I refer to the twin letters by Jim Wightman and George Debono in The Sunday Times of Malta of February 8, which are a direct response to my letter in the previous issue of the newspaper.

It is indeed a pleasure to read Wightman’s reflective piece, although one does not necessarily agree with the arguments. I have disputed these at length in the past, and shall not repeat myself. However, may I say that although we agree on the subtle difference between encouraging safe cycling and mandating it, I would like Wightman to seriously consider promoting safer cycling in his otherwise commendable interventions.

The benefits of different forms of exercise are far from not being controversial, more so in the variation of estimates of strength of effect. As such, one cannot agree with the promotion of unsafe practices through the presumption of associated health benefits.

Debono has a confrontational style, which I find far more difficult to reasonably address. I shall not participate in a to and fro of facts and evidence, but suffice it to state that he has quoted a rate of 640 cyclist road deaths in The Netherlands in 2010 which is almost 400 per cent above published figures referred to in my letter. Scratching my head, I looked up other data available over the internet to cross-check against his estimate, and can only confirm the unfortunate figure of 165 cyclist fatalities in 2010 which I refer to in my letter.

For example, in 2009, 185 cyclists were killed in traffic in The Netherlands and 8,000 were seriously injured. Debono continues to base his calculations and assumptions on evidently incorrect data. If he is so obviously incorrect in reproducing publicly available evidence, data and statistics, how can one possibly accept his arguments?

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.