To suggest cyclists need to be licensed

[savethebeesandthecees]

And also pay Road Tax and risk having their licence revoked for misuse.

I'm saying this as a pedestrian. Nearly hit again by a cyclist going through a red light. Others routinely mount the pavement to swerve red lights. I'm sick of it. If I film them as evidence, so what? What are the consequences?

Something needs to change.

No mandate for cyclists to be regulated. Govt can't even keep track of vehicles and the police don't seem to stop motorists with no plates or incorrect ones. I've been knocked off my bike by pedestrians running in the road. Should they not be registered/insured? Some of you should read the Highway Code. It's all in there 're cyclists, positioning etc

There aren't enough police where I live to catch the gangs of teenagers with knives that publicly fight on the high street.

Occasionally a camera van will catch speeding motorists, but not those driving dangerously, drunk etc.

Good luck with this one. The more laws we have that we don't bother to enforce, the more we undermine the rule law. How about we start with fixing the appallingly low rate of convictions for everything else first?

I have occasionally considered caltrops along the side of the road, next to the hugely expensive, newly constructed, took up a whole lane of the road, bicycle lane. Just to urge cyclists to get off the road when there is good alternative.

Rush hour must be bloody terrifying for them. Nobody is going to sit behind them for miles of solid traffic in both directions, drivers are going to 'nip past' and yet, round here, rural town, they persist in exercising their right to cycle on the road. Even though the newly constructed cycle path has made that more dangerous for them.

And the rural cyclist leaving the smaller town live in. OMG! That hill has always been there and no, you won't be able to make it all the way up without wobbling into the middle of the lane. And yes, its a bloody death trap without additional wobbly hazards - can you not see the wreckage of cars in the hedges?

It's not about laws. It's about people using their common sense. As the most vulnerable thing on the roads why the hell would you trust to others and not take sensible precautions?

We need far more drivers to switch to cycling. Every cyclist is one less car on the road. It’s cars that pollute and kill a cursory glance at stats shows that. Their exhaust fumes kill asthmatic children. Cycling / scooting should be the norm and driving the niche activity.

In cities anyway.

Caltrops 😂

What has any of that got to do with road tax and bike licences?

This. There isn’t enough lithium in the world if all car drivers switched to electric cars. We need more cycling and better public transport.

Cyclists should be the majority so not seen as a cohesive minority group to be pilloried. We would not categorise all “car drivers” as being a particular way - yes some are boy racer idiot criminals but most are normal people going about their business. Should be same for cyclists.

And yet you are at fault for not paying attention, riding to fast to stop.
In this case it is you that was at fault.

What?! How is the person in the vehicle going along the road at fault if a pedestrian steps out in front of them? My parents friend killed a man who did that (he was in his car) and even he wasn’t charged with anything.

Something needs to be done about these electric scooters. Just nearly been mowed down by one ridden by a child with another child on the back !

Eh?

Electric scooters are illegal, unless part of the trial hire scheme.
Otherwise they are, at the moment, only allowed on private land.

Firstly, the vast majority of cyclists are also drivers, so pay car tax. We have a car but use it as little as possible, including shopping with a bike trailer, bike commuting to work, using train and bike for longer journeys etc. We pay car tax but do far less damage to the roads than a high mileage driver, so actually we are subsidising them.

Secondly, there are bad drivers, bad pedestrians and bad cyclists, but it seems to be the cyclists that get all the bad press. Shall we also demand a licence for pedestrians who step out into the road randomly or start to cross the traffic lights just as they turn green for cars? Shall we prosecute every driver who blocks the pavement, parks across a bike lane, passes a cyclist too close or goes through a red light well after it has changed (absolutely the norm for drivers in my city to the point that I was shocked to cycle in a different city recently and realise there are drivers who stop at red!)

There are many responsible law abiding drivers, walkers and cyclists - and there are many absolutely selfish, indifferent twats. A a cyclist in a large city, I have to be completely focused every second because of the high chance of another road user doing something stupid that puts my life at risk. It is not just cyclists - it is every road user.

And while it is obviously unacceptable for cyclists to endanger pedestrians, and there should be consequences when they do, the reality is that a car is far more likely to kill. I think the figure are around 2,000 people killed by cars and 2 by bikes every year. That 2 is too many, but it is cars that cause real carnage on our roads.

So it comes down to - do we want to encourage or deter cycling and walking? If we want to tackle global warming, pollution and obesity, we need less car travel and more bike and public transport.

So yes, YABVVU.

