| |
20-minute walk reveals cyclists behaving badly
• ARE councillor Andrew Cornwell and chief executive John Foster happy to visit victims of road accidents in hospital and explain that their accident can be attributed in part to Islington Council’s decision to allow higher accident rates on roads controlled by it?
Mayor Boris Johnson’s plan to allow motorcyclists to use bus lanes has been based on a much-suppressed report compiled by Transport for London under the supervision of Ken Livingstone. The study and report were commissioned by Transport for London (TfL), with trials of motorcyclists being allowed to use bus lanes conducted over two 18-month periods in five areas of London.
The report suggests that, in those areas where the survey was conducted, there were reductions in accidents of 46 per cent for motorcycle-pedestrian collisions, 45 per cent for motorcycle-scooter collisions and 44 per cent for motorcycle-cyclist collisions.
Mr Johnson promised in his pre-election manifesto that he would follow the report’s recommendations and allow motorcyclists to use bus lanes across London. Since being elected he has stated he would only implement his promise after consultation with various groups, including the London Cyclists Campaign. Somewhat different to what he had originally planned but obviously to appease certain lobby groups.
I call the report “much suppressed” because it was initiated over six years ago and was originally meant to be produced after the first 18-month survey. After the first period it was decided that more evidence was required, so a second 18-month study was conducted.
After completion of the second study and before the recent mayoral elections, Ken Livingstone and Kevin Austin made excuses for why the report was “not ready for release”. Some journalists would have us believe the four-year delay on an 18-month project may have been due to the incumbent mayor not wishing to lose votes by upsetting the cyclists’ lobby.
Why therefore does Islington Council want to maintain higher accident rates on our streets? And what right does the council have to override the mayor’s directions? Is the Mayor of London excluding Islington?
Also, to address and add balance to your anti-motorcycle letters and article (Town Hall poised to defy Boris over bikers in bus lanes, November 7), Christian Wolmar stated that Mr Johnson “can’t allow speeding motorcycles in bus lanes”. Does Mr Wolmar believe that all motorcyclists break the speed limit? Does he think bus drivers never break the speed limit?
I would suggest that he does some research of his own to verify these ideas. I am fortunate enough to be able to walk to work and this morning I conducted my own survey. On my walk I witnessed multiple cyclists jumping red traffic lights, travelling across pedestrian crossings when the green man was lit, going down one-way streets in the wrong direction and riding on the pavement.
I even witnessed two cyclists race across a zebra crossing, forcing a lady on the crossing to stop in the middle of the road to allow them through and thereby avoid having an accident even though she, by law, had the right of way. None of these cyclists had any identifying features such as registration plates or tax discs that would have allowed honest pedestrians to report them to the right authorities.
Now my walk is only 20 minutes long and so it was a very small sample but I never saw any motorcyclists behaving in this fashion.
Incidentally, I once dismounted from a 38 Routemaster bus near Mount Pleasant to discover a cyclist racing up the inside of the bus and nearly colliding with other passengers getting off at the bus stop.
As a cyclist I pay the same attention to other road vehicles as I would when driving a car and have never felt threatened by motorcycles in a way I have felt threatened by buses.
Other letters referred to hulking, noisy, polluting motorbikes. This kind of outdated stereotyping does not take into account the fact that modern motorcycles are now built to the most stringent pollution and noise legislation in the world. Motorcycles pollute less, take up less space on the roads and are much more fuel efficient than most cars and buses.
It would be a wonderful world if we could all lose our attachment to all types of motorised vehicles and propel ourselves by our own exertions but that is not going to happen in the near future. Why then can we not stop acting in our own selfish interests or for those of lobby groups and instead make dispassionate, objective decisions based on facts rather than perceptions? Or is this a case of cyclist nimbyism?
Tim Donnelly
Address supplied
|
 |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
