Driver view of Jason MacIntyre's fatal accident.

[LLB]

Perhaps I'm taking a bit of a selfish view as I can't use them with the roadie, but will use them with the MTB. The worst bit is that they now lead onto the Tewkesbury Rd roundabout. It is absolutely lethal since they put in new traffic lights. People get frustrated with the holdups fro the new system and every light change is turned into a starting grid to every exit off it

 

[MartinC]

LLB is right. The cycle lanes at the Tewkesbury Road roundabout, Princess Elizabeth Way and Lansdown Rd are too hazardous to use. Putting kids and parents on to them is a nonsense - you'd need to be a skilled cyclist to use them and if you are you'd be safer on the road. To negotiate every give way point on them (and there are lots) you need 270 degree vision to be safe - trying to do that and supervise your kids is impossible.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Which is why such a facility is such a mess. Nobody with an overview said "hang on, this is bollocks, let's cancel it." I swear, non-cyclists look at facilities like these and think we're a bunh of idiots for wanting them. If we did, we would be.

Reminds me of a lecture on "Disaster Management" I attended. The lecturer's opening line was something like...

"Most people are capable of organising a simple accident...but a real disaster requires management, planning, time and resources..."

 

[LLB]

How is it more dangerous than crossing a road? I don't understand.

And how would this be different from a child riding on the same pavement if it didn't have cycle markings?


We are talking about the road up by that square roundabout and Pates aren't we?

If you ever come down this way MrP, take a trip down it and through.

I find the new roundabout intimidating even in the 4x4.

 

[MartinC]

Where the cycle lane crosses at a junction you need to give way to traffic on the road you're crossing and to traffic turning in to the junction from the right and the left. It creates the situation where you need to give way to traffic turning from behind as well as coming from the the right and left - i.e. you need a simultaneous view through 270 degrees. It's hard enough to do this when you're on your own let alone when you're trying to keep an eye on kids too.

 

[MartinC]

As a pedestrian I wouldn't cross a road at a junction - I'd walk down the road a bit so it's the same as crossing the road normally. If I were to ride on the pavement (don't normally) then I guess I do the same. A child on a bike on a pavement may well do anything - don't see the relevance of the analogy.

 

[MartinC]

We're in danger of violently agreeing. The main point to me is that the lanes that cross all the junctions are dangerous - they're inviting you to cross the road at the most inappropriate place, giving way to traffic you can't see. It's much safer to be on the road where you're in sight, part of the traffic and have priority. It's true that if you stop and are extremely cautious then you can mitigate the risks. But, if I want to go at walking pace then I'd walk. The paths we're talking about are mostly used by commuters - they aren't the places you'd take the kids for a ride on.

 

[spen666]

Come to think of it - isn't the whole article contempt of court?

How?

How is it contempt of court?


It is simply reporting what someone has said. As an additional issue, there are currently no court proceedings at present

 

[spindrift]

Unwise, certainly, to present your defence to a newspaper prior to any trial. I would have thought the driver would reflect on the fact that Jason is unable to give his side of the story, so attempting to blame him by saying he was riding on the cycle lane and ignored the Give Way is difficult to defend.

 

[QuickDraw]

I heard a woman from his cycling club on the radio last week. She couldn't believe that he was on the cyclepath because (a) they're working on it at the moment and there are big mounds of rubble blocking part of it and ( she never uses it because it's a fast stretch of road where she can easily get over 20mph and, as a champion cyclist, he would be going a lot faster then her.

In summary, the driver's defence is not credible.

 

[Arch]

It's really unbeleivable that somebody could:
a) Design such an abortion
Approve and get a budget for such an abortion
c) Get it made without somebody putting the brakes on
d) Remain employed in any capacity other than shelf-stacking.

I'd love to have the sign making contract. That's unbelievable.

Thats'a bit ambitious. I've just applied for a job stacking shelves in the Uni Library, and it requires the ability to follow the system, file alphabetically and numerically, think...

Even when I was stacking shelves in a supermarket, you needed some brains in order to keep the sellby dates etc correct... I think the person that ok'd that scheme might just qualify as assistant sewage farm sludge tank cleaner, if they had a supportive Head sludge tank cleaner to show them the ropes.

 

[Arch]

I heard a woman from his cycling club on the radio last week. She couldn't believe that he was on the cyclepath because (a) they're working on it at the moment and there are big mounds of rubble blocking part of it and ( she never uses it because it's a fast stretch of road where she can easily get over 20mph and, as a champion cyclist, he would be going a lot faster then her.

In summary, the driver's defence is not credible.

And, even it was credible, it still displays driving without due care and attention, I'd have said.

 

[Mr Celine]

The BBC now has a report detailing the usual sorry outcome.

 

[LLB]

The BBC now has a report detailing the usual sorry outcome.

It should have been death due to dangerous driving

 

[domtyler]

It should have been death due to dangerous driving

I don't think so. I haven't seen any evidence for anything other than the driver failed to spot the cyclist. No evidence of bullying behaviour, speeding or selfish and dangerous behaviour on the roads. Death by dangerous driving should be reserved for those times when it is truly deserved.