Is it time to start bombarding our MPs?

[jazzkat]

Not literally, although I can think of a few that I would gladly!

I was thinking more in terms of our beloved leader's recent comments about motorists having to deal with 'the pelaton'. If we all wrote to our MPs highlighting the danger faced by close passes and inconsiderate motorists, maybe pointing out the almost weekly reports of a rider death. While the politico's are 'in the zone' so to speak.

Does anyone know what/if anything, came of the lib dems discussion on presumption of liability discussed here
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3838021.ece

 

[buggi]

I missed that? What did he say? Yes i think we should all write in. If the onus was on drivers to prove they were not liable, there would be no need for all the money spent on cycle lanes.

 

[downfader]

There might be published minutes of the Libdem presumed liability discussion, best to email the parties HQ and ask.

With regards emailing/letters to MPs, yes! The problem with change being so slow is indeed down to cyclists not having engaged when they should, also in the past we didnt have the full gamut of data at our personal fingertips to back up the people on the road.

If you want to campaign you have to target 3 or 4 key areas:
- Your own MP
- Your own council
- The Department for Transport Secretary
- The Prime Minister's Office/Leader of the opposition (yes, really)

Raise these points:
- You fully welcome Cameron/Miliband's recent comments with regards cycling, safety and a message to drivers
- But this could go further by raising specifics that can be taught to all road users via the media (minimum passing distances, visibility at night with lights, where a cyclist should be expected and not punished/hated for being in a road position)
- KSI's have increased but proper prosecutions have fallen, as have Police numbers
- The massive savings to the NHS with proper cycling promotion and funding
- The savings to ordinary families in fuel costs, reduced car insurance through lower mileage with cycling

- Failures of the justice system in recent cases. Eg HERE and HERE These are probably because of a) limited knowledge of cycling needs by jurors, magistrates and judges; b) unequal diversity in juries - eg how many of them actively cycle on the road?; and c) guidelines are not clear enough. This leads to increased risks to all as the careless and incompetent are still able to "share" the road with all other road users.

- a proper push towards Dutch and Netherlands style cycling infrastructure would attract many more cyclists and improve local air quality, reduce pollution and CO2 levels as well as lower noise pollution.

 

[Archie_tect]

Here's an exchange with the Peter McManus, the researcher for our local MP Guy Opperman:

Thank you for your email concerning the Cycling debate on 2nd September. As you may know, Guy managed to speak in the debate. A transcript of his speech is here:http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-09-02b.66.0&s=speaker:24962#g103.1Guy blogged about the debate on 31st August:http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/cycling-debate-is-on-monday-in-house-of.htmlTyne Tees also covered the topic here:http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/u...-north-east-mp-joins-the-push-for-more-bikes/I hope you find these links interesting.
Kind regards,Peter

-----Original Message-----

Sent: 21 August 2013 10:05
To: OPPERMAN, Guy
Subject: Please attend the debate on cycling on the 2nd September
Dear Mr Opperman,
As a member of CTC, the national cycling charity, living in your constituency, may I urge you to attend the Commons debate on the parliamentary 'Get Britain Cycling' inquiry report?This is being held on the evening of Monday 2nd September, Parliament's first day back after the summer recess.The 'Get Britain Cycling' inquiry was conducted by the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG), which CTC supports along with other national cycling groups. In response, the Prime Minister has just launched plans for a 'Cycling Revolution', a commitment which CTC has strongly welcomed.Funding is now in place for 8 key cities and 4 national parks to start the process of getting Britain cycling, amounting to £10 per head annually for the populations of those areas.
This is a hugely important step forward towards maximising cycling's enormous health, economic, environmental and other benefits.In addition, a cycling action plan is also promised for December. I therefore urge you to make the case for the actions needed to get the whole of Britain cycling - not just parts of it.Above all though, I hope you will back the APPCG's call for the funding needed to substantially boost cycle use towards the levels common among our European neighbours. Their recommended aim was to increase cycling from 2% of trips at present, to German levels (10% of trips) by 2025 and to Dutch levels (25% of trips) by 2050.This will in turn require serious funding commitments - CTC has long argued that sustained investment of at least £10 per head annually is needed to progress towards continental levels of cycle use. The Government's recent announcement provides this for 7.5 million people in the 8 cities, for two years.
However London is already planning to spend around £12.50 per head annually over the next 10 years, while the Netherlands still spends around £24 per head after 40 years of sustained investment.
I hope you can confirm that you will be able to speak up for cycling on September 2nd.
I look forward to hearing from you.

