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In road.cc John Stevenson trolled:
Someone posting an opinion you disagree with is hardly trolling, and certainly not in the context of the rest of those comments.
You deliberatley miss the point of the article too, it seems, to make your own point.
A point which is not mutually exclusive to the article in any case, making me wonder why you state it in the manner in which you did.
Unless you're trolling, of course.
NotThamesWater
In road.cc John Stevenson trolled:
In the comments I replied:
Yes you are a banana.
The first charge was "causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving". That he caused "bodily harm" is undeniable. The primary cause for that harm was that he did not stop or manage to swerve around Kim Briggs in time. The fundamental rule of safe riding or driving is that you go slow enough to be able to avoid hazards or stop. Alliston claims to have been a cycle courier. Every courier, regular rider and driver in Central London knows that pedestrians step out all the time, they know pedestrians walk around with their heads buried in their phones, they know pedestrians sometimes stop then step back or forward unpredictably.
Alliston's crime was that he was negligent, careless or wanton. He was going too fast for the conditions - ie. too fast because thousands of pedestrians wander all around the Old street area and too fast because his fixed wheel braking (or cycling skill) was inadequate. Some have argued that 18mph is not very fast. It is well above the average (median) speed of vehicles on this road, it was well above the speed at which Alliston could safely control his bike.
Riding without a front brake is against the law. In the logic of roads policing that justifies a manslaughter charge. I am happy that at least a quarter of the jury members saw through the clumsy, contrived police 'evidence' on stopping distance.
There may be elements of rough justice in this trial outcome. But justice is never fair. Every day millions of drivers and cyclists act negligently, carelessly or wantonly. The outcomes are rarely serious and when they are we often get away with it - that is not just, but it happens. We have no moral right to complain when the justice system bears down on one of us for carelessness resulting in death or injury.
To suggest that we should always run away, deny involvement, be the hit and run killers is indefensible. An extension of that logic is that we should not take any care of other road users, irrespective of their vulnerability. Your suggestion leads to careless, wanton driving/riding being the acceptable norm.
The truckloads of journalistic venom aimed a cyclists over the last few weeks is not simply the result of Alliston's actions nor of the police prosecution. It is the result of a deeper malaise in our car dependent society. Your advice to cyclists simply feeds that psychosis.
Yes John, you are a banana, a rotten smelly banana.