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Mike Raiford wrote:
> Failure to stop and render aid is a punishable crime in most states
> (assuming you're in the U.S.)
I'm 98% certain that it's also a criminal offence in the UK too.
> That makes me angry.
Some people truly are arseholes...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> Mike Raiford wrote:
> > Failure to stop and render aid is a punishable crime in most states
> > (assuming you're in the U.S.)
> I'm 98% certain that it's also a criminal offence in the UK too.
I'm certain it would be shorter to list the countries where it's *not*
a criminal offence than the ones where it is.
--
- Warp
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Chambers wrote:
> About two weeks ago I bought a bicycle, and I've been riding to and from work
> every day to get some exercise.
>
> This morning, as I was crossing an intersection (I had the green light), some
> stupid lady tried to make a turn without really checking if anyone was coming.
>
> Long story short, my bike has a bent wheel, I've got five stitches in my leg,
> and the lady took off without leaving her contact information.
>
> But, since my job involves standing on my feet all day, the doctor who stitched
> me up told me to not go until tomorrow. Fine by me, I'm not having any
> problems following that advice :)
>
> In all honesty, it hurt, but I'm glad that nothing worse happened. Now I'm just
> back to riding the bus every day...
>
>
Here in New York Bloomberg is making a big push to make the city 'green'
in many ways and an instrumental part of the effort is his 'Sustainable
Streets' master plan. It involves making NY streets bicycle-friendly
creating 200+ miles of bike lanes and 15+ miles of curb-protected bike
lanes, with a high degree of connectivity throughout the city.
Recently I have noticed several severe accidents between bicycles and
automobiles, two times the autos were taxis. I, of course, am a taxi
driver so whenever I see that I wince. I know the cab is going to take
the blame. Afterall, the very first traffic fatality in the entire
United States was a pedestrian run over by a cab in New York City.
The advent of bicycle lanes is naturally a thing of some concern to me.
Obviously it feels threatening when the stated target of the mayor's
plan is to reduce the use of private vehicles in the city. Taxis are,
in effect, a service which provides private vehicles for shared use. It
casts a shadow over my future. This feeling steepened by the flood of
pedi-cabs now on NY streets. So it is difficult to feel a whole lot of
warmth towards bicyclists.
Bicycles and cabs compete for the curb. Along with buses, maintenance,
and delivery vehicles. That creates further systemic antipathy. And
with all that the congestion and competition along New York curbs
entails: buses, trucks, pedestrians, moronic weekend-warrior SUV's, and
other cabs trying to beat you to fares, trying to take account of
bicyclists on top of everything else just seemed like overload to me.
Simply too much. Especially given the absurd lack of visibility from the
drivers seat of a Crown Vic.
And that is before you even begin to respond to the irrational degree of
self-righteousness exhibited by bicyclists, even as they display total
contempt for traffic regulations.
But the bicycle lanes and the bicycles are here to stay. Being a
liberal, I listen to liberal media. And the hocking of the Sustainable
Streets idea is on in full force. I have managed some empathy for
cyclists. I have learned I can manage to keep them on my internal radar
scope. They are added to the list of proximate objects I notice and
track, which is how you really maneuver in a Crown Vic with its truly
deceptive 'blind spots'. Unbelievable even to me, I have managaed to
add bike awareness to my driving habits.
To that end, cyclists do need to realize that consistent behavior on
their part would help in this partnership. So would some illumination on
their bikes at night. It is not just about the irritation of having them
thumb their nose at the law. It is about judging and maneuvering in
traffic when you cannot have 100% visibility.
Finally, the actually traffic regulations governing the bike lanes the
mayor is so proudly rolling out would be helpful.
-Jim
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Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> Chambers <bdc### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> > and the lady took off without leaving her contact information.
>
> Isn't that exactly what license plates are for?
They are, if you manage to write them down. Unfortunately, in this case I
didn't.
The cops came, of course, and took my description of the car, but honestly...
how many dark green four-door sedans do you think are out there right now?
They're never going to find her.
Anyway, Friday when I get paid I'll get the bike back to usable condition, if I
can. Until then I'm back to riding the bus every day, which is a shame because
riding is both faster & makes me feel good (physically).
....Chambers
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> The cops came, of course, and took my description of the car, but
> honestly...
> how many dark green four-door sedans do you think are out there right now?
> They're never going to find her.
You never know, if it is her "usual" route then maybe you'll see here again
once you start cycling? And presumably she will have some scratch or other
damage to the car where she hit you. Good luck!
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>>> Failure to stop and render aid is a punishable crime in most states
>>> (assuming you're in the U.S.)
>
>> I'm 98% certain that it's also a criminal offence in the UK too.
>
> I'm certain it would be shorter to list the countries where it's *not*
> a criminal offence than the ones where it is.
I'll go along with that...
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"Tim Attwood" <tim### [at] anti-spamcomcastnet> wrote:
> > In the UK.
> > Lift right foot from the break and put it on the accelerator.
> > Lift left foot from the clutch while accelerating gently with right foot.
>
> That's with right side driver cars?
> I thought that the pedals would have been reversed from
> left side driver cars.
You might think so but it is not the case. IIRC the hand controls on the
steering column are the same too (as far as there is a standard between
models). On motorbikes though the gear change and back brake foot pedal
(were/are?) on the other side from Japanese bikes.
Stephen
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> You might think so but it is not the case. IIRC the hand controls on the
> steering column are the same too (as far as there is a standard between
> models).
Yeh, cars have all the controls in the same place on both left/right drive,
apart from the gear lever and handbrake, which obviously you have to use
with your opposite hand. I drove right drive for about 6 years, and since
then left drive for 4 years, to be honest the only difference is that as a
right-handed person I prefer to keep my right hand on the steering wheel
while being lazy and leaving my left hand on the gear stick.
The funniest part of often switching sides is when you get in the passenger
side by mistake, or hit your hand into the door while trying to reach for
the gear stick :-) Not so funny when you pull into the path of an oncoming
truck by mistake...
> On motorbikes though the gear change and back brake foot pedal
> (were/are?) on the other side from Japanese bikes.
Yeh, certainly on pedal bikes too the front/rear brakes are on opposite
sides, again can be pretty dangerous if your instinct is to yank the wrong
one...
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scott wrote:
> The funniest part of often switching sides is when you get in the
> passenger side by mistake, or hit your hand into the door while trying
> to reach for the gear stick :-) Not so funny when you pull into the
> path of an oncoming truck by mistake...
Every time Benny drives us round Switzerland, each time we arrive at a
roundabout I'm like "WTF are you doing OMG WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!! Oh,
wait... nevermind, carry on..."
I am *so* glad I don't have to do the driving. o_O
Also... every time I play HalfLife 2, I get into all the cars from the
wrong side. (But then, so does Alyx...)
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scott wrote:
> The funniest part of often switching sides is when you get in the
> passenger side by mistake, or hit your hand into the door while trying
> to reach for the gear stick :-) Not so funny when you pull into the
> path of an oncoming truck by mistake...
I don't think I'd fare well in right hand drive manual transmission car.
--
~Mike
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