Oh dear, Phillips, off on one again.Most people don’t cycle because they don’t own a bike. Even those that do own one don’t cycle regularly to work or elsewhere because of either security issues when they get there or the fact they don’t want to smell like they’ve just done Paris-Roubaix while in the office. Very few workplaces offer shower facilities.Again, lumping walking and cycling in together is a classic tactic of diversion. The two activities are entirely unrelated. Councils like to promote both as active travel, yet money only goes towards cycling infrastructure. Pavements remain uneven, often littered with leaf debris and cluttered street furniture.Most primary school children in London DO walk to school. The small proportion of those who use vehicular transport - including buses and cars - do so because the physical distance to school makes walking impossible. Must primary schools require children below year 5 to be accompanied to and from school by an adult. Even those in the upper years are not encouraged to travel unaccompanied in the darker winter months.This is not 1952, which your constant harping about the good old days suggests you’d like it to be. My children, both girls, gain degrees of independence as the get older. The biggest fear isn’t road traffic, but rather the stranger danger posed from living in a big city. Only last week there was an attempted abduction of a girl on the street in Brentford. There was a horrible assault on a bus on Windmill Road last year, though thankfully the culprit was caught.So stop patronising your fellow residents. People bring their kids up as they see fit and to try to ensure they grow into responsible, rounded adults.
Simon Hayes ● 1260d