Surprise, cyclists!

I should not be surprised by the two printed responses to my tonguein-cheek letter concerning cyclists (evo 278 and 277 respectively), but what is surprising is the vehemently judgemental opinions of the abilities and inadequacies of a correspondent they don’t know.

To set the record straight, for nearly 50 years I was a cyclist in this country, but I gave up a few years ago (on the public road anyway). Why? Well the plain fact of the matter is that many of our B-roads have changed little in form since before WWII. We have an antiquated and outdated network that isn’t suited to the many pressures now applied to it. Since 1980 the number of vehicles on our roads has at least doubled, while the road capacity has increased by little more than 10 per cent, the majority of that being motorways and other trunk roads. So B-roads are now far busier than in the past.

I would be back on the road on my bike tomorrow if I felt it safe to do so, but until the governments of Great Britain see the inadequacies in our road system, the licensed users of which pour huge amounts of revenue into the coffers of GOV.UK only to be rewarded with a pothole paradise, I shall ride my Trek off-road, where it is generally safer.

And no, I do not read the Daily Mail. Oh, and Rule 66 of the Highway Code states that ‘cyclists should never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends’. Ian Bostock