Uninspired leadership
This is a real pity.
I quote from the Channel News Asia Article:
More often than not, cyclists are at fault when it comes to fatal or serious road traffic accidents involving them.
This has been the case in more than 50 per cent of such accidents between January and September of the last two years, said Senior Parliamentary Secretary of Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli in Parliament on Tuesday.
Common causes for the accidents include changing lanes without due care, failing to keep a lookout, and failing to give way to traffic with right of way.
The rationale is akin to saying (for lack of a better comparison) that women with short skirts are at fault for being molested.
Oh Please this is an amateurish argument. If you cannot provide proper infrastructure, you might be better off keeping the mouth shut.
It is totally possible that this is simply bad journalism (from what I see being published on local news papers, I will not be surprised). It is also possible that the parliamentary Secretary is quoted verbatim. Either way, it is a step in the wrong direction.
I am not absolving cyclists of faults but any argument that blames the victims is a weak mechanism to shrug off ones responsibility and avoid a sensible debate.
January 16th, 2010 21:58
I had a friendly debate with my colleagues over the harmonious co-existence of cyclists and drivers on the road sometime back. The consensus of opinion among the group is that the cyclists are mainly at fault for accidents involving this mode of transport due to their lack of road manners. Interestingly, one of my co-workers commented that with this new group of road users, she has to make additional efforts to look out for them. Hmmm… isn’t this what every driver has to do behind the wheel? To be aware of the traffic including the pedestrians. So I couldn’t help thinking that her impression that bikers are at fault for accidents may correlate to her intolerance/lack of receptiveness to this rising group of road users. I hope I am wrong.
January 16th, 2010 22:26
concur.
It used to be said that in India, the bigger your vehicle, the more right you have on the road. This in a place with no known set of traffic rules apart from the one that I like to call ‘Dont die and dont kill’. But even in such a place, there was a sense of respect for ones life. Though no one follows rules, there is frequent honking, tons of road rage (in the form of shouting and blazing horns etc…), there was a sense that you ‘look out’ and remain safe.
Most drivers I have a talk with always have similar expectations (as you relate) of the other road users. I have never seen some one say, ‘I am not a particularly good driver’. Though everyone superficially follows the rules as per the book, no one I know of follow the rule on its spirit. I see people accelerating when the light is amber. People hustling pedestrians at crossings, frequent lane changing to get in front of the line, illegal parking, avoiding parking tickets, waiting illegally, dropping off passengers at lights etc…
I suppose with so much crimes they commit, they are always in the lookout of the authorities to avoid being caught and there is little time and patience left in them to look out for the ’smaller’ vehicles in their way.
I can understand their frustration. But I do think it requires rethinking on how the traffic design should be. And how we can set up a system where harmony can be effected in the chaos of traffic.