The Black Box

Heh.  Back.  Blogging regularly.  Lets get the readership thing happening.

OK  Todays subject is about what I think is the best way to change driver behavior that is achievable by riders.    The single thing that would make the roads safer for cyclists would be massive police enforcement of the sort of behaviours that threaten us..  harassment, close overtakes,  hooks and the like.   Thats not going to happen.  We have many coppers on the road but few operational traffic cops and even fewer.. the last number I heard was 6... bicycle cops in Melbourne.   Yesterday  a quarry truck passed us carefully and in the other lane and I thought he was exceptionally courteous until I noticed the police motorcycle hanging behind him.  This enforcement would work brilliantly but with few coppers and most of them and all the cameras very very focussed on speeding and revenue,  the safety of riders is a very low priority

The second most helpful thing would be a change in laws that meant that in any collision the more vulnerable user was assumed to be in the right unless other proof was offered.  That has happened in many places around the world and could happen here.  But I,ll talk about that another day.

But neither of those is actually in the hands of riders.   What can riders do?  Well they can make complaints against stupid and dangerous drivers.   Which usually comes down to "he says she says".   Unless you have a witness.   But...  remember my post the other day?  More and more riders carry video cameras.  The technology has reached the point that a helmet mounted camera can give enough resolution to identify a offender and show the details of an incident.

But will the police and courts accept such video evidence?  The answer is 'yes'.   Here is a link to an Australian Cycling Forums posters  "how to " on getting the police to act on such a complaint.   Poster Oxford  has had several successful prosecutions to his credit.  And he is not the only one.  More and more people are carrying these camera's.   A truly famous incident of  a couple of years ago in the US is this one in which Californian motorcyclist Dawn Champion is clobbered by a car that u turns into her on the freeway.. then claims its her fault.    Guess who was experimenting with a video camera?

We had one with us on Saturday..   Here is  a bit of video of me climbing a truly silly hill.  But later on we were harassed by a truly silly man as detailed in Saturdays post.   Do me a favor and never do any business with this arse$## company.  

 And you know.. this video thing really really pays off.   David.. one of the other riders on Saturday was on his brand new bike  bought with the insurance payout on his old bike.  Dweeb turned right in front of him.. didn't see him because his windows were fogged in the rain.  Because he did not see any  one and because many caterpillars are smarter  than this 'gentleman', he 'knew' he was safe to turn.   David got a payout in the end.. video evidence would not have hurt.  If he had been killed and the other driver had run.. he might not have been ever caught.   You can see how video might at least see some semblance of justice done.


The sooner motorists just expect that cyclists and motorcyclists will be videotaping the accident they cause the sooner the bulb over their head will go off.  Stupid dangerous or harassing behaviour will cost the offender.  The way this will happen is for more of these cases to be publicised.. for us to be more proactive in going after stupid drivers and insisting they be charged... and for us to have the evidence to back it up.. so that motorists think all cyclists or motorcyclists may be videoing them.

The technology is here.  The  camera,s now are sensitive, robust and long lived enough.. even cheap enough to do the job.   But the perfect camera does not exist.  I have a wish list.

A perfect camera would

• Have at least 2 hours life.  
• Take an external battery or be easy to change batteries in
• Give a really obvious low battery warning.
• Retape over its storage medium thus that it saved the previous two hours or so  but did not need media reformatted.
• Have a button that when pushed would save the previous 5 mins or so and stop it being overwritten. 
• Have a G switch or mercury switch .. so if you had an accident it would save the video while you were on the road.  A genuine black box
• Possibly have a high res button that would take and store a single high resolution shot if pushed.
• Be robust and fairly weatherproof  impact proof and fool proof.
• Be affordable and even fairly cheap.

Can you think of any other features?   I will be discussing this further.