Last Updated on April 29, 2023
Bristol is trialling some fancy technology to alert bus drivers to the fact that cyclists made be on the inside of their combustion monsters
Well, first, why any cyclist would cycle up the inside of a moving bus is beyond me. Secondly, why any cyclist would stay beside a stopped bus, rather than get in front, is beside me. Thirdly, why any bus driver would overtake a cyclist …
Oh, I get it now.
And while this technology is not a bad idea, alone it seems to be a high-tech solution to a low quality infrastructure issue. That is, what the London Cycling Campaign have been banging on about for an age now: hashtag space for cycling.
These technology solutions are all very well, but they’re putting the emphasis of safety on endless fallible, irritable humans – it is still down to the driver to act on behalf of the information relayed to him and not be a dick. It is still down to the cyclist not to be a fucking numpty and realise that bike vs bus = splattered cyclist.
Nothing – nothing – no technology, no amount of bright yellow garb, no spongy helmet, will make cycling ‘safe’ on the roads apart from giving cycling separated spaces on our roads – particularly major ones – and corners and crossings where they don’t have to interact with these monsters of the road.
So, at the moment cities have been retrofitted for cars and busses: why not refit them for cyclists and pedestrians? Until then, these hi-tech solutions just seem a way to put the blame for deaths on the victims: the cyclists and the drivers.
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