| “Cyclists matter,” he declares. “They are the future of London's
commuting. Motorcyclists are an irrelevance. They are not numerous, and
the environmental benefits of motorcycling are nothing or less than
nothing.” His ravings have appeared in a forum row over motorcyclists in bus
lanes which started when someone posted a story copied from this website
onto the forums of CTC’s site.
The story revealed crashes between cyclists and motorcyclists fell
40% in the first four months of their sharing bus lanes in London.
The moderator - effectively a content regulator for the site – said
the fact cyclists might see us as a threat to safety was reason enough
to boot us out, even if they were wrong.
Asked “Should we ban one group of road users from a road space
because of the unfounded fears of another group?” he replied: “Yes -
although I don't accept that it is unfounded…
"If the presence of motorcyclists in bus lanes discourages people
from cycling that's good enough reason to ban them.
"That may be unfair, but streets serve a purpose, and if
motorcyclists, for whatever reason, defeat that purpose, then they're
going to have to join the rest of the traffic outside of the red
tarmac.”
In a separate post dismissing motorcycles as inefficient, he adds:
”My measure of efficiency encompasses safety, noise reduction,
sustainability and, most of all, congeniality.
"Motorcyclists do not offer any benefits by any of these measures.”
Thankfully users of the forum don’t appear to have taken him too
seriously.
One comments: “The purpose of the streets are to afford people transport
from place to place and I don't see how you can argue that motorcycles
defeat that purpose.”
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