Tom Lake wrote:
On Mon, 09 May 2011 16:54:08 +0100, in rec.bicycles.tech Phil W Lee
wrote:

Sure, but foam hats won't do it.
Training stands a far better chance of actually making a difference.
Coming down like a ton of bricks on motorists who kill or injure
vulnerable road users, or imposing lower speed limits (and enforcing
them) in areas of potential conflict between different types of road
user even more so, but the motoring lobby don't like that. They'd
rather blame the victims.

The elephant in the room is that dragging around 2 tons of metal to
(mostly) move one person small distances is bloody inefficient and
unnecessarily dangerous to others, particularly if you don't have much
higher standards of training. Then why not be truthful? When something
like that is used for victim blaming, yes, it does.

Woah, Phil... calm down, please.

I'm on your side! I use *exactly* your arguments... OK, I clean up
the loaded language a bit; however, I don't have any issue with your
position at all! We need higher standards of training for drivers of
these "tons of metal"... praise the Lord!

Now, Phil... please take a chill pill and listen a moment: people will
pay to hear what they really believe. That's a fact we're going to
have to accept. If you're going to take the "critical mass" approach
(do you have those morons in the UK?) then you will lose every funding
initiative you float... it's a done deal!

People believe that helmets work... whether this is a *fact* or not
isn't the issue. You're talking about mothers and their children,
here, Phil, and mothers tend to vote. It ain't about *facts*, Phil...
it's about beliefs.


I never had a St. Christopher medal, nor a helmet, but the
little gold graphic which reads "Genuine English
Lightweight" has protected me from death (sadly, not from
injury) for 40 years. Even when I was doing something stupid
and probably deserved it.

Now that I reflect on this, my bikes with "Made in Italy"
graphics showed a similar level of protection. Dammit, those
labels really work!

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971