Young cyclist killed

[craig]

Im from the uk and now live in australia where i started cycling

helmets are compulsary here whats the story there

is it the law and is it enforced

www.bicyclecommute.wordpress.com


Will Cove wrote:
> Simon Brooke <[email protected]> wrote in news:fru744-dui.ln1
> @gododdin.internal.jasmine.org.uk:
>
> > Even a black cyclist in black clothes on a black bike isn't invisible.
> > If you can't see a black cyclist in black clothes on a black bike in
> > sufficient time to take appropriate avoiding action, then you're
> > driving too fast for the conditions.
>
> We see things by two mechanisms: from the light they generate or reflect,
> and the silhoutte they create against a background of either direct or
> reflected light. Now a completely black object reflects no light, so a
> black object can only be seen via its silhoutte. In the case of a cyclist
> riding in the gutter at night, the cyclist is to the left of the driver
> while the light comes from the headlights of the oncoming vehicles, which
> are to the right. So on a straight road it is impossible for the cyclist
> to be silhoutted by direct illumination. This only leaves the small
> amount of light reflected from the nearside verge (and if the verge
> itself is dark the light it reflects will be next to nothing). However,
> the small amount of light that the verge reflects will be completely
> overcome by the driver's own headlights. Added to that the cyclist's
> wheels hold the bulk of the rider above the kerb line and so the driver
> would see an unbroken kerb line even with the cyclist right in front of
> him. Now throw in the masking effect of oncoming headlights, which affect
> your night vision so that anything below a certain luminosity appears
> black, which means that a stealth cyclist merges completely into the
> background.
>
> Put all that together and you should see that it's entirely possible for
> a stealth cyclist (or pedestrian) to be invisible until just a few feet
> away. Even just ten mph could be too fast to avoid a stealth pedestrian
> and the boys in blue would almost certainly pull you if they caught you
> driving at the sort of speeds necessary to ensure avoidance of stealth
> cyclists and pedestrians.
>
> This isn't about driver competence; it's about physics. It doesn't matter
> who you want to blame, the fact is that if you wear dark clothing, don't
> have suitable lights, and ride or walk at the side of a road at night you
> are taking an unnecessary risk that could be avoided if only you used
> lights and more suitable clothing.

 

[Dave Larrington]

In news:[email protected],
Simon Brooke <[email protected]> tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell us:

> I honestly think that many drivers deliberately hit animals on the
> road. I can think of no other reason for the number of dead badgers
> one sees. Badgers are big animals with very distinctive markings,
> which don't move particularly fast; it isn't difficult to avoid them.

It's been stated somewhere else (I think) that a fair few of the db's around
the place have been killed elsewhere - by framers, badger-baiters, etc. -
and then dumped to /look/ like roadkill.

I came very close to hitting a badger in my motorcar a few years ago, and
was /very/ glad I didn't. As you say, badgers are big animals, and I
suspect hitting it might, at the very least, have removed a lot of expensive
parts from the underside of the vehicle, and quite possibly caused it to do
something unpleasant and unpredictable. Given that this was on the
Cologne-Siegen autobahn in dawn's early light, it can be appreciated that I
was not hanging about...


--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
Where's the gin?

 

[Peter Clinch]

craig wrote:
> Im from the uk and now live in australia where i started cycling
> helmets are compulsary here whats the story there
> is it the law and is it enforced

It's not the law, though there have been calls for it to be one. They
have been resisted, in part by people who point to the track record of
compulsion from e.g. Australia to show there is nothing to be gained
from such laws (see, amongst others,
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full...2a52024afea0910b91e5ec30&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
and generally at http://www.cyclehelmets.org)

> www.bicyclecommute.wordpress.com

Can't be naked if you've got to wear a hat!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Rob Morley]

In article <[email protected]>
Simon Brooke <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I honestly think that many drivers deliberately hit animals on the road. I
> can think of no other reason for the number of dead badgers one sees.
> Badgers are big animals with very distinctive markings, which don't move
> particularly fast; it isn't difficult to avoid them.
>
They may be slow, but they're fierce beasties and they won't move out of
the way for anyone or anything if they don't feel like it. I suspect
they may even attack vehicles if they feel threatened. You wouldn't
want to hit one (quite apart from animal welfare considerations) as it
would make quite a mess of your car.

 

[Andy Dingley]

Dave Larrington wrote:

> As you say, badgers are big animals,

Most dead (road) badgers are only small. They're typically 1 year old
boars, teenage mustelid hoodies, driven away from the family sett and
out looking for a territory of their own. They're young, inexperienced
and with no road sense. If they ever learn to steal Corsas we'll be in
trouble.

 

[Dave Larrington]

In news:[email protected],
[email protected] <[email protected]> tweaked the Babbage-Engine
to tell us:
> Dave Larrington wrote:
>
>> As you say, badgers are big animals,
>
> Most dead (road) badgers are only small. They're typically 1 year old
> boars, teenage mustelid hoodies, driven away from the family sett and
> out looking for a territory of their own. They're young, inexperienced
> and with no road sense. If they ever learn to steal Corsas we'll be in
> trouble.

Blimey! If the one I saw at the top of the hill outside Wantage a couple of
months ago was an Apprentice, remind me never to tangle with the full-size
version...

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
I thought I saw his name on a jar of marmalade the other day,
but when I looked more closely, I saw it read 'thick cut'.