Guardian Unlimited Observer | UK News | Driver fury over Euro cycle laws
This has actually been in the pipeline for sometime… but of course, being the UK, the media and policiticans have sleepwalked into this.
Personally, I think it would be good if you went nearly the way this legislation goes and place the burden of proof on the driver of the largest vehicle in any accident to show they were driving responsibly.
Look at it this way, a car jumps a red light, and hits a bike, the cyclist gets injured, and the car gets damaged. A cyclist jumps a red light, and hits a car, the cyclist gets injured and the car gets damaged….
The European Commission document says: ‘Motor vehicles cause most accidents. Whoever is responsible, pedestrians and cyclists usually suffer more. In some member states the cyclist is covered by the insurance of the vehicle involved in the accident irrespective of whether the driver is at fault.’
The really impressive thing at the end of the day is that by the very nature of the feriocious storm the majority of car drivers are bringing up they are showing precisely how much they despise a group of people on the roads merely for riding bikes.
Of course, the only real reason the car drivers are scared is because it would cost them an extra 50 quid a year. And this talk of cyclists as mass law breakers is more than a little bit rich when most drivers on the road regularly break speed limits that cyclists have to work damn hard to reach anywhere near.
This idea sounds interesing…