Frans Said (A Few Interesting Facts About Cycling, September 12) is to be congratulated for his exquisite sense of timing. With the latest issue of Malta’s National Environment Policy still hot off the press, we have Mr Said writing a grossly discouraging letter which can only serve to deter would-be bicycle users from taking up this friendly form of transport. At the same time, our new National Environment Policy declared one of its objectives as “promoting safe, healthy mobility such as walking and cycling” on the basis that “the outdoor environment… provides important opportunities to be active, especially when walking and cycling are presented as reasonable and safe mobility options…”
To make matters worse, Mr Said has quoted statistics from a country which, until recently, was the most gruesomely bicycle-unfriendly country in Europe. The question raised by Mr Said is this: do the statistics he has quoted in any way correspond to his personal experience (if any) of cycling in this country? Indeed, does he have any experience whatever of cycling in other countries? If Mr Said has experienced travelling by bicycle in a number of countries then he does not deserve to be forgiven for conveying such a distorted old fashioned image in his letter.
Exceptionally, I will answer Mr Said personally – based on my wide experience as both a motorist and cyclist in a number of countries. In particular, I have commuted daily to work over periods of many years in Switzerland, Denmark and the UK. The commuting distances to work varied between about 10 and 18 kilometres so that, over time, I have accumulated tens of thousands of bicycle kilometres.
Ominously, Mr Said tells us “If you’re a seasoned cyclist, you’ve probably had at least one heated exchange with an irate motorist or pedestrian while on your bike”. Correct, Mr Said – but not quite. Over about 16 years of regular cycling in Switzerland and Denmark I did not have one single such “heated exchange! By contrast, in the UK (1980s) I had several such “heated exchanges” – usually after a near-accident. Sadly, such experiences are also routine in Malta and I have been almost killed on the road twice in the short time that I’ve been back in Malta. Again, by contrast, I never had a single negative experience on the road in Switzerland or Denmark. So much for Mr Said’s UK statistics.
The simple fact is this: compared to progressive European mainland countries, cycling is still in its infancy in the UK so that motorists still have little idea how to behave towards cyclists and cyclists also have little idea how to behave towards pedestrians. The good news is that the UK is now getting its act together; there has been a rise of 92 per cent in bike use in London since 2000. Bicycle use is rapidly increasing in every Western city – but Malta is, sadly, is still way behind.
Mr Said is only increasing our traffic-congested urban growing pains by being so wildly inaccurate and negative about this friendly healthy means of transport for short trips; presumably Mr Said continues to advocate the supremacy of the car.
Equally discouraging is Mr Said’s talk about “regulating cycling” and his insistence on cyclists wearing “protective” paraphernalia such as reflecting jackets and so on. This is a typical backward attitude for at least three reasons. Firstly, such demands shift the responsibility for safety on to the cyclist when it is the responsibility of every motorist to keep a look-out for all other road users. Secondly, placing such constraints would be self-defeating because it would only serve to discourage healthy mobility such as the bicycle. Thirdly, progressive bicycle-friendly countries do not enforce any such anachronistic rules, people just get on a bike and go about their business with no fuss. In most Western town centres, pedestrians and bicycles (and sometimes motorists too) mingle happily and harmoniously together with the utmost mutual respect. It is all very civilised – would Malta were so.