Wednesday, July 09, 2008
The Biking Killers
I've always known cyclists acted as if they were above the law, but, until now, I hadn't realised they actually were. This terrible story with the lead character of Jason Howard who shouted 'Move, I'm not stopping' prior to killing Rhiannon Bennett reveals that killers on two wheels can get away with a fine of £2,200. If he'd been in a car, he would now be in prison. The other day I was near Edgware Road and turned when somebody shouted. A man was lying on the floor and the cyclist who had hit him was cycling on shouting 'look at the lights!' Even if it had been the pedestrian's fault, - I had no way of knowing - a human being - ie not a cyclist - would have stopped to see if he was okay. 'Arrogant' is the word the judge applied to Howard. It is the besetting sin of the cyclists who fling themselves about the streets of London, in doing so risking my freedom - I would doubtless be jailed if one flung himself in front of me and I hit him - and sanity. The Howard case might/should change all that.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
So true, Bryan. Cyclists are no better than car drivers. They are also destroying the world but have choosen to take us out one by one.
ReplyDeleteIt's a big-city thing, I suspect. There are loads of cyclists round here, outside London, but mercifully very few like that. The irony is that aggressive eco-crazies are more tolerated in the middle of cities than outside them.
ReplyDeleteWilfred Thesiger, in a suit of old-fashioned cut and wearing a homburg, I think, was once seen roughly admonishing a two-wheeler with a furled umbrella. The guy had cut him up at a zebra crossing. Thesiger had the right idea, but I guess we're not all 6ft plus former boxers and SAS men. You're so right about the laughable attitude of the judiciary.
With respect, not all motorists who kill cyclists get jail time, at least not in the US. Bicycling Magazine had a supremely poignant article several months back on the issue, titled "Broken" by David Darlington. Here in the US, the automobile is still King, Shah, and Pharaoh.
ReplyDeleteIf only we had a way of seeing what state our hormones are in. Some sort of implant and watch combo showing you exactly how unreasonable your current exercise or stress-induced mix is.
ReplyDeleteThe idle thought occurs that anyone crazy enough to take their life into their hands by cycling in London is that bit more likely to be arrogant and have little regard for their own, or by extension, anyone else's safety and wellbeing.
ReplyDelete(Cyclist in one of the UK's smaller more pleasant cities)
If ever you tried to overtake only to find eighteen wheels of mean metal looking at you from 50 yards, the emotion that enters you is cold nasty bitter and hateful. It is terror, something if you are lucky will occur once a year only.
ReplyDeleteWell it sounds to me like you don't ride a bicycle. In my city (Erfurt, Germany) there are very few bicycle lanes, almost none. When I cycle on the road I am in the way of the motorists most of the time. This is dangerous for me and a nuisance for the motorists. So I cycle on the pavement whenever it gets to annoying. There I am in constant conflict with the pedestrians, of course. There is really no solution other then taking the car, which I refuse to do for trips inside the city.
ReplyDeleteNow Berlin, that is a city with proper bicycle lanes. Or any city in the Netherlands for that matter.
During the trial not a single witness corroborated the "move, I'm not stopping" statement.
ReplyDeleteThis attributed comment was part of the opening address by the prosecution which the Fourth Estate seized upon as it bolstered the "boorish" cyclist angle.
Interesting to compare the current furore with this case:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4301595.ece
As a cyclist in Dublin, a very cyclist-unfriendly city, I find on occasions I have no choice but to cycle on the footpath (often when the "cycle path" is blocked by motorised vehicles). I always give way to pedestrians and feel that, on balance, it is safer for cyclists to share the footpath with pedestrians than for cyclists to have to share roads with cars and trucks.
ReplyDelete