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.
April 15th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Number Plates and Registrations? Have you lost it completely?
Can you imagine the huge costs of yet another computer registration system, complete with all the cock-ups of which we are so justly proud, to tie in all the cyclists who wheel their way on pedal-power through the streets of our towns and cities?
Are you really saying that this would be a good alternative to a lot more policemen on foot, who would be able to actually do something about the clowns who defy gravity and the rules of the road, when wheeling around the tarmac of Britain?
No, Gavin, think again! You might have a point about the laws which are broken, but registration, that’s the last thing which should be tried!