Vote Bike

Vote Bike from the CTC .

With the general election approaching, now is the time to make sure that cycling will get the attention it deserves in the next parliament.  CTC has written the Vote Bike Manifesto to make sure that MPs in the next parliament know what they need to do to make cycling a mainstream form of transport.

This is still very much below what I consider a sensible set of policies, but it would at least be a start. See my post 42: Use muscles, not a motor, urges UK Government for what I think is really needed.

Comments

[Tel]

Gets my vote, so long as they make the cyclists contribute to the upkeep of roads like all the other road users have to, enforce obedience at traffic lights, and make sure they have insurance!

[Tel]

Seriously, Dave, I really support any initiative that would deal with our over-dependence on cars. But bikes are simply not an option for most people, nor for most journeys. I would much rather see any incoming government address the issue of public transport. The cost of train fares in this country is scandalous, and a major disincentive to those who would prefer to travel in this way.

[Dave]

Tel,

From I Pay Road Tax:

"ROAD TAX WAS ABOLISHED 74 YEARS AGO

Road tax doesn't exist. It's now VED, or 'car tax'. Motorists do not pay for the roads, we all do, via general taxation. In the 1920s, Winston Churchill started the process to abolish road tax. He didn't want motorists to think a token payment gave them ownership of the road. Road tax finally died in 1936. Paying Vehicle Excise Duty gives no "right to the road" for motorists (or car-owning cyclists). iPayRoadTax.com products help spread news about what has become a movement."

In minute to his officials in November 1925, the then Chancellor Winston Churchill said:

“Entertainments may be taxed; public houses may be taxed; racehorses may be taxed…and the yield devoted to the general revenue. But motorists are to be privileged for all time to have the whole yield of the tax on motors devoted to roads. Obviously this is all nonsense…Such contentions are absurd, and constitute…an outrage upon the sovereignty of Parliament and upon common sense.”

Churchill also wrote:

“It will be only a step from this for [motorists] to claim in a few years the moral ownership of the roads their contributions have created.”

[Dave]

Tel,

If bikes are just not an option for people then how come in cities in the Netherlands cycling is 50% of ALL journeys (and they only count journeys that are all by bike).

In Copenhagen thousands of people cycle to work (from memory over 30% of all commuters).

In the Netherlands and Denmark they don't stop cycling when there is snow, instead cycle paths are cleared of snow before anything else. Only 1% fewer people cycle in the winter in the Netherlands.

Sorry but "But bikes are simply not an option for most people, nor for most journeys." is just not supported by real evidence.

A couple of reminders.

Most journeys are short (less than 2 miles) which makes them easy to ride for anyone who can climb the stairs at home.

Everytime any city (even ones without a bike friendly infrastructure) has a race across town by different modes of transport the bike always wins over public transport, cars, taxi's and even (in the case of Top Gear) the fastest speedboat they could find.

Note that in what I have written I am 100% behind improvements to public transport. I agree on pricing, over crowding & performance. But cycling is better for us, faster, cheaper, better for employers, better for retailers and better for the environment.