Dear RCC members
The theme of this newsletter is ‘Get out on your bike’, which is part of the founding mission of the RCC we have been promoting for over 40 years.
It was, then, with some puzzlement that I recently received a questionnaire from Reading Borough Council with a set of questions about walking and cycling and active travel in general.
They asked, ‘How do you think people (in general) find cycling in Reading?’ and ‘What is currently discouraging some people from cycling in Reading?’. I think we have been telling them this for a very long time in all sorts of different ways – have they not been listening?
The questionnaire was sent as a result of the formation of a scrutiny group to look at the way the Council’s active travel strategy is implemented. Sadly, the questionnaire does not ask anything about the Council’s own policies and procedures, although it does ask what steps they could take to make it easier to choose walking but strangely not cycling.
The other thing which recently caught my attention was the decision by Jeremy Vine to stop posting on social media videos of cycling matters as a direct result of the threats and abuse he has received from the anti-bike lobby.
Peter Walker wrote a ‘more in sorrow than anger’ piece in The Guardian about how he had received similar abuse.
I also have experienced considerable anger towards me when I have been out cycling, and I was obviously seen to be denying a car driver’s God-given right to drive anywhere at whatever speed he or she chooses. And yes, women drivers can be just as bad.
Our cause is certainly not helped by the press picking on the most sensational items. A search for ‘UK cycling news’ brings up the proposed life sentence for any cyclist who kills a pedestrian. This makes front page news, but the awful and continuing loss of lives on our roads caused by the drivers of vehicles hardly merits a mention.
A quick look at the government’s statistics website shows that during the period 2004 to 2020 each week an average of two pedal cyclists were killed and 83 seriously injured on Britain’s roads. The average sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is under three years.
If the Mayor of London is really concerned about the safety of Londoners, as well as banning exploding e-bikes from London trains, perhaps he should resurrect the splendid policy of requiring all locomotive vehicles to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag.
Whilst this might seem a bit flippant, I contend that gross disparity in the reporting can only be explained by a long process of normalising vehicular traffic and the attendant problems it brings and that by blaming a very small minority, this effectively diverts attention from the big picture.
In the days when actual horsepower ruled the road, these noisy new things belching smoke really did frighten the horses. They belch a little less smoke these days, but they frighten even me when I am on my bike.
The most common answer to the two questions at the start of this letter, is that cycling on Reading’s roads is too dangerous.
The solutions to reducing these dangers are not simple and providing separate cycle facilities is often impractical or too expensive in Britain’s crowded towns and on roads designed only for cars and lorries. Raising the standards of driving would be a very good first step.
We MOT test cars every year but never retest the drivers. Once you get a licence, unless you get caught doing something really bad, your driving abilities never get tested again.
Maybe we should campaign for regular testing of drivers along with a concerted campaign showing that in the matter of road safety, cyclists are far more sinned against than sinning, then maybe we can persuade more people to get out on their bikes.
Joe Edwards
RCC Chairman
(chair@readingcyclecampaign.org.uk)
