cyclists

[corydoras]

thats nothing i once seen one of em going up the M8

 

yeah i think all forms of vehicle that use roads that are made for (drivers) we pay hundreds of pounds each year for our right and privledge why should anyone else be any different. feels like the big nasty car doesnt have any say in it because bikes and such are greener

We all pay taxes tou use the roads Andy. Road Tax is there to try to make you use some other means of transport, fuel duty is designed to make you use your car less. The revenue gained from these taxes just go into the pot, they are not put to one side just to pay for the roads. Edited April 16, 2007 by corydoras

[ColinW]

If someone driving two tons of steel around can't understand why they should be careful of pedestrians, cyclists, or even dogs for that matter, HOWEVER THEY ARE ACTING, they aren't fit to drive.

It's high time the roads of this country, particularly in towns, were reclaimed from the car drivers and given back to the general public to cycle, walk, play football on or whatever they see fit.

[Steve Walker]

It's high time the roads of this country, particularly in towns, were reclaimed from the car drivers and given back to the general public to cycle, walk, play football on or whatever they see fit.

 

Thing is, the general public are car drivers, or at the very least car users. It's by far the most important mode of travel in this country (at least amongst those who work for a living, according to transport stats on mode of travel to work). Even those households which don't have permanent access to a car will often be passengers in one. My 84 year old grannie has never driven in her life, but the cars of her children and grandchildren are now the only mode of transport she can use.

 

I'd like to see enough of those car-free estates built for those who really object to sharing their environment with cars to accept the corollary, which is that they are not allowed to own or use one themselves. Seems a fair deal. For the rest of us, the reality is that in exchange for other people tolerating us driving past their front doors, we have to tolerate them driving past ours.

[ColinW]

Obviously Steve. I am also a car driver (although I prefer to think of myself as a motorcyclist!) One of the big promises of this government, I can still remember John Prescott delivering it in his inimitable style, was to give us a working public transport system.

This has been one of their most spectacular failures. Anyone who has been to Germany can't fail to be impressed with the way things work over there. Cycle to the station and leave your bike in a covered shelter (with literally hundreds of others) and get a train which arrives within five minutes. Or jump on any bus using a daily pass you get from a vending machine, no queues at bus stops while people fumble for change.

What do we have? Leave your bike chained to a fence, not knowing if the wheels will still be on when you return having stood in a packed carriage that you paid through the nose for, or try to use a bus which might never arrive. No wonder we all drive.

[ColinW]

Prescott's speech (1997)

 

“I will have failed if in five years time there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It's a tall order, but I urge you to hold me to it"

[chesters1]

says the chap chauferred a 100 yards to a meeting,and blair likes flying so much he wants a presidential jet or is it he cant abide the electorate

Edited April 16, 2007 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

Oh, I agree, public transport sucks, and it doesn't seem to improve however much money is thrown at it. Part of the problem, though, is that increased use of public transport is like increased spending on public services; everyone is in favour of it, so long as someone else makes the sacrifice. It's everyone else who should get off the roads, be it school mums, 4x4 drivers, boy ravers, doddering old fools, reps, BMW drivers, whatever.

 

I think the problem is simply that our way of life is not well served by anything but the car. You can move within walking or cycling distance of where you work, but it may not be a nice place to live, your spouse may have to work somewhere else, or your kids may have been inexplicably allocated a place in a school miles away. Then, since no jobs are for life these days, a few years down the line you may find yourself with the choice of working miles away, accepting an inferior job or relocating your family. And still you've got the issue of where your spouse works. Around Greater London, there are enough people living and working in roughly the same places to make public transport work, but even there it's hellish, expensive and yet somehow fails to run without subsidy. I've used trains and buses when it's been a no-brainer not to, when I worked in central Manchester and lived near to a commuter line, but it was definitely the lesser of two evils. If I had to work on a Sunday, I gladly used the car. I'd have willingly worked Sundays for a day off in the week for that reason alone.

 

Trying to herd people onto public transport or cycling (mainly by trying to make driving as expensive and unpleasant as possible) just isn't going to work. It's time that government started looking into how to make it easy for people to reduce the amount of travelling they do. Encouraging more employers to allow home working would be a good start.

 

Prescott's speech (1997)

 

Now then, surely you didn't go taking any notice of what Fatty Two-Jags says?

[Lid]

It's not the first time we've had this debate on here I'm sure.

 

I am a motorist and a cyclist and I completely agree that many cyclists cycle appallingly, but then again so do many pedestrians and every day more drivers break the law than both the other groups put together.

 

And what about horse riders on the road - should they be taxed too? The answer is, in my view, better far enforcement of the existing laws, not the introduction of more restrictions. I try to cycle to the highway code, but so often I find that drivers of all vehicles have no idea how to drive around me with care and respect.

[snakey1]

Sorry, your right corydoras, i cocked those figures up well and truly i hold my hands up normally i do research my statistics a little better thanks for correcting me.

Kleinboet i neither accused you of using the phone while driving or said that all vehicles should be banned from the roads,you claimed that you reported anyone you saw breaking the law(meaning i assumed, that this included anyone breaking the law whilst driving as this is what the posts were concerned with not that you were driving while reporting them) and i said that if you reported all the motorists you saw breaking the law whilst they were driving you would spend most of your day on the phone.I've just come back from wales and i saw dozens of cars exceeding the speed limit and quite a few using mobile phones,drinking or eating while driving if i was to report them all i would never have been off the phone this is the point i was making.

Rabbit mentioned banning cars from the road in one of his posts (although i don't think he was serious) ,in my original post i stated that i thought that anyone under 25 shouldn't be allowed to drive a car but should first be made to ride a motorcycles first as i think that this would make them more considerate and observent drivers when they became old enough to drive a car. i realise that this country could not function without cars and lorries and generally i have nothing against car drivers but i do think that they should clean up their own house first before throwing mud at other groups (be it cyclists or motorcyclists).

Yes there are some truly terrible cyclists out there as there are some lousy drivers however as i stated before, generally if a cyclist has an accident on the road with another vehicle(be it his fault or not) he is the generally the only one physically injured however if a car driver does he is rarely the only one injured.

anyway to get back to the original theme of this thread i still don't think bikes should be taxed for using the road and i don't think registering or licencing push bikes would be feasible or would work well if it was, people drive cars today without valid licences and get away with it if you were to licence and register bikes what makes you think it would be any different. a lot of people would obey the law but a some wouldn't.

[Guest Ferret1959]

Snakey.

Do you think cyclists should have 3rd party insurance and sit/take some sort of road safety/awareness test?

 

Do you think cyclists should wear full safety gear by law?

 

Do you think all cycles should have some sort of safety checks, ie wheels/tires, brakes, lights and frame structure?

 

 

I do.

 

And as the topic is about cyclists and cycling we shouldn't be bringing up how car drivers are using the roads, no comparison really is it?