Stop SMIDSY
2.11.09 by Buffalo Bill
Debra Rolfe, an old friend, and key organiser of 2003 European Cycle Messenger Championships, writes in the Guardian today, promoting the Cyclist Touring Club’s Stop SMIDSY (she is campaigns director):
How ironic: the only time I’ve been knocked off my bike was a few weeks ago, when I was just about to launch Stop SMIDSY, a cycling campaign to combat bad driving. After I hit the ground, the first thing the driver said to me was: “Sorry I didn’t see you!”
Fortunately, I suffered relatively minor injuries, and the driver paid for my bike to be repaired. But I was shaken and shocked that the driver hadn’t seen me, and seemingly hadn’t thought a cyclist would be on the road.
This incident served as a reminder of just why I am running the campaign in the first place. SMIDSY stands for “Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You”, a phrase most regular cyclists have heard at some point. Stop SMIDSY aims to raise awareness of bad driving and to collect evidence of it, to ensure that inattentive, arrogant or aggressive (ie bad) driving happens less.
As all experienced cyclists know, SMIDSY is better put as SMIDL, ie ‘sorry mate, I didn’t look’, because if they had looked, they would have seen you.
my experience was more ILTGASEWBINRIBLIWMTWHIAWAATWBHWTMOMPTSPOS’.
I’d Like To Give A Shit Either Way But I’m Not Really Interested Because Luckily It Wasn’t Me That Was Hurt In Any Way And Anyway, This Whole Business Has Wasted Ten Minutes Of My Precious Time So Piss Off, Sweaty.
— footlong 2 November 2009, 12:34 #
Rolls off the tongue……
— overdrive 2 November 2009, 14:36 #
Oh, i thought this was about stopping Team SMIDSY from Robot Wars
— natly 18 November 2009, 13:48 #