A turn in the right direction?
The Times reports today that cyclists are to be allowed to go the wrong way down one-way streets (Green light to ignore one-way signs). Did this really come to pass as a result of the hopeless Dave Cameron being caught pedalling the wrong way along a one-way street? And will such a move really encourage drivers to give way to oncoming cyclists?
This report comes hot on the heels of another that says cycle lanes encourage motorists to travel closer to bikes than on unmarked roads.
In London cycle lanes are a joke – taxi drivers use them to park up and have their lunch, lorry drivers stop in them to unload, joggers use them to avoid crowded pavements, and utilities dig them up and fail to resurface them properly. Until the police and traffic authorities enforce cycle lanes strictly, treating them like red routes, they are just a waste of time and money and proof that no one takes cycling seriously.
The Times, that truly balanced newspaper, offers “for” and “against” columns debating the merits of the one-way move. The against column, predictably, says that, for cyclists, the Highway Code “has always just been something to pick and choose from, a bit like the Argos catalogue”.
Well, in one state in the US – I think Idaho – cyclists are treated differently from drivers and can regard stop streets as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. It makes sense, if you think about it: the cyclists are safer as a result, but motorists retain their sense of grievance, not that cyclists are breaking the law, but because the law is finally on their side.