Journalism and cycling

The Davestator

This might have been mentioned before, but I feel that one of the problems with the 1.5 metre campaign is that the majority of people dont understand what 1.5 metres looks like!

If it was 'stay alive at 5' (feet), i think it would be easier for normal folks to understand.

(I know that there is more visual aids being used, but it doesnt help when motorists are listening to the radio for example.

Chuchote

The Davestator wrote: »

This might have been mentioned before, but I feel that one of the problems with the 1.5 metre campaign is that the majority of people dont understand what 1.5 metres looks like!

If it was 'stay alive at 5' (feet), i think it would be easier for normal folks to understand.

(I know that there is more visual aids being used, but it doesnt help when motorists are listening to the radio for example.

Surely this is old-people thinking? The young have been using metres since their first day in school.

1.5 metres is easy. Just look at the President and put that sideways.

magicbastarder

The Davestator wrote: »

If it was 'stay alive at 5' (feet), i think it would be easier for normal folks to understand.

(I know that there is more visual aids being used, but it doesnt help when motorists are listening to the radio for example.

i've suggested before that the height of the cyclist on the bike is a simple comparator.

Weepsie

Lidl are selling pool noodles this week. We could all get them and attach them to the back of our bike to illustrate safer overtaking space

tomasrojo

The less use of Imperial the better, I think. I realise it's very entrenched here in expressing human height, but it's pretty much the only measurement where metric isn't at the very least co-existing healthily.

Even at that, people seem to be pretty poor at translating verticals to horizontals, so imagining a person of known height lying on the ground probably doesn't work (joke required here), and I personally can't visualise five feet along the ground all that readily, because I never use that unit (apart from in the context of human height).

1.5m is about two normal walking steps. Even if you're Mr. Imperial, a yard and a half is about the same, isn't it?

papu

The dedicated cycle lanes aren't even safe anymore.




From broadsheet

tomasrojo

Balance! The guy has to park somewhere, you know. [/AGS]

ThisRegard

Chuchote wrote: »

Surely this is old-people thinking? The young have been using metres since their first day in school.

1.5 metres is easy. Just look at the President and put that sideways.

I can visualise feet easier than metres, and I think I'm younger than your good self.

It's because we measure height in feet that makes it easier for most to visualise relatively short distances in feet.

magicbastarder

the irish times article cited by Chucote earlier in the thread today uses several different forms of describing the collisions, but predominantly the 'was involved in a collision' form:

"was involved in the collision"
"was involved in a collision"
"his bike collided with the van"
"was involved in a collision"
"a cyclist knocked down in Cork"
"was in a collision"
"was involved in the fatal collision"
"was knocked down by a car"
"she collided with a 4x4 vehicle"
"was involved in a traffic collision"

the odd one out (possibly from before the article was amended) is the one reclassified as a pedestrian fatality, i assume this wording was formulated before that correction was made:
"collided with a taxi"

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/the-10-cyclists-killed-on-our-roads-to-date-this-year-1.3128356

tomasrojo

There was a recent study into how KSIs changed with the introduction of a MPD law. The KSIs didn't really change. I don't know whether it was a good study. I just saw it mentioned on Twitter, which isn't really the best way to get scientific information!

I guess they could give the passing information in metric and Imperial. Or just say it's almost the width of a car.

To be honest, I suspect a lot of people know they're doing close passes. They really just don't care. For some people it's an alternative way to express disapproval of you not using the cycle lane that has a huge rock in the middle of it and ends after ten seconds of travel.

Chuchote

Just for curiosity, does everyone here know their height in metres, and their weight in kilos? I'm 1 metre 55…

tomasrojo

I'm 183m tall. So it said on my mortgage application anyway. I expect I'm the tallest person who regularly posts here. Or in the history of humanity.

plodder

Chuchote wrote: »

Just for curiosity, does everyone here know their height in metres, and their weight in kilos? I'm 1 metre 55…

'stayin alive at 1.5' is a great slogan though.

I'd be from a generation that started school in the 70's where we were nominally taught metric, but while the rest of the country continued using the old measures for everything. Nevertheless, most people would still have a fair idea of 1.5 metres. It's not that different from 1.5 yards.

Height is always feet and inches with me. Horizontal distance makes more sense in metres, up to a mile, and it's all miles after that. I can be "bi-lingual" for weight. Confused? I certainly am..

Fighting Tao

185cm and a few too many kgs!

I love Sean nos

Weepsie wrote: »

Lidl are selling pool noodles this week. We could all get them and attach them to the back of our bike to illustrate safer overtaking space

I first read this as pot noodles and was curious as to how that would work. :pac:

rubadub

Was there any mention if any of the cyclists who died this year were wearing helmets?

They are usually quick to mention if they are not, so I am wondering if their new reporting tactic is to, by default, not mention if they did have a helmet. I think it would be important to note if they did have helmets yet still sustained lethal injuries -to demonstrate that it does not suddenly make you invulnerable.

I did find this article from Feb this year
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/cyclist-who-crashed-after-allegedly-hitting-pothole-sues-council-1.2986899

I found it interesting that they repeatedly go on about the helmet in an "only himself to blame" way, or as though it is mandatory like the lights, or totally negligent not to have one.

