Road sense

As a city cyclist, one of the banes of my existence is ridiculously large vehicles, particularly 4WDs. (SUVs in American parlance.)

Many of their drivers seem utterly unaware of the poor visibility of these hulks, or indeed even of their real size – near had my shoulder taken off by a Hummer – yes a HUMMER! — in central London in the early hours of one morning.
But now I’m fighting back!

Posted on my blog is a copy of “parking ticket”, to be put on 4WDs – and I’ll be out on the prowl soon …

You can get your own copies (for the UK) from Alliance Against Urban Four x Fours. I don’t know if there’s a similar movement in the US?

There’s more good news on other fronts. In Sydney, a local council will charge more for parking 4WDs.

For a further take on the issue, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Spike column is running a series of reader comments. The best I’ve seen:

“Bill Rayner – after noting that a 2.6-tonne 4WD travelling at the speed limit has the same momentum as a 1.3-tonne sedan travelling twice as fast – had a question: ‘If a LandCruiser doing 70 kmh in a 60 zone can do the same damage as a mid-sized car going 140, why isn’t [the driver] thrown in jail for it?'”

And you don’t want to think about the damage it would do to a cyclist. Susoz pointed out in the comments on my last post on cycling that the home page of the lovely funny article to which I pointed explains that the author had been killed by a drunk driver. As she says, it does make your blood run cold. Then again even if you are in a steel-sided vehicle it may well not offer much protection in those sort of circumstances.