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Published on: 14/01/2017 09:31 AMReported by: roving-eye
Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, has been accused of showing “an
astonishing lack of knowledge” of his brief after arguing in the House of
Commons that cyclists do not count as road users.
Grayling was video'd last month knocking a rider off his bike by suddenly
opening the door to his ministerial car in Westminster.
In an interview last year, Grayling said that London’s new protected cycle
lanes “perhaps cause too much of a problem for road users”. But Britain's
seven million cyclists are, of course, road users and have been defined as
such since the 1888 Local Government Act, which formalised the status of
“bicycle, tricycles, velocipedes and other similar machines” as being what
were then still known as “carriages” (now cars, lorries vans and buses).
It has emerged that when Chris Grayling knocked cyclist Jaiqi Liu off her
bike by opening his car door without looking, he did not provide her with
any contact details despite her clearly being hurt in the incident -
although he did get out and check that she was able to get up. This appears
to contravene Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 as does a failure to
report any accident that results in injury or damage to a Police Station as
soon as reasonably practicable and, in any case, within a maximum of
24 hours. Grayling was only identified as the culprit here after another
cyclist, whose on-bike camera filmed the incident, recognised the minister
from coverage of the interview where he complained about bike lanes.
Chris Boardman, the former Olympic and Tour de France cyclist who is now
British Cycling’s policy adviser, said he was amazed at the Minister's
comments.
The Transport Secretary’s comments demonstrate an astonishing lack of
knowledge about how 7 million people regularly use the roads in this
country,” he said. “I feel embarrassed for him. If he truly thinks the
roads are not for cyclists then what am I paying my taxes for?”
Boardman pointed out that the government had committed to double cycling
levels, but was still spending less than £1 per person per year on making
it possible compared with more than £20 in bike-friendly nations such as
the Netherlands and Denmark.
“If there was ever anyone who needed to actually get on a bike and hear
about the true state of cycling infrastructure, it is Chris Grayling and
I’d be delighted to go on a ride with him,” Boardman said.
There has been a sharp upward trend in cyclng fatalities on the roads in
Britain. Last yerar there were 123 deaths of cyclists on the roads in
Britain which are rcorded here:
Birkdale resident Robert Hamilton was killed in 2014 when a car door was
opened in front of him on Linaker Street, Southport. Motorist Joanne
Jackson later admitted a charge of opening a car door so as to injure or
endanger a person and was banned from driving for six months and fined £305.
Mp's show “an astonishing lack of knowledge” in all aspects of everything. It comes from being mollycoddled all their lives and developing no common sense at all.
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Sproggy the Cat says:14/01/2017 12:03 PM
Of course cyclists are road users, and for that reason they should obey the rules of the road and have insurance. Obeying traffic lights would be a start.
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jonnybgood says:14/01/2017 01:43 PM
Originally Posted by cotton man
Some of us do have insurance.
Only "some" the majority of younger cyclists don't have insurance,they should have a small excess on a drivers vehicle insurance for owning/riding a bike,if they have a young child under 17 years of age who rides a bike,to cover them.Just a thought.
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PENTHOUSEJOE says:14/01/2017 10:57 PM
Why do they keep posting pictures of Robert Hamilton next to this fantastic bike. When in reality he came off his old wreck of a Raleigh shopper bike that had no brakes, bald tyres and not enough air pressure in his tyres. Plus he had been advised not to ride after previous falls. He had no chance of stopping or avoiding any sort of accident due to his age and bike condition. Yet the lady in car was bullied into pleading guilty to basically a made up charge. He was high up in the lib dems in his day and his wife was a solicitor. No mention in court about condition of his bike , wasn't he 72. Just thought I'd mention it.
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