Intolerance to cyclists

Frans Said's letter is very misleading. The real give-away in his letter is his confession that he "used to cycle up to a certain age". This immediately disqualifies him from pontificating on the question of cycling, as road conditions today are worlds away from those of yesterday.

I am very much "of a certain age" but, unlike Mr Said, I have regularly used a bicycle for about 65 years and I still use my bicycle very much in the same way as the likes of Mr Said use a car. For decades, I have regularly covered thousands of kilometres every year both in Malta and abroad. I also drive a car (usually if it is rainy or if I have a passenger). So I can look at both sides of the coin.

Mr Said's second give-away is the outrageous statement that "our roads are too narrow and the mixing of the two modes of transport is prone to danger from both parties".

This is absolute nonsense. Narrow roads exert what is often referred to as "natural traffic calming"; put simply this means that cars tend to travel more slowly along narrow roads. Contrary to what Mr Said says, narrow roads therefore tend to be safer for all - pedestrians, children and cyclists.

I am pleased to confirm to Mr Said that one of the greatest pleasures of cycling is traversing villages and their cores through narrow, often winding, roads where traffic is quiet. Even cycling in the back streets of my native Sliema is far more pleasant than on main roads as Rue D'Argens or the suicidal (and wide!) Gżira sea front.

A cyclist has just been killed on a wide road and it is the experience of most cyclists that the most dangerous near misses occur on major roads, not in narrow streets and roads.

Then there is the question of "cycle lanes", which as Mr Said says, "costs money". Cycle lanes are not the answer to promoting cycling. It has been endlessly repeated that it is impossible to build a network of cycle lanes all over Malta (or any other country), therefore it is inevitable that cyclists have to share the same road. What is needed is a change of attitude of motorists to cyclists who share the road with them. This is taken for granted in most civilised countries and there is no reason why it should not be possible in Malta.

The nub of the problem lies in the intolerance of motorists to cyclists - as so amply demonstrated by Mr Said's letter. The simple sad fact is this: car users have two problems with accepting bicycles on the road. First, they want the road entirely to themselves and, secondly, they are absolutely set against having to take on the extra responsibility of driving more carefully in the presence of cyclists.