| Comment | When walking or cycling around, I notice that the road users I'm generally most intimidated or endangered by are those that are involved in a time-pressured delivery activity.
Whether someone delivering food via bike or in an Uber stickered car, someone ferrying people or racing to their next fare in their taxi, or someone delivering goods in a van.
I'd say these account for 90%+ of the stressful and dangerous situations I experience either as a pedestrian or cyclist. Taxi drivers constantly tail-gaiting or carrying out dangerous overtakes, delivery cyclists bulldozing through on pavements. Van drivers parking entirely on pavements or ignoring give-way, stop signs or generally taking crazy risks on the road around other people.
The delivery activities we've come to expect as standard - and the pressured conditions these people probably have to work under - don't feel compatible at all with road safety. The delivery bikes are a new facet of this, but it's part of something much broader and invasive. Better enforcement and stronger penalties across the board would be a useful thing, as well as an expectation that road safety trumps anything, even if it means delivering food, goods or passengers slightly slower than otherwise. |
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