If you haven’t been in an accident or near miss while cycling consider yourself lucky. The majority of my friends and acquaintances who cycle can unhappily reel off tales of clashes with cars, pedestrians, buses and even the dreaded HGV. “He/she wasn’t looking, they said they didn’t see me” is echoed in many conversations and I expect plenty of crime reports. Well what tosh I say, I was run over by a brand new Mercedes. If I had been a bollard or street sign I bet they would have seen that pretty quickly to avoid scars on their paint work. Like my fellow comrades we now carry on cycling albeit with the constant awareness that all motor vehicle drivers have the capacity to be a) drunk or on drugs b) completely blind or c) intent on murdering at least one cyclist in their lifetime. This mainly guarantees safe passage on two wheels back to your front door.

The big debate at the moment is how to prevent these accidents. Mandatory helmets, hi-vis, licensing, insurance, tax, training and annual MoT on bikes have all been voiced in the news and social media by various ignorant people. ELB Partners a huge haulage firm in London responsible for a death of young a London cyclist appear in Commercial Vehicle Magazine this month with the headline “Our Diver killed a cyclist!”) Their managing director Peter Eason is quoted as saying training is top of his list for cyclists. Really? What about training for his drivers?

Unfortunately this debate rages on with highs and lows depending on how many deaths have been reported that month, even when there is positive action and a nice big cycle lane crops up somewhere it is quickly overshadowed by a cyclist’s death while using said lane. Paint them green and blue, make them as wide as you can and they are still not good enough. Has anyone thought to officially segregate them all just like good old pavements? Nah cyclists aren’t worthy of that. If there is no money for cycle lanes why don’t we do something in the UK that is totally free? They tried it in Holland and it worked a treat. Even with segregated cycle lanes it stays in force. If a driver hits a pedestrian or cyclist it is presumed the driver’s fault and the onus is on them to prove the opposite.

If you think this will mean more uncareful cyclists think again. Do we really want to get hit by a car? I don’t think so. Will it mean unfair verdicts and sentencing? Only if you think so many drivers getting away with killing and maiming cyclists at the moment is fair. Will it produce safer drivers? Hell yes. Will it produce the end result of less casualties? Well you only have to look to Holland for the answer.