Chris Boardman's horror at video of lorry close-passing his mother

Windydog wrote:

I can only attest to my wife, who whilst riding two abreast on a 1/2 tonne horse had a car drive straight through the horse, leaving Mrs unconscious on the road, the horse minus a leg jumping around on the unconscious wife.  Clearly the car made an error, they were really sorry, but that didn't prevent a dead horse and a wounded rider.

Awful, and I hope your wife recovered OK? Point I was going to make, is that many motorists are happy to give plenty of space/slow down/&c. for horses but not for cyclists. Is this because a horse will actually damage their car significantly? So it all comes down to 'might is right' again - if we start mounting rebar posts sticking out from our bikes until we look like something out of Mad Max, will motorists start overtaking properly...?

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Awful, and I hope your wife recovered OK? Point I was going to make, is that many motorists are happy to give plenty of space/slow down/&c. for horses but not for cyclists. Is this because a horse will actually damage their car significantly? So it all comes down to 'might is right' again - if we start mounting rebar posts sticking out from our bikes until we look like something out of Mad Max, will motorists start overtaking properly...?

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Yes, wife was fine physcially in the end, psychologically less so and has meant no more horse riding and the end of a passionate pursuit.  None of which is recognised or compensated in a court, regardless of blame.  But thanks for your concern.

But yes, "might is right" and that is just a sad reality that we as cyclists do not accept because we feel entitled to be treated equally on shared roads.   Cyclists are not at all dominant, even though some may try to believe otherwise by action or gesticulation.  Cars and lorries will not get smaller or less comfortable, the box around the average motorist will only serve to make them feel more secure.  Clarkson has the best idea, the best addition to road safety would be a metal spike sticking out of the steering wheel aimed at your head, but I love the idea of a mad max bike with electric shock fields around it for vehicles that stray too close.

The only answer is to segregate or take steps to give us a better chance.  In this case, on a narrowing road ahead, perhaps go to single file.   It doesn't help for our status though...

Windydog wrote:

 we feel entitled to be treated equally on shared roads. 

I think I get your message, and where you're coming from, and I've quoted you very selectively there^... But I really don't believe that cowering in the fear or perception that cycling is unsafe helps anyone, nor does emploring cyclists to ignore rights we have, or the highway code.

Doesn't taking your argument to its conclusion result in nobody cycling as it's just too dangerous?

davel wrote:

Windydog wrote:

 we feel entitled to be treated equally on shared roads. 

I think I get your message, and where you're coming from, and I've quoted you very selectively there^... But I really don't believe that cowering in the fear or perception that cycling is unsafe helps anyone, nor does emploring cyclists to ignore rights we have, or the highway code.

Doesn't taking your argument to its conclusion result in nobody cycling as it's just too dangerous?

Understand your message, but not in agreement of the route to the conclusive cycling defeat.  Cycling is not unsafe, it just carries risk.  B****cking drivers for bad driving, and getting people sacked will not reduce that risk tomorrow, or likely within this decade.

The market forces will mean that we don't get trained BP drivers everywhere as in some of the other threads, I wish it did, but BP (post Macondo) understand risk these days very well and they know a cyclist under a BP tanker will hurt them repuationally, Aldi who sub contrcact their operation, perhaps less so.

What i'm suggesting,  is that attritional warfare against a sometimes ignorant ,and numerically superior motorist is folly, where perhaps a more directed and manoeuvrist approach might work.  Government policy for dedicated cycling infrastructure, or safe lanes,  has to be the end game, anything else is token.  Its cost effective for the government to just watch the motorist and cyclist fight each other rather than both groups attack the referee.

Control measures of helmets, hi-viz, positioning, more speed even, of course these can all help.  But a 70kg person on a 10kg bike, even with a loud angry voice will lose against a truck driven by a numpty.

millhouse wrote:

If we make a big deal out of an incident  like this, then people will resent us even more than they do already.

 

I'm fine with a bit of resentment - drivers who are stupid enough to think there's an 'us' will already resent people on bikes.

It's the punishment passes and squashing of 'us' that I take issue with. I'm not over the moon about fellow cyclists preaching tolerance of motorists' threatening behaviour either.

