Bikers and Cars..

[Anonymous]

We share the roads and we both pay roadtax and both have the right on the roads.

Read the following news article on MCN.

The family of a motorcyclist killed by a car driver have started a petition calling for a minimum two-year driving ban for anyone found guilty of causing the death of another road user.

Matthew Thompson was 32-years-old when he was killed by a driver who turned across the path of his motorcycle in her car. Visibility was good, he wasn’t speeding and he had his motorcycle lights switched on.

A family statement reads: “Our son Matthew was killed in a road traffic accident on February 16, 2013. He was 32-years-old and leaves a distraught wife and two small children whose lives have been torn apart.

"He also leaves us parents, a sister, brother-in-law and nephew who love him beyond words and are all still devastated and struggling to come to terms with it.

“We have maintained a dignified silence during the 18 months of legal proceedings and the woman's subsequent Sentencing of 120 hours community service and a two-year driving ban with no re-test and no driver’s awareness course.

“We would like to change the law so that anyone found guilty of causing death by driving is given a mandatory loss of license for a minimum of two years before they can re-sit a test and also have to take a driver’s awareness course as a minimum sentence with other penalties to be given within the legal parameters at the Judge’s discretion.”

I come from a family with keen bikers in it, Married a girl who's dad has a garage filled with over half a dozen sports bikes and tourers that would make a Ferrari wince and have so often toyed with the idea of getting a Triumph Bonny

The amount of near misses I have seen in Aberdeen have always involved bikes.

Be it due to the rider or the car driver I feel that after reading that article that much much more needs to be done to prevent the likelihood of an accident happening than simply bumping up the penalty for the inevitable.

What needs to change to make our roads more harmonious?

 

[Anonymous]

Sadly I think the one thing you can't control, the drivers attitudes and abilities. This happened to a colleague of mine who was cycling to work along a main road. A car was waiting to pull out from a side road, he made eye contact with my colleague who was only a very short distance away and still pulled out causing my colleague to go over his bonnet. The driver even admitted he saw him but somewhere along the line his brain processed out that fact and told him to go.
It is all very well for us on a forum to sit back and say how the hell did he miss that/people are so situationally unaware etc etc, until you get put in that position yourself.

Classic example is Derren Brown and his map swapping technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR4OznTdJpo the expectation bias happens to us all and you need to concentrate/focus more.

This video is one of my favourites, you get given a task (how many passes made by people wearing white, and as you focus solely on that you miss something that when you watch back without doing that task you wonder how you managed that) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4

The brain is a wonderful thing, you can be the best driver in the world but it means nothing if someone else is changing their CD's (do they still do that now), talking on the phone or trying to get the kids to settle in the back seat. Sadly you still get people who think they are invincible and cause they got away with it once will try it again.

 

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, I discovered a whole new world of awareness and consideration when I took my bike test 14 years ago. Up until then I thought I was a good driver but doing my bike test really helped me realise that even when drivers are looking at you (motorcyclist or cyclist) that does mean they've seen you. If they are focused on the car behind you then yr just in their peripheral vision, so you can never take it for granted. Completely unfeasible I know but I think if everyone had to take their CBT as part of their driving test then it would increase the understanding of vulnerability of other road users.

 

[Anonymous]

My own view is that Bikers do tend to bring a lot on themselves - speaking in general, not about this specific incident.

The amount that come weaving in and out of traffic, the speed that they travel and the wheelies that they pull, it's no wonder that some of them become a cropper.

Where I live, there's not a week goes by in the summer months where there's not News about a Biker that's killed themselves. Often there are no other vehicles involved. They've driven into a wall, come off the road in a corner, etc.

My heart goes out to their Families.

 

[Anonymous]

my two cents is that drivers need more awareness and the idea of "compulsory CBT" style course for all new drivers may help.

But I also think that bikes overtaking in stop start traffic to get to the head of the cue should be considered dangerous driving and the bikers be punished as such.

nothing worse than sitting in traffic to have a biker (motor or cycle) tear up the middle.

 

[Anonymous]

Trouble is Figo, it's not illegal to 'filter'. The problem is that bikers aren't taught when it's wise/unwise to do it....and it frustrates drivers because they're stuck in a queue and can't jump to the front (much as most of them would love too :eusa-shhh: )

Drivers aren't expecting to look in their left hand mirror when switching lanes, even though they always should, so having someone appear out of nowhere at an excessive speed will scare/annoy the hell out of them.

I did several rider improvement courses both on the road and track with the police and they always taught you that if you were going to filter between cars then it should be at a walking pace!. I've rarely/never seen that happen.

However, doing down the outside of a queue of traffic is also perfectly legal. If you stop bikers doing it are you also going to stop cyclists doing it? Might not be going as fast as a powered bike but usually it's still much quicker then walking pace and my experience is that car drivers look for cyclists even less! :?

 

[Anonymous]

having been one of those guys cycling to work and having been "skiffed" by a car more than once I would say yes.. ban em too :eusa-shhh: . Unless there are facilities in place to allow a cyclist to travel to work safely and not on the main road then they should be banned :lol:

Cycling to work in the morning is unsafe...and I never felt relaxed, energised or healthier.. It was scary and stressful :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Here's my tuppence ....

It should be compulsory for Cyclists to have insurance. Why should drivers have to be responsible for fixing their own cars with their own policy should they hit a wee twat they didn't see on a cold, dark rainy night when the pillock's riding a dark bike wearing a black hoody and damn earphones!!!!! This didn't happen to me but a close pal. I've seen this myself many times....no headlights and you're lucky there's decent reflectors. I've reported our local paperboy to the newsagent MANY times for doing just this. But still, no lights.
Sorry, but if I knocked some ar$e off his bike I'd be phoning the coppers first, having him charged, before the ambulance.