Hello Murphy, thanks for posting. You are of course absolutely right that cyclists shouldn't go down the left-hand side of high-sided vehicles. As BlueQuinn has pointed out, cycle lanes are not compulsory and at the same time contribute to the problem of cyclists riding too close to the kerb, often leading to injudicious overtaking.
You may well be right about what happened in this case, but it's best not to speculate at this stage. Finding out what exactly happened is the task for the inquest (much as even that is often unsatisfactory) and hearsay is a poor basis for this. Also, can you imagine how the family would feel if they read your post and found fault ascribed so squarely to the victim? People read these forums (this one, for instance, as you've probably found out yourself, is quite easy to Google). No-one is saying that only one party in a crash is to blame, and the driver must be feeling awful regardless of what happened, but we simply cannot afford to jump to conclusions at this stage. I won't quite your post for that reason, if you want to edit it.
Rush-hour restrictions for heavy goods traffic are actually quite an achievable campaigning objective. In addition to the 'cost' incurred to society by the senseless deaths of young people, you also have to think of the time lost in congestion, etc. Yes, it would mean quite a lot of change--e.g., different working hours for drivers, or for personnel working at construction sites, but none of it is rocket science. I think similar worries were advanced when the GLA's night-time driving ban for HGVs came in, but that predates my awareness of it by a long time, and I can't really comment on it.
Hello Murphy, thanks for posting. You are of course absolutely right that cyclists shouldn't go down the left-hand side of high-sided vehicles. As BlueQuinn has pointed out, cycle lanes are not compulsory and at the same time contribute to the problem of cyclists riding too close to the kerb, often leading to injudicious overtaking.
You may well be right about what happened in this case, but it's best not to speculate at this stage. Finding out what exactly happened is the task for the inquest (much as even that is often unsatisfactory) and hearsay is a poor basis for this. Also, can you imagine how the family would feel if they read your post and found fault ascribed so squarely to the victim? People read these forums (this one, for instance, as you've probably found out yourself, is quite easy to Google). No-one is saying that only one party in a crash is to blame, and the driver must be feeling awful regardless of what happened, but we simply cannot afford to jump to conclusions at this stage. I won't quite your post for that reason, if you want to edit it.
Rush-hour restrictions for heavy goods traffic are actually quite an achievable campaigning objective. In addition to the 'cost' incurred to society by the senseless deaths of young people, you also have to think of the time lost in congestion, etc. Yes, it would mean quite a lot of change--e.g., different working hours for drivers, or for personnel working at construction sites, but none of it is rocket science. I think similar worries were advanced when the GLA's night-time driving ban for HGVs came in, but that predates my awareness of it by a long time, and I can't really comment on it.