DT letters
 

Safe cycling

SIR – Your correspondent D F G Dobson (Letters, February 26) states that
when dual-use pavements are provided (for use by cyclists and pedestrians),
cyclists must use them. The Highway Code is quite clear on this. Rule 61
states: “While such facilities are provided for reasons of safety, cyclists may
exercise their judgment and are not obliged to use them.”

As a keen but cautious cyclist I am often more nervous when cycling on dual-
use pavements. Not only do I have to be careful around pedestrians, but I
also need to watch out for cars coming out of driveways, as well as for traffic
exiting or turning into side streets, which requires me to scan 360 degrees
at every junction with a minor road.

Far safer, in most circumstances, to simply cycle on the road.

Ian Thomson
Nantwich, Cheshire

SIR – Cyclists riding on pavements with impunity are a menace, but added to
that danger is the increasing number of riders wearing headphones.

I recently remonstrated with a cyclist who was wearing a pair of these as well
as a mask, while speeding along the pavement, by saying: “Why don’t you
go the whole hog and wear a blindfold?”

Needless to say, he couldn’t hear me.

Guy Bargery
Edinburgh

The cyclist who got and killed a pedestrian on a racing bike with no brakes got 18 months. Seems quite unfair.

Sounds like the judge took an instant dislike to her looks.

Genuinely might have played a part, who cares about justice for Mrs Trunchball

This part of the verdict is concerning:
If neither the police nor the council can say it's a shared cycleway then how can the judge partly base her sentence on saying it was?

That’s what I thought :nono:

Yea she caused her death then went skipping along, disability doesn't give you the right to immunity from breaking the law

Sounds like she shouldn’t be out by herself in the community


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what was the law she broke?

Her actions caused a death, she is the one who is ultimately responsible for someone dying though therefore she is guilty for Manslaughter

The cyclist should have been aware enough to swerve left. She panicked because she knew she was in the wrong, making her swerve right into the road.

No the women went to the other side of the pavement and waved her hands towards her leaving her no choice but to swerve into traffic, that woman had blood on her hands and I hope it haunts her for life

Old womans brain wasnt quick enough to react to the waving hands warning of the mentally unstable women, confusing her mind into making a simple right turn, into a twisting left turn jerk. Her mind, It acted instead like a panicking child learning to ride.

Anybody on a bike would swerve when someone was deliberately coming towards them

no

you have no evidence to say that the old lady fell of her bike due to the actions of the lady

it may have been a bump in the path, a gust of wind, a glint from a car mirror or the ladys hand slipped on the handlebars

can you tell me what evidence suggests she fell off her bike due to the lady on the path?

A fit enough person to be riding on the unpredictable undulating modern day pavement would have swerved away from the road.

Looks like she raises her arm and shoves the the poor dear into the road just as she's walking off camera.

does not touch her. looks like the cyclist was heading straight for the disabled lady

Actually does look like she pushes her at the end of that clip :skull: seems to be a tiny bit longer than the BBC one

if so that would have been mentioned in the sentence and the sentence would have been much longer

https://imgur.com/Jk20SDR.gif

clear push on the side of her back after the bike was already passing her in a straight line shocking

Shame the camera is about a millisecond away from seeing if she makes contact with her or not

Its a tough one. If it were my mother who was the cyclist, I would be wanting a custodial sentance for the person who, for whatever reason, seemed to make her swerve into the path of a car. But if my mother was the pedestrian, I'd be thinking that she was right to be worried of an oncoming cyclist.

At the end of the day a woman has lost her life and another one is now in prison....no one wins, its all very sad

Yes I agree with that

"I would be wanting a custodial sentance for the person who, for whatever reason, seemed to make her swerve"

you want to jail an elderly lady on a "seemed to" basis

wow

Cyclists should never be on the pavement