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Old May 22nd 15, 12:38 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
jnugent
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Posts: 11,574
Default Cyclist dies on unroadworthy wreck.

On 22/05/2015 12:26, TMS320 wrote:

"JNugent" wrote:
On 22/05/2015 00:01, TMS320 wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote:


There are 33,000,000 motorists who regularly pass parked cars, often
closely because of road width, who travel at much faster speeds than
cyclists, but rarely hit opening doors.


How do you know?


Perhaps because he spends a lot of his driving time in urban areas where
exactly those conditions apply?


He claims to represent the other 32,999,999 motorists.


Or to have seen and observed (at the very least) a representative sample
of such situations.

What do you think? Think it's a runner?


Not by any stretch.


Really? Whyever not?

Why are cyclists' anecdotes so important but professional drivers'
hundreds of thousands of miles of experience less so?

Cyclists are always whinging that drivers should give them a least a
metre when passing them, but pass parked cars much closer than that.


Perhaps you've never noticed that as roads get faster, lanes get wider.
It has something to do with the requirement to increase space between
vehicles as speed rises.


Yes, but he wasn't talking about high speed routes, was he? He was talking
about urban (probably inner-city) streets and relatively low speeds (eg,
30 mph or less).


Oh dear, you're at it again. It seems my paragraph included enough letters
for you to reorder into "high speed routes". You should have grown out of
needing alphabetti spaghetti.


Stop wriggling: it's undignified.

Your relevant subordinate clause was "...as roads get faster...".

Do you think that roads do that on their own?

A stationary car also does not generate as much air turbulence as one
travelling at 30mph plus. You've never noticed the bow wave and wash of
large lorries when you pass them on the motorway?


What does that have to do with the topic?


Plenty. You obviously haven't noticed "the topic" was - "Cyclists are always
whinging that drivers should give them a least a metre when passing them,
but pass parked cars much closer than that."


I had *definitely* noticed that and fully agree with the implicit sentiment.

It *is* odd that cyclists need to be passed with a clearance of twenty
meters (or whatever) but all of this requirement fades away to nothing
when they are squeezing between lines of traffic - isn't it?

Putting aside the problem of opening doors (and when nobody is inside a car
there is no possibility of a problem), I have given two reasons why it is
reasonable.


You insist on wide clearances (when you insist on wide clearances) on
supposed safety and caution grounds.

Why are other road-users not entitled to a similar margin of safety and
caution?
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