 

[jazzkat]

I missed that? What did he say? Yes i think we should all write in. If the onus was on drivers to prove they were not liable, there would be no need for all the money spent on cycle lanes.

This is David Cameron's recent cycling commentary:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-24578165

 

[jazzkat]

Thanks for the pointers guys. I'm surprised that cyclists haven't got their act together a but more, maybe it's because cycling is, generally so normal - even kids do it!
I was a member of MAG http://www.mag-uk.org/en/index/a6296 for many years and regularly wrote to my MP. I have no idea how much good it did, but at least it felt like I was making a stand, even just making my MP earn my vote!

 

[jazzkat]

Here's what I've sent him.

Dear Mr Farron,

I am a keen cyclist and hugely enjoy cycling in the amazing countryside we are so lucky to have on our doorstep. What dismays me is that on an almost weekly basis there is reportage on various cycle internet forums about cyclists that have been knocked off their bikes by motorists, many, sadly losing their lives. Even in our relatively sparsely populated area I am regularly subjected to stupidly close passes and general aggressive driving by some motorists, some local, others visitors.

I was very pleased to hear the Prime Minister’s recent comments on motorists having to deal sensibly with cyclists using the roads but I believe there needs to be a much more proactive education of motorists with regard to vulnerable road users. Many vehicle drivers are not aware of what it feels like to be passed within inches of the end of your handle bars at 40+mph or are not aware that to avoid the ‘door zone’ of parked cars or pinch points at traffic islands means that cyclists often have to move to what is known as ‘primary position’ (basically moving to the centre of the lane to allow room to avoid a car door being opened or simply a defensive position to stop cars squeezing into a gap that would force the cyclist into too small a space) and that the cyclists are not being deliberately ‘difficult’ and holding them up on purpose. Many motorists have forgotten the highway codes advice on giving as much room as you would to overtake a car or that it is not only ‘legal’ for cyclists to ride two abreast but that a larger group of cyclists riding two abreast is actually much easier for a motorist to pass than one very long string of cyclists that may be several meters long.

Recent failures of the justice system to properly ‘punish’ errant motorists would be considered farcical if it wasn’t for the waste of life. Gary McCourt recently being given 300 hours of community service for killing a cyclist, despite having killed a cyclist previously or Dr Helen Measures’ appalling response that “I can’t help it if a cyclist falls over as I’m approaching them” after she hit a cyclist at 50mph by overtaking on a bend. These travesties of justice are probably due to lack of clear guidelines and a lack of experience about cycling from the jurors, magistrates and judges. There has been recent talk of the ‘presumption of liability’ that most other European countries have. Now I am sure that the ranting motorist will flail about, upset that some ‘red-light jumping, lycra-lout, that doesn’t pay road tax’ will be somehow become king of the road. If the system works properly as I understand it, then the motorist should find that they are no longer bullied by white van man or at the mercy of lorry drivers who just pull out because they are bigger! I suppose it depend on how you sell it.

With all the benefits that cycling bestows on its communities – lower costs to the NHS, better air quality, less noise, lower fuel costs, improved quality of life in old age, I can’t see how we can continue in the ridiculous impasse that we find ourselves in where people’s lives are being lost because someone can’t be bothered to wait for one minute. A quick Google shows that according to the “Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: 2011 Annual Report” an RTA with a fatality costs on average £1,877,583, while even a serious accident costs £216,203. The saving of just one life would go a long way towards paying for most of the advertising and re-education of necessary parties (motoring and legal) to try to turn around the situation we find ourselves in. How can we afford to do nothing? I would hope that there is an appetite to drive forward the changes necessary to bring us in line with our continental neighbours. One only has to look to the change the Netherlands went through to see that it can be done if there is a political will.

