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I have been training the GF, somewhat assertively, with cycling this past week or two. Although she always had a city bike, now that we are riding together on the road with road bikes I am really drilling home that safety is paramount.
She is terrible for lapses of concentration, thinking about food or whatever, at zero mph turning into my path etc.
Even while she is driving I was pointing out these dangers, and she is slowly coming to terms with that a dog will always cross your path, and a car door will always open in your path, pedestrians will move first and look later and so on.
The reality is most of us that treat this knowledge as granted, do so from experience or tuition.
When was the last generation that was taught cycling proficiency? (I learnt that 25 years ago now!)
Track riders know when there's a crash go up, cos people fall down to the côte d'azure. Road riders know that the first two meters from the pavement/parked vehicle is the danger zone.
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Of course it's contrived, like elements of his defence would have been.
For me the real sticking point was a lack of a brake. I think it's fair to expect a persons bike is legal.
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@Charlie_L
The police 'stopping distance' video is so contrived that I expect even the jury saw through it, especially if there were cyclists among them. I think the police/CPS made the decision to prosecute on the fact of his bike being brakeless=illegal and also on evidence of his online comments showing him to be unsympathetic. The police/CPS saw this as a 'winnable' case even though Charlie's comments were made before he realised the serious outcome of Kim Briggs' injury.
In a fairer world the expert evidence would recognize that brakes and stopping distance are not the crucial issue. Experienced bike and motorcycle riders know that emergency collision avoidance most often requires aiming for the gaps rather than jamming on brakes and crashing. We learn that pedestrians can step out at any time, the worst case is when they take 3 steps out, see you, then take 1 step back just as you have turned to go behind them. We learn to anticipate this 'dance of death' and that the only way to avoid such crashes is to expect them whenever pedestrians are about and ride way out from the pavement or go slower if there is less space. Charlie A is paying for his lack of experience.