This BBC story is quite vague, but Nottingham’s ring road was closed for several hours after a cyclist was in collision with a motorcycle on 21 April. The cyclist died. It was chaos on the roads (yet again). In this update, where the cyclist is named, the BBC has a caption which says:
The ring road has some of the heaviest rush hour traffic in Nottingham.
It also has cycle paths either side, to keep cyclists and traffic away from each other for precisely this reason.
There are no details about what actually happened in this case. However, it is worth noting that a lot of cyclists choose to ignore the cycle paths (except at red lights), many opting instead to purposely cause hold ups just to show that they “have a right to use the roads” (and they DO do that – I used to ride with a group of them). The number doing this has increased dramatically this year, and many of the guilty parties appear to be older people, predominantly male, who have just acquired their bikes.
As is typical, in the old monkey-see-monkey-do manner, they will have witnessed those “cool” Spandex Boys with their testosterone issues doing it and – without realising their own lack of skills – have decided they’ll have some of that as well.
The simple fact is that if you stay on a cycle path that was built especially for you to keep you out of traffic, and use crossings properly like other soft-bodied specimens (i.e. pedestrians), your chances of being involved in a collision with a motor vehicle on a major road during rush hour are virtually nil. Of course, pigs might fly, and if you therefore choose to ignore the cycle paths and attempt to ride amongst the traffic during said rush hour, your chances of getting hit rise astronomically.
I really do hope that there’s some sort of afterlife, because I cannot otherwise see how “being right” about cycling on busy roads instead of the adjacent cycle paths is of any use to you at all if you’re lying on a cold slab in a morgue.
These comments are general, by the way, and are in no way intended to address whatever happened in that original tragic incident on the ring road. Judging by the location of the white bicycle that’s been placed there, the cyclist was using the crossing.
Well done Sarah, who passed yesterday with 10 driver faults. It was her second test with me, but her eighth attempt overall!
Well done Misha, who passed at the end of last month with just two driver faults. Misha is a professional carer who works those God-awful hours carers often do, and being able to drive is going to make a big difference to him. He plans to start looking for a better job in nursing.
Well done Ayesha, who passed a few weeks ago with just two driver faults. It wasn’t her first test, but it was certainly a very good performance. We finally cracked her intermittent problem with roundabouts (intermittent in that it only ever happened on test).
