"making the roads safer for everyone" - not just cyclists with a wired head

[Jaded]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30573413

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm not sure I understand it. They'll take data on how stressed cyclists were and use this to give warnings that you're approaching a dangerous junction, busy street, etc? How does this give you anything you don't already see and hear? What could be useful would be if they used this information to find what road features and behaviour caused most stress to (especially novice) cyclists (and why not pedestrians and others) then designed those out.

[Kim]

What could be useful would be if they used this information to find what road features and behaviour caused most stress to (especially novice) cyclists (and why not pedestrians and others) then designed those out.

Yeah, but they know they're not going to get funding for that.  Apps are sexy and achievable...

Still, it's the sort of research that comes in useful to defuse the "CITATION NEEDED" obstruction method.

[mattc]

Of course there is a positive message here - after a bit of practice, cyclists get much less stressed by these things.
(much the same as with driving a car.)

I assume we do want cyclists to get a bit of practice, rather than only allowing novices on the streets!

[Cudzoziemiec]

What could be useful would be if they used this information to find what road features and behaviour caused most stress to (especially novice) cyclists (and why not pedestrians and others) then designed those out.

Yeah, but they know they're not going to get funding for that.  Apps are sexy and achievable...

Still, it's the sort of research that comes in useful to defuse the "CITATION NEEDED" obstruction method.

You're very pessimistic, Kim. Look around you at all the cyclist-friendly, or at least supposedly so, roundabouts and paths and removal of guard rails etc going on over the last three decades or so. Yeah, a lot of it is nowhere near as good as it's meant to be, let alone should be, but it does exist; and sure the overall assumption is still that most people drive most places, but it is no longer everyone driving everywhere - cyclists, pedestrians and bus passengers might still be weirdoes, but weirdoes now get catered for.

[Kim]

You're very pessimistic, Kim.

Have you been reading my school reports?   


Yeah, improved infrastructure does happen.  Sometimes even competently.  But I doubt that these researchers are the ones who are going to get to do it.

Ob-pessimism: Unless Sustrans are involved, perhaps.  Brainwave apps are an exciting and politically acceptable alternative to actually doing something useful.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Or do you mean "Sustrans are an exciting and politically acceptable alternative to actually doing something useful."? 

(and what is this "ob" prefix? I can't see it without thinking Russian)

[Kim]

Obligatory.  Probably a usenet habit, where you'd put some on-topic content in the final paragraph of some otherwise irrelevant post to placate the moderators and/or attempt to steer the thread back on-topic.