Road safety is down to common sense and lack of forethought for others

17 September

First off, a correction; Jan is not waiting to have an operation on her neck, no, the operation will be lower down on her back. The idea is to prevent her forward-leaning from the shoulders up continuing to curve. Sorry about that.

I’ve boobed again; my lappy was screaming at me to install updates to W10. Like an idjt I clicked to restart there and then, forgetting I had Word documents open and unsaved. However, as far as I can see, they haven’t been affected by the restart. One day my friends, I really will remember to save stuff every time I use it.

Two newspapers, from opposing political viewpoints both majored on just one issue of Thursday. The Mail and the Mirror shouted loudly about the death rate caused by drivers using hand held phones. Deaths caused by drivers is something that I’ve had strong views about for years now and the advent of the mobile phone has made the issue an even bigger problem. It took a fairly long time for us to get the idea that driving and drinking is not acceptable, well most of us do that is. We now have the same task with driving and mobile use. How many more people will die before the message gets through I wonder?

Another issue in last nights’ Midlands Today, was that of drivers giving cyclists more room as they drive passed them. Again, it’s another one that has caused deaths in the past and will do so in the future. The police have looked at the issue and found that most of the accidents had been caused by drivers, not cyclists. In an effort to reduce the number of accidents, they have taken to roads on cycles and are pulling over any driver who gets too close to them.

And don’t forget mobile use causes problems even with other pedestrians as they walk through crowed town centres. How many times have you had to move out of the way because someone is so wrapped up with writing a text they are not watching where they are going? I certainly have when I’ve been out on my scooter.  

For me the issue is, what is too close. The cops are saying that 1.5 metres is the correct amount of space needed when passing a cyclist. To make it clearer when they are pulled over for it, the undercover cop turns up and plays them the video he shot at the time. Drivers are then given the option of a training course or a fine, most of those caught so far have gone for the course.

Opinions have differed on this idea of course. One such view is that a lot of cyclist don’t ride properly or even legally anyway. Weaving between vehicles, riding through red lights, riding through a busy crowed market place, and so on are just a couple of incidents. Another one is making themselves visible at night time is another big one. How many times have you been out on a dark evening and seen a cyclist dressed head to toe in black or dark clothing?

In both issues, what all this comes to is the selfish attitude of so many people today. For years now we have been doing what we want, when we want to. All too often we have been pushed to improve our own lives, and yet the obvious part of that has been left out. The obvious part is the responsibility we all have to those around us. That is what we need to change most of all, indeed first of all.

If we all took that responsibility to heart, we would understand that using a mobile while driving is not acceptable, as is texting while walking in crowed areas. We would understand that it is necessary to give cyclists more room as we drive pass them. Other cyclists would understand that they are taking huge risks by weaving between vehicles.

Today’s photo ...

Bond Gate, Dorktown.

Today’s funny …

Did you hear about the man who was convicted of stealing luggage from the airport?
He asked for twenty other cases to be taken into consideration.