Cycling Mad!

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Let’s get a few things straight shall we? I am a cyclist so most of you road users should salute me. I reduce the amount of traffic on the roads for your morning commute, I keep fit so I reduce the burden on your taxes going towards the NHS and when you walk from your car to the office, there is less pollution in the air for you to breathe.

So what if Boris suggests cyclists should be able to jump red lights? Why not? Many do already for their own safety. If a cyclist causes an accident then by all means nab him/her for a ‘not-paying-due-care-and-attention’ offence. Otherwise leave cyclists alone because the statistics show that in 2007 there were 2,946 deaths on UK roads and only 0.1% of those were caused by cyclists.

To gather some statistics of my own this morning, I carried out a small experiment. Whenever I cycled at about 25mph, I counted how many cars and motorbikes overtook me at speeds that must have been close to 40mph, some much faster! The percentage was alarming. Out of a rough count of 80 vehicles during the commute, at least 65 were travelling at these excessive speeds. I am sure there would have been far more if there were enough clear road to allow this widespread law breaking.

What is worse, a close friend witnessed a London cab driver twice intentionally ram a cyclist on Oxford Street this afternoon. Luckily he had the presence of mind to take all the cab’s details down before it could make its somewhat slow getaway along the bus laden shopping mecca. The police took his subsequent report very seriously so presumably someone else will be joining the swelling ranks of the unemployed. This time, I have no sympathy.

Despite these statistics only lip service is paid by many drivers to the country’s speed limits. This is one of the major causes of the nearly 3000 road deaths in 2007. Strange it is then that you are far more likely to find a newspaper columnist having a rant about cyclists than you are about the idiocy of a large number of law breaking motorists.

The problem is clear. For a driver sitting in a traffic jam witnessing a cyclist pootling past, their path ahead unimpeded, those age old jealousy hackles sprout. How about reserving the hackles for the cause of the jam instead of towards those who have earned the right to bypass it?