The Sunday Times reports that this government is spending £80M to pay for more cycle lanes to protect cyclists from traffic and encourage more people to cycle.

Good, they should treble it.

How much will climate change and obesity cost us?

Trebling it? Why, because the number 3 has magical powers?

I'd include a section on cyclist etiquette in the written car test, i mean a bigger section than they already have.
I'd make cycle proficieny tests compulsory.
A one off bike registration fee that gets you a plate number that is yours for life, to be retro fitted to the bike to help prevent flaunting of the road rules, and something that helps the police identify riders.

For the latter, are they going to start actually tackling the manifold things that cause much obesity, then? Like sugar in diets – particularly hidden sugars? Like the over-dependence (still encouraged by some doctors) on starchy carbs? The two biggest consumers of breakfast cereals (sugared, salted cardboard, sometimes with extra sugar) are the US and UK – coincidence?

Let me add.

The money made from the proficieny test & the one off fee for bike registration/rider identification could be ploughed back into bike schemes.

Your bike registration number would end up longer than your phone number, including the dialing code - there are more bikes than cars in the country and there are more cyclists than drivers.

We don't need more bureaucracy, just a different approach.

To fish the local canal I have to be a member of my local club who rent the water off BW or buy a day ticket which means I have to shell out £30 pa or £ 3 a session. On top of this I also have to fork out £30 pa for a rod licence. I don't object to paying out because this helps maintain the water quality / fish stocks / banks. While the club bailiffs do the rounds of all the club waters on a regular basis in 30+ yrs of angling I have never been asked fot my rod licence. Apparently only 6 EA bailiffs cover the entire NW.

While I am shelling out £60 pa it's so nice to know that cyclists need get a free permit to cycle along the canal. Do you think I have a cat in hells chance of getting the local old bill to enforce it?

LOL - you want the police to waste their time enforcing something that is free ?

There is an estimate from Sustrans that up to 21 million visits are made to canal towpaths each year by cyclists, can you put a fixed civil penalty on ignoring something that is free, or would the fine be free too ?

I just think it might encourage people to behave a bit more responsibly and help lower the numbers of cyclists using the towpaths as their own private race course.

Maybe a few signs from BW informing cyclists that they need a permit wouldn't go amiss either.

The whole BW permit thing is just a red herring (have you ever caught one of those), something that you can download off the internet for free is pretty useless as a method of encouraging responsible shared use of a facility particularly when in recent years BW have been so keen to team up with Sustrans to ensure maintenance of their towpaths - which are in a shocking state of repair in many places and have obviously not had any maintenance carried out at all for decades (the towpath west of Skipton for instance is virtually impassable even on foot after a light shower and even well used areas just before Shipley are collapsing).

I doubt that BW have enough money to support themselves let alone a few signs to scatter around stating that you have to have a free piece of paper to cycle here.

[urlhttp://news.sky.com/story/1127310/cycling-revolution-shifts-into-top-gear[/url

Its a good start, not the money, but the encouragement to shift attitudes when planning new roads and new road layouts, speed reduction schemes, road lane marking etc.

Most of the money being allocated to Leeds for the next 12 months is unfortunately already spent, not on improvements but on resurfacing the routes that will be used in the city when Le Tour starts here next year, just in time for spectators to spray paint all over the nice new tarmac

No that would be 7, but I'm not keen on the number. Several. Just annoys me.

Quote ="JerryChicken"Your bike registration number would end up longer than your phone number, including the dialing code - there are more bikes than cars in the country and there are more cyclists than drivers. We don't need more bureaucracy, just a different approach.'" www.ctc.org.uk/resources/ctc-cycling-statistics. This says that 43% own or have access to a bike ... which, if we assume the higher level (i.e. assuming that all of those own a bike, not just have access to one), is about 27 million bikes. racfoundation.wordpress.com/2013 ... -new-high/ This quotes the DVLA which says that 34.5 million vehicles are licensed for use on UK roads. I'd estimate the difficulty as being in the same general area as for cars. Registration (i.e. ability to identify) would cut down the number of complaints such as we have seen in this thread ... plus would surely cut down on the huge number of bicycle thefts?

Quote ="JerryChicken"Your bike registration number would end up longer than your phone number, including the dialing code - there are more bikes than cars in the country and there are more cyclists than drivers. We don't need more bureaucracy, just a different approach.'" www.ctc.org.uk/resources/ctc-cycling-statistics. This says that 43% own or have access to a bike ... which, if we assume the higher level (i.e. assuming that all of those own a bike, not just have access to one), is about 27 million bikes. racfoundation.wordpress.com/2013 ... -new-high/ This quotes the DVLA which says that 34.5 million vehicles are licensed for use on UK roads. I'd estimate the difficulty as being in the same general area as for cars. Registration (i.e. ability to identify) would cut down the number of complaints such as we have seen in this thread ... plus would surely cut down on the huge number of bicycle thefts?

Making cyclists register their bicycles is going to make Jerry Chicken's Dutch transformation even more unlikely. And it's already less likely to happen than getting British people to speak multiple languages.

Where's the reg no going to be on a bicycle that gives people an ability to identify the rider?

At the back, same place as on a motorbike, thereby identifying the bike and its owner.

For children too ?

Our neighbours seven year old kids' pink Barbie bike with stabilisers and streamers on the handlebar is going to need a registration plate on the back to identify them when they ride it on the pavement ?

