Right, let's have this. I ride bikes, I go walking, and I drive. I've pass my advanced driving test and qualified as an IAM observer. I passed my cycle proficiency back in the day.
Taking a perfectly safe and wide road
It's not perfectly safe and wide. It's wide, which makes it LESS SAFE. Width encourages speed. It's not safe to approach that roundabout at speed, you need to be slowing on approach. I'm sure at this point all of you will be jumping up and down in your seats saying "but I do slow down, I'm a good driver". Not everyone is a good driver, believe it or not, and sadly the number of "not good" drivers is increasing and that is NOT GOOD for road safety, regardles of whether you are on foot or in a bike (I'm not bothering with those in a big protective metal cage, you have the cage to protect you)
no one really wants this stuff
I do, and so do other people. You may not, but you aren't everybody so you can't say "no one" wants this.
the testosterone fuelled mamals don't cycle on the cycle lanes anyway
well,. let's dissect that shall we?
"testosterone fuelled mamals" - so all people on bikes are just proving how manly they are, is that right? We never see kids on bikes, or women? Or just people popping to the shops?
don't cycle on the cycle lanes
well that all depends on where the cycle lane is, where I'm going, what time it is and how the "cycle lane" is built. I used to commute to Cheadle for instance - If I did that nowadays, I STILL wouldn't use the "Perfectly good" Alan Newton Way cycle link between Marple and Stockport because it doesn't go where I want and it's really poorly surfaced. Many of the "cycle lanes" in Stockport are not actually constructed for the benefit of cyclists, they're deisgned to get those bloody bikes out of the way of the almighty all-important motor vehicle. Occasionally, rather than diverting off though a maze of back streets and thus covering twice the distance, they do run alongside a road - but in this case it's usually a "shared path" where cyclists and pedestrians are supposed to peacefully co-exist. This is an equally bad idea. Pedestrians wander along, chatting to each other or listening to music through headphones or whatever. Cyclists - even those just pottering along - travel at a faster speed and should not be asked to share the same space as it's dangerous for both sides. If I'm riding at a reasonable pace, I won't use a shared path like this unless I know it's going to be empty *for the entire length*.
The plain fact is there are too many cars on our roads, and they're all getting bigger and bigger. Electric cars are not the answer, as they're still car sized. We need to reduce our reliance on cars and encourage people to use other means of transport - walking to the shops, or walking the kids to school, rather than popping down in the car (I've walked to the shops from our house near the ring o'bells and seen neighbours drive the same distance, setting off and arriving at the same time!)
At the moment, public transport is woeful. We don't have a reliable, affordable service that is fit for purpose - unlike London, you can just leave the house and trust that there will be a bus / train along within a few minutes which will get you to where you need to go in a reasonable time. When I want to visit my Dad in Wigan, driving is the only reasonable choice, as public transport would take almost three times as long and cost more than double. This is not sustainable. We need to encourage people out of cars and onto bikes, buses, trains and foot. This means planning, supporting and building quality infrastructure both in terms of timetables and pricing when it comes to public transport, and safe, segragated infrastructure to allow people to cycle. The biggest blocker to people cycling at the moment is fear - people are afraid they'll be knocked off their bikes becuase of the sheer amount of traffic and the initimidating nature of drivers who either just don't look for cyclists or worse still see them and see them as fair game for being stupid enoug to ride on the road
Not every person can ride, I get that. Not every person wants to ride, I get that. But, many people can and do. If you oppose every single safety measure so that you can continue to drive unimpeded, then the amount of traffic will never reduce and you'll remain sitting in that queue of traffic. Every person on a bike is one less person in a car. Think about that the next time you say that cyclists are holding you up - it's not bikes that cause traffic james, it's cars.
