Use bikes on side roads

Published: 13 October, 2011

• IN an ideal world, lorries would be consigned to the night in our cities.

London is so large, complex and sprawling that this could never be a reality.

But, there is a case for refuse lorries – the dreaded green machines that menace the crowds on Oxford Street’s pavements – to operate at night.

How many cumulative working hours are lost by busloads of workers held up by crawling refuse trucks of a morning?

And, as for cyclists, the same applies.

So, please note!

I appreciate that with rocketing public transport fares, cycling might seem to be the only option now; but if London mayor Boris Johnson had channelled the total cost of his bike scheme to our buses, tube services and trains, it could have helped.

We also do not need all those taxis carrying those overweight and over-important executives from A to B.

Bicycles are fine on quiet side roads, but they have no place on London’s hectic main arteries.

HGV drivers already have enough to focus on with the relentless onslaught of juggernauts, cars and motorcycles – at least travelling at a similar speed.

The reality is that cycling on busy city roads in the 21st century is suicidal.

Wake up to the modern world.

MARGARET MILNER
Address supplied