Friday 7 December 2012

The War on Britain's Roads


This BBC documentary aired a couple of days ago in Britain. I watched the whole thing this morning. I guess I'll keep my thoughts generally on hold so that others can comment on it if they want to.

http://road.cc/content/news/71714-truth-first-casualty-bbcs-war-britains-roads
"Less than a month ago, AA President Edmund King had called for an end to the ‘two tribes’ mentality that polarises the cycle safety debate between cyclists and motorists. If anyone from the programme’s makers, Leopard Films, read his comments, it didn’t show."

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/338468
""War on Britain's Roads" is a serious contender for the most sensational and irresponsible piece of journalism of the year... The documentary is a worthy heir of the work of Leni Riefenstahl."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cyclists-hit-out-at-depiction-of-the-war-on-britains-roads-in-bbc-documentary-8382245.html
"The documentary... is at best provocative in a way that might lead to more useful debate... At its worst, however, the film is sensationalist and dangerous. The footage it presents as everyday depicts Britain’s roads as an unremitting war zone."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244242/Id-happily-run-Cyclist-took-controversial-BBC-documentary-inundated-hate-messages-death-threats.html 
"A viewer called Kate Bailey, said: 'This cyclist with glasses on BBC panorama actually deserves to be knocked off his bike and die!!!! Arrogant little t***'

So what do you think?

8 comments:

  1. Video removed by the user?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looks like the BBC lawyers got to it. The program is available on the BBC site, but only for viewers in the UK.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01p7q2l/War_on_Britains_Roads/

      Excerpts are available here:

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2012/nov/30/war-britain-roads-video-excerpts

      Delete
  2. It's a pity the whole documentary is no longer available. It was a bit more nuanced than the more critical reviews and the excerpts that are currently available might lead one to believe, but I think that the negative reviews I've included above make some fair points.

    Unfortunately, I think the show's main problem is that it bends over backwards to present a balanced viewpoint in a situation that is simply not balanced. In the end, the show fails to come to any meaningful conclusion and I think that is what really opens it up to accusations of sensationalism. With no clear message, it just looks like a film about people yelling angrily at each other. The film's final remarks are not presented forcefully enough, so the message (if there is a message) seems confused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also, the only times the filmmakers attempted to show the viewer who was in the wrong on the road was in the cases where cyclists were behaving badly. Close passes by motorists were glossed over, possibly because the filmmakers are primarily motorists and don't see anything truly wrong with what the motorists were doing.

      Delete
    2. Also, there was no expert on hand to show what laws were being broken in each case and what actions were hazardous and why. The police officer in the show showed anti-cyclist bias because he did not appear to be fully conversant with the rules of the road. His main contribution was to share his story of an arrest in which the documentary crew happened to be present.

      Delete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A lot of these guys had it coming, complacent riding, I find it is always best to expect drivers will cut you up. Expect you are invisible, expect to be cut up, and you will have a lot less confrontation. whereas the tit at the Beginning riding on an aggravating manner and someone is bound to knock him off deliberately. I ride in the middle of the lane, but only when I'm doing 30 MPH plus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So in your view, cyclists who ride expecting motorists to obey the rules of the road are complacent? Maybe you're right, but it's not really a helpful perspective, is it? And according to you, those who are cycling legally and taking primary position are just asking to be the victim of vehicular homicide? An interesting perspective, especially since you claim to be a cyclist, but I think it opens you up to accusations of victim-blaming.

      So I'm curious - what is your view on rape? Are women who wear certain clothes asking for it? How about lynching? Do minorities who get too 'uppity' deserve to be strung up? At what point do you change your focus from putting all the blame on the victim and start sharing some of the blame among those who actually cause these problems?

      Delete