My impression from this, admittedly extremely limited, cross section of the cycling community was that there is cudos in risk-taking and that anyone who cycles with safety in mind is therefore to be scorned. I wonder whether this attitude is fostered by the fact that an awful lot of young cyclists have their first experiences on BMX bikes, where risk-taking and ever more daring manoeuvres seem to be the name of the game.
I'm rather cautious actually.
That's my coat, the hi-viz one with built in elbow pads and spine protector.
Now that's out of the way; most of the ideas in this thread are good and valid IMO (but BMX is a symptom not a cause). Risk-taking of youth, habitualisation because you get away with it usually, peer pressure, cycle lanes channelling you up the kerbside, etc.
Not sure how to put this without it being taken the wrong way but
I am uneasy about the we must educate cyclists around hgv etc.
I was watching under tens last month in Holland happily riding out of the school gate and straight onto the road, am I right to assume they have greater street awareness than their British counterparts?
Also there is a notorious stretch of road around here that is narrow and quite frankly scares the shit out of me every time I have to ride along it. The other week I was followed by a German registered HGV for nearly one mile and never once did it attempt to pass me, something that has never happened afaic remember with a british registered truck who normally get three quarters of the way past before squeezing you into the gutter.
Lets be honest the standard of driving in this country by those who can cause the most damage is shocking. Perhaps others see it differently to me.
Going back on topic how can a completely new development like the Olympic Park not have a decent segregated cycle path around it
Similarly in India, where the standard of driving is appalling, buses and trucks will check their mirrors and get their driver's mate (cheap labour helps, obviously) to look out of the window when turning left because they
know not only bicycles but motorbikes and even small cars will be shooting through the gap. I don't know how that compares with the Dutch, but perversely, it could be that the more riskily most people behave, the safer the cautious are and vice versa.