Shapps launches anti-cycling crusade

 

Derision greeted Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ proposal calling for cyclists to have mandatory insurance, registration and for all cycles to carry number plates.

Then three days later he retracted some of what he said, insisting that the government has

 “No plans to introduce registration plates” for cyclists.

Which probably means they are thinking about it but have yet to move to the planning stage.  

Anyway, the point is if he didn’t say it, why all the fuss and reaction from across the nation.

Is he pitching for a new job as rabble rouser in the new prime minister’s government? Or is he trying to get sacked?  Impossible to say? Probably just keeping himself in the public eye, sowing confusion, this government’s speciality, which conman Boris Johnson turned into an art form, making misleading statements and getting away with it.

Transport groups and opposition parties, even his own Department  for Transport, reacted with disbelief when Shapps revealed  his thoughts to the Daily Mail, a right wing organ which likes to think it influences government policy and  whose readership dances to the whatever tune they decide to play. On this occasion, it was the well-known ballad “Bash the cyclist”.

These ideas have been rejected in the past as unworkable and unnecessary. They would create a mountain of bureaucracy which in turn would deter people from cycling and undermine the government’s Active Travel Policy.

Perhaps that’s the idea? 

 If so, the Daily Mail was the ideal place to plant the rot.

What else did Shapps say? Oh yes, he wants to extend speed limits to cyclists!

A speedy cyclist.

Well, quite right, no one should exceed the 60mph limit on trunk roads?

To quote the Greens’ Transport spokesman Matt Edwards commenting on these proposals in The Guardian: “an expensive folly impossible to administer. Most road traffic accidents in the UK, especially those with fatalities, are caused by reckless car drivers, not cyclists.”

He added that Shapps is pushing an anti-cycling narrative, making things far more dangerous for cyclists.

Duncan Dollimore, head of Campaigns at Cycling UK, said the plans were impractical and unworkable, and have been dismissed by successive governments.

He added that this was a complete U-turn on current government policy.

The DfT says there is no plan in place for what Shapps proposes.

In any case it would be a matter for whoever was transport secretary under the new prime minister.

So what is Shapps’ game?

We cannot know. One moment he’s cycling’s friend, the next, he’s the foe.

This is the man who can find £27bn for roads but nowhere near enough funding for making the roads safer for cycling.

Shapps continues to blow hot and cold on cycling, leading cycling lobbyists a merry dance.

This so-called “Active Travel Policy” has been costed at between £6bn and £8bn.

Shapps has offered £2bn.

*INSURANCE.

Many cyclists are insured, as I am.

I have had Cycling UK insurance for 33 years. It provides me with £10m liability cover.