I don’t care if the Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police buys his family’s Christmas presents with the proceeds of speeding fines. Bring it on. Lets have more cameras, more police, more fines, less death.

…later…

I’ve been listening to commentator after commentator weasel around the issue. A government minister came on to say that he thought it was excusable to drive past a school at 10 o’clock at night at 35 mph. So do we have a speed limit or not? You’d be stupid to drive past a school at even 30 mph at 9 o’clock in the morning, but why would you need to drive past it any faster than 30 mph at any time? Until we stop fudging this issue it will give the speeders encouragement to keep at it. It is not ok to speed, period. Speed should always be appropriate for the conditions, but should never exceed the limit.

My fear is that drivers will only expect to see brightly dressed non-motorists. My fear is also that, involved in an ‘accident’ where you weren’t wearing such gear, you’d be liable to fault as a result (independently of any other fault). I think the lawyers call it ‘contributory negligence’.  Whose responsibility is road safety?  I get the increasing impression that drivers continually try to pass it on to others.  They want to drive with impunity, ignoring speed limits and insisting that any minor holdup is an affront.

I am getting the sense that this is another way the driving lobby want the roads to themselves (by ‘driving lobby’ I don’t mean the average driver; I suppose I mean those that want the roads to themselves!). “Unless you are easy to see with whatever active and passive means are available, get off my road”. I’m not convinced that such gear necessarily makes it safer – it largely depends on drivers’ reaction to seeing you. There was some research recently which suggested that helmet use could increase your chances of a collision because of the way drivers react. Could wearing bright clothing (and perhaps looking more confident/experienced/safer) mean that drivers give you less room too?

There is a similar issue, which I’ve only mentioned before. Proposed European legislation for ‘daytime running lights‘ could mean that collisions with cyclists and motorcyclists  are more likely as drivers get used to looking for a light rather than a biker or cyclist.  Could the trend for bright clothing have a similar effect as drivers look for yellow?

Horrible as that is, it isn’t what vexes me most tonight. My reaction was not good. I’m not used to reacting like I now do. Since my ‘incident’ in January I’m on a hair trigger to react (not respond) to what people say and what happens on the road. I anger quickly, and jumped down this witness’s throat when he started saying who was to blame. As it happens I agree with him, but I didn’t give him the chance. I just assumed he blamed the two-wheeler and had a go. Embarassing on one level, and I apologised, but it scares me on another level. I don’t want to be like this.

One more argument against the EU’s proposed ‘Running Lights’ legislation.

Car drives past with the passenger leaning out of the window. “You should be on the cycle path” he shouted aggressively, perma-frown in place (there’s a parallel path). I don’t think I was sworn at, for once.

So why did he feel the need to shout at me? There was a whole empty lane to the right, I’m riding at around 20mph, he had ages to see me (and for his passenger to wind down the window). What was his problem?

Oh, and he had a fish sticker on the back of the car.

I’ve found that the Give Cyclists Room stickers seem to work. Certainly people seem to have given bikes more room when driving behind me than they were before.

So I want some inkjet-printable sticky film/sticky-back plastic so that I can print them to stick on car windows. Anyone know where I can find such a thing?