Riding for a fall in land of giants (From Bournemouth Echo)

Riding for a fall in land of giants

7:30am Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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Cold as it may be, we’re probably only weeks away from a huge influx of cyclists on the street, and the letters will be back: “those pavement cycling maniacs”.

But where are we supposed to go?

Those excuses for lanes, those apologies for cycleways our councils lovingly paint – in their imitation of progress?

After all, we have car tax, fuel duty, and car-parking income to consider, don’t we?

It’s now almost impossible to stay in a cycle lane.

With the new breed of commuter scooters (you know the ones – 200 decibels and 19 mph) careering through the middle of traffic, most people’s default road position has moved 18 inches to the left – into the cycle lane.

But that’s not all – that “class beating” internal space so loved by car manufacturers ad-speak, only really means “bigger”.

Your average hatch-back today is wider and taller than any family saloon of even 10 years ago – on the same roads. And yes, it needs saying – have you seen the size of some of the 4x4s now?

Get to any junction with a 4x4 on your outside and you’re stuffed.

You simply have to wait until they’ve wafted their way off until you can see enough to move off yourself.

So the pavement wins every time. Yes, the painted lines can stay, but they need to be on a widened pavement – then you can also speed-restrict the traffic down to the 20mph we’re beginning to hear about.

People will hate me for this, but you know in your hearts – you know in your mirrors – too many mobile-phone wielding idiots, too many super-wide black-glass and steel tanks, too many wide-exhaust youths, so many bad tempers.

NOT using the pavement at times in the UK is utter nonsense.

Steve Evans, Brook Close, Bournemouth