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 I'm waiting to see the numbers for the rise in bike usage over the same period. If that's up 19% as well then this is a non-story  Cycling campaigners stress that such quarterly figures can become skewed by variations in accident reporting, particularly given the relatively small overall numbers involved, and that annual figures are a better guide. For the 12 months to June there was a far smaller 4% increase in cycling deaths and serious injuries as against the equivalent figure a year before, and the total remains almost 30% down on the 1994-98 average.
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 I rarely ride on a road, but if I do I tend to make myself very big indeed, never run a red light, and most importantly never ever under take a car on the left if it's anywhere near a turing or traffic light.
I would hazard a guess but understand that it would be foolish to assume, that a lot of the deaths were due to a resurgence in cyclists joining the roads and not having dealt with the levels of traffic since they were last on a bike.
A little like the Donor bike syndrome...50 year old man jumps on a 750cc bike 30 years after last riding a BSA 125 and promptly ends up in a ditch dead
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 that such quarterly figures can become skewed by variations in accident reporting i don't think theres any skewed accident reporting when deaths are involved
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i don't think theres any skewed accident reporting when deaths are involved
Unless you're Mark Twain
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<a href="http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/rcgbq22009" title="Deaprtment for Transport figures">Department for Transport figures</a> released today show that 820 cyclists were killed or seriously injured in the three months to June this year, a 19% increase on the same period of 2008 The numbers don't have the breakdown for "killed" and "seriously injured" just for bikes, but if you look at the totals for all traffic (and peds) it's 580 killed and 7,170 seriously injured. If cycling casualties are in the same proportion then that would be 8% of the 820 total, or 66. Plenty of scope for skewed reporting from the 92% non-fatal injuries, I'd have thought.
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yep probably includes DK's finger.
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I'd be more shocked to hear that there were no cyclists killed on the road, but until some one gets the small percentage of dangerous drivers off the road I may be dead before I do.
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 It's all clarkson's fault. The deaths and injuries that is, not more people on bikes.
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can't see that tiresome old bore have much more of a soapbox if this is the best he can do. His previous article seems to have been pulled too (some mindless rant of the awfulness of having to walk in the country and we should all get range rovers and thrash them all over the countryside)
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Perhaps inevitably, I found that quite amusing 
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"I tried one on a recent trip to Romania and I thought it was a very good car. But that’s like saying Ann Widdecombe has a heart of gold. It’s possibly true but it’s completely irrelevant. You still wouldn’t."
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must be a journo thing
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Jeremy clarkson has sweet fuck all to do with it.
I don't think this cycling hatred thing genuinely exists, I have had run ins I've had near fisty cuffs...but I think it all comes down to education.
Ok so they put out commercials about blind spots and 'think bike' but it's just not enough.
It takes nothing to pass a driving test, cars are sold as freedom machines, sold on speed and comfort they are as far removed from the experience on the road as you can possibly imagine.
I drove a pretty new BMW not long ago, inside it was like a computer game, you could hardly hear a thing, the drivers input was minimal it accelerated like a caterham yet you felt nothing, you were for all intents and purposes removed from the driving...now take that comparison to the caterham which I have also driven, everything is real you become incredibly aware of your car the surroundings and the road.
I get freaked out sometime driving the T4 because it's so difficult to check blind spots driving a van.
I forget my point i'm on my third beer
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 Third beer? You really are spoiling for a fight with the missus aren't you?
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haha she'll forget the beers in no time...Now I've built the on one I'm putting the xtr and pace's back on my old bike to save it for special occasions and putting the toras back on the silver hack about town bike
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i recognize those cranks
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the lounge seems sensible to me...i guess that not just her then?
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