Cyclist who crashed after allegedly hitting pothole sues council
Nathan King agreed he was not wearing a cycling helmet and had no light

Thu, Feb 23, 2017, 18:26

ThecCouncil denies the claims and also pleads Mr King was cycling downhill at excessive speed, failed to see where he was cycling and failed to wear a helmet. It alleges Mr King was the author of his own misfortune and also allegedly cycled with his hurley across the handlebars.

Under cross-examination by Noel McCarthy SC, for the council, Mr King said he did not have a helmet because at that time of night, he knew the roads were very quiet.

I love Sean nos

The Davestator wrote: »

This might have been mentioned before, but I feel that one of the problems with the 1.5 metre campaign is that the majority of people dont understand what 1.5 metres looks like!

The metric system has been around since the 70s in Ireland. I remember my ruler in primary school having cm markings. The teacher might hit you with a metre stick, not a yardstick.

If drivers don't understand the metric system, maybe this explains all the speeding by drivers.

Now if only red lights were imperial...

The Davestator

Deedsie wrote: »

Nonsense. I nor anyone I know use imperial measurements. We are a fully metric country and we should not be giving the ignorant a pass on the official measurements we use because they are too lazy to inform themselves.

Nonsense? Ok, here's what I want you to do;

Go and ask the next 10 people you meet what their weight and height is.

If anyone of them use KGs and metres, I'll be shocked.

I'd say 10/10 will give you stones and feet.

(I personally use metric as I boxed for years, but most don't)

ThisRegard

Deedsie wrote: »

Please stop using imperial measurements.

No.

tomasrojo

Height and weight are predominantly still expressed in Imperial, but weight less often. Younger people often know their weight in kg. As I said, human height is the only measure where metric isn't dominant or at least co-existing healthily (new-born babies seem to be in a category of their own, but I really can't be arsed learning about pounds and ounces at this stage, so I only knew my kids' birth weights in kg).

Chuchote

The Davestator wrote: »

Nonsense? Ok, here's what I want you to do;

Go and ask the next 10 people you meet what their weight and height is.

If anyone of them use KGs and metres, I'll be shocked.

I'd say 10/10 will give you stones and feet.

(I personally use metric as I boxed for years, but most don't)

Mmmnot really any more, though. I recently read an article that said someone had weighed "26 stone" before his… whatever, and I had to go and look it up in kilos to get an idea of what weight he really was.

And I buy my veggies in kilos and my milk and wine and water in litres.

When I was driving I learned to roughly recognise 100 metres and 500 metres by eye so I knew when to signal and when to get ready to turn off and so on.

Height more so, but really we need to shed it and know it in metres - it's a simpler, more efficient measurement.

1bryan

Cyclists are a great bunch of lads altogether

http://www.thejournal.ie/baby-girl-born-hatch-street-dublin-3457428-Jun2017/

A number of cyclists en route into the city centre stopped to help the woman and her husband as they delivered the baby.

ThisRegard

Jesus, seems units of measurements is something that some people take so seriously they want to enforce their preferences on others.

I love Sean nos

1bryan wrote: »

Cyclists are a great bunch of lads altogether

http://www.thejournal.ie/baby-girl-born-hatch-street-dublin-3457428-Jun2017/

Did they use any tyre levers in the delivery?

josip

I'm 1.90m and 85kg. I've used metric all my adult life and I was born in 72.
My brother can't get his head around kgs and cms since he was born in 66 and those were imperial times.
He seems to be able to cope well enough with 100c in a Euro though.
My brother is a thicko.

The Davestator

Deedsie wrote: »

The people I work with all use metric, my family and friends all use metric. Well they do around me anyway.

I will continue to use metric. I find imperial nonsensical. km/h also not kph or kmh. Km/h

People should have some respect for the chosen units of measurement in the country they live.

We decided a long time ago to go metric.

Deal with it and quit clinging to some archaic rubbish just because you hear imperial units used on some US or UK tv trash.

Perhaps you should read my post before spouting the drivel in bold.

And calm down while you're at it.

Some posters:rolleyes:

ThisRegard

Deedsie wrote: »

The legally defined units of measurement should be the only one used. Why muddy the waters with nonsense terms?

Inches and feet haven't stopped existing. Go into Woodies and other hardware stores and ask them to dump all their measurement tools as they have nonsense all over them.

tomasrojo

ThisRegard wrote: »

Jesus, seems units of measurements is something that some people take so seriously they want to enforce their preferences on others.

As long as the force is expressed in Newtons.

tomasrojo

That's logical enough really. There are very rigorous definitions for metric units (apart from the kg, which needs a proper definition in some universal phenomenon, rather than a reference object held in a climate-controlled vault), so might as well just define Imperial units in terms of metric.

The funny thing about the UK holding out on metric is that they did so much to create it, and so many units are named after British scientists.

Sort of like the Single Market, in a way.

Chuchote

ThisRegard wrote: »

Inches and feet haven't stopped existing. Go into Woodies and other hardware stores and ask them to dump all their measurement tools as they have nonsense all over them.

Probably because, for reasons of history, a lot of these shops are part of English chains, and a lot of our imports come through Britain, where they are fond of their old measuring eccentricities.

If importers and the government agencies that help them along have any sense they will swiftly move their chains of supply to France or Germany once Britain's out of the EU, though. (I hope they will; otherwise we're likely to end up paying two lots of tariffs on top of the cost of our goods, not to mention being dragged down by an economy in freefall.)