I love the idea of cycle lanes and try to use them, but half the time they have cars parked in them or are full of potholes - which affect cyclists much more badly than cars - or they just stop abruptly, dumping you in traffic. Or they send you on all sorts of ridiculous detours, constantly forcing you to give way or get off. A motorist gets into a car and the engine does all the work for them, they can stop and start without any effort, sheltered from the elements. Us cyclists have to make all the effort ourselves and that's why it's a pain to be sent on long detours.. and why many cyclists don't stop at red lights when they should. Some people do seem to believe that roads were invented solely for the use of cars and that motorists have a god-given priority over pedestrians, cyclists and everyone else. For every motorist with a cyclist wobbling in front of them there's a cyclist with a motorist driving too close behind them.Have you ever stood back and looked a London street with its clutter of signs, lights, bollards, painted zigzags, railings, meters, and all the other ridiculous paraphernalia created solely to cope with the Car? Compare it to a shot of Brentford in 1900, its great wide clear streets, with the odd lampost and a feeding trough for horses... which is more elegant? Cars have ruined this city. Half our council taxes are wasted on this cacophany of tat that is our street furniture, dictated by the car, and we all just seem to take it for granted.Cyclists are doing us all a favour. Yes, some of them are thoughtless and ignorant of their responsibility to other road users. But there's plenty of drivers like that out there too, and with half a ton of metal (nominally) under their control they are a damn sight more dangerous.
Niall Leonard ● 7393d