I am a motorist myself. Due to the nature of my work I drive around 20,000 miles a year. I also enjoy motorcycling so I am well aware of the realities of all forms of road use.

I look forward to hearing your response.

Kind regards

I'll let you know what he says. Feel free to borrow/copy/plagarise/adapt anything from my letter to get you going if it helps,
but do write to them - they work for us!!

 

[dellzeqq]

Dear Chuka

Nice suit. Pity about the politics.

As the proprietor of the biggest cycling club in London it falls to me to tell you that cycle lanes are a complete waste of space and money.

Yours

Simon
fnrttc.blogspot.com

 

[downfader]

Dear Chuka

Nice suit. Pity about the politics.

As the proprietor of the biggest cycling club in London it falls to me to tell you that cycle lanes are a complete waste of space and money.

Yours

Simon
fnrttc.blogspot.com

Hmm define "cycle lane"..? The ones in Germany seem to have increased the National modal share up to 20%. The Dutch ones seem pretty successful too...

 

[classic33]

I am aware that the Lib-Dems were looking, as a party, at getting the rules changed. This whilst Labour were in power. That "desire" for change seems to have evaporated over the last few years.
Might part of the reason lie with the fact that they have, since being formed, got the chance to feel what power feels like?
I know its no use bombarding either of the two local MPs, as they'd like nothing better than to see cyclists removed from the roads & placed anywhere else, so that they as road users don't have to bother about us as cyclists. One has openly voiced her opinion on where cyclists should be, over the years. But never to direct questions in the run up to elections, she chooses not to hear the question being asked, rather than stand accussed of not answering it.

 

[jazzkat]

I am aware that the Lib-Dems were looking, as a party, at getting the rules changed. This whilst Labour were in power. That "desire" for change seems to have evaporated over the last few years.
Might part of the reason lie with the fact that they have, since being formed, got the chance to feel what power feels like?
I know its no use bombarding either of the two local MPs, as they'd like nothing better than to see cyclists removed from the roads & placed anywhere else, so that they as road users don't have to bother about us as cyclists. One has openly voiced her opinion on where cyclists should be, over the years. But never to direct questions in the run up to elections, she chooses not to hear the question being asked, rather than stand accused of not answering it.

This is part of my thinking really. Cycling while maybe not as mainstream as driving has thousands of people taking part in it. If we were all more active in making our public servants aware of how we felt we might be able to start to change attitudes. By doing nothing we are silently complicit, surely?
It's too easy to just think, oh it's ok someone else will write, the ctc (or someone else) will be my voice. I really believe that if we all took our politicians to task more often we might actually see some change. I am generally surprised that there is not a more proactive political attitude within cycling.
Maybe I'm just being naive.

 

[classic33]

The problem being that in the run up to any election, those elected to act on our behalf & represent our interests have very little interest in actually doing anything other than making it seem as though their listening to us.
Come the day after the election, how many of those that were in your face only the day before, will still be there wanting to know what you think? Experience has shown very few, even those elected to represent us.
The last time I asked either of the two local MP's their views on cycling, both in their own way said that we(cyclists) should not be allowed on the road. We're not insured, we pay no "Road Tax". And we cause too many problems to those who legally use the road system.
Pointed the same out to John Prescott, when he was Deputy Prime Minister, and the answer was ignored by him. He was on his tour of the region to find out what the problems were at the grass roots level & what those on the street had to put up with. H

 

[snorri]

I am generally surprised that there is not a more proactive political attitude within cycling.
Maybe I'm just being naive.

I think perhaps you are being a little naive. There are so many disciplines within "cycling", how could we (cyclists) possibly find agreement regarding what to ask our politicians for?

 

[Spinney]

I think perhaps you are being a little naive. There are so many disciplines within "cycling", how could we (cyclists) possibly find agreement regarding what to ask our politicians for?

Even if we cannot agree on things like cycle lanes - how about the presumed liability? That, surely, would help everyone?

 

[snorri]

Even if we cannot agree on things like cycle lanes - how about the presumed liability? That, surely, would help everyone?

It's being debated at Holyrood tomorrow following the submission of a public petition with the requisite number of signatures.