“Not wishing to boast but on the London Road in Bath there have been 69 accidents in the last 5 years mostly people turning right at junctions with side roads. Luckily there have been no fatalities but injuries, damage and delays have accompanied these incidents involving 10 pedestrians, 15 cyclists/motorcyclists and a mere 3 oaps !
What do B&NEs Highways suggest to help the situation ? They want to add the so called 'Bath Rapid Transit' into the mix. With even more buses trying to keep to their 12 minute timetable and hurtling down the partial in bound bus lane and with no possible outward bound bus lane, even more accidents are likely to occur. Cyclists and motorcyclists are again being squeezed out of the picture so no encouragement to take to two wheels here.
As others have suggested the millions could be invested much more wisely.”

“Woop woop de doo. Lets not be pedantic about a few messed words. I was tired after doing a 15 hour day, well 6 were on a bus. I notice quite a few spelling mistakes on here, and even in my own posts but does it really matter, picking up on a little misreading. The article is about a 14 lanes roundabout which as you say it doesnt really need. The fact still remains that the driving standard in Bath is s%^t. Ive just seen another collision today funnily enough, no one injured but someone definatly to blame. More insurance rises for us all. I can see an RTC happening as the lanes merge going in toward Bristol as the usual arrogant driver feels that it is his road while the one not looking drives into him. Lets hope its none of you.”

“Ding Ding, end of round one, and sorry bubba, mate, but you lost that one on points. Thomas read properly you didn't twice!

1. Sam said "is a danger not only to herself," (indicating a lady)

2. You said "As is an elderly man knocking you off." (wrong gender).
3. Thomas corrected you with " He did not say that the LADY who clipped him was playing with anything,"
4. You came back with "Thomas, you never read my post properly either, I said guy not lady" which was exactly his point! You should have said lady for "herself".

Now we have that cleared up, maybe we could depart the world of make believe and get back on topic!
Does any road really need 14 lanes???? Sounds to me like a collision/incident waiting to happen!”

“Thomas, you never read my post properly either, I said guy not lady. I wasnt saying it literally, I was saying "As you state" as in that is what he said, not necasarilly what happened. Luckily for me and many other drivers, I am able to drive forward using both my feet and my hands while using my eyes to look around and take in all the information I see. It comes wirth doing 2 lgv tests and a bike test having 4 different instructors who are well trained and experienced in what to look out for. They pass on this info which I take on board and use it in my day to day life. Its called good driving. When I ride my push bike around bath and I am approaching a junction cotrolled by lights and the lights are red, why is it a car races past me nearly taking me off and then jamming their brakes on at the red light only for me to trundle along and pass them to sit at the front of the queue. Why not just hang back and overtake me once. Its because people dont look at anything other than what is right in front of their bonnets. Any Bath cyclist more than likely see's this daily. So if they knock me off, is that an accident?? Is it avoidable?? The Police do not call and accident an accident, they call it a collision. They no longer have AI's, "accident Investigator, it is a CI, Collision investigator. Funny how the very people that investigate an crash dont call it an accident, they call it a collision. I agree that not every collision can be blamed on someone. A man on his phone who kills someone, a man who falls asleep on the motorway and kills someone, a pedestrian who walks out in front of a truck, 2 drunks who drive head on into an artic, a motorbike crossing a white line and hitting someone head on, a woman who turns in front of an artic then her son gets killed, all avaoidable and wether someone meant it to happen or not isnt really a defence. Im quite sure if I killed a member of your family and said sorry it was an accident, it went to court and the judge threw it out saying it was an accident and I didnt mean it you wouldnt accept that. Someone more often than not is to blame.

I usually find that when I talk to someone about a subject and they appear sheepish that the reason is they are guilty of what I am talking about. On this subject it seems that some of you have had a collision that has been entirely your fault and that it why you are taking this attitude. For the likes of Sam, I truely feel bad for them for their experiences, I too have been in a severe head on collision when I was minding my own business. If everyone actually concentrated on what they were doing when behind a wheel "Driving", then most of these "Accidents" wouldnt occour. JM and Thomas, Good Night.”

“Sorry Sam, didn't intend to trivialise but the way you described it initially it didn't sound that serious. I do commiserate fully, as you may remember from posts a while back, my son was involved in two accidents on his bike, one caused by a white van (him again!) pulling out of its lane without signalling or looking, and the other by a teenager running across traffic and causing him to crash into railings. And yes, Bubba, they were "accidents" even though caused by stupidity. If you are still in any doubt, here are the dictionary definitions:

1. an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss.
2. any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.

In other words, nobody does it on purpose!!”

“Bubba - Again with the over-active imagination! Aren't there enough real accidents - and they are just that - without you inventing scenarios out of everything you see? I fail to see how you can possibly be concentrating on the road with all this going on in your head! You really didn't read Sam's post properly either. He did not say that the LADY who clipped him was playing with anything, he was just generalising.”

“Sam, it's no fun watching out for inept car drivers - even when you are driving a car, let alone being on a Bike, which is even harder for them to see.

When I was younger I rode a motorbike and even had a van deliberately (two guys laughing to each other about it) pull alongside and then just squashed me against the verge
Classic thing at roundabouts is when there are 2 lanes and they start in the left lane and fail to see anyone coming alongside or past them in the right lane, and they proceed to cut accross your lane causing you to emergency stop or mount the roundabout.

You would be best doing what I do now - if you are not completely alongside & in their field of vision BEFORE entering the roundabout, hang back & stay behind them!

Of course there are bad motorcyclists too (not saying you're one), who invent an extra lane when passing, making it even more likely that they will not be seen. No doubt they wouldn't see how they have contributed to any mishap though.”

“Sam, your right, they do have a tendancy to run riot but its meant to be a 20 mph zone but who pays attention to that.

Just a point, your accidents as you put them, their not really accidents. Someone is to blame. A guy on his phone/playing with the sterio as you state and then clipping you is complately avoidable. As is an elderly man knocking you off. There is the argumant that older people need to reset their test but generally they are slower and cant react as quickly. Yesterday I followed an elderly man doing 35 in a 60. I was behind him wanting to overtake but due to the road I was unable to. He passed push bikes

“JM - yes, bikes are fun, but not when you are surrounded by car drivers that shouldn't be on the road. It's a well known fact that training to ride a motorbike is more intense than learning to drive a car. Motorcylists have to be in full control of their bike at all times, car drivers still think it's okay to drive while using a mobile phone, smoking, or mesing with the radio/stereo in their car. And getting clipped by a elderly car driver on a roundabaout isn't fun - especially when the driver is a danger not only to herself, but other road users, and I was also knocked off my bike on the dual carriageway between Newbridge and the Globe roundabout by a car driver not looking where he was going. I nearly ended up under the wheels of the idiots car JM, so I'm lucky JM that my "little accident" or "accidents" weren't more serious.

And Bubba - the centre of Bath would be a lot nicer if it wasn't for the inconsiderate students getting drunk in the pubs and bars while on theor ridiculous toga parties and 3-legged pub crawls! ;)”

“Roger you make a good point but I would suggest the answer as to why people travel by bus not by train is the additional time taken to get to the railway station and from it to their actual destination.”