As the number of cyclists being hit by cars continues to rise, the government still demonstrates it’s inability to get with the plot. This story tells how £94m is being pumped into promoting cycling around British cities.
Laughably, the story says:
The money is to improve existing and fund new cycle routes.
Yeah, right. And just to clarify that for people who might not know – a “cycle route” is something that no “serious” cyclist would ever go near, preferring instead to use the roads (or pedestrian crossings and pavements if the lights are on red). Of course, the term “cycle route” could also mean just painting some lines on existing roads, which would get around that problem completely and also allow councils to brag about how many million miles of “cycle routes” they have installed.
Although the current death toll is down to the fact that bicycles and cars don’t mix, and the monkey-see, monkey-do effects of two years’ worth of Tour de France victories and the Olympics, Labour is making itself look foolish by missing the point by as wide a margin as the bunch of clowns who run this country:
Labour said roads had become less safe for cyclists under this government.
As I say, the rising toll is down to the rising number of cyclists – most of whom only have one helix in their DNA – tottering around on the roads. The only effect the government’s cash injection will have is to make matters worse. Cameron says:
Following our success in the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Tour de France, British cycling is riding high – now we want to see cycling soar.
This government wants to make it easier and safer for people who already cycle as well as encouraging far more people to take it up and business, local government, developers, road users and the transport sector all have a role to play in helping to achieve this.
I think people need to be prepared for this for the next 50 years. We’re going to be milking the bloody Olympics for all we can get, and using it to justify idiotic schemes like this.
Cyclists should be encouraged to use velodromes and closed cycle routes. Those who insist on using the roads should be licensed, and subject to the same penalties as motorists for breaching Highway Code rules – one of which needs to be that they MUST use official cycle routes when one is located less than 10 metres away from them. And 99% of them need proper training before being granted any such licence.
The money being made available should be spent on all that – not in encouraging more of the prats to go on to the roads.There’s enough trouble with just motor vehicles without adding more and more poorly trained and not-very-bright cyclists to the equation.