Idea for registration plates and insurance for cyclists criticised
CYCLING GROUPS have criticised a possible change in the law which could see cyclists forced to display registration plates, buy insurance and face prosecution for speeding.
Charity Cycling UK accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of “proposing expensive barriers” to cycling.
Less than a fortnight after vowing to create a “death by dangerous cycling” law that will treat killer cyclists the same as motorists, the Minister said he wanted to stop certain behaviour on the roads.
This is despite nearly 60 times more pedestrians being killed in collisions with cars than bicycles per year.
Mr Shapps told The Daily Mail: “Somewhere where cyclists are actually not breaking the law is when they speed, and that cannot be right, so I absolutely propose extending speed limit restrictions
to cyclists. Particularly where you’ve got 20mph limits on increasing numbers of roads, cyclists can easily exceed those, so I want to make speed limits apply to cyclists.
“That obviously does then lead you into the question of, ‘Well, how are you going to recognise the cyclist? Do you need registration plates and insurance? And that sort of thing.’ So I’m proposing there should be a review of insurance and how you actually track cyclists who do break the laws.”
After his quotes were published online, Mr Shapps gave an interview to The Times in which he said he was “not attracted to the bureaucracy of registration plates”, adding that such a move “would go too far”.
The Department for Transport press office was unable to immediately provide clarification.
Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, told the PA news agency: “These latest proposals to regulate cycling are impractical and unworkable, and have been repeatedly dismissed by successive governments.”
AA president Edmund King said introducing more barriers to cycling would be “a retrograde step”.