{"id":8849,"date":"2012-04-20T16:21:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T16:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=8849"},"modified":"2012-04-20T16:21:50","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T16:21:50","slug":"cab-firm-owner-speaks-out-on-cyclists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=8849","title":{"rendered":"Cab Firm Owner Speaks Out On Cyclists"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very interesting article in The Times<\/a>. It reports on a cab firm owner in London, John Griffin, who has really upset the greenies down his way.<\/p>\n

Before I pass my own opinion, I think we can safely assume that the guy is being taken out of context as far as is humanly possible without actually accusing him of saying things he didn\u2019t actually say.<\/p>\n

You can read his original article<\/a> in \u201cadd lib\u201d (the magazine it\u2019s from) here, but this is the exact text:<\/p>\n

Green party candidates and others are up in arms about what they see as the murder of Cyclists on London Roads.<\/p>\n

There has, as we all know, been a tremendous upsurge in cycling and cycling shops. This summer the roads will be thick with bicycles. These cyclists are throwing themselves onto some of the most congested spaces in the world. They leap onto a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat.<\/p>\n

Should a motorist fail to observe a granny wobbling to avoid a pothole or a rain drain, then he is guilty of failing to anticipate that this was somebody on her maiden voyage into the abyss. The fact is he just didn\u2019t see her and however cautious, caring or alert he is, the influx of beginner cyclists is going to lead to an overall increase in accidents involving cyclists.<\/p>\n

The rest of us occupying this roadspace have had to undergo extensive training. We are sitting inside a protected space with impact bars and air bags and paying extortionate amounts of taxes on our vehicle purchase, parking, servicing, insurance and road tax.<\/p>\n

It is time for us to say to cyclists, \u2018You want to join our gang, get trained and pay up\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It isn\u2019t a very long article, really. So let\u2019s look at what he says.<\/p>\n

\"JohnYes, the Green Brigade HAS been up in arms. Yes, there HAS been a huge increase in cycling participation and yes, the roads ARE thick with them. Yes, London DOES have some of the busiest roads in the world and yes, people who buy bikes DO go straight out without a thought either for themselves or anyone else.<\/p>\n

Yes, if a motorist is hit effectively hit by one of these idiots – and the idiot subsequently injured or killed – the motorist is almost certainly going to find himself with points or a ban. And that\u2019s only if he\u2019s lucky.<\/p>\n

Yes, drivers DO have to undergo training and yes, we DO have to pay for that training, road and other taxes, insurance, parking, repairs, and so on.<\/p>\n

And yes, a cyclist has to do none of these things. Yes, they ought to have to.<\/p>\n

So Mr Griffin hasn\u2019t really said anything that\u2019s particularly controversial. It only becomes controversial when you convince yourself he\u2019s somehow said it\u2019s all right to \u201cmurder cyclists\u201d when, in actual fact, it seems that it was the Green Party who brought up that pathetic phrase in the first place to try and force its own doctrine on the majority.<\/p>\n

I would also add that cyclists can freely choose to ignore cycle lanes in favour of the busy road, and they usually do (it\u2019s always either the fat, middle-aged ones who think they\u2019re athletes, or the horrid, spindly Spandex Brigade who almost invariably have personality problems).<\/p>\n

There is not one single word in John Griffin\u2019s article which is incorrect. He is totally, utterly right in every way.<\/p>\n

Cyclists – in general – are an absolute menace. Not because<\/strong> they\u2019re cyclists, but because they haven\u2019t got a clue about road safety as it relates to them. I\u2019ve mentioned them several times in the last few years because it is always this time of year they come out en masse <\/em>(they can\u2019t be THAT serious if they wait until it\u2019s sunny).<\/p>\n

It is the en masse<\/em> crowd who are often the main problem. There are too many of them, they always use the most dangerous roads, and they simply haven\u2019t got a clue.<\/p>\n

Yes, they have every right. But they also have every right to expect a higher risk of accident if they insist on riding two abreast on single track roads with zigzag bends, not giving way to anyone or anything (that seemed to disappear from their Highway Code donkey\u2019s years ago), riding on to pedestrian crossings and the pavement to avoid<\/strong> traffic lights, ignoring<\/strong> traffic lights, not using purpose-built paths, and so on and on.<\/p>\n

And if they\u2019re going to use the roads, they should be taxed and insured like everyone else.<\/p>\n

Obviously, my own experiences don\u2019t relate specifically to London. But as we know, there are those for whom London is a magical place, full of pixies, gnomes, and other things that make them regard it as The Centre Of The Universe. In fact, London is a dangerous city full of ridiculously congested roads. And if it\u2019s got a load of cyclists as well, then it\u2019s a hundred times worse still!<\/p>\n

If you want to see the view from a parallel universe (i.e. the one cyclists live in) take a look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very interesting article in The Times. It reports on a cab firm owner in London, John Griffin, who has really upset the greenies down his way. Before I pass my own opinion, I think we can safely assume that the guy is being taken out of context as far as is humanly possible without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,86,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adi-related","category-bad-drivers","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}