Will you be on your mobile every time you see a Barbie bike being ridden in the pedestrian precinct in Hebden, demanding that the police send a van over from Halifax to nip this anti-social behaviour in the bud before it gets out of hand ?



I love bureaucracy, I used to love the dog licence priced at twelve and a half pence and costing more to administrate than the funds it raised and I loved its total ineffectiveness too - no actually I don't, issuing bike registration plates is one of the daftest ideas I've heard for a long time especially in light of the fact that they get stolen at an alarming rate and replaced every year or so (at least for kids) - you'll need funding the size of the RBS bail out to pay for it all and for what purpose - to stop a few petty car drivers seething at traffic lights as they watch another road user commit suicide by ignoring them ?

Quote ="El Barbudo"At the back, same place as on a motorbike, thereby identifying the bike and its owner.'" www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/1039.html farm3.static.flickr.com/2641/372 ... c7fccc.jpg The second plate would be infinitely superior to the first plate, but it's still a huge PITA, would cost a fortune and be out of date in a few months. It's also a huge disincentive to actually get people onto bikes in the first place. I'd guess that the cost of registering motor vehicles probably costs more than most bicycles cost. People don't notice the costs because they are hidden within the thousands of pounds being paid for motorbikes and cars. They are going to notice having to pay 30% of the cost of a bicycle on paying to have a bike registered. Which is going to make it even more annoying when their bike gets nicked within the first few weeks of them taking up bicycling again. But of course, the registration scheme is going to stop people nicking bikes like it stops people nicking cars, isn't it?

Quote ="El Barbudo"At the back, same place as on a motorbike, thereby identifying the bike and its owner.'" www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/1039.html farm3.static.flickr.com/2641/372 ... c7fccc.jpg The second plate would be infinitely superior to the first plate, but it's still a huge PITA, would cost a fortune and be out of date in a few months. It's also a huge disincentive to actually get people onto bikes in the first place. I'd guess that the cost of registering motor vehicles probably costs more than most bicycles cost. People don't notice the costs because they are hidden within the thousands of pounds being paid for motorbikes and cars. They are going to notice having to pay 30% of the cost of a bicycle on paying to have a bike registered. Which is going to make it even more annoying when their bike gets nicked within the first few weeks of them taking up bicycling again. But of course, the registration scheme is going to stop people nicking bikes like it stops people nicking cars, isn't it?

Good point.
I'd need think of some kind of exemption ... maybe by frame size.


£55 to first-register a car in the UK (seems a lot for a simple task).
Nonetheless, another good point, that's a large %age of a bike's cost.
Maybe register the rider instead but that wouldn't deter theft at all and messes up my "by frame size" possibilty.


I've thought of my own flaws in that part of my suggestion ... the plate is easily removeable and, unlike on a car, where the police can, for example, check that the plate belongs to that model of car, the model of bike isn't going to be as obvious.

OK, I give in.
I've been looking for ways that a pedestrian could reliably report incidents like the bashed wrist I got on the Albert Embankment when a cyclist overtook me (but not all of me) on the footpath (because he could) and the almost-far-worse collisions e.g. when I was crossing on the green man light at the Angel and was this far <-> from being mown down by a dic[ikh[/iead who came at speed straight through the queue of cars at the lights (because he could).

The starchy (complex) carbs are not the sugary (simple) ones.

I saw a classic example of cycling stupidity this morning when a lycra-clad idiot went through a red light (south to north) and managed to get themselves stranded in the middle of a yellow box junction once the east-west/west-east traffic flow commenced. Not only was he stuck there but he was sideways on to the traffic as he'd intended to turn right. He was doing a funny kind of shuffle backwards and forwards as he attempted to manouvre his wheels out of the way of traffic passing him in both directions. Needless to say it wasn't his fault judging by his numerous gesticulations at the drivers who had the audacity to drive across the junction when the lights were green for them, clearly they should all have stopped and waved him through....

I've recently started cycling again after about 20 years, got a hand-me-down bike and some cheap as chips gear - just for getting to rugby training and the gym, not really as a pastime.

Been fine so far, my only run-ins were some daft bint beeping furiously at me for having the audacity to cycle in a clearly marked cycle lane, and another daft bint who decided to turn across my path into a road, misjudged it and spun the car towards me, leading to some urgent evasive action. Both got a piece of my mind.

I do my best to abide by the rules and be a good boy - frankly I'm glad to have a rest at red lights sometimes. However there's one right turn on my route to training that's just too busy and narrow and I prefer to cross a little earlier and use the pavement - about 40 metres in total. I've not met any pedestrians there yet and go with extreme care. Cycle lanes are a huge help.

As a driver I've never found cyclists annoying but they do present an obstacle that can be difficult to pass safely at times. I've seen cyclists riding two abreast several times and others happily going along down the middle of the road. Had a big run-in with two young lads who shot across a roundabout from the left, one on the pavement and the other on the wrong side of the road. One of them would have been dead if I'd not braked hard. They came back looking for a fight after I beeped them and it ended with one being dragged home by his mum for a bollocking.

As we seem to be allowing selected links, have a look here youtu.be/3V37xHRA4C0

As we seem to be allowing selected links, have a look here youtu.be/3V37xHRA4C0

--dp--

People always like to mention a 'stupid cyclist incident' but if i mentioned every stupid motorist incident, i'd have to dedicate a whole new topic and probably get to the 100 page rule within a fortnight.