Hubbabubba wrote:

Regular occurence round where I live, unfortunately nothing new to see in that vid.

Try commuting around Bristol!

I do! Fun, ain't it 

Hubbabubba wrote:

Regular occurence round where I live, unfortunately nothing new to see in that vid.

Try commuting around Bristol!

Same here, but the less we say and do about it, the more it will keep happening.  I've shared this on Facebook and written to Aldi; it isn't much but it is better than nothing.

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

...  I won't be shopping there any more.

If I stopped frequenting every business whose drivers drive like fools, well then I think I'd have to sell up, go off-grid, move to the forest, and become a full-time spoon whittler!

robert posts child wrote:

I contacted aldi customer service and they have emailed me today. They say they will pass it on to their transport dept.

me too, perhaps they were inundated.

looking at the pass, I would put this in the 'uncomfortable' rather than 'terrifying' category. It was opnly the response and the description of 'ample room' that led me to complain.

muppetkeeper wrote:

Aldi service contact details....

 

Email

customer.service [at] aldi.co.uk

Telephone

0800 042 0800*

Write to us

Aldi Stores, Holly Lane, Atherstone, Warwickshire CV9 2SQ

Thanks for posting that, I've just written to them.

muppetkeeper wrote:

I don't work for BP, I never have worked for BP, I don't really think "big oil" do the planet much good BUT THEIR DRIVERS ARE AWESOME!!!  I have had about half a dozen tankers come past me in the last month or so, and they could teach almost any driver a thing or two on how to pass bikes.

 

My wife works at BP head office in Milton Keynes and I had to comment on your post. Some would say I'm not impartial but I will gladly share this as quite simply BP deserve praise for their policy.

If any employee is caught on their phone whilst driving they are dismissed, this applies to personal time and not just company time.

The tanker drivers are actually professional drivers. Their training and insight into vulnerable road users particularly is I would say unprecedented amongst big business.

BP don't make a big deal about a lot of their policies but I've always thought they should. Nice to see people noticing this out and about.

maldin wrote:

Nowhere in the law does it compel drivers to pass as soon as possible. Nowhere is there a punishment for not passing. And nowhere does it state it's ok to put another road user's life at stake just to prevent a driver from needing to slow down and pick a safe moment to overtake in the other lane. It's shocking that Aldi think that passing this close to a cyclist, regardless of where in the road they are positioned, is OK. One can only assume they  support lazy driving and putting fellow humans live's at risk merely in order to potentially save a few minutes in their logistics process - clearly those saved pennies are worth more than a human life. 

I suspect at the heart of it,the lorry driver/firm have never been in the cyclists position so theyve defaulted to thinking a "safe" pass is simply where youve left enough room not to collide with the thing you are overtaking,, thats their logic, well we didnt hit you so clearly left enough room,but they (much like bus drivers) dont really understand how much turbulent wash their vehicles create even on a dry day, really Chris needs to invite them out on ride and give them a go to see how they like it.

Awavey wrote:

I suspect at the heart of it,the lorry driver/firm have never been in the cyclists position so theyve defaulted to thinking a "safe" pass is simply where youve left enough room not to collide with the thing you are overtaking,, thats their logic, well we didnt hit you so clearly left enough room,but they (much like bus drivers) dont really understand how much turbulent wash their vehicles create even on a dry day, really Chris needs to invite them out on ride and give them a go to see how they like it.

True. You get that when riding in bus lanes, with the bus driver gesticulating for you to move over out of his way. Invariably, this is during rush hour, with solid traffic to the right. Makes no difference if I'm one inch or four feet out from the kerb, he's going to have to move into that traffic queue to get past me so it doesn't matter what I do; he'd be better off shouting at the drivers to his right..,

wycombewheeler wrote:

Perhaps the chairman of aldi and the driver and the author of the letter would care to stroll along a train platform between the white and yellow lines while a train is coming through.

A more accurate test would to be expected to hop and balance on one leg whilst the train passed. And even then you'd have the comfort of knowing the train can't deviate. Perhaps that's an experience  every large vehicle driver should have to go through before passing their LGV test.