Also...forgot to mention. When I was hit by a hit and run driver a few years ago (he hit me as he undertook a car that had moved out to give me space. Stopped down the road and as soon as he saw me get up got back in his car and drove off) the police told me that a high proportion of drivers in my city have no insurance and many are driving on false numberplates. Kind of proved my point that there are dangerous, selfish dickheads on every mode of transport. But we don't see campaigns about "drivers" because we all recognise there are good and bad drivers.

But we don't see campaigns about "drivers" because we all recognise there are good and bad drivers.

of course there are "campaigns" about drivers. Telling them to "think bike" and anti speeding, anti drink driving' anti phone use... plus, of course, they are already licensed (most of them).

But I think there is a very targeted campaign from the tabloids at the moment which is whipping up anti cycling feeling. I don't see anything like that aimed at drivers. There was a video showing a cyclist riding on the road next to an empty cycle lane and headlines about how outrageous it was. That's one example of inconsiderate cycling - and not actually illegal. When will we see the videos of car drivers cutting up cyclists with the same level of tabloid indignation?

Only country who does this is North Korea. It will not happen here.

We have a climate emergency, public health burden and roads congested to capacity. Need to take cycling infrastructure investment seriously to encourage more cycling for journeys under 5 miles. It would solve so many problems.

Licence plates would discourage/provide obstacles to cycling especially to young people. It's the wrong direction completely.

The minority breaking the rules should be punished. Statistically road death caused by bikes are 0.00000001% or something ridiculous of those caused by cars. Let's be proportionate.

I wonder if Technology may provide an answer in the future to cyclists who break the rules but am not sure what/how exactly. Licence plates are not the answer and wil

*not happen. Britain would be a laughing stock if they introduced this.

I don't think Shapps ever seriously planned to bring the tax in. But it did play well with the Tories' key demographic and all the headlines probably took some of the attention away from the rail strikes that Shapps should have been trying to sort out.

Quite frankly, most should be shot. At least the ones that zap along the river Lea, come up behind you and shout for you, as a walker to get out of the way. Particular to the MAMILs, but women can be as bad. The temptation to push them in the river gets greater every week.
Sadly, licensing them would be pointless unless police were patrolling the riverbank or hiding in bushes with speed cameras!
T

Yes you are being unreasonable. Also are you a journalist (I assume so because the tabloids seem to be out for cyclists blood at the moment)?

Cyclist numbers are the lowest since 2013, we need more people to cycle not less. Or have you forgotten the insanely hot summer. Climate change is a thing. The reservoirs near here are almost empty.

What we need is massive investment in cycling infrastructure. The cycle lanes near me are an absolute joke. Mind you, my city council is a joke. I don't cycle. It's not safe enough. If we had properly segregated cycling lanes like those forward thinking Europeans we were so keen to distance ourselves from, I would cycle.

Although with Putin so effectively destabilizing the West we probably won't be able to afford to drive cars on the roads before long considering the massive recession on the horizon.

I know keen cyclists and whenever I pass any cyclist in my car I make sure I think about them and treat them as I would a friend . Cyclists are incredibly vulnerable to other road users. All of the cyclists I know, all of them, have been abused in one way or another. Including groups of young lads speeding up behind their bikes and suddenly screaming at the tops of their voices to try and knock them off balance. They feel emboldened by anti cyclist sentiment no doubt.

One cyclist I know was knocked off by a woman coming straight out of a junction without stopping.. He went completely over the top of the car and was knocked unconscious. As he came round she was screaming at him, please don't call the police, I've got no license, my husband will kill me. Then she got in her car and sped off. No witnesses came forward, she got off with no repercussions. He has never cycled again. Car drivers (of which I am one) pose a far greater threat than cyclists.

Perhaps OP instead of whipping up sentiment against cyclists, you could use some empathy about the people who are doing their bit for the environment. I mean surely you wouldn't want to feel like your thread has helped up the general levels of aggression against one of the groups of more vulnerable road users would you or indeed helped our government roll back our freedoms, tax and regulate us even further?

Get help with your anger issues towards cyclists, you remind me of this bloke here!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4657960/amp/Cyclist-hater-boasted-running-biker-Sydney.html

No witnesses came forward, she got off with no repercussions. He has never cycled again.

Unfortunately, even those that do end up in court receive lenient sentences or fines. It's been found that jury bias exists because most juries contain drivers, who make decisions based on their own driving behaviour. Disgusting.

And yet there is no enforcement of the laws about these lunatics riding uninsured motor vehicles.