Cyclists “horrified” by Iain Duncan Smith’s Telegraph column suggesting “dangerous cyclists should be driven off our roads”, as Conservative MP accused of ignoring main road safety issues in latest call for stricter legislation
https://road.cc/content/news/cyclists-horrified-duncan-smith-telegraph-column-310767
Posted by JRugman
20 Comments
A Labour government.
IDS making inflammatory comments for media attention?
What is this, 2002?
It’s a common turn of phrase, not a direct instruction.
It really comes across more “old man yells at cloud” that something “horrifying”.
He is being a tw@ but then again water is still wet.
So the people outraged by this aren’t the errant cyclists who ignore road regulations, they’re the safe and sensible cyclists are they?
Iain Duncan Smith being an obnoxious cunt as usual.
In other news, the Pope is a Catholic.
I don’t know why people are projecting so much onto something which is such a relatively minor inconvenience on the roads. Spend a journey actually logging it – numbers of delays due to cars. Cars parked badly. Dangerous things done by cars. Then compare to bicycles. You are more likely to be a danger to *them*. Bikes in a city are far more likely to be delayed by cars than the other way round. I know he may not literally mean “driven off the roads” but it is dangerous language, as some people do seem to get worked up in a rage about them.
As a pedestrian who walks everywhere, while I recognise cars are the bigger problem, I 100% recognise that there are an extreme minority of cyclists who regularly engage in dangerous and disruptive behaviour on the roads.
To clarify I am not talking about minor things to make themselves safer, I am talking running red lights, endangering pedestrians and ignoring the highway code. An awful lot of them are working for food delivery companies.
I would like them to be policed in the same way we police bad applies who drive.
I follow the rules and I’ve nearly been driven off the road a few times. Sure is fun having drivers try and punish you for the crime of going to work
Probably a poor word choice ‘driven off our roads’ seeing as many motorists already try to do this a little too literally.
He should have lost his seat. Shame on Kier Starmer for this one.
Pretty sure he didn’t write the headline, that’s a subeditor’s job.
By that logic of “danger” we should have banned cars a long time ago.
All for cyclists being had up for traffic offenses.
2024, about 60 years since the UK proclaimed personal cars to be the primary mode of transportation. Town and city centres died because of ‘convenient retail estates with parking’, the population went up about 8 sizes in average waist, toxic air all around us at all times due to exhaust gases and endless sums of money spent on maintaining asphalt rather than investing in appropriate public transport, safe and accessible pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure.
And this is the year that someone, who has been a part of the hegemony of car industry for a significant part of those sixty years, says we should just drive over cyclists if they are annoying.
And then people wonder why we don’t listen to politicians any more…
50/50 where I live. What does my fucking head in though there is a bit where I drive round. Cycle lane on each side of the road. Can cycle just about from town to town without needing the road and they never use them. A lot of them cut through red lights and ignore pedestrian crossings. Though wouldn’t imagine its like London.
IDS? I remember when that cunt was in charge of fucking over the Unemployed. He can go suck a fat one. I hope that prick rots in Hell with Thatcher constantly pissing in his mouth.
The problem is the same on both sides. I’d guess around 50% of cyclists and drivers are idiots who cause problems. However, with cars, they’re regulated so there isn’t as much an issue. If you’re convicted of dangerous driving, you’ll likely lose your license. Cyclists don’t have that regulation
There’s a type of cyclist that is “horrified” by anything that suggests they take responsibility for their own actions. Yes, car drivers can be dicks and when they are, the consequences are more serious but that doesn’t give you permission to do whatever the hell you like.
In a way, if you ride your bike dangerously. You probably will be driven off 1 day.
No Tory leader so the loonies are free to be their true selves for a little while longer