Be a lorry driver - tomorrow Borough High St

The Met Police are running another Changing Places event this week in Southwark. Late notice as ever for Thursday 13th from 8am The lorries will be set up in Borough High Street, Southwark, at one end of the roadworks.

You can climb up into the driver's seat, chat to the drivers, get an idea of how easy it is for them not to spot a small cyclist and work out which areas you should always stay away from.

Charlie

i think this is a great initiative. the drivers also get the opportunity to get on a bike and see how it feels.

a friend of mine works for an events company and was a part of one of these types of things. he said out of the 5 lorry drivers there on the day, one of them was very concerned about cyclists and blind spots etc, but the other 4 just didn't care. he said it was so scary that their attitude was 'cyclists are scum and should just get off the road.'

Did this at Lambeth fair. Definitely a good idea.

did this today. if you can then do the same. this approach has a lot going for it. mind you the copper was waving me down frantically and when i eventually pulled over he said 'i am a policeman , you have to stop when i ask you to!' i said that i was too busy concentrating on the rather busy junction at morning rush hour to be noticing him' . then i thought 'this is all a bit heavy for a few rlj's further down the road'.

What's the incentive for a lorry driver to turn up to this event?

prostitutes?

if you are desperate to get in a lorry and give the airhorns a tug i have some very simple advise
go red light jumping around the city right in front of the police and they'll be kind enought to waive your £30 fine and invite you to watch a superb DVD and climb up in a truck
AND
they'll even give you some free lights

i have had the priveledge of two such sessions so far
might go back again next week for some more lights
now where are the police targeting RLJ'ers today

I don't see how sitting in a lorry stops people running reds? isn't it better to pull up the noddys who scoot relentlessly down the gutter and get them to sit in the trucks?

Suppose it's a bit of a catch-all. RLJ = noddy anyway in 99.9% of cases.

if you are desperate to get in a lorry and give the airhorns a tug i have some very simple advise
go red light jumping around the city right in front of the police and they'll be kind enought to waive your £30 fine and invite you to watch a superb DVD and climb up in a truck
AND
they'll even give you some free lights

i have had the priveledge of two such sessions so far
might go back again next week for some more lights
now where are the police targeting RLJ'ers today

Now the lights i'm interested in.

yeah you gotto get to the training course early or the couriers will have been in and robbed ( garnered ) all the free stuff !

I'll bump a few old lorry threads with this very welcome news.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/row-over-plan-for-compulsory-glass-panels-in-lorry-doors-to-protect-cyclists-a3168596.html

It's the most welcome development that direct vision lorries are now coming closer to reality, as these measures (and the even more welcome, later step of gradually replacing the lorry fleet with lower lorries (like bin lorries) where possible).

Once complete (which, admittedly, will take years), this will virtually eliminate cyclist left hooks from lorries.

Obviously, a newspaper has to try and construct some kind of row here, but the cost to businesses is going to be very small indeed compared to the harm that can be avoided, and all drivers who have tried driving one of the new lorries or one with a partially transparent door have been said to have loved it.