Bike-buggy-smuggy-mummies: they think they're invincible!

[Vagabond]

You know those little carriages on the back/front of bikes with little children cocooned inside? What are these mums thinking of? It looks like they've got a litter of kittens inside sometimes!

The way they ride their kids around town in these bicycle people carriers seems so dangerous to me. I pass at least a dozen of them a day and I'm astounded by the sense of entitlement these mums feel above the overwhelming enormity of actual traffic. They seem invincible when, actually, they are putting themselves and their kids in enormous danger.

I drive so carefully around them but it irritates me to see the smug look on their faces. I'm equally sure that they hate my smug face driving my car. It's soooo Oxford and it irritates the hell out of me!

Yes, it's green. I get that. It still gets on my nerves.

But isn't just statistics - millions of people drive cars threfore yes, you are more likely to be killed in a car than a silly cycle pod.
However, you surely can't believe that in a collision a child in a cycle pod stands a better chance than the driver of a car? They are less likely to be killed only because there are far fewer of them - thank God!

why do people gets killed in cars?

Surely there's an argument that, the more dangerous they look, the more care drivers treat them with? Esp. bc they are ALWAYS full of kiddies and if you ran one over you might as well throw yourself under the wheels too.

Those trailer things unnerve me.
Where I live is not good terrain for cycling. It is extremely hilly, with lots of b-roads that aren't that well maintained, high hedges or stone walls at the side, and lots of steep drops. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, it is a magnet for boy racers, and has been used as for rally stages in the recent past.

Armed with this information, I would never carry a child on a bike here. There is one terrifying family who use one - I just don't like the idea of placing a child at car wheel height, while you are wobbling up a massive gradient with poor visibility and a stroppy sixth-former in an overpowered Honda Civic behind you, who probably just thinks your little warning flag is really effing annoying.

ivykaty44 brilliant youtube link thank you. very interesting point (though not really relevant to our discussion here) about improvements to vehicle safety features having very marginal effect if any on actual accident outcome numbers as drivers translate those safety improvements into performance improvements and, thus, take more risks.

To the point as to whether cycling is more dangerous than driving, the Department of Transport produces an quarterly report, the most recent detailed on being here.

In it, at a very simplistic level 2,770 cyclists were killed or seriously injured in 2010 vs. 10,110 motorists. However, given there's a roughly estimated 4 million cyclists in the UK vs. 31 million cars on the road, that equates to the risk of death or serious injury being more thantwice as high for cyclists as motorists.

Based on kilometres travelled , the risk is going to be far higher than just twice, i.e. the average car covers a lot more each year than each cyclist, so the risk per kilometre travelled of death or serious injury is multiples higher for a cyclist than a car. Obviously, that's pretty relevant if you're comparing which is a safer way to make the 5 kilometre journey from say home to work or school.

So in short, yes, cycling is much more dangerous than driving and actually, as per the report, the numbers are getting a bit worse rather than a bit better.

So more people should get of their arses and cycle and walk instead of jumping in the car !

Less cars - Safer roads :)

I've enjoyed reading this thread and hearing all the different opinions. TBH, I never even considered the kids being at exhaust fume levels but that is an extremely relevant point.

Earthpixie: Woodstock Road is the precise road I was talking about when I started this thread. It is an extremely busy road with lots of busses and HGVs. To think that parents would expose their children in these small buggies to this traffic is unbelievable to me.
I wouldn't even attempt it myself.

Perhaps you have to grow up in a cycling family to 'get it'. I just don't.

Cestlavie - interesting statistics. Can't believe so many cyclists were killed in 2010. Let's just hope that a child in a buggy doesn't become one of them.

scottishmummy Fri 18-Mar-11 09:35:55
maybe op would find a brolly less smug.lulu guinness brolly with weans in it.nice

Someone bought me a Radley brolly for Christmas. It was pretty. I am not sure I felt smug per se but I did feel faintly stylish.

Unfortunately I left in my boss's car and she is denying all knowledge. Back to holding a newspaper over my head when it rains.

