Bikes don’t actually need roads to get about Again, the fact you want to tax kids for cycling to school is brilliant. Obviously it would make much more sense for them to get a lift from their parents and add to congestion and pollution....
...I just don't get the infatuation with one minority (and vulnerable) group of snowy mountain users slagging off another.....
A couple of months ago, I was driving from Exeter to Crediton, which is a fairly narrow and hilly road. The traffic was crawling along in 2nd gear, I imagined there must have been roadworks. No, it was one lycra warrior sweating up a long hill, endangering both himself and others as the traffic endeavoured to pass him and also causing extra pollution as a result, which he was having to breathe.
"Road tax was abolished in 1937 and replaced by Vehicle Excise Duty. This is a tax on cars, not roads, and it goes straight into the general Treasury fund." Just saying....
And because if this awful experience we should tax or ban cyclists? Maybe the hundreds of thousands of cyclists who commute should get in their cars, that would work well for all road users wouldn’t it...
Sorry I just couldn’t let this debate lie, even if it’s peope fishing. I hardly ever cycle on the road and also get frustrated by idiots in lycra taking up the whole lane, but the irrational hatred and ignorance of some people is outstanding
One Sunday I made the mistake of taking a short cut through Langton Long, Dorset. It is a narrow lane abt. 3.5 miles long. Two cars can pass with care. I hadn't driven very far down said lane when I came up behind at least 15 cyclists riding 3 abreast. After 1 mile they made no attempt to thin out or pull in. so a put my thumb on the hooter and very slowly manoeuvred around them. I later asked a cyclist I know why they have no regard for other road users. He said they are told to take up all the road to prevent dangerous overtaking! As a farmer I am very aware of the need to pull over and let traffic pass. Some cyclists seem to take pleasure in preventing other road users from making progress.
I was referring to what you said about congestion and pollution. This guy was adding to it, as well as endangering his own life and the lives of others.
I used to cycle to school in the 60s but there was little traffic then. It's a whole different world now and I try to stay off roads on my bicycle(s) as much as I possibly can. I feel a 100 times safer on my Ducati. I've converted my old rigid Rocky Mountain to a cycle track bike and it now has skinny tyres and a bell, which I use...
I also don’t bother with cycling on road as I feel pretty venerable, but every cyclists usually means one less car the road so I struggle to see why people ridicule them so much. Sure you get idiots, but that’s just life, I’m sure these people are even more of a threat when behind the wheel of a car.
School?? In Wayne's Britain, they'd still be working in the mines or some cheaply paid factory for kid workers, then they could buy their own bloody road tax.
There's no room for the easily offended where I live. I think the term snowflakes is the modern parlance - pretty apt for a ski mag, eh?
