I'm a cyclist, always have been and will as long as I am able. But I am not capable of cycling and doing my job. The stuff I transport is too heavy and fragile to risk on a bike and if I did come off it would be smashed but most likely injure me badly.I also drive all sorts of vehicles. I have had to be trained to drive some of them on the road and pass a test for all of them to use the public highways.I pay heavily to do this. Insurance, fuel, maintenance and a lot in taxes.What do Cyclists pay? Yet the costly infrastructure ( which should have been incorporated before and certainly after the Second World War ) is being funded in the main by other road users and even pedestrians and public transport users.But it is not making cycling any better or safer.The beauty of using a bicycle is it's go anywhere ability, but this asset is not being capitalised on, Instead cycling is becoming a privilege for the superfit, and those who can afford a lightweight durable cycle that makes longer distances possible- as long as you are fit and have shower facilities at your destination. The superhighways are not for older cyclists or slower cyclists. except possibly at weekends. A very expensive and rather ageist and discriminatory that penalises far too many for an elite, most of whom one day will find themselves no longer able to pedal at speed for miles as joints wear out. It happens to us all sooner or later.Yet the only insurance required is against theft of the machine and that is not mandatory.And no requirement at all for any sort of proficiency test to use the public highways.As a lifelong cyclist who took the Cycling Proficiency Test to be allowed to cycle to school and also had to possess a GLC/ILEA Cycling Licence, and since taken a few Urban Cycling courses, I am constantly gobsmacked at the almost overwhelming daily display of ignorance of spacial awareness, observation of road regulations and etiquette and sheer arrogance not just to motorised vehicles bit to fellow cyclists and pedestrians.If we are going to have such Cycleways at such a huge cost in terms of infrastructure, leading to the inevitable rise in pollution from constant delays to commercial traffic - and we are almost all only here because of the very word Commerce, - (why vans and trucks outnumber cars for much of each day),Then we really must have all cyclists using the roads at the very least, fully insured, Qualified and tested and thus required to carry a licence at all times ( as with motorised users) and contribute modestly at least, to the cost of the infrastructure in the same way as the rest of road users who require infrastructure do.But cycling is more practicable on a local basis and better side streets signage and road markings along with proficient cyclists would make this far more practicable to far more people.
Raymond Havelock ● 2383d