Concerned with cyclists’ safety

Published on 19/07/2012 10:10

WELL, what a response to my letter on cyclists not using cycle tracks (News Post Leader, July 5).

I have no problem in cyclists using roads, even in side by side configuration, my argument is about not using the tracks available and cyclists being considerate about motorists and not being selfish.

The ‘real and only reason ... because they can’ (News Post Leader, letters, July 12), this type of comment only fuels the rage some motorists have – not me by the way.

I am purely concerned with their safety having seen some cyclists killed in front of me. I mean to point out that perfectly good safe tracks are available for the purpose.

If these tracks are not up to standard then the council need to be informed and the problems rectified, they won’t fix themselves, and if anyone is aware of problems they should report them, the council is only as good as the community response and reaction.

The stuff lying on tracks is also on the roads, and in fact drain gulleys and covers are sometimes deep and often missing, not to mention the pot holes. I would rather ride through horse muck than dodge the obstacles on a road.

The ‘cyclists have the right to use the roads’ (News Post Leader, letters, July 12) points to crossing the road at right angles on a 50mph national speed limit road which is of course right, but it fails to mention if you are riding on a road with a speed limit of 50mph, cars are rapidly approaching along the same road behind at 50mph. This would not be the case on a track.

Another reason some want to use a road is because they are under the impression they are in the Tour de France and do not want the inconvenience of having to stop and seem blinkered to the dangers around them.

I am a careful and considerate driver to all road users having been driving for 30 years without one accident.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Community

Looking for...

Featured advertisers

Jobs

Search for a job

Motors

Search for a car

Make Model Price from Price to

Property

Search for a house

Buy Rent

Bedrooms Price from Price from Price to Price to

What is a Cookie?
What is a Flash Cookie?
Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?
About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.
This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.
Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.
The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:
- Revenue Science ►
  
  A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.
- Google Ads ►
  
  Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.
- Webtrends / Google Analytics ►
  
  This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.
- Dart for Publishers ►
  
  This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.
- ComScore ►
  
  ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.
- Local Targeting ►
  
  Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.
- Grapeshot ►
  
  We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.
- Subscriptions Online ►
  
  Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.
- Add This ►
  
  Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.
- 3rd Party Cookies ►
  
  We use Advertising agencies to provide us with some of the advertising on our websites. These include (but are not limited to) Specific Media, The Rubicon Project, AdJug, AdConion, Context Web. Please click on the provider name to visit their opt-out page.

Concerned with cyclists’ safety

Top stories

Community