Common sense

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boydj

Legendary Member
Location
Paisley
Doesn't matter what you wear when you are cycling, as long as you are legal with lights and reflectives at night. If drivers aren't looking properly, then you are in danger. The best aid to your visibility is your road positioning - i.e. ride where drivers are looking - well out from the edge and even further out approaching junctions.
 
OP
OP
Justinslow

Justinslow

Lovely jubbly
Location
Suffolk
Web search engines banned you again? No dictionaries in the house? Anyway, an honest mistake could be defined as one not hiding some intentional malice or recklessness. Alternatively, https://www.phrasemix.com/phrases/an-honest-mistake
So you are saying people are deliberately smashing into cyclists in all cases?
If you smash into someone on your bike or in your vehicle and they get injured or worse because you made an “honest mistake”, the result is the same as if you were negligent, what’s the difference?

To me, this is what is missing in today’s world, a modicum of common sense from all parties including realising that every one of us could one day be at fault of causing or suffering from an “honest mistake” or negligence.
Wearing contrasting colourful clothing is not a bad thing just as all drivers should remain attentive at all times, but as we know, some drivers are not attentive just like some pedestrians aren’t or cyclists. I don’t think blaming one section of society - vehicle drivers, helps.
For what it’s worth I think the picture I linked is exaggerated massively but the general message is sound.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
So you are saying people are deliberately smashing into cyclists in all cases?
:eek: How did you leap to that conclusion? No, I'm saying most are knowingly reckless!

If you smash into someone on your bike or in your vehicle and they get injured or worse because you made an “honest mistake”, the result is the same as if you were negligent, what’s the difference?
The honest mistakes are rarer.

To me, this is what is missing in today’s world, a modicum of common sense from all parties including realising that every one of us could one day be at fault of causing or suffering from an “honest mistake” or negligence.
All of us could make an honest mistake, but if anyone thinks you could be at fault of negligence, then please, for the love of humanity, don't drive until you sort out the cause!

Wearing contrasting colourful clothing is not a bad thing just as all drivers should remain attentive at all times, but as we know, some drivers are not attentive just like some pedestrians aren’t or cyclists. I don’t think blaming one section of society - vehicle drivers, helps.
What next? Wearing stab vests is not a bad thing just as all knife users should remain peaceful at all times, but as we know, some knife users are not peaceful just like some pedestrians aren't or cyclists. I don't think blaming one section of society - knife-using murderers, helps?

For what it’s worth I think the picture I linked is exaggerated massively but the general message is sound.
It really is not and that's why they have to exaggerate like weaselly toads.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
Sure thing.

Safety is less to do with being dressed as an aircraft marshal at Heathrow and more to do with how drivers observe their surroundings and then how they negotiate vulnerable users.

Hi-vis is no guarantee that a driver won't still risk your life by driving badly around you.

View attachment 492880

Reminds me of an exchange in a death by dangerous court case in which a lorry driver killed two road workers who were putting out cones.

The lorry driver said something about 'not seeing' the cone vehicle, to which the prosecutor said:

"The vehicle had an illuminated keep right sign approximately eight feet in diameter, the sign had a row of beacons above it.
"It had hazard flashers, two red lights, and four beacons, one at each corner, each approximately the size of a dinner plate.
"Yet you still didn't see it?"

The driver was convicted and got four years.

The going rate at the time for 'accidental' cases was about two years for each death.

Might get a bit longer now.
 
Trouble is, it seems like a vague concept to so many people! Straying away from cycling/driving slightly, I’ve come across some seriously frightening examples of a complete lack of it in everyday life. Through work, being involved in gas and electrical faults it scares the hell out of me that otherwise ‘intelligent’ people show scant regard for seriously life threatening situations.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
By being in hiviz you don't stand out and get noticed. You just blend into the every day and get forgotten. Many drivers have stories of so called ninja cyclists but not hiviz ones, the latter barely noticed .
 
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