Should a 97 year old man be driving on a public road?

Caporegime
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England
On private land?

Or are you assuming that he was driving without a seatbelt when this crash happened? If so, why? They were two different events on different days in different places.

Also, how do you know who crashed into who?

Who? Whom? No idea.

I heard on the radio that he was caught on a public road without a seatbelt.

Why are you going in on me so hard?

:confused:
 
Man of Honour
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Stoke on Trent
And there we have it. Cycling is dangerous amd should be banned before you kill yourself to death.

I can't disagree, my commute has changed so much that I hardly go where motorists are and the bits where I do I class myself as the lowest form of amoeba on the road and act accordingly.
I didn't used to and that's why I had lots of accidents but I've calmed down now.
 
Caporegime
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Godalming
I can't disagree, my commute has changed so much that I hardly go where motorists are and the bits where I do I class myself as the lowest form of amoeba on the road and act accordingly.
I didn't used to and that's why I had lots of accidents but I've calmed down now.


Without wanting to derail the thread, I'll just say that you've hit the nail on the head: too majy cyclists exhibit a massive sense of entitlement due to also being a road user, and will often put themselves in danger just because they're "right" and "how dare you cut me off", or my personal favourite "I also pay road tax" (don't go there, it ain't pretty). These people don't seem to realise that when you're a cyclist, altercations aren't about being right, they're about getting home to see your family in one piece. If you think being "right" us more important then you are risking everything, when in reality at most 15 seconds will be added to your journey time and your life will be a lot less stressful.

No cyclist will beat a car in a 1v1, not one, yet some seem to think that this mythical shield forms around them when they're "right".

These people become statistics, I see this kind of behaviour far too often on London's roads, arguably one of the least cycle-friendly cities in the world, regardless of what that idiot Khan says.

This isn't some advanced life skill, it's self preservation 101. Big metal box squashes small meaty thing every single time.
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
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58,899
In other news a local peasant has allegedly been attacked by one of the Sandringham groundskeepers after exiting his vehicle and getting a bit uppity about the road being blocked by hunting dogs.

Driver/Peasant with his injuries:

p9sNS1V.jpg

Obligatory compo face:

gmjgkej.jpg


Picture of the toff who allegedly attacked him, from the rear no less, has been blurred:

5gVZjSu.jpg

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8248532/royal-huntsman-battered-motorist-on-sandringham-estate/

Copied the account below for those who don't like the Sun newspaper/don't want to click the link:
Engineer Patrick said: “I came round the corner doing around 30mph and this toff was stood with his dogs, about six of them.
“I had to stop because they were in the middle of the road. He was waving his stick around and he hit the front of my car.
“I wound down the window and before I could say anything he shouted ‘Mind my dogs you ******* peasant.’ I couldn’t believe it.
“I was so furious I leapt out and shouted ‘I’m no ******* peasant. Who are you calling a peasant?’
Patrick said the tweed-clad gamekeeper, who was holding some dead pheasants, accused him of almost hitting his labradors and spaniels and waved a stick.
He added: “I said ‘Don’t threaten me, waving your stick around.’
“He replied ‘I don’t use weapons.’ I said ‘You must have used weapons to kill those birds’ and pointed at the pheasants.
“He then moved off the road and the dogs followed him so the way became clear again.
“I didn’t want anything to do with it so I turned my back to walk back to the car and heard someone shout ‘No! no!’
“The next thing I felt a heavy thud on the back of my head then this excruciating pain. This guy then started going ballistic.
“I turned round and he’d broken his stick on the side of my head. I could feel the blood trickling down my neck.
“But he just kept hitting me with the remainder of his stick like a man possessed.
“He smacked me on the left forearm, on the left wrist and round both of my shoulders.
“I was in shock. I kept saying ‘There’s no need for this.’ I told them I was going to the police.
“One of the other men said ‘There’s no need to ring police’. He kept saying sorry.
Patrick took a picture of the gamekeeper to show police. He added: “I knew they were in the wrong but I started taking pictures because who would believe me against a load of bluebloods?”
 
Soldato
Joined
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21,781
Without wanting to derail the thread, I'll just say that you've hit the nail on the head: too majy cyclistsroyals exhibit a massive sense of entitlement ..... most 15 seconds will be added to your journey time and your life will continue be a lot less stressful.
not a derail - agree .. but I think ignorance+invulnarability-of-youth maybe contributory
 
Soldato
Joined
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7,809
Do you mean you never let anyone drive you anywhere ? .. alternatively, no emergency stops (eg for cyclists, before they pass under your wheels ) ?


Pah, Emergency stops are for idiots who drive reactivity and are unable to anticipate the actions of others on the road.

