Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Maz,
Compulsory helmet use halved the number of cyclists in New Zealand
Debunked that claim already. Keep up.
There is zero evidence that mandatory helmets was anything other than one ingredient in a huge soup of social changes that occurred at about the same time. People still had to get around if they gave up using bicycles, and goodness knows our public transport usage didn't increase to absorb the displaced multitudes of cyclists who were supposedly giving up because they had to wear a helmet. -
Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I think the difference is in the study they went up to 1.25 metres from the curb, you guys are talking about riding fully in the middle of the lane.
The situations I'm envisaging, 1.25m from the kerb pretty much is the middle of the lane.
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Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Moz,
people freqently drive into fire engines and ambulances, despite the reflective surfaces and flashing lights.
I think you mean "because of" rather than "despite". Moths to a flame. The drivers get so fixated on the blinky- flashy-stripy that they drive towards it. Same principle as why you should follow the edge markers not the centre markers if your headlights fail: you'll steer where you're looking.
It's Fire Service policy that appliances parked (as in literally parked, rather than stationary across a road) at an incident are to turn their beacons off, because it reduces the light confusion for approaching road users.
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Hard News: Media3: Bad News for the Force, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
FFS, Matthew, can you acknowledge that there are PASers who’ve been on the receiving end of domestic abuse who really really shouldn’t be expected to micro-parse that kind of shit.
Of course I can acknowledge it, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let people use an incorrect interpretation to justify removing only one of a multiplicity of offensive posts.
If Emma had wanted to pull the posts that advocated for violence, I wouldn’t have uttered a peep except maybe a question about where the line is on defining “advocated for”. She didn’t, though, she gave a specific ground for pulling a specific post and that specific ground was wrong. Which, as you went on to observe, meant that she was apparently fine with people wanting to douse cops in petrol and set them alight, because a clear message advocating immolation is OK while a message that might mean the author wants someone’s mother to be beaten is not. -
Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
I have also advocated for a law change that means drivers who are convicted of hitting cyclists are required to ride a bike for a 6 month period
Mandatory time in the saddle for all persons wishing to get a driver's licence would be a good start. Bring in mandatory retesting at renewal and enforce the cycling requirement for all renewals over a decade and you'd catch all the real menaces, too: the middle-aged folks who managed to get their licence from a cornflakes packet and are still assured of the high quality of their driving by dint of being over 25 but still a decade or two away from the age-related retesting.
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Hard News: Media3: Bad News for the Force, in reply to John Holley,
I've been to a few myself, John, and there was definitely consumption of a reasonable quantity of alcohol. They weren't utterly debauched, but they were far from dry.
Maybe it's different in the military. -
Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Bart Janssen,
In other words, riding well out into the middle of the lane means cars will get closer to you more often.
Depends. If there's a physical barrier to cars crossing the centre line and no shoulder, I ride offensively just so that they won't think they might have an opportunity to pass. Otherwise, IME some fuckhead will try and pass you just because there's a millimetre of space that suggests they can.
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Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Russell Brown,
To be honest, the idea of riding the shoulder of a motorway with cars passing at 100km/h gives me the shits. There should be something better than that.
I do the airport circuit on a regular basis. I actually feel safer on the shoulders of George Bolt (100km/h in places, for the unfamiliar) than I do on some of the suburban 50km/h streets that I take to get there. I understand that the consequences of an incident will probably not be something I survive to describe, but I've been clipped (as in physical contact) by a car while riding up to a red light on GSR Otahuhu when there was plenty of space.
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Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Lilith __,
No it isn’t. At least not on its own.
Would you like to outline the relevant laws for us Graeme?
I think what Graeme means is that there's no specific offence of being in control of a motor vehicle that collides with a cyclist. Rather there're a handful of generic laws covering poor driving of all forms that also cover poor driving that results in a collision with a cyclist.
ETA: Which laws are careless or dangerous driving causing death or injury or, if the driving is spectacularly and intentionally deliberate, murder or attempted murder.
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The recommendation that’s got very little reportage, mandating use of cycle infrastructure where provided, is interesting. It suggests a fundamental ignorance on this coroner’s part as to just what constitutes cycle infrastructure. Tamaki Drive would qualify, one assumes, and not just the painted section to landward but also the shared path to seaward. The inadequacy of that as a cycle space has been done to death, but I guess a Wellington coroner is only going to be aware of the moderately good infrastructure that exists within his area.
With the current regime steadily gutting funding to everything that’s not a new state highway, cycling infrastructure ain’t going anywhere in a hurry despite the strong public sentiment in support of transport funding being a little more, well, balanced.