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Ministers are leaving us city cyclists dangerously exposed


Embattled pedaller Jon Snow asks why urban commuter routes aren't getting any safer

Saturday March 3, 2007
The Guardian


I was cycling away from work the other night, minding my own business, when a grey Ford swerved right across my handlebars and drove me into the array of parked cars on my left. I caught up with the machine and brought the full force of my gloved fist to bear on its boot. I got alongside him only to glimpse the words "Metropolitan Police" in blue along the side of the car.

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The police woman on the passenger side angrily asked what on earth I thought I was doing assaulting a police car. "What on earth were you doing driving like a maniac?" I asked. "And you, police, too." As she fished out her notepad to book me, the male driver suddenly said, "Look I saw you, dunno what happened, I'm very sorry."
"Drive on," I commanded, and they did.

All in all, it was a bad week. On Tuesday a heavy eight-wheeler lorry turned left across my green- painted cycle lane. On Wednesday a silver BMW did the same thing. In essence I have concluded that one is nearly killed on a bike, whether one knows it or not, three or four times a week.

What makes life the more dangerous are these ludicrous green-painted cycle lanes on city roads. They are not even an apology for a bike lane. They delude the cyclist into a sense of secure wellbeing when in fact they are setting the cyclist up for slaughter. They are parked in, motorcycled in and ignored by motorised traffic. Their message is clear. Scrap the paint and put in full-blown two-way cycling lanes separated from both pedestrian and car by substantial curbs.

And there's the rub, because in the government's integrated transport policy, bicycles effectively have no place. What cynicism allows new rolling stock on to the railways with either little or no cycle provision at all?

The government thinks that with the Lottery funding the admirable Sustrans National Cycle Network, they have done their bit for cycling. But in truth Sustrans is what it is, a mainly recreational, regenerative exercise that has made it possible for families and individuals to cycle safely across the British countryside. To a much lesser extent has Sustrans provided commuter routes, and only rarely any inner-city infrastructure. Some local authorities have scraped money from here and there to build small stretches of separated cycle way. But as a rule, the government has effectively given urban cycling no priority whatsoever in its thinking.

Yet in introducing the congestion charge, Ken Livingstone's London team discovered that only 15% of Londoners drive into central London. Why then are these 15% allowed to jam up our streets with parked cars? To remove parked cars from one side of the road would liberate space to build separated cycle ways. The car, the bicycle and the pedestrian do not mix naturally. Each has the potential, quite literally, to kill the other.

Nowhere is the war against the carbon footprint more important than in the inner city. In ignoring the need to build major cycle infrastructure, ministers are turning their backs on one of the more obvious solutions to both transport safety and global warming.

Should ministers carry on disregarding the obvious, then if you are a cyclist, sooner or later that eight-wheeler, that BMW - even that police car - is going to get you, and me.

· Jon Snow is a patron of Sustrans and president of CTC


Pothole power!

Fill That Hole is the latest interactive initiative of CTC, the national cyclists' organisation. The idea is to make urban cycling less treacherous by forcing local councils to address the fact that potholes and road defects are behind 12% of compensation claims from CTC members.

By visiting www.fillthathole.org.uk, you can pinpoint the pothole that you find most annoying/painful, using Google maps to expose its exact location. CTC will then let your local council (which has a duty to fix potholes) know about the problem. So before long, that irritating hole on your way to work should be filled in and forgotten.


Pedalling to work incentives

National

Cycle to work scheme
Part of the government's green transport plan to encourage staff to cycle to work, this scheme allows an employer to loan bicycles and safety equipment to employees as a tax-free benefit. Your employer signs up to the scheme, you choose a bike from an approved supplier and your employer buys it for you and reclaims the VAT. You then take a "salary sacrifice" in return for the tax-free bike, which is yours to enjoy provided 50% of your mileage is work related.

