Road victim blaming week? Charity Brake defends its Road Safety Week

Politically it's a hot potato, bit like someone on the heavy side squeezing themselves into a completely inappropriate piece of clothing and asking your opinion...we all know it's wrong but no-one least of all politicians are going to risk upsetting the status quo.

Dead people don't vote so who gives a damn? type mentality.

Action needs to be an all action affair supported by all irrespective of political faction or sway.

Does society really tell me that if enough people made unlawful sexual deviancy so endemic that politicians would then adopt the same level of ignorance so as not to upset the masses?

I would sincerely hope not but evidence seems to show that politicians are inherently attention seeking rather than having any inner sense of achieving what they all know to be the right thing.

It can never be ok that such levels of death and injury are considered normal...all in government have a huge amount to answer for.

Yes, I'm doing my bit this week.

I publicly vow not to kill a single lorry, bus or car whilst on my bike.

Us cyclists bear a huge responsibility out there in the public domain and we could all do with going easy and making sure we stop killing those motorists.

Seems like a bit of faux outrage to me, personally I always watch out for myself and other people as it just seems sensible.
I do like this campaign from America though, it emphasises that cyclists are normal people and not just autonomous machines with a squidgy bit on top....
http://www.bicycling.com/news/advocacy/new-people-bikes-campaign-emphasi...

Sadly the culture of victim blaming is endemic. Was listening to a programme on 'road safety' on LBC this evening and Clive Bull sympathised with every driver who rang in complaining that pedestrians just walked out in front of them ALL the time, especially when turning right or left into side roads, pedestrians just stepped out into the road. Doesn't matter the Highway Code says you should give way to pedestrians when turning into side roads - does it matter even to the judge, jury and police? Ad nauseam about 20mph being too slow, and how collisions are the fault of ignorant parents not always holding on to their children's hands, and how children are not taught 'road safety' these days. I tried to call in, but they did not take my call - did not fit in with the prevailing view.

Sadly the culture of victim blaming is endemic. Was listening to a programme on 'road safety' on LBC this evening and Clive Bull sympathised with every driver who rang in complaining that pedestrians just walked out in front of them ALL the time, especially when turning right or left into side roads, pedestrians just stepped out into the road. Doesn't matter the Highway Code says you should give way to pedestrians when turning into side roads - does it matter even to the judge, jury and police? Ad nauseam about 20mph being too slow, and how collisions are the fault of ignorant parents not always holding on to their children's hands, and how children are not taught 'road safety' these days. I tried to call in, but they did not take my call - did not fit in with the prevailing view.

Sadly the culture of victim blaming is endemic. Was listening to a programme on 'road safety' on LBC this evening and Clive Bull sympathised with every driver who rang in complaining that pedestrians just walked out in front of them ALL the time, especially when turning right or left into side roads, pedestrians just stepped out into the road. Doesn't matter the Highway Code says you should give way to pedestrians when turning into side roads - does it matter even to the judge, jury and police? Ad nauseam about 20mph being too slow, and how collisions are the fault of ignorant parents not always holding on to their children's hands, and how children are not taught 'road safety' these days. I tried to call in, but they did not take my call - did not fit in with the prevailing view.

Sadly the culture of victim blaming is endemic. Was listening to a programme on 'road safety' on LBC this evening and Clive Bull sympathised with every driver who rang in complaining that pedestrians just walked out in front of them ALL the time, especially when turning right or left into side roads, pedestrians just stepped out into the road. Doesn't matter the Highway Code says you should give way to pedestrians when turning into side roads - does it matter even to the judge, jury and police? Ad nauseam about 20mph being too slow, and how collisions are the fault of ignorant parents not always holding on to their children's hands, and how children are not taught 'road safety' these days. I tried to call in, but they did not take my call - did not fit in with the prevailing view.

Philip Goose sounds sincere but there is nothing in the campaign that deals with the asynchronicity of risk so pithily expressed by @beztweets.

"Look out for each other" bears a strong resemblance to Scotlands pathetic Niceway campaign. The only part of that campaign that had any positive response was when cyclists rallied against the Advertising Standards Authority for pulling Niceway's video of a lady cycling down the road sans helmet.

If Brake wants any support from cyclists perhaps they need to prod the bigots from ASA to launch an investigation into it.

Funnily enough I don't find this piece of advice/public notice that offensive compaired to some in the past.
I also agree that most efforts towards safer roads needs to be directed at the main antagonists ie drivers but as has been pointed out by mrmo that's not going to happen soon, so lets hope the victim blame game is dying a (justly rightful) death.

Sadly the woman who overtook me in a residential area, last week, on a pedestrian crossing near the children's play area, just before I was turning right would be able to justify her actions in her own mind. Good luck with this type of campaign, but something more fundamental is needed.

It's easy to criticise this initiative but it's more publicity for the main issue - drivers not taking enough care of other road users. We should applaud it and promote it as much as we can.

Yeah, heaven forbid that we might offend drivers. Stop killing people, is that too much to ask ?

Its not really 'look out for each other', its 'drivers, make more effort not to kill people'.

But politically its impossible to state the truth, as too many drivers will get upset if it isn't implied that those pedestrians and cyclists aren't equally responsible for the problem. So we get the 'all in it together' crap. (Can't entirely blame those who come out with it, they know drivers won't listen otherwise)

And, yeah, 20mph limits aren't enforced at all, so they are a bit of a token gesture.

All well and good these 20mph limits but NONE are enforced locally and most drivers simply ignore.

Mr Goose sounds pretty sound from that brief piece.