Cyclists vs drivers? No thank you

I was rather disappointed to read James Wightman’s and George Debono’s responses to my call for safer and less stressful driving in Malta (February 21, 18 and 15 respectively), and especially the uncalled for personalisation of arguments.

In these letters, the bad road manners of cyclists are defended as a knee-jerk response to the bad behaviour of other road users. I especially object to the defence of cyclists riding side by side on a main road while having a chat, cyclists ignoring cycle lanes and hogging arterial roads. I cannot understand the arguments against basic safety equipment, including speedometers, especially since we agree that cyclists should observe speed limits. The arguments against road barriers are completely out of place, as are those for lowering speed limits to surpass European standards.

I hope that such opinions do not reflect those of the majority of cyclists, but some respondents on timesofmalta.com seem to support such arguments. If a substantial number of cyclists indeed share such poor attitudes to road safety, then the argument to regulate their use of our roads is considerably strengthened.