Comments on: MOTORISTS’ FRONT OF JUDEA: What Have The Cyclists Ever Done for Us?

By: Daniel Groves

Daniel Groves — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

Love that starting debate. Shows just how much we can argue for when motorists question us.

By: Duane

Duane — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:51:00 +0000

I ride to work, and home again. While at work I drive. Motorist or cyclist?

By: carltonreid

carltonreid — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:43:00 +0000

You’re a cycmotorist, like most cyclists.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:10:00 +0000

I’ve been riding bikes for 25 years. At some points I was riding 6 times a week, Now it’s more like 2 or 3 times.
I also own and drive a car. I drive to work 5 times a week. I’m lucky enough to live a 5 minute drive away so I clock up hardly any kilometres in a week in the car.
If I take the road bike out on the weekend and clock up 50 or 60 kilometres I’ve already exceeded my weekly motoring distance substantially. If I add two or three 20km mountain bike rides my motoring kilometres become a drop in the ocean.
But, I’m driving 10 times or more a week and only riding a bike 2 – 4 times.
Sorry to go on, but I really want to know, am I a cyclist or a motorist, because I clearly can’t be considered both

By: Peter Gazey

Peter Gazey — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:35:00 +0000

This has become a very specious debate, as is the original claim about cyclists and red lights. To pick a study from Melbourne is hugely selective. Anyone who cycles in London can’t fail to notice that the vast majority of cyclists now ignore red lights.
I had a T shirt printed saying “The Only Cyclist Who Stops at Red”. It got little use, as I tired of being laughed at by other cyclists and – T-shirt regardless – felt after 30 years cycling in the smoke I was now as much a target for other motorists sick of cyclists behaviour, regardless of how I rode.
Am I a ‘cyclist’? Does it matter? No one navel gazes about whether they are a pedestrian, or uses trains and buses. I do all of those things, as well as drive, cycle training on quiet roads, ride my motorcycle, and go mountain biking. It helps not to be put in boxes.

By: James Avery

James Avery — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 22:17:00 +0000

Ian,

I think your attitude really belongs in “argument clinic”. By your definition, I’m not a cyclist either, as even though I make far more trips by bike, these don’t add up in mileage terms to my one train trip to London or so each month, so am I a “trainist”?

I used to drive a car. It meant I did some journeys that I now do by bike, but my attitudes towards cycling infrastructure in this “original” city of the bike (as Carlton mentions above) have not changed since my days as an architecture student.

My view is that we should build liveable cities that make healthy modes of transport the easiest, then we should cater for those that move large amounts of people in small amounts of space (buses, light & heavy rail where justified), and then cater for the car, but never to ban it, which your “them and us” type attitude implies we ultimately should.

The fact I drove a car (and yes, horror of horrors once got a speeding ticket), at no stage altered my overall viewpoint.

The only difference now is that I campaign a lot louder for the same things I have been wanting to see for almost 20 years now.

Yours naughtily,

James

By: Silver Fang

Silver Fang — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:31:00 +0000

I miss bicycling.

By: carltonreid

carltonreid — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

Thanks for the info. Important to get this right. I have amended the article.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:53:00 +0000

And Dan
Albone didn’t invent the world’s first tractor. He invented the first successful lightweight tractor. Both adjectives matter. Heavy steam-powered tractors were already in use in the US, and had been for half a century.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:43:00 +0000

Albert Champion founded a spark plug factory, but didn’t invent spark plugs.They had been invented half a century before. His company did make some improvements to the spark plug manufacturing process, but so did many others.