Time for action

[karlos_the_jackal]

I think need to also focus on which are the major groups of riders and HGV drivers to focus on. e.g. who are we trying to educate. a mass campaign to the general public might help but a more focused approach will help more.

I think it is essential to get HGV driver support as they might add another perspective to it also.

Delivery of campaigns are easy, making sure you actually get through to the right people is harder.

 

[karlos_the_jackal]

Everything and everyone started somewhere. What did that old chap say on the tv clips you see now and again:

"we choose to go to the moon..., not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

Just to say on that quote, NASA didn't want to go to the moon, they had no great scientific need or want. Funding sky rocketed after the president said that.

 

[semislickstick]

That sticker.....

http://www.trucknetuk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33935

A worrying thread, hopefully some of the comments are just 'hot air' but one poster strongly objected to a cyclist passing on the right when there was a perfectly good cycle path on the left that he'd just made a little more room near.
There are a good number of sense talking HGV driver/cyclists on there too, maybe they are worth talking to. A shared campaign would probably get more notice and better knowledge of why other road users act in certain ways.

Thanks guys for the input and support.

User, that is indeed a good sticker and I too would add that to our bike shed.

I came across this

on londonfgss.

Is anyone here a member on there? I'm sure those guys would want to help out.

 

[Bollo]

I can't add much to the skills or ideas pots, but agree that an effort should be made.

The collateral (film, stickers, posters etc) isn't really the issue. The success or otherwise of any campaign is about the distribution of the message. My feeling is that a targeted approach would work better, aimed at cyclists and lorry drivers rather than J Public. I get the impression that targeting the lorry drivers would be easier, as there are identifiable points of contact (licensing, during tests, haulage firms etc).

With cyclists, its a much broader church. I get the impression that the type of rider guilty of the undertake covers the whole spectrum from the clueless PoB to the overconfident road warrior, so it would be no good using cycling or safety-specific channels such as the CTC, LCC, even RoSPA as they'll only hit a narrow target audience. The only place that most cyclists have in common is the road, so whatever gets done should be delivered at the roadside.

As for a daft suggestion, how about getting some out-of-work conceptual artists to do some moveable 'installations' or performances at dangerous junctions.

 

[CopperBrompton]

It's again down to education.

One of the truckers on there pointed out why cyclists don't use cycle lanes, but that wouldn't have been at all obvious to someone who doesn't cycle.

 

[grhm]

Thanks guys for the input and support.

User, that is indeed a good sticker and I too would add that to our bike shed.

I came across this

on londonfgss.

Is anyone here a member on there? I'm sure those guys would want to help out.

Not wishing to dilute the direction ... but cycle/bus interactions are an issue too, aren't they?

Don't buses have space on the back for adverts and such like. I've vague recollections of signs to the back right of buses with a "Let buses out" type message on it.

I'd imagine theres scope to get something like this sticker on the back left of buses. It'll only take getting one or two bus companies in a town to sign up, to be able to get near total bus coverage.

Any one have contact's with bus companies? Anyone able to alter the above to be a bus and not a HGV? (or prehaps presently both bus and HGV?)

 

[Jake]

that truckers link don't make for nice reading

also busses are jbad too. last night bendy bus infront. always make a point of checking indicators now and it was clear, so cycled up inside as traffic was slowing up for the flights infront and thought he was too, but no, he decided to turn left on me. It was all ok as was hanging back anywy as knew he could do just that. seems his indicators only work when he is actualy making the turn, not before. A bit like some black cabs lol

 

[ttcycle]

I'll check out with a contact of mine re the buses and getting stickers on the back of them- whether this will be easy to do legitimately or whether it has to be a case of guerilla stickering.

 

[Jake]

project the image onto the houses of parliament

 

[CopperBrompton]

The Mayor's office would be a good start for London

 

[magnatom]

Lots of ideas! Good stuff. We will have to get some material first, images and video before we take it anywhere, but the ideas are something we can work on.

Bollo, I diagree, in that to get to all of the cyclists we need to go 'Joe Public', i.e. national media, but I think we could do that along with some focussed material. Of course, before we decide this we will need material. I'll try and come up with an outline for a video, and if anyone else wants to try this, feel free. We can bat some ideas around and then come up with a way of filming and producing it.

 

[bonj2]

Lots of ideas! Good stuff. We will have to get some material first, images and video before we take it anywhere, but the ideas are something we can work on.

Bollo, I diagree, in that to get to all of the cyclists we need to go 'Joe Public', i.e. national media, but I think we could do that along with some focussed material. Of course, before we decide this we will need material. I'll try and come up with an outline for a video, and if anyone else wants to try this, feel free. We can bat some ideas around and then come up with a way of filming and producing it.

At the risk of pissing on your bomfire, which isn't my intention, I think MY idea of maximising the amount of people writing to MPs would have more actual effect than what you're proposing, yet it looks like the intention is more to whip up a big media frenzy and to bolster yourself into even more of a celebrity than you already have.

You just want glory and fame!

"Time for action" as in road safety action, or Time for action as in lights camera action?

 

[magnatom]

Hmm. I've just remembered one of my old school friends now has an online advertising agency down in London ( he's the CEO I think). They do viral stiff etc. I haven't spoken to him in years, but I'm sure he will remember me (he put a chewit in my hair once and we had a fight. I won of course! (we were friends afterwards!)

I wonder if it would be too cheeky to contact him and see if he could help. No harm in trying, or would it just piss him off?

 

[bonj2]

Hmm. I've just remembered one of my old school friends now has an online advertising agency down in London ( he's the CEO I think). They do viral stiff etc. I haven't spoken to him in years, but I'm sure he will remember me (he put a chewit in my hair once and we had a fight. I won of course! (we were friends afterwards!)

I wonder if it would be too cheeky to contact him and see if he could help. No harm in trying, or would it just piss him off?

When are you going to get on richard and judy?

 

[magnatom]

At the risk of pissing on your bomfire, which isn't my intention, I think MY idea of maximising the amount of people writing to MPs would have more actual effect than what you're proposing, yet it looks like the intention is more to whip up a big media frenzy and to bolster yourself into even more of a celebrity than you already have.

You just want glory and fame!

"Time for action" as in road safety action, or Time for action as in lights camera action?

Ha! Read my posts ya muppet! You will actually find that I would happily have someone female and pretty heading this campaign. I'm no media expert, but having someone who comes across well and is a representative of the group of people this needs to be most aimed at (female cyclists). As well as that, a pretty female face would appeal to the almost exclusively male skip/lorry drivers.

I'll quite happily slink into the background.