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Cycling is safer than tennis
Following a Parliamentary debate and high profile campaign from national newspaper The Times, cyclist safety has become a hot debating topic across the nation over past weeks. One BikeBiz reader added their thoughts on the discussion…
DEAR BIKEBIZ, Let’s hope all the current activity and publicity gets some real change in the right direction – LCC, Cyclenation, CTC, Bicycle Association, Sustrans and British Cycling have been working together to inform the debate. But we need to strike a balance. Cycling is
already safer than: walking per mile, tennis per participant and lots of other everyday activities. Cycling makes huge inroads into obesity, cardiovascular disease and more – the health benefits outweigh the risks 20-to- one. Cyclists live years longer on average and it takes thousands of years of cycling per fatality. It’s safer to cycle than not to. Even so it needs to be as safe here as it is
elsewhere in Europe. Unfortunately unwarranted scaremongering deters people from cycling’s mostly enjoyable healthy convenience – ironically it’s more people cycling which is key to better safety. Our frightened, populist clamour for cycle lanes might actually make it worse by encouraging more UK style ‘facilities’. They are of such low quality they often make it neither safer nor more convenient. The London Cycle Campaign’s Go Dutch
project is a great start for high quality segregation which assists beginners and experienced cyclists alike. It will also need a Dutch style cultural shift in attitudes, priorities, 20 mph default urban speed limits,
collision liabilities and political will to take space from carriageways not footways. Some advocates set this against integrationist/vehicular cycling which they see as appeasing the status quo. Not so: they’re complementary approaches with national standards (cyclecraft) training enabling people to lift their skills and safety a notch or two in mixed traffic – even though some can take it a lot further than others. The skills are applicable even in 20 mph areas and on Dutch style cycleways. Let’s use a mix of whatever works. What won’t work is high vis and helmet
promotion – look at
www.cyclehelmets.org to learn of an absence casualty benefit, of the bad science which abounds and of safety data like the tennis and walking comparisons. What needs pushing, especially in
promotional pictures, is the Copenhagen style: no helmets, no high vis and low casualties. Normal people on normal bikes, making normal trips in normal clothes. Apologies to you sporty types who can’t
throw off the fancy gear – ideal as it is for the serious stuff – just to go shopping: as cycling ex-Transport Minister Steve Norris said: “I don’t want to dress up like a spaceman to ride my bike.”
John Mallows
www.cyclenation.org.uk (viz
BikeBiz.com)
It’s safer to cycle than not to, writes John Mallows of
Cyclenation.org.uk STAR LETTER
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