Various notes

[nineveh_uk]

I have only three weeks left at work until Christmas. This is both good and bad...

My colleague won't be in the office today because she is in Stockholm for a long weekend. A romantic long weekend with her new boyfriend, who is a barrister. Am I envious? Too right I am!

To the cyclist turning right last night on Woodstock Road in dark clothes, no bike lights or reflectors, and wearing a helmet: O HAI U BE DOIN SAFETY RONG!

Went to WNO's Barber of Seville last night at the New Theatre. Fun production and good singing, but the theatre decoration makes it feel like one is sitting inside a pink and red jukebox, and the leg-room in the balcony - ow! Ruddigore at the Barbican tomorrow.

My picowrimo production for the month has hit 8000! I am resolved to keep going and try and finish the story this time. Of course, it would help if it didn't just seem to be betting longer. For a story I think of as "Potterverse/Wimsey mpreg Corsican crossover (with bonus valet-rogering" we aren't yet anywhere near either mpreg or Corsica. Or rogering.

Comments

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

It does seem a bit odd, most of the eejits I see around here with no lights don't wear helmets either. Could be worse though - a friend of mine was saying someone she knows went out riding her horse in the dark the other day, with a dog too, on country lanes with no lighting, with no lights and wearing no reflexive gear... If she's got a death wish, all well and good, but I felt very sorry for the poor horse and dog, and for any motorists they met. Amazingly they all returned in one piece though.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think my perspective is partly informed by the fact that I see helmets as a fundamentally second-line defence (I never wore one myself when I cycled, partly because once I've got one on I can't take it off and appear in public until I've washed my hair, which renders anything bar sports cycling pointless, and in any case I don't cycle at the moment), so it was weird to see someone in that, but not in the lights, which I'd regard as a definite first-line.

The horse-rider is pretty impressively irresponsible.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on helmets, I'm not a fan myself. I prefer to avoid the threat of being hit by a car and cycle on tracks/off road only, which largely negates the need for them in my opinion* - I've never fallen off a bike head first in my life!

*Well, the way I do it anyway - the Boy used to do competition downhill cycling and needed all the protective gear he could get for that!

Impressively irresponsible - I thought so too. I was quite boggled when she told me.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I loved cycling in Denmark, where it was all off-road on city routes, and various facilities outside the built-up areas - though the consciousness that car drivers were really alert to bikes was really one of the big things for me. I never saw the sort of behaviour by drivers that is routine on my journey to work and makes me feel unsafe cycling here.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

From the behaviour I see around here, and the number of times the Boy has been clipped by drivers* (mostly buses who apparently think they are bikes and like to use the cycle lane on the main road just down from my flat), no helmet in the world is going to make me feel safe cycling on the roads around here :( I would love to live somewhere with proper cycle lanes and considerate drivers!


*Fortunately not resulting in serious injury

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I am a great advocate of helmets after being knocked off my bike (by another cyclist) when I was twelve. My knees and an elbow were thoroughly messy, but my head (which hit the ground first) was completely fine. The size of the scrape on the helmet was impressive!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I know that lot of people swear by them, but as for me they effectively prohibit my wearing a bike, I'd hate to see them compulsary. And I assume that though you like your helmet, you don't routinely cycle in elbow protectors?

Ed. That said, I think there are arguments for the use of helmets is by children, whose accidents tend to happen at lower speed and don't involve cars, and if I had a child I'd probably want her to wear one.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

No, but I've skinned my knees and elbows enough to be less afraid of it than of landing on my head, and judging by my ability to fall off/under/into things I think (for me at least) it is a good idea... I just remember the horrible feeling of flying over the handlebars and skidding along on my head, and wouldn't feel confident cycling (on the roads in particular) without a helmet.

There are lots of arguments for and against. I don't say they should be made compulsary, but they've certainly saved me from being hurt at least once. Although the second time was when I walked into a door frame. Yes, I am that clumsy.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I can't take it off and appear in public until I've washed my hair
Are you the person this was designed for? (http://www.hovding.com/)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I'm the person this (http://www.odense.dk/web4/cyklisternesby/cycle%20city%20odense/~/media/SUBSITES%20OG%20WEBLIGHT/Cykelby/Find%20vej/Cykelstikort%20OK%20ny%202009.ashx) is designed for :-)

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Aren't we all. There is a reason why I have hardly cycled at all since coming back from Finland. UK cycling just looks horrific by comparison.

People do cycle round here on single carriageway rural roads with no verges where the cars that do appear are doing 70 mph round blind bends but I don't fancy it myself.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

The highway code backs you up on that one. You 'should' wear a helmet but 'must' have white front and red rear lights.

Actually, I've just noticed that my bike doesn't exactly meet regulations at the moment - I have a white front reflector (optional) but the red rear one (another 'must') must have fallen off at some point. I'm pretty sure I used to have one but I don't seem to have one now. I wonder whether the reflective bits of my rear light count.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Lights are a legal requirement, they protect the rider, and they also protect everyone else. Helmets are a personal choice that benefit the rider only, and not a legal requirement.

Reflectors do have a tendency to fall off. It is annoying.