**TV REQUEST** Have you filmed a crash, scrape or near miss? ITV wants your footage

teaboy wrote:

The sort of programme I'd like to see would not involve the type of clip you're after. It would be a programme following a road engineer/infrastructure designers, local councillors (in charge of funding the infrastructure), road haulage managers and bus company managers as they cycle with their children around London in normal clothes and no helmets on the school run, using the roads that everyone else is expected to use, and dealing with the behaviour of people they are responsible for. I'd then like to see the exact same group do exactly the same thing in Assen.

I'd like to see interviews (before and after each trip) with both the adults and the kids, finding out how they felt about what they were about to do and why, and how the activity felt and why.

You will pick up your "near miss" footage during the rides, but the programme would have much more value than half an hour of edited youtube clips ever could, and possibly make the future of cycling in this country massively better for everyone. It could be repeated in a range of UK towns and cities if you wanted a series. Call it "A Trial of Two Cities" or something, maybe.

Precisely.

Most people are already aware that much of the country's travel network ranges from mildly dysfunctional to downright lethal, and the current slew of 'Road Wars' programs have done nothing but paint the issue in primary colours and encourage people to take sides. They sell transport as blood-sport, and do nothing to improve our roads and the lives of people who use them (i.e. just about everybody).

Rather than solely fixating on how our awful roads are, a truly worthwhile piece of programming would have the scope to consider solutions; to look beyond our Isles to places where the transport system is built upon different principles (e.g. Assen, Copenhagen), and to compare life between those places.

Throw in a few shaky British helmet-cam videos if you like, but a 30-minute montage will tell people nothing they don't already know, and only serve to incense those who've already committed to an agenda.

Although that might be the point. Everyone knows that 'sex sells', but I'm pretty sure that fear and anger sell even better, and can generally be snuck in before the watershed.

If you're genuinely interested in making an inspiring programme on the role on cycling in British towns and cities, then I'd love to watch it, but past experience - and this call for more adrenaline-fuelled footage - doesn't fill me with hope.

ITVCaughtOnCamera wrote:

Hi all, we want this to be a thoughtful and insightful film that goes beyond the standard clip show format and doesn't take a them/us approach, widening divisions on the road - that's exactly why we're reaching out to people like you. Please tell us what you want to see, and get in touch.

I'm really sorry, but I think you're going to have a a bit of an uphill battle to convince people that this isn't going to be just another programme doing exactly what you say you're not going to do...

ITVCaughtOnCamera wrote:

Hi all, we want this to be a thoughtful and insightful film that goes beyond the standard clip show format and doesn't take a them/us approach, widening divisions on the road - that's exactly why we're reaching out to people like you. Please tell us what you want to see, and get in touch.

If you really want to use "near miss" footage then do it as follows:
Show the near miss
Then show what should have been done - how the driver could have done a safe overtake, how the cyclist could/should have positioned themselves in the road, why the cycle lane was inadequate etc.

Do that in conjunction with articles like this:
http://www.motoring.co.uk/car-news/cyclists-why-do-they-ride-in-the-midd...
Then debunk the "road tax" myth: http://ipayroadtax.com/

Otherwise bitter experience from this sort of thing over the years will continue to result in mass scepticism and the idea (rightly or wrongly) that you'll find half a dozen militant road users - Mr Angry White Van Man, Death Wish Cyclist and all the other usual stereotypes - and use it against everyone for cheap sensationalist TV.

ITVCaughtOnCamera wrote:

Hi all, we want this to be a thoughtful and insightful film that goes beyond the standard clip show format and doesn't take a them/us approach, widening divisions on the road - that's exactly why we're reaching out to people like you. Please tell us what you want to see, and get in touch.

Maybe talk to the wives/husbands/parent of people killed. I imagine that showing a half hour show of someone inconsolable with grief would be pretty moving. Maybe film some kids who keep asking when Mummy/Daddy is coming home because they aren't old enough to understand the concept of death. Maybe show a family who had to sell the family home and move into a council flat because the main earner is permanently disabled and can't work anymore.

This might make viewers reconsider their attitudes behind the wheel.

Edit: On a side note, please can you show the Giro on ITV4 this year?

ITVCaughtOnCamera wrote:

Hi all, we want this to be a thoughtful and insightful film that goes beyond the standard clip show format and doesn't take a them/us approach, widening divisions on the road - that's exactly why we're reaching out to people like you. Please tell us what you want to see, and get in touch.

As you can see, folk can be quite passionate about road safety round here!

The thing is, if a sensationalist show (which granted, may not be your aim) shows a stupid white van man, then if as a result, everyone stereotypes white van men, it doesn't really put those white van men (safe ones or otherwise) at any greater risk - people just think they're all idiots, whether justifiable or not. On the other hand, when these shows display a reckless cyclist, those same viewers that cast stereotypes think it's ok to drive aggressively around the rest of us, because "they're all idiots anyway", and this directly affects our safety, hence people getting worked up.

How about using clips to highlight how so many road users think that a second off their journey time is worth risking the safety of another road user?

How about highlighting the gap between what cyclists are told (for example, taking the lane), and the instruction/impression that drivers are given (cyclists should keep to the left).

I should add that the title, reflected in your user name and email address, does suggest a "you've been framed on wheels"-level programme.

ITVCaughtOnCamera wrote:

Hi all, we want this to be a thoughtful and insightful film that goes beyond the standard clip show format and doesn't take a them/us approach, widening divisions on the road - that's exactly why we're reaching out to people like you. Please tell us what you want to see, and get in touch.

You may have that intention to start with, but it could easily get changed before the program is aired. I think 'The War on Britains Roads' was pitched differently to the people taking part, then changed in the editing. Thats why so few people here trust you.

Maybe a better idea would be to take some people who normally drive in central London (Taxi drivers, delivery drivers, Bus drivers etc) and get them to cycle for two days at rush hour. Then see how their attitude changes.

thereverent wrote:

Maybe a better idea would be to take some people who normally drive in central London (Taxi drivers, delivery drivers, Bus drivers etc)...

Excellent idea, but add some cops and any MP who holds a sinecure at the DoT.

But to give a straightforward answer to the original post, I used to commute through central London with front and rear cams on my bike and at one point I was going to post a Youtube video called "Skittles!" purely of clips of pedestrians stepping into the road right in front of me. It could have lasted an hour. But then I realised that when you commute on a bike through London all these scrapes, near misses, and groundless victimisation are just gravy. Why bother posting clips of it anywhere? Every other cyclist has the same experience every day, twice a day.

ITVCaughtOnCamera wrote:

Sorry you think that, but we are keen to produce something more thoughtful than the kind of shows you mention - that's the very reason we're reaching out to you.

I know several people who declined invitations to appear on "The War On Britain's Roads" because they were fed the same spiel about how they wanted to make a show that wasn't divisive or played into the partisan mentality of us vs. them between cyclists and vehicle drivers.

The sad fact is that you (collectively) cannot be trusted. You lie to get what you want then twist it up with sensationalism to get the maximum number of viewers to sell the advertising. I say that as someone with insider experience.

Also, the last time that ITV made anything of quality, Eric Morecombe was still alive.