Cycling warning

We both agree (from experience) that Europe is a great deal more cycling friendly than the UK, so it's surely fitting to reply to the letter, ‘Our roads are a holey joke.’ (Radcliffe Times, July 21st ). What about the standard of driving/parking?

With Chris Froome winning the Tour de France (Adam Yates finished fourth/best young rider) and former yellow jersey holder Chris Boardman’s mother Carol, being killed recently, (whilst cycling), the following statistics (from ROSPA) surely need to be addressed:-

• Around 75% of fatal or serious cyclist accidents occur in urban areas.

• Around half of cyclist fatalities occur on rural roads.

• 75% happen at, or near, a road junction.

• 80% occur in daylight.

• 80% of cyclist casualties are male.

• Almost one quarter of the cyclists killed or injured are children.

• Over 90% of cycling casualties are solely down to driver error.

Also shocking new figures have revealed how cyclists are 17 times more likely to be killed on the road than motorists. The massive gap in the safety of car and bicycle users, are shown in new statistics from the Department for Transport. It shows that for every one billion miles travelled on UK roads, 35 cyclists were killed in collisions compared to just two motorists in 2014. Cyclists were also 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash than motorists with 6,588 injured per one billion miles travelled compared to just 286 car users.’

The Department of Transport road safety website (THINK Cycling) advises: ‘Cyclists, Ride Centrally in Narrow Lanes’ and, ‘Cyclists, Ride a Doors Width from Parked Cars.

With the latter: given that an average car door is 4 feet wide and a cyclist is about 2 feet wide, this essentially means that the wheels of a bicycle need to be 5 feet (1.52m) from a parked vehicle i.e. on many roads, in the ‘middle of the road’ - to avoid ‘dooring’ and swerving into the path of an overtaking vehicle. Where cars are parked on the road ‘for miles’, not least in cycle lanes, what chance a cyclist?

In many instances where cyclists are overtaken, vehicles pass too close and too fast. With some 2 million potholes threatening to damage cars, (given fissures, wind-fall, grids, glass, car parts etc, ‘littering’ our roads), there must be 20 million ‘defects’ threatening to injure cyclists. Accordingly, taking your hand off the handle bars to signal the passing of a parked vehicle, is surely ill advised. Shouldn’t it be for the (experienced, qualified) driver to ‘read the road ahead’, rather than the cyclist ‘read the road behind’? How can they identify a driver on a mobile phone? A learner driver displays an ‘L’ plate! How do drivers identify learner cyclists?

Also, with stats showing that some 70pc of drivers ignore 20mph speed limits, not to mention ‘Drive, Don’t Text’, doesn't this effectively amount to over 20 million drivers being a significant threat to cyclist safety, and hence a threat to the NHS. Cyclist, pedestrian, horse-rider; disabled, young, old – can we ever be safe from motor vehicles?

Rule 163 of the Highway Code i.e. ‘move quickly past the vehicle you are overtaking’ also needs looking at: a cyclist might be traffic, but he/she should surely be identified as a human being, (mother, father, grandparent, grandchild), rather than a vehicle – a polystyrene helmet doesn’t offer the same protection as a crumple-zone or air-bag. Also, cyclists and indeed, pedestrians aren’t ‘protected’ from the ‘terrifying’ noise of air brakes, car horns, rattling trailers, high revving engines and low-profile, high performance car tyres.

As cycling ambassador for British cycling, Chris Boardman advocates more Dutch style segregated cycle lanes – commuting cyclists in The Netherlands invariably don’t wear a helmet. However, with limited road space, caused not least by parked vehicles and dogs on extended leads, this won’t solve the UK’s gridlock problem, or indeed pollution/obesity problem, anytime soon.

The most cost effective and practical way forward, is surely for speed limiters/black boxes, to be made compulsory for drivers caught exceeding speed limits, which will undoubtedly come with self-drive cars, and for Bikeability (cycling proficiency for the 21st Century) to be made an intrinsic part of the driving test/speed awareness courses. Will self-drive cars 'see' pot holes and pass cyclists 'Wide and Slow'?

Under new government proposals, on-the-spot fines of up to £5,000 could be handed out to careless drivers who drive too close to cyclists. With Brexit, terrorism, climate change, average house prices at £200,000 and an average deposit of £34,000 needed by first time buyers (i.e. no money for a car or public transport) cycling safety surely needs to go to the top of the list. Let’s share our roads, if not the country. A necessity in fighting poverty and climate change is it not? Victims of progress (the ‘rat race’) unite!

Allan Ramsay

Radcliffe Moor Road

Radcliffe