The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe got it badly wrong in his recent comments about cyclists. The hapless copper said that he would not cycle because it was too dangerous. The obvious response to that is - why aren’t you doing enough to try to make it safer? What strategies do you have in place to reduce this terrible toll on the roads? Surely, he should have said something to the effect that we are working night and day to try to make motorists and particularly HGV drivers more cycle aware.
Instead, there was more nonsense. He compounded his error and showed he has absolutely no understanding of London’s demographic when he added: ‘But of course some people don’t have the choice, economically…If you’ve got someone who can’t afford to take a car into the congestion zone…Some people, they’ve got limited money and they can’t pay for public transport. I understand why they take the choice.’
Apart from the silly dig at the now widely-accepted congestion charge, he shows little understanding of the fact that many people on high salaries cycle not because they can’t afford the bus fare - is he suggesting the unfairly-sacked minister Andrew Mitchell is in that category - but out of choice because it is convenient, good for the environment and excellent for one’s health? Is he really that ignorant of the hundreds of thousands of Londoners who hop on their bikes every day. Clearly our top cop should get out and about a bit more, preferably taking Norman Tebbit’s advice and getting on his bike.
November 24, 2013 3 Comments
I too thought BH-H’s comments about cycling being only for poor people was incredible. This man needs to get out from behind his desk - has he not seen how much it costs to buy some of these bikes? Only people on high salaries could afford some models. And the Boris Bike scheme isn’t exactly cheap either.
But Christian most London cyclists are driven to ride their bikes by poverty - time poverty, when the tube and bus take so long to get you around the city, and particularly when your time is so valuable that you cannot afford to waste it sitting behind the wheel of a car. I’m sure residents of LBKC, where perhaps the world’s most expensive residential properties are can also help him by explaining why only 44% of households in the borough own cars.
With some streets in the Square Mile having cycles as over 50% of vehicles moving along them, and their riders often paid well above his salary, Sir Bernard’s detective and intelligence gathering skills seem a bit rusty.
As you have a substantial background in railway issues you will be aware of the impartial reporting of facts, with analysis of causal factors, and delivery of recommendations for learning so very well delivered by the reports from RAIB. What we do not have at present is an equivalent system for road crashes. Might I start a campaign to secure a minimum of funding to get RAIB (or investigators working to their remit and standards) for every fatal crash involving a cyclist or pedestrian in London this year, as a pilot to show why we need published reports on such events, if progress is to be made in eliminating such inherently dangerous offerings as the CS2 route on Bow Roundabout, where 100% of the motor traffic drives through the blue strip used by 100% of the cycle traffic that still uses the roundabout relying solely on the human factor of compliance with traffic signals and signage to control the risk of cycle and truck being on the same blue painted patch of road at the same time. Fortunately at least 60% of the cyclists here ignore CS2 and cycle over the flyover where there is no hazard (ie 0% against 100%) from motor traffic driving through the route taken by cyclists. Had CS2 been sent over the flyover we might have saved 3 lives.
Sadly all we have at present is the reports from the Police Investigations which are not generally made available in the public domain, and often have, as a focus, the establishing of fault for a traffic offence by one or more of the parties involved. This is hardly the best way to move forward on road safety, but it might be a start. Let’s have clear access to the Police investigations of recent crashes, to help all parties to understand the causes, and identify the possible remedies to prevent any similar incidents in the future.
I saw a few of the Police checks on Tuesday & Wednesday last week as I rode around London although I suspect they thought better than to stop me, dressed with a Barbour jacket as a concession to the slightly cooler temperatures, in addition to jacket, tie and trousers that I wear normally day-to day. A pity none of them was watching when a taxi driver very deliberately drove into me on Viaduct Street around 10.40 am.
I suspect it also ties in with the traditional police view that motorcar traffic is the norm. Most police spend their time driving around in motorcars, and this colours their world view. It’s been like this for decades. But it’s especially inappropriate in central and inner London, where the vast majority of people are NOT using a private car to get around even if they possess one.