Not only the news of events in the courtroom of the case of Zak Carr's
death, there's also report of another cyclist getting hit. This time on the
A47 cyclist hit by a bus as the bus was overtaking him.
or
That particular stretch of the A47 is notorious for bad driving. Drivers
going too fast, too close to the vehicle in front, getting impatient as it's
busy pretty much all day now (when I first moved to Norfolk this bit of road
would have been relatively clear of traffic at the time of day the cyclist
was hit) and even though it's the main east/west traffic artery in Norfolk,
much of it is single carriageway and it's unusual nationally in terms of the
number of junctions it has along it. Even the Highways Authority has
acknowledged that the road is unusual nationally in terms of the high number
of side roads it has.. People get impatient at the junctions and there's
many a crash as people pull out from side roads on to the main carriageway
when they shouldn't due to the volume & speed of traffic on the main road.
This time it looks like a bus overtaking a cyclist and not enough room
between the bus & the cyclist. Admittedly, it's a part of the A47 I won't
cycle on and wouldn't recommend anyone to cycle on simply due to what I see
when driving on the road. I see some cyclists on there regularly and it
terrifies me when I see cars, busses & HGVs overtaking and giving so little
room to the cyclist they are overtaking. When I cycle to Norwich I use the
back roads rather than use the A47 because of the behaviour of motorists on
the single carriageway stretches. I've cycled on some of the dual
carriageway bit of the A47 and that's not bad if you are doing it out of
rush hour times, but I wouldn't be happy cycling it in rush hour. Some time
ago, Vernon & I went to a meeting in Swaffham aboout the prospective
dualling of the A47. We cycled there. I went the back roads. Without telling
me, Vernon cycled the A47 - single carriageway between our place & where the
meeting was being held for the majority of the journey. He did not find it
enjoyable and found it frightening. At the meeting the Highways Authority
guys made it clear that they do not consider cyclists to be road users. A
definition of 'road users' was given and they did not include cyclists or
pedestrians or, in this rural neck of the woods, horse riders. Apparently
cyclists don't use the road so they don't count. It was not recognised that
cyclists were actually afraid to use the road due to volume and speed of
traffic. One of the sad things is usually when the subject of dualling is
brought up, the cry is 'dangerous road' rather than getting we motorists to
take responsibility for our driving practises :-(