Cycling in and around Birmingham England

Ghost bikes similar to those in London

I'm sure many of us will know about the ghost bikes that have been appearing in London over the last few years.

I'd love to know if anyone else has been moved to want to do something similar here in Birmingham or would it be counter productive. I believe the more cyclists on th road th e safer we'll all be but then the maths says that we'll have an increase in cyclist injuries. The hope would be over time that the injury/death figures would drop over time.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Beasley on February 13, 2012 at 12:30

One of the issues with warnings, whether symbolic like the ghost bikes or "slow" painted on the road (or "araf" in Wales) is the visual overload of information. Accidents will occur due to inattention on the part of road users whether on foot, skateboard, bike, or in a white van. It is debateable whether more signage always helps. If however, the design of a junction itself can be improved to make things safer then that is certainly worth looking at.

Tim

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Permalink Reply by Andy White on February 13, 2012 at 12:56

I think Tim is getting to the nub of a problem on our roads.

More signage, more advetising, more in-car gizmos to fiddle with. It seems that there is ever more 'stuff' to distract the motorist and thus allow a ton and a half of speeding metal to career into anything unfortunate enough to be in the vicinty.

Does anyone remember the ads for knoggi briefs and 'hello boys' bras (I forget the actual brand). What were people thinking when they designed these ads to be placed on our main roads.

I'm not being prudish here, I'm just being realistic. Ads are designed to grab ones attention and thus if placed along our roads they are clearly going to intentionally distract motorists. As a driver, I know it's really hard not to look at ads, if I could ignore them the ad company will just design one even more appealing.

Personally, I would ban siting all ads anywhere that they could deistract a driver. It may have been ok to paint a Bovril ad on the end wall of a house when the fastest thing on the road was a horse and cart, the same does not apply now.

I'd love to see an advertising company being dragged into court following an accident where the position of an advert was a contributory factor. I've never heard of it, anyone else know?

Tim Beasley said:

. Accidents will occur due to inattention on the part of road users whether on foot, skateboard, bike, or in a white van. It is debateable whether more signage always helps. If however, the design of a junction itself can be improved to make things safer then that is certainly worth looking at.

Tim