WATCH out for the iPod zombies. Cyclists distracted by music blaring in their ears have become the latest menace on Britain’s roads.
Cyclists are a bandit tribe who blithely ignore the usual laws of the road - Eleanor Mills
Pedestrians, too, have fallen victim to cyclists listening to music and apparently oblivious to those around them. In June, a six-year-old girl from Wallasey, Merseyside, suffered serious injuries after she was mown down on the pavement by an iPod-wearing cyclist who didn’t even stop to help her, according to witnesses. The girl underwent hours of surgery to reconstruct her shattered leg.
A menace not only to others but to themselves as well: the latest DfT figures show that 820 cyclists were killed or seriously injured in the three months to June, a 19% rise on the same period in 2008.
Small wonder that the brain-trusts in the City of Portland, Multnomah county, and at Metro want to see urban cycling in the PDX area triple within the next three years; it's one sure way to slow the population growth.
