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By Adrian Betteridge
Kidical Mass was back in Wokingham last Saturday, with more than 50 young and old riders on all manner of bikes enjoying the extraordinary weather for a short ride around some of the town’s roads.
Almost without fail, the drivers and others we meet on these rides are delightful, with any short inconvenience outweighed by the pleasure of seeing so many kids having fun.
It’s got us thinking about why it’s not always like that on the roads?
BBC’s Panorama talked about this issue in its November 2 programme, oddly titled Road Rage – Cars v Bikes.
Of course, left to their own devices, cars and bikes get along fine.
Many of us have both in our garage and they don’t routinely come to blows.
So what causes the “people driving cars” V “people riding bikes” issue? Both are trying to get from A to B.
Both at times delay or inconvenience each other.
Many of the ‘people on bikes’ are also ‘people in cars’ choosing not to drive at that time for any given reason.
Whilst we await the output from Wokingham’s consultation on future cycling and walking infrastructure, we can only speculate on the range of views submitted by those motivated to respond. The online consultation helpfully allowed people to see (anonymously) what others were saying. There was quite a lot of passion, from people who walk, ride or drive, and often do all three.
It won’t surprise anyone who’s watched the BBC programme that the comments included some vehemently anti-’people who cycle’ responses.
Cutting through the emotion, we are all ‘people who travel’, even if we make different choices about how to do so.
We seem to increasingly value the benefits to the environment, congestion, health and cost of living that come from more people walking and cycling short trips.
But the biggest statistical difference between ‘people who cycle’ and ‘people who drive cars’ remains that the former are 46 times as likely to be killed or seriously injured per mile travelled.
No compassionate person can think those statistics are acceptable.
Are we ready to accept change to make this all better?
For more on WATCH Wokingham, search for the group on Facebook
