West End Extra letters: Cyclists | Number plates

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 18 July 2008

Is it time to give cyclists number plates?

• A SURVEILLANCE system for cyclists is long overdue.
Some believe that number plates for all bicycles would be the answer.
This was advocated back in October 1899 when the Surrey County Council, meeting at Kingston, discussed the matter but eventually dismissed it as impractical. A century later we have still not solved the problem.
A bicycle is, after all, a vehicle like others and ought therefore to be numbered like them. Some have suggested that cyclists should be issued with privilege cards that can be confiscated by the police should the cyclist misbehave.
Others have recommended that cycles should contain electronic chips like mobile phones so that offenders can be tracked and traced by the police.
More recently, someone has come up with the idea of bibs displaying identification numbers on the front and back. No doubt some will claim that this is an invasion of the cyclist’s privacy but what about the ways in which the cyclist can invade the privacy of the pedestrian?
In many areas, from the Jubilee Walkway to your local park, dodging all the pavement cyclists are part of the pedestrian’s experience.
“No cycling” signs are now ignored. In any case, who is there around to enforce this law?
For example, Wandsworth Council have signs up stating that pavement cyclists can be fined £500.
Yet when a friend and I visited Battersea Park one July evening, we counted more cyclists than walkers.
Pavement cycling is also linked with crime, as when cyclists ride up behind people and snatch their belongings.
Earlier this year a child was run over and killed by a cyclist.
More recently another cyclist was fined £2,200 for crashing into a teenager.
The dead girl’s mother said that he should have gone to jail.
Antony Porter
Ashmore Road, W9

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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