Craig Wightman, Purley, Surrey, UK
More cyclists = more parking spaces
I have had a similar incident to Alison Zammit Endrich (Injured Cyclist Planning To Sue Over Bad Roads, July 21), although my tussle with a slotted grating at University only cost me €55 for a new rim. I was somewhat shaken but wide in-line gratings "scare the willies out of me", to paraphrase Douglas Adams, and believe me they are all over the place. While many of the comments left online have been conciliatory to Ms Zammit-Endrich's accident, some have stated that she should not have been in a bus lane or have used the incident as a now quite usual launching point for a bit of bike-bashing.
Let's get two things straight. One, bicycles can use bus lanes or more correctly "priority vehicle lanes" as can taxis, motorcycles, minibuses, horse-drawn cabs, etc. After all, if they couldn't, clearly cyclists would have to ride between a line of buses and private cars. Surely a far riskier prospect.
Point two: Anti-cyclist readers tend to assume that all cyclists are hobby riders, whereas they actually range from committed athletes to those who commute by bicycle.
There is a Californian movement sporting "one less car" tee shirts, but that's only half of the equation. Most people guess it's all about pollution and that's as far as they get but there is a far simpler explanation that actually (albeit strangely) benefits the bike bashers.
So without the benefit of pictures allow me to spell out the other half of the equation. One less car (i.e. the cyclist's car) equals one more parking space and less time for other car drivers to spend in traffic.
So please be a bit more sympathetic - Ms Zammit-Endrich was actually trying to help out in a very practical way.
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George Debono
Jul 24th 2010, 19:13
Alison Zammit Endrich
Alison -
Yes, bus lanes are for taxis and bicycles. The Malta traffic Code (mostly copied word for word from the UK code! ) enigmatically says: (61)--- (Bus lanes) may be used by cyclists only if the signs include a cycle symbol.
(see http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/archive/HighwaycodeEng/part3E.asp).
I happened to cycle to valetta on thursday & checked it out- The bus lane just after Porte des Bombes shows the words "Bus" and "Cycle" in large letters (as usual, the paint is faded & barely visible).
Of course it' would be madness to use bus lanes in Malta - our buses are lethal. When I go to Valletta I use the pavement all the way from Msida to just beyond Floriana. There's no other safe way.
Where you hurt is not quite a bus lane (but it is a useful refuge from traffic for bicycles for a 50 - 70 M stretch) and you were perfectly in your rights to use it. The shabby grating is anyway dangerous even to pedestrians. As I said, the first time I dodged into it to get out of the way of traffic - the grating nearly got me.
GET WELL SOON !
G
Alison Zammit Endrich
Jul 24th 2010, 14:34
Thank you, Craig. I was very happy to read that bicycles can use bus lane to avoid any sort of accident. I have been told the opposite! Can you give me any more information regarding this law.
Anne Farrugia
Jul 24th 2010, 11:48
Mr Wightman, 100% I agree with you, however I try hard to envisage how a cyclist lane can be 'created' on a main road, eg St Joseph Hamrun or any other of the streets in villages, eg B'kara, Balzan, Lija, Attard, Mellieha, Naxxar, Mosta, Rabat, Dingli, Msida, Gzira...the list goes on and on. If the cyclist get together (& here I stand to be correct for I don't know if they did or not) and put forward their ideas on paper for such streets. Cycling does a lot of good in more ways than 1 and that is why I support it...yes I agree some people, with nothing between their ears, don't like the idea and cycling between buses (yes buses) & other vehicles not only can be, but IS dangerous for the cyclist and also the vehicles drivers. I wish all the cyclists the very best of luck! & God's blessings on those roads!