Cllr. Gavin Ayling

Cycling well

Motorists sometimes drive badly. Of course they do, otherwise there’d be far fewer accidents and less misuse of the horn warranted.

But cyclists are much, much worse:
- Traffic lights? They’re for cars aren’t they?
- Undertaking? That’s allowed for bicycles isn’t it?
- Using lights at night? No — definitely for cars only
- Giving way at junctions or when joining a road — a car thing isn’t it?
- Indicating the next direction of travel — “I don’t have orange lights, how can I?”

It is time, sadly, for number plates and registration for bikes. There’s no reason for number plates except to keep an eye on people breaking the law and, through grim experience, that’s the only way drivers are going to be able to feel sure that they’re not going to kill some idiot putting their own life in danger needlessly. If I, atheist-deity-forbid, one day kill or maim a cyclist, I want it to be a genuine accident or my fault. That’s the only way I would be able to feel the guilt that one should feel in that situation.

In the Guardian today, there is talk of a change in the Highway Code which will make cyclists guilty of “contributory negligence” if they don’t use a cycle path provided. Presumably this change would apply to other acts of blatant stupidity. The obvious idiocy of cycle paths, though, is duely noted: Guardian article.

Why do they keep blaming drivers for environmental change?

Let’s keep our attention focussed on Brown and why he doesn’t remove fuel tax from biofuels. I’d buy a diesel car in a moment if I could use vegetable oil to run my car tax-free. And remember, there’s no net addition of carbon to the atmosphere by using plant oils.

But they won’t because BP, E$$o, $hell et al will threaten to withdraw oil while a change-over was made. It was done to smaller third-world countries and will be done to us.

A brave, socially conscious government would build up reserves of bio-oil before declaring to the oil companies that we were going to remove the tax. Shortly after that we could become oil-free and, shortly after that, we could start exporting vegetable oils to the likes of Mauritius and Trinidad so that they don’t have to rely, in the long-term, on foreign oil.

Gah!