Bad Cyclists and Bad Motorists – Which Are Worse?

When a motorists breaks the speed limit and causes a severe accident, I never hear people come up to me and say

“you motorists are so irresponsible putting people’s lives at risk”

Yet, other people will frequently say to be:

“You cyclists, are so irresponsible cycling through red lights.”

The fact is there are responsible motorists, there are dangerous motorists.
There are responsible cyclists and there are cyclists who ignore basic rules of the road.

When Motorists risk other people’s lives I don’t feel any collective guilt, so why I should I feel any collective guilt for other cyclists behaving irresponsibly?

The standard of Cycling is very bad. Cyclists frequently make the following errors.

• Cycling without lights
• Cycling through red lights
• Being impatient and taking risks on the road.
• Cycling in an aggressive way.

I would be very happy if bad cycling practises were more heavily punished. But, at the same time, I feel obliged to say the danger from bad driving is far greater than from bad cycling practices.

In the UK, over 3,000 people, every year die on British Roads. These deaths are by and large caused by dangerous and irresponsible driving. They are not caused by cyclists using the pavement.

When a cyclist ignores basic safety procedures, he puts his life at risk. But, to a large extent he doesn’t threaten the well being of other road users. If a person on a bike cycles without lights and goes through red lights, he is at greater risk of an accident to himself – but car drivers are not really threatened themselves.

However, when car users break the speed limit and ignore responsible safety procedures they do put other road users at risk.Frequently I witness car drivers put my life at risk through:

• excessive speeding,
• passing so close I can practically touch the card,
• Ignoring the rules of roundabouts – I’m sure some drivers don’t actually know you are supposed to give way on a roundabout.
• Being impatient
• Drink driving (not so easy to see, but, statistics suggest it does happen.)

Quite often when a driver creates a potentially fatal accident I feel they are often unaware of their dangerous bad driving. Once a van passed me, the van actually touched my right arm, so I banged on the van. The van stopped and shouted at me for banging on his van. He couldn’t appreciate it wasn’t safe to pass a cyclist so close that he nearly dragged me under the van.

The Real problem is that bad driving is not so visible and we have become accustomed to turning a blind eye to dangerous driving.

When a cyclist cycles without lights, his fault is obvious to see. When car drivers almost fall asleep at the wheel it is not at all visible. But, it is the bad, careless driving which will cause the deaths of other people.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try and improve bad cycling practices – far from it. Cyclists should be made to look after their own welfare. However, we should never forget that the 3,000, largely avoidable, deaths are to a large extent the result of bad motoring.

The law is inadequate – we wait until someone has been seriously injured or killed before taking legal action. However, this action only satisfies a desire for justice and vengeance – it is doing nothing to prevent accidents. It is bad motoring that needs to be more seriously tackled. Taking away people’s motoring licence would be the most effective solution.

Interesting Article

• Cyclists vs People on Bike POBs