LETTER: Why are cyclists a special case?

Thank you for enlightening us all about the significance of the green junctions which have sprung up round the town centre.
Your lettersYour letters
Your letters

So the county council suggest that they will enable cyclists to get to the front of traffic at these junctions by bypassing the queueing traffic and as a result the new zones ‘will improve the efficiency of moving traffic through the town and will reduce congestion and pollution’.

What tosh! If cyclists position themselves in front of the queuing traffic anyone with half a brain would realise that the traffic will be slower to move off when the lights turn green because of the cyclists being in the way and being slower to move off than motorised traffic.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This will result in fewer cars and other vehicles being able to cross the junction before the lights turn against them and thus longer queues will build up leading to more congestion and pollution, not to mention varying degrees of irritation.

Why do we treat cyclists as special cases? All road users have a duty to behave safely and responsibly for the benefit of themselves and others.

Regrettably, some cyclists seem to think they are a law unto themselves, riding on pavements in pedestrian areas and to avoid waiting at traffic lights, riding two abreast on narrow country roads and thinking that wearing a helmet gives them some sort of invincibility; only last week a cyclist rode out straight in front of me when turning from Parsonage Road into North Heath Lane where I had right of way causing me to brake sharply. Doubtless if I had hit him it would somehow have been my fault.

All that is required to keep cyclists safe is for them and other road users to combine common sense with road sense, not garishly painted road markings.

PETER HILLMAN

Primrose Copse, Horsham