:D

In all seriousness. having to perform an emergency stop means that YOU have screwed up since you should never have been in that position in the first place. I have driven, oh, 400,000 miles over the last 40 years or so (Most of which in urban environments driving a "White Van" ) and the last time I had to perform an emergency stop was during my driving test

And there we have it. Cycling is dangerous amd should be banned before you kill yourself to death.

It is hard to find statistics on this, presumably because they are so dreadful and the government chooses to conceal them.

But as far as I have been able to discern. Mile for mile the risk of death/injury riding a bike is some 15 to 20 times greater than driving a car.

This doesnt just put it into DUI territory. It puts it well into DUI territory. (And before anybody states that the danger is all due to drivers. The GOS points out in one of his articles that around half of all cycling casualties involve no other party. The cyclists fall off and hurt themselves all on their own)

I wouldn't want to ban cycling on these grounds. But I cannot comprehend why it is considered acceptable to carry young babies/children on a bike. A child being driven by a drunk Mum is in a far safer place than one riding pillion on a bike ridden by a sober one!

Oh and again. Before anybody states that the difference is that people DUI are a danger to others rather than to themselves. This isn't really true. The person most likely to be injured or killed by a Drunk Driver are the driver himself and/or the passengers in his car. Like around 70% from what I have read. So the comparison is not that unreasonable a one.

Anyway, we are digressing. My point earlier wasn't about cycling as such. rather about perception of risk and how people frequently get the orders of relative danger from different risks completely screwed up!

:confused:
 
Caporegime
Joined
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Godalming
Honestly, when I made that comment I was halfway through an episode of Family Guy (the one with the Simpsons, great episode if you haven't seen it) and didn't foresee any statistical analysis of the perils of riding a bicycle on the public highway, if you wish to go down that route by all means go ahead but I'm afraid I won't be putting the kettle on for that one.

Sorry :(
 
Caporegime
Joined
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Posts
58,899
Oh and again. Before anybody states that the difference is that people DUI are a danger to others rather than to themselves. This isn't really true. The person most likely to be injured or killed by a Drunk Driver are the driver himself and/or the passengers in his car. Like around 70% from what I have read. So the comparison is not that unreasonable a one.

I'm not sure that is a good argument, do you have a source for those figures? For example do they relate to the UK or say the US where drink driving is more popular and car use more essential on nights out etc... How current are they - are they recent figures or figures from a time when drink driving was more socially acceptable?

It is the impact on others, passengers within the car, other road users etc.. that provides a strong reason to ban drink driving even if they are in the minority as far as injuries and deaths are concerned as you claim. If it only ever affected the driver himself then I suspect we'd treat it far more leniently.

if you wish to go down that route by all means go ahead but I'm afraid I won't be putting the kettle on for that one.

Sorry :(

I will though! You opened the door to this, you only have yourself to blame :D
 
Soldato
Joined
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7,809
I'm not sure that is a good argument, do you have a source for those figures? For example do they relate to the UK or say the US where drink driving is more popular and car use more essential on nights out etc... How current are they - are they recent figures or figures from a time when drink driving was more socially acceptable?

It is the impact on others, passengers within the car, other road users etc.. that provides a strong reason to ban drink driving even if they are in the minority as far as injuries and deaths are concerned as you claim. If it only ever affected the driver himself then I suspect we'd treat it far more leniently.

I am not suggesting that DUI is OK and should be considered acceptable (Although the issue is sufficiently politicized that an objective analysis becomes difficult. )

I am suggesting that carrying a child as a pillion passenger on a bicycle is sufficiently dangerous for the child (Who had not chosen to be in that position in the same way as a adult would have) that the practice should be prohibited.

See also those trailer things one sometimes sees.

If relative risk is the main factor, the arguments for doing so are just as good as the arguments for prohibiting DUI, and probabally rather better.
 
Soldato
Joined
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4,418
Location
Cambridgeshire
But as far as I have been able to discern. Mile for mile the risk of death/injury riding a bike is some 15 to 20 times greater than driving a car.

Using my own experience of 8 odd years commuting by bike, both in and out of London, I can say categorically that 100% of minor accidents are caused by poorly maintained Boris Bikes. Bloody lethal things.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2012
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7,809
I will be paying special attention to any Range Rover's about to join the carriageway henceforth .... occasionally around Sandringham.

As indeed you should when approaching a junction where any vehicle is attempting to join, turn, or cross.

Particularly if the weather conditions are poor and the junction is an awkward one. (A minor crossroads on a fast and busy stretch of road is an instant warning alarm, anybody on the major road who just blasts through it at the NSL or whatever is a fool!)

As I have intimated before, If you keep ones eyes open and actually look, one can usually tell if a vehicle is going to stop or not.

;) :p
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
Posts
23,304
Should the anxious obese women in a tiny car, who drives the entire way to work 20 mph under the speed limit be driving on public roads? :mad:
 
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