[QUOTE 2787593, member: 1314"]I pulled up next to a girl at Stockwell this morning. About 40 cyclists, just me and her with not helmet. I had no cap either, just dark, dense curly locks blowing gently in the slight breeze, carelessly combed by the breeze generated by the ride. Anyway...
...she had a decent looking hybrid and wore cloth plimsoles, grey thin cloth leggings and a sewtshirt with the hoodie up. Woollen gloves. Looked like someone who’d just started cycling and hadn’t got all the gear yet, or who only cycled a few miles so didn’t need all the gear. Mid-20s. Copper came over wafting some leaftlets and started talking to her.
“Not a legal requirement but we advise wearing a helmet, 6 cyclists killed...etc” He ignored me. She looked embarrassed.
As lights greened he went off and I followed lid-less girl round the corner and thought I’d say something.
“Don’t think they’re supposed to advise that” I said as I drew alongside.
“No. It was a bit silly” she said.
Saw 2 or 4 cyclists pulled over today, a couple of cars.
The North side of Blackfriars was jammed all the way to Clerkenwell. Clerkenwell / Farringdon closed off, debris on the floor, bloodied hi-vis jacket in the middle of the road, a driverless parked double-decker, loads of cops, I mean loads of them. Had a copper bark at me as I dismounted and walked across the busy Farrindgon/Smithfield junction, him ignoring the traffic clogging the crossing barring the pedestrians.
The atmosphere seemed to me to be quite frenetic, not considered, with the coppers not properly briefied.[/quote]
As the chap on the radio said this morning, no amount of hi-viz or helmet wearing is going to stop a cyclist getting crushed by 20 tons of metal and rubber.
Even though I choose to wear a helmet, until (if) it ever becomes law, it's up to the individual to choose and police time could be better spent having a go at the many other actual offences committed routinely across London by all road users.