Yes the stats are right it is safer to be in a car than on a bike. But on the other hand the more bikes there are on the roads the safer it becomes (I.e. In countries where there are more cyclists it is safer to cycle than in countries where there are few)

So cyclists are taking a greater risk but also helping to make the roads safer and the air cleaner.

Don't ever come to Denmark!

Are you mistaking exercise induced endorphin based smiling for smugness?

And when was the last time anyone you knew involved in a bicycle accident?

My dd is four and weve used the Trailgator bar to hook her to my bike since she was three and a half.She has a helmet and hi vis jacket and has learnt loads of road sense.She has to stay aware as she isnt encased in steel bars.Personally I wouldnt feel safe with her in a trailer but each to their own at the end of the day.At least when shes older she will know how to ride safely.

The reason that cycle accidents have got worse is due to petrol increases, purchase of bikes has also increased with petrol increases and there are more people cycling as a mode of transport.

Interesting charts, looking at table 8 you can see that there is a shift in numbers of cyclists hurt or killed during Quarter 2 and 3 opposed to lower numbers in Q1 and 4 which would be darker nights of the winter months.

Look over at the figures for motorist in 2009 and 2010 and you will see a decrease in accidents - this agian is related to petrol increases, as the price has crept up the motorist has stayed home and travelled less miles by car

17,064 cyclists in 2009 where hurt or killed by the figures in table 8, and the car accidents are 143,412 for 2009

your figures don't quite stack up if we leave the cyclists at 4 million and the motorists at 31 million the safety of cycling gets better and driving a car becomes more dangerous.

I love driving my car - its can be quick easy and handing, but it has its place and it is expensive - how many times have you stood at the petrol pump this year and watched the pump chugg along to over £50? over £100? Is it cheap to fill your petrol tank? Is it cheap to ride a bike for short trips?

If you are really happy to pay tax on petrol then stay forever in your car - but if you are not happy about the tax you pay at the pump, their is an alternative and the more people that cycle the safer it will become

if you want to give this man your money - fine

but if not think about giving bikes some room, and getting on one yourself

Reading this thread has made me want one of these - and the cash for it, and somewhere to keep it, and a second DC so no one thinks the spare space is just cos I love the look of the thing.

Heh. I used to cycle everywhere in Oxford, and in Edinburgh (far more hills, but I was younger and fitter - perhaps because of the cycle!) - and now I live in the NYC area and don't because I find the traffic so petrifying. I walk everywhere, pushing or carrying DS and oh, how I mourn the zippy, fun bike! It was SO much quicker! If I could, I would. And if I lived in Oxford with DS, I definitely would. But up front, not in a trailer.

the exhaust fumes thing is not a good point unless you are a moron who can't see that children walking near a road will get as many fumes, anc children inside a car will get more.

We can basically sum this thread up as lazy twats in cars are dangerous to cyclists, are blind and or stupid and shouldn't be on the road,and would prefer to blame the cyclists without the basic understanding of what they are talking about.

Winter....you're so funny! Thanks for the amusement on this thread. You will clearly not be dissuaded so I will not attempt to do so.

I do cringe at your use of "twat" though. No need to be such a harpie! You just reinforce our opinion of you and that is entirely reductive. You won't change your mind, and I won't change mine. Isn't it wonderful to exchange opinions?! Perhaps we'll regard each other with more respect on the roads from now on. It's got to be mutual.

Happy cycling.

I agree with vagabond cringe, though do think seriously about how much money you throw at George O as he will not thank you for it in the long run and only want more...

I don't care about your opinion of me. I'll just take more pleasure at the twats who hate being slowed down by a woman on a bike with the trailer. makes my day to see them huffing and puffing at adding 14 seconds on to their journeys.

I'll just keep plodding along on my bike and you can induge your nonsense theories and over-active imagination while you wait to go around me.

www.londonskaters.com/cycling/article-child-trailer-safety.htm Interseting German study on trailer safety

I'm not sure they look 'smug', but there's no way I would put my children in one. So dangerous, cars have blind spots and what about lorries, buses...range rovers...etc.

I have never yet come across a sighted car - where do you get blind and sighted cars from mumsgotatum?