London cyclist deaths: 150 fined in road safety schemehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25100379What this doesn’t tell you is what was on the London new last night - a lot of cyclists were being pulled over for jumping the red lights. They were also being advised to wear helmets and dayglo vests. What they weren’t being told was not to wear headphones.
There does seem to be an attitude amongst cyclists of the “it doesn’t apply to me” nature. It’s getting dark early now, and I see a lot of cyclists with no lights on their bikes. Some on the road, some on the pavement. You have to wonder how they survive. My wife says, “god favours idiots”.
We also fail to mention that there is no mandatory test for the safety of bicycles. Mine is 20 years old, and it’s up to me to keep it working. I don’t have to take it to be checked every year, so there’s no independent check on brakes, tyres, lights, reflectors etc. etc.. Should there be some form of upkeep test for bikes? If we are talking about licensing them, mandatory training, we’re starting to treat bikes like cars and motorbikes, and so we have to go the whole hog.
