I grew up cycling all around my village. I had such freedom. Now, I have problems cycling around the same village because of the sheer quantity of cars, mostly driven by selfish people.
There are too many cars and not enough cyclists.
Good post. I agree that cycling should be encouraged.
I'm against licencing cyclists because I don't think the benefits match up in any way to the downsides.
It would cost a bundle to set up and because a relative small number of people would subscribe to it the cost to each individual cyclist would probably be high enough to discourage a large number people from cycling in the first place. I firmly believe cycling should be as freely accessible as possible, and if a couple of wing mirrors get broken then so be it. That's what car insurance is for. I say this as both a cyclist and a driver, by the way.
It would be impossible to police, so in reality the people who you would want to be able to trace probably wouldn't be registered in the first place. It would certainly discourage occasional cyclists from the odd sunday jaunt, and children would be even more inclinded to retreat to the Playstation if they need to jump through hoops to ride to the park.
I do however think that training for both drivers and cylists should be much more widespread. Certainly the driving test should include elements on how to behave around cyclists, but many cyclists themselves don't do themselves any favours. For instance, it's much safer to cycle in the middle of a lane rather than in the gutter, but how many cyclists actually know or do that?
The actual infrastructure for cyclists in the UK also leads a lot to be desired. The provision of useful cycle paths is absolutely laughable in this country. I actively avoid using most of the ones in my city because they almost always they suffer from one or more of the following problems:
-Dual use with pedestrians.
-Poorly maintained and covered in glass.
-Too narrow.
-Force the cyclist to give way to sideroads.
Simply put, the UK doesn't have a cycling culture like many countries, such as the Netherlands. What chance we have of estabishing one would be completely destroyed by licencing.
I'm against licencing cyclists because I don't think the benefits match up in any way to the downsides.
It would cost a bundle to set up and because a relative small number of people would subscribe to it the cost to each individual cyclist would probably be high enough to discourage a large number people from cycling in the first place. I firmly believe cycling should be as freely accessible as possible, and if a couple of wing mirrors get broken then so be it. That's what car insurance is for. I say this as both a cyclist and a driver, by the way.
It would be impossible to police, so in reality the people who you would want to be able to trace probably wouldn't be registered in the first place. It would certainly discourage occasional cyclists from the odd sunday jaunt, and children would be even more inclinded to retreat to the Playstation if they need to jump through hoops to ride to the park.
I do however think that training for both drivers and cylists should be much more widespread. Certainly the driving test should include elements on how to behave around cyclists, but many cyclists themselves don't do themselves any favours. For instance, it's much safer to cycle in the middle of a lane rather than in the gutter, but how many cyclists actually know or do that?
The actual infrastructure for cyclists in the UK also leads a lot to be desired. The provision of useful cycle paths is absolutely laughable in this country. I actively avoid using most of the ones in my city because they almost always they suffer from one or more of the following problems:
-Dual use with pedestrians.
-Poorly maintained and covered in glass.
-Too narrow.
-Force the cyclist to give way to sideroads.
Simply put, the UK doesn't have a cycling culture like many countries, such as the Netherlands. What chance we have of estabishing one would be completely destroyed by licencing.
I couldn't agree more.
We should be encouraging this healthy and environmentally-friendly mode of transport, not discouraging it!
Cycling in The Netherlands is a joy, cycling here is awful, due to the disregard of motorists and to the pitiful cycle network. No disrespect to sustrans, they do a lot of good work with not much support from local councils.
It's ironic that today when I was walking to the supermarket I had a shock when a cyclist came out of nowhere riding on a narrow pavement. They were also conducting a mobile phone conversation with one hand and steering onto another road with another.
Not the first time I have had to encounter things like this. Cyclists speeding past bus stops on the pavement as you are getting off the bus is a real bug bear with me, but it is behaviour like this, which sadly is displayed by the majority of cyclists who ride on the pavement, which is giving cyclists a bad name to pedestrians.
Mind you, you get bad pedestrians too. When I see people walking on the cycle side of a cycle path you then wonder why cyclists get frustrated with pedestrians.
Please don't worry about it. I'm actually quite lucky in that I don't care who you think are the worst culprits. The fact of the matter is that I have a lot of experience about this paricular subject from more than one point of view so stick that up your emoticon.:p
Am not worried - there are far bigger issues that concern me
BWO, how as a pedestrian, am I the "worst culprit" ?
Comments
Good post. I agree that cycling should be encouraged.
cycling Responsibly should be encouraged yes.
I would say YES
It would cost a bundle to set up and because a relative small number of people would subscribe to it the cost to each individual cyclist would probably be high enough to discourage a large number people from cycling in the first place. I firmly believe cycling should be as freely accessible as possible, and if a couple of wing mirrors get broken then so be it. That's what car insurance is for. I say this as both a cyclist and a driver, by the way.
It would be impossible to police, so in reality the people who you would want to be able to trace probably wouldn't be registered in the first place. It would certainly discourage occasional cyclists from the odd sunday jaunt, and children would be even more inclinded to retreat to the Playstation if they need to jump through hoops to ride to the park.
I do however think that training for both drivers and cylists should be much more widespread. Certainly the driving test should include elements on how to behave around cyclists, but many cyclists themselves don't do themselves any favours. For instance, it's much safer to cycle in the middle of a lane rather than in the gutter, but how many cyclists actually know or do that?
The actual infrastructure for cyclists in the UK also leads a lot to be desired. The provision of useful cycle paths is absolutely laughable in this country. I actively avoid using most of the ones in my city because they almost always they suffer from one or more of the following problems:
-Dual use with pedestrians.
-Poorly maintained and covered in glass.
-Too narrow.
-Force the cyclist to give way to sideroads.
Simply put, the UK doesn't have a cycling culture like many countries, such as the Netherlands. What chance we have of estabishing one would be completely destroyed by licencing.
I couldn't agree more.
We should be encouraging this healthy and environmentally-friendly mode of transport, not discouraging it!
Cycling in The Netherlands is a joy, cycling here is awful, due to the disregard of motorists and to the pitiful cycle network. No disrespect to sustrans, they do a lot of good work with not much support from local councils.
Not the first time I have had to encounter things like this. Cyclists speeding past bus stops on the pavement as you are getting off the bus is a real bug bear with me, but it is behaviour like this, which sadly is displayed by the majority of cyclists who ride on the pavement, which is giving cyclists a bad name to pedestrians.
Mind you, you get bad pedestrians too. When I see people walking on the cycle side of a cycle path you then wonder why cyclists get frustrated with pedestrians.
Am not worried - there are far bigger issues that concern me
BWO, how as a pedestrian, am I the "worst culprit" ?