Cycle commuting featured on GMTV this morning, I’m told (I don’t watch it, I’m a BBC Breakfast kinda guy myself).
Quentin “sarcastic” Wilson presented the segment, and the thrust of it was how bad the behaviour of cycle commuters is. They also mentioned that insurance and tests should be compulsory and that accidents involving cyclists had risen.
Let’s get something straight – in my ever so humble opinion, GMTV is mindless tabloid tat for people who buy X-Factor albums and read about celebrity diets. Yes the figures on which the “report” is based are probably exaggerated. Yes they tar all cyclists with the same irresponsible-coloured brush and paint motorists and pedestrians as put-upon innocents. Yes it’s a button pushing issue that polarises opinion and is guaranteed to get a response.
Ignore all that. Ignore also the cries for cyclists to “pay road tax” (don’t get me started on that one) and have compulsory insurance.
At the heart of it, do they actually have a point about the raft of new-year-new-me and financially motivated novice cyclists who, let’s be honest, can barely ride a bike and haven’t a notion of how to behave properly in the dangerous road environment? A quick browse of any online cycle commuting community will churn up endless mentions of cyclists jumping red lights, pavement hopping, riding in dark clothes with no lights and so on. It annoys those of us who take better care as much as it annoys other road users, I think.
Wouldn’t some basic training help at least some of these newbies?
Wouldn’t fewer two wheeled numpties help us all?
