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It's not about youth or agility, it's about skills and confidence. Young men innately have the confidence to ride assertively, but all cyclists should feel empo

It's not about youth or agility, it's about skills and confidence. Young men innately have the confidence to ride assertively, but all cyclists should feel empowered to protect themselves. The obvious example is fatal accidents involving large goods vehicles and cyclists in London. Women are vastly disproportionately likely to be involved in this class of accident, despite being under-represented in overall accident statistics. The leading theory is that women ride less assertively, putting them in dangerous situations at junctions. They're more likely to undertake and less likely to take the lane, jump red lights or bang on a window to make their presence known. They vanish into the large blind spots that surround large goods vehicles. In all likelihood, these cyclists are dying of politeness.

grogenaut 10y ago
dying of politeness has to be the most British of ways to go.
jacquesm 10y ago
Essentially all those cases are cases where the other traffic is clearly at fault for not being situationally aware. It's akin to victim blaming to suggest that one would need to ride 'assertively' in order to survive in traffic. All you should have to do to survive in traffic is to obey the traffic rules and the onus is on the rest of the traffic to give you the space you require in order to be safe. Anything less simply won't do. Is this article the source of your claim? http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/women-cycling-in-london-must-be-more-assertive-to-protect-themselves-from-killer-lorries-a2488111.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/women-cycling-in-londo... If so I'd expect something a little bit more substantial to be presented as 'the leading theory', it's just a news paper article repeating a claim by a sports cyclist. Lorries should be equipped with mirrors overseeing the area to the immediate side of the vehicle. And contrary to the statement in the article the safest place to be is not in front of a lorry but behind it, as a cyclist you should never ever go beside a lorry unless it is stopped and unlikely to move in the next minute. After all, in order to get out in front of the truck you're going to have to be beside it anyway for a while (and how long will depend greatly on how fast you are moving, something a professional racing cyclist might over-estimate for the general population of cyclists.

grogenaut 10y ago

dying of politeness has to be the most British of ways to go.

jacquesm 10y ago

Essentially all those cases are cases where the other traffic is clearly at fault for not being situationally aware. It's akin to victim blaming to suggest that one would need to ride 'assertively' in order to survive in traffic. All you should have to do to survive in traffic is to obey the traffic rules and the onus is on the rest of the traffic to give you the space you require in order to be safe. Anything less simply won't do. Is this article the source of your claim? http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/women-cycling-in-london-must-be-more-assertive-to-protect-themselves-from-killer-lorries-a2488111.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/women-cycling-in-londo... If so I'd expect something a little bit more substantial to be presented as 'the leading theory', it's just a news paper article repeating a claim by a sports cyclist. Lorries should be equipped with mirrors overseeing the area to the immediate side of the vehicle. And contrary to the statement in the article the safest place to be is not in front of a lorry but behind it, as a cyclist you should never ever go beside a lorry unless it is stopped and unlikely to move in the next minute. After all, in order to get out in front of the truck you're going to have to be beside it anyway for a while (and how long will depend greatly on how fast you are moving, something a professional racing cyclist might over-estimate for the general population of cyclists.