Because your salary is reduced, you'll save on tax and national insurance and, after 36 months, you have the option of buying the bike outright at a fair market price.
www.cyclescheme.co.uk

Cyclist breakfasts
This scheme enables employers to provide up to six free breakfasts a year for employees who cycle to work. All the company has to do is arrange a "cycle to work" day in order to claim tax-exempt coffee and croissants for all.
www.ctc.org.uk

Free bike stands
Dreamed up by Life Cycle UK, the Take a Stand scheme enables companies to claim free bike stands, provided they draw up an approved travel plan that encourages staff to leave their cars at home.
www.lifecycleuk.org.uk

Regional

Bike buddy
Leeds city council has a great scheme to make your cycle to work less lonely. A "bike buddy" will offer support and maintenance tips and help you devise the safest and quickest route to work. Click on Transport and Streets at www.leeds.gov.uk.

There is also a national version of this idea at bikebudi.com (part of the Liftshare network).

Bikes for business
Piloted by businesses in Southwark in 2005, the Transport for London bike pool scheme enables companies to set up a central bike pool for their employees to use on work-related journeys.
www.tfl.gov.uk/cycles

What makes life the more dangerous are these ludicrous green-painted cycle lanes on city roads. They are not even an apology for a bike lane. They delude the cyclist into a sense of secure wellbeing when in fact they are setting the cyclist up for slaughter. They are parked in, motorcycled in and ignored by motorised traffic. Their message is clear. Scrap the paint and put in full-blown two-way cycling lanes separated from both pedestrian and car by substantial curbs.

And there's the rub, because in the government's integrated transport policy, bicycles effectively have no place. What cynicism allows new rolling stock on to the railways with either little or no cycle provision at all?

The government thinks that with the Lottery funding the admirable Sustrans National Cycle Network, they have done their bit for cycling. But in truth Sustrans is what it is, a mainly recreational, regenerative exercise that has made it possible for families and individuals to cycle safely across the British countryside. To a much lesser extent has Sustrans provided commuter routes, and only rarely any inner-city infrastructure. Some local authorities have scraped money from here and there to build small stretches of separated cycle way. But as a rule, the government has effectively given urban cycling no priority whatsoever in its thinking.

Yet in introducing the congestion charge, Ken Livingstone's London team discovered that only 15% of Londoners drive into central London. Why then are these 15% allowed to jam up our streets with parked cars? To remove parked cars from one side of the road would liberate space to build separated cycle ways. The car, the bicycle and the pedestrian do not mix naturally. Each has the potential, quite literally, to kill the other.

Nowhere is the war against the carbon footprint more important than in the inner city. In ignoring the need to build major cycle infrastructure, ministers are turning their backs on one of the more obvious solutions to both transport safety and global warming.

Should ministers carry on disregarding the obvious, then if you are a cyclist, sooner or later that eight-wheeler, that BMW - even that police car - is going to get you, and me.

The problem is, that Jon Snow was highlighting what had happened to him that week, and making out that "almost being killed 3 or 4 times a week" was a regular occurence. The inference being that cycling is a hazardous thing. His solution is to have segregated cycle paths.

Realistically, no council or Government is going to go to that expense - and let's be practical here, it just wouldn't be feasible in London or any existing conurbation.

Far better to have better education all round, of all road users.

The problem is, when someone with as public a profile as Jon Snow, writes:

"In essence I have concluded that one is nearly killed on a bike, whether one knows it or not, three or four times a week.

What makes life the more dangerous are these ludicrous green-painted cycle lanes on city roads. They are not even an apology for a bike lane. They delude the cyclist into a sense of secure wellbeing when in fact they are setting the cyclist up for slaughter. They are parked in, motorcycled in and ignored by motorised traffic. Their message is clear. Scrap the paint and put in full-blown two-way cycling lanes separated from both pedestrian and car by substantial curbs."

A certain number of people will have read that and be put off cycling on roads. In addition, the creation of more segregated cycle paths will then increase the calls of motorists to road cyclists like us to "get off the road and onto the cycle path where you belong" - which happens occassionally now. That's what seriously worries me about Jon Snow's pontifications, and as a CTC member, I think it's wrong for someone in his position as CTC President to be saying the answer is segregated lanes.

Roads were around before cars were invented, and will still be there once the oil runs out.

Ach Liebchen ...


So were horses before bicycles