The two do go together, but they could go together much better if a few simple things were changed.
1. Drivers realise that cyclists are a vehicle using the road and give them due space and respect. This applies to motorbikes too – give me back my space at the lights!
2. Cyclists realise that they are vehicles and thus obey the road rules and share the road too. (To those bastards who run red lights on their bikes – This means you!)
3. Livingstone puts his money where his mouth is and extends cycling routes to give cyclists the space and encourage more cycling commuters.
I cycled to work on London Cycle route 3, a route worked out for bikes by Transport for London. Amazingly the route didn’t have marked cycle lanes all the way and even sent the cyclist the wrong way down one way streets.
This led – as you can imagine – to some rather heated arguments with drivers, one of whom rather than just waving an angry fist actually sped up and drove at me! Now while it was a one way for cars, the drivers needed only to look at the road surface to see the giant bikes painted on the road to realise it was a designated cycle route and to expect to see one or two bikes. But where was my cycling track to give me room and to show drivers to expect me?
Honestly Ken, if you want more cyclists on the road, give us the room and the tracks to ride and set up some education about the road rules for cyclists and drivers.
