Originally Posted by Saitch
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We are all human and all have family, so I think our overriding nature when on/in either vehicle is to respect the other, this would be the majority or 'normal' behaviour.
As with all statistics, there will be those (behaviours) outside the norm, you won't change them, we won't change them. Then there's education about the risks and behaviours, life is a continual lesson, none of us know everything, but I bet we all know someone who doesn't learn, so this won't solve the issue, but may help, although there's been on and off campaigns about every aspect of road safety, and we still have every problem.
Common sense ... Well that's not that common, so moving on. Thinking about the work place where vehicles and people interact, I've thought mining would be a good start, preventing death and injury being the overriding objective of Occupational Health & Safety - Risk Analysis would never let bikes mix with trucks and cars. The simple analysis steps - what is the risk (contact between body and vehicle/road), what is the likelihood (highly likely as there are huge vision and awareness issues and no communication between operators), and what is the outcome (potential serious injury or fatality). Therefore the Risk is too great, it increases with driver/operator inability/inattention and speed.
More telling, a work place would have screened operators for age, fitness, lifestyle, experience, then provide ongoing training and SUPERVISION, where the bad elements are continually weeded out, yes the police exist, but this is really limited supervision.
Essentially we work to live, but don't apply the same safety/hazard/risk logic that saves lives and injuries at work to our daily lives, sometimes forgetting that living healthy and staying safe allow us to work to live. Age/maturity and exposure to injury and death also plays a big factor in risk averseness, we're not always 6 ft tall and bullet proof.
Now at this point the hard core would say that there is a 'right' to take the risk as there is a potential health/climate/psychological benefit, and because the law permits it, sure they'd be 100% correct and good luck to them. I sometimes do too, nervously.
But for those that understand physics, risk analysis, safety and potential outcomes, and still want to pedal, there are Safety concepts that can be applied, but they are not often seen as 'cool' and include (but not limited to) :
awareness & alertness (free, acquired more with age and sensibility)
visibility (clothes or vests that stand out like road workers, who by the way can only work near vehicles if speed is reduced to 25kph in SA, 40kph otherwise).
Protective clothing - not Lycra, sorry... Elbow&knee pads, full helmet, leather, body airbag, allsorts of other beyond 2000 stuff...think motorcycle clothing.
Flag at least 1m above head (obviously attached to bike) to aid truck drivers see bikes that are otherwise too low/small in the FOV of truck cabins.
Mirror(s) on bike to assist in situational awareness.
Follow procedures such as indicating intentions.
Etc.
My heartfelt condolences to those who've met with incident or know those who have. I'm not against bikes on roads, I'd like to do more riding myself and wish my kids were safe when riding. I'm against unaware operators of both vehicles, but I accept it won't disappear, that's why I glance at the rear view mirror when I brake, so I can brace for impact when the driver behind is still texting and didn't see traffic slowing.
The attitudes we see here are just that, BUT the hazard exists regardless. The circumstances with our current infrastructure mean that there is a VERY BIG HAZARD created with mixing people and traffic above 25-40kph, risk analysis confirms this, workplaces - Mining and Civil Roadworks - are PROOF of the hazard. It wouldn't be allowed at work, but the law says we can do it in public places - roads. Exceptions where postpersons and police ride bikes, they're technically at work, but not in a work controlled environment.
All anyone can do is the best they can (and we all have off days and experience fatigue), but if you rely on every operator on public roads to be at their best and the the roads to be as safe as a controlled workplace should ideally be, you are ignoring common sense, statistics and science or simply prepared to accept fate.
Chapter 2 ... The infrastructure solution, tbc.
because their thought process is entirely about their needs in exactly the same way as those riders who are hogging the road quite probably are thinking entirely about their own needs. The only options are listed above are blasting the horn at them or breaking the law with an illegal passing manouve and these are both entirely focussed on the driver not having to slow down. Note that the option to blast the horn is because they are riding illegally but the first option is to illegally pass then which risks the lives of the riders, the driver and oncoming drivers/riders.
You ever ridden a bicycle on the road? I have a full face helmet, and elbow and knee protection which I wear if I am riding downhill but you couldn't wear them on the road. I think you would collapse from heat exhaustion within about 20 mins, especially if you included leathers!!
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