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Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!backlog2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.bt.com!news.bt.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <72lp55dfie2d4h978bs7bsmcp8tj11ilce@4ax.com> From: "Just zis Guy, you know?"  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: Points on driving license for cycling offence Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:09:50 +0100 References:  <791965bb-f9fb-485a-8dc1-271e367d21a5@r25g2000vbn.googlegroups.com> <7c30vaF260fggU1@mid.individual.net> <1a2dnZYuHZf0EMHXnZ2dnUVZ8lBi4p2d@pipex.net> <1j2us3o.10760ri37qeewN%real-not-anti-spam-address@apple-juice.co.uk> Lines: 46 NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:10:13 -0500 X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 4.2/32.1118 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-AuthenticatedUsername: NoAuthUser X-Trace: sv3-dcrSCogYHM8XnFfHVZSRWNoQOL9FYWkYzNlpSlfSqUCQGpa2YCUh/+fkzDVFLViyi7HVaEqm6lJVDn1!v0gtqq6LQTOQRlTj8OBpwa9J8Ithtvb8aQjGrwOlYwsTLCn0Mh4duC17yCwmNOzwqvSgAAiyzvTa!4+g= X-Complaints-To: abuse@btinternet.com X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@btinternet.com X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.39 Bytes: 3689 X-Original-Bytes: 3646 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:717332

On Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:51:58 +0100, real-not-anti-spam-address@apple-juice.co.uk (D.M. Procida) wrote:

>JNugent  wrote: > >> > Fair point,but as he was on a cycle,how come it affected his driving >> > licence? >> > What if he hadn't got a car licence,I assume he would've got off >> > lighter,ie: only a fine. >> > Reverse the situation: if he'd committed a motorway violation of a >> > comparable offence in a car,then his cycling would not be punished as well. >> >> Apart from a fine (which he got), how can you "punish" an errant cyclist? > >What do they do to the usual idiots found messing around on motorways >(and I don't mean the ones in cars)? If he were trying to hitch-hike >along it, for example? Or having a stroll on the hard shoulder?

We shouldn't really have motorways as such at all. Such roads, as well as being high-speed death traps, encourage unnecessary car journeys (i.e. the vast majority of car journeys), and the attendant general rise in accident risk and pollution. They also promote the idea that it's best to get cyclists out of the way so that the "important" road users can speed around unimpeded.

Motorways should be reduced to one lane each way for cagers (limited to 50mph and enforced by SPECS), with the second, physically separated, lane exclusively for cyclists and (where present) the third lane for buses and possibly HGVs (although the lack of HGVs in the cager lane would remove one of the most effective ways of slowing the speeders down). The hard shoulder could be made into a pavement.

Such roads would be excellent, low-gradient, direct and safe roads to cycle on. Limiting the cagers to 50mph and preventing them from overtaking would provide a great incentive for them to use another, less selfish form of transport. Broken down cars could use the pavement and broken down buses/HGVs the central reservation (which would no longer need a crash barrier).

The main difficulty would be with what to do at junctions; temporary merging of all forms of traffic would probably be best. (Of course, as with other roads, cyclists would be free to use all roadspace along the whole road, and not just the roadspace provided specifically for them.) -- Guy