Tim Woodall wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:47:02 +0100,
Tom Barry wrote:
The dreaded 'common sense' of the selfish individual, as expressed by a)
I don't like waiting at traffic lights b) therefore I should be allowed
to ignore them c) therefore I shall arrive at my destination faster d)
therefore the world is a better place.

As opposed to the bendy bus drivers, as expressed by a) I don't like
waiting behind a cyclist b) therefore I should be allowed to ignore them
c) therefore I will turn left across them before I've even got the
articulation of the bus level with them d) therefore the world is a
better place.


A few facts:

1) No cyclists have ever been killed by a London bendy, as Boris now
admits, although he won't admit that he lied during the campaign about this.
2) Cycling has increased in London quite dramatically (north of 100%
now) *over exactly the same period bendy buses have been operating*
(since 2002), suggesting that people aren't generally being put off by
sharing the few London roads that actually have bendies on.
3) The KSI rate for cyclists in London has stayed remarkably constant
despite far more miles being ridden as cycling has taken off.
4) Bendies can kill people in ways double deckers can't. That there
aren't any examples of this concerning cyclists is very welcome, but
nevertheless I accept the point. However...
5) ...double deckers can kill people in ways bendies can't, and there
*are* examples of this, two in the last year*, which unaccountably don't
get reams of fearmongering coverage in the papers. Odd, that.
Obviously DDs operate more miles than bendies, but that brings us to...
6) ...even by the official TfL statistic of 36% more cyclist collisions
for bendies against rigids, once your replacement rigid service goes
over 36% more mileage you're increasing the risk to cyclists *even using
Boris Johnson's own justification*

Actually, on point 6 the off-peak mileage for the rigid 38, for example,
is the same as the existing service since the frequency is unchanged and
therefore the risk to cyclists off-peak is reduced. Unfortunately, by
the Met's statistics most cyclist road collisions happen at peak times,
as you might expect, so the net effect is likely to be a greater risk at
peak times when there are more potential victims and the full bus PVR is
in operation. I'm sufficiently convinced that the risk isn't so high
as to cause piles of dead cyclists all over London since bus/cyclist
fatalities are thankfully rare in London despite the massive increase in
both bus use and cycling in recent years.

Tom

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7410203.stm and
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/...l/article.html