a 4 year old
ride a bike on the road unsupervised? No? In that case all that is left
is:

2. Mr. Sheperdson thinks the age at which children become competent (at
least with training) is around 10. I can see that some here might claim
that the age is earlier, but this is intensely subjective and obviously
highly dependent on the individual child.

As to "blaming the victim", not every child involved in a collision
with a motor vehicle is innocent of blame. And even if they were, this
is like stepping onto a zebra crossing half a second before a large
lorry will pass over it at 30mph - you may have right of way, but
you'll still be squashed. Advising parents to make political statements
on your behalf by sending their children out as cannon-fodder is
peculiarly callous.

--
Peter Headland

the reporter seems to have embellished the story

My bad - "reporter" should read "PR flack".

--
Peter Headland

Has someone got angy and taken a hammer to their website? It seems broken.


http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/council...8844&ref=index

wrote in message
ups.com...
P.s Google seems to have done something weird with the e-mail
addresses. ...

P.P.S. - Google Groups modifies any e-mail addresses within a post, in order
to help avoidance of the so-called "Spambots" (automatic harvesters of
e-mail addresses, later sold for use with unsolicited commercial e-mail). If
you are unfortunate enough to be reading messages via Google Groups, you can
still retrieve the modified addresses by clicking on the partially displayed
"link" in the message. Follow the instructions from there.

If you are reading this Usenet discussion group with a "proper" newsreader
(not a web browser), then the e-mail addresses display correctly without the
faff.

--
MatSav

Peter Headland wrote:


As to "blaming the victim", not every child involved in a collision
with a motor vehicle is innocent of blame. And even if they were, this
is like stepping onto a zebra crossing half a second before a large
lorry will pass over it at 30mph - you may have right of way, but
you'll still be squashed. Advising parents to make political statements
on your behalf by sending their children out as cannon-fodder is
peculiarly callous.


First, I should point out that the above material was taken directly
from the BikeBiz site. However, you do seem to have missed the point of
the concern felt by Carlton over at BikeBiz and come to it myself.

No one is suggesting that parents 'make political statements...by
sending their children out as cannon fodder.' The point is that the
whole press release makes absolutely no reference to the need for
drivers to take especial care when there are child cyclists about.
Instead it implies that any parent who lets a child out on the roads
alone is almost willingly sending them to their deaths with no one but
the child and its parent is to blame if this does happen.

The piece comes across as being a classic piece of victim blaming
strongly implying that when a child is killed or injured on the road it
must be assumed that this is entirely the child's 'fault'. ('Too often
parents say, 'Go and play on your bike.' not thinking that their child
will race out onto the road and could be killed or seriously injured.'
'We warn young children away from knives and fire, yet we give them
bikes knowing that in most cases they will be ridden on the road
without supervision or any regard for the Highway Code.' ). How about
telling drivers of the need to make allowances for the limited riding
and risk evaluation skills of young children?

It also parrots the orthodoxy that 'cycling safety' = wear a
polystyrene hat and a high-viz jacket when we all know that the only
truly effective way to improve road safety is to modify driver
behaviour and to hold motorists to be more responsible for their
actions.

The article also implies that as children are killed when cycling it
must cycling which is 'dangerous' ('killer bikes) rather than
highlighting the fact that the actual danger to children is posed by
cars. By the same reasoning Calderdale MBC should be giving out
warnings about 'killer walking' after all many children are hit by cars
whilst walking.

All in whole the article is wholly car-centric and sensational ('can
there be any bigger killer and crippler of children than the humble
bicycle') and calculated to deter anyone from letting their child cycle
at all.

P.s This story has had an update over on the BikeBiz site

http://www.bikebiz.co.uk

UPDATE: TSO's shock comments were "official"

When the Calderdale road safety officer blamed child cyclists for being
hit by vehicles, BikeBiz.com thought Peter Shepherdson may have been
selectively misquoted by his local newspaper. It turns out the story
was based on an official press release entitled "Killer bikes"...

"Every Christmas it seems that there are stories of dangerous and
defective toys, but can there be any bigger killer and crippler of
children than the humble bicycle?" asks the release.

Er, yes. Motor cars hitting them.

The release starts badly and gets worse as it goes on. According to
Calderdale metropoltican borough council, when children put bicycles on
their Christmas wish lists, this creates a "terrible burden of
responsibility for their parents".

RSO Peter Shepherdson plays the scare card: "Too often parents say, 'Go
and play on your bike.' not thinking that their child will race out
onto the road and could be killed or seriously injured. It can and does
happen all too frequently here in Calderdale."

Incredibly, the stand-out quotes from the newspaper story, carried on
BikeBiz.com earlier in the day, are from the official press release:

In the last five years 74 Calderdale children have been hit by other
vehicles and injured, thankfully none fatally, but 9 seriously. Many
more bumps and scrapes go unreported. It is impossible to think of
anything else we give our children which has this unenviable safety
record.

Council Road Safety Officer, Peter Shepherdson is emphatic 'Pre
teenagers, bicycles and roads are a cocktail for disaster.' He added,
'We warn young children away from knives and fire, yet we give them
bikes knowing that in most cases they will be ridden on the road
without supervision or any regard for the Highway Code.

The rest of the release contains some basic, common sense advice but
that will be lost on those parents who may now be convinced that
bicycles are death-traps, a message that local bicycle retailers are
incensed about.

http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/council...8844&ref=index