http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1871017,00.html

*Leave the bikes alone*

As if cyclists didn't have a bad enough deal already, now they face 
fines for failing to sound the bell

*Zoe Williams
Wednesday September 13, 2006
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

Considering their incidence in the population, cyclists crop up an awful 
lot in traffic proposals. Ken Livingstone is considering mandatory 
numberplates for bikes in London. There were noises not so long ago 
about obliging cyclists to use cycle paths. The most recent and most 
absurd proposal is for cyclists to sound a little bell, continually, to 
warn pedestrians of their approach. Cyclists found not using a bell 
under this scheme would be liable for a fine between £30 and £2,500, or 
- for persistent, unrepentant non-bell-ringers - two years in prison.

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Demanding a licence plate for bikes might be a good idea when the 
capital swarms with them, when the streets are alive with the silent 
bustling of this lovely form of transport; but until such time a mayor 
with any sense of civic and indeed global responsibility would be trying 
to make it easier for people to cycle, not harder. As for cycle paths: 
of course the tacit objective of almost all transport documents is to 
make life easier for the private car, but rarely is that stated so 
openly. Cycle paths are often badly maintained; even well-maintained 
ones are the site of all manholes and drains, which make them not always 
the most appropriate place for a cyclist. They're often full of glass, 
they cross bus lanes, they stop abruptly - they are outrageously 
rubbish. If any council in the country has anything to say to cyclists 
about cycle paths, it should be: "We are terribly, terribly sorry."

The bell-ringing proposal is to warn pedestrians of one's approach. 
This, bear in mind, is as a road-user - every time you see a pedestrian, 
who may or may not wish to cross the road, you must ring your little 
bell. Never mind, why can't the pedestrian look both ways? That courtesy 
extends only to cars. Cars are legitimate road-users. Cyclists are a 
public nuisance.

When you look at the proposed prison sentence, you would assume that 
this was a very serious problem, a priority of the road agenda, a major 
cause of injury and fatality. In fact, 12 pedestrians have been killed 
in collisions with cyclists in the past five years. More pedestrians 
have been killed by every other conceivable variety of road-user, apart 
from other pedestrians (and naturally I am not including in that figure 
the pedestrians who mug one another). More pedestrians than that have 
been killed by bus drivers in the past six months. You would never see 
any legislation aimed straight for the jugular of the bus driver, with 
purpose-built stupid sentences.

There has long been a background hum of unfairness in the way cyclists 
are treated. Twenty years ago you'd see signs aimed at motorists saying: 
"Cyclists need three feet." Now you see signs aimed at cyclists, saying: 
"Beware, bus is 18 metres long." Like they could possibly miss it! But 
the debate is becoming unfair to the point of being irrational. There is 
always air-time for people saying: "But they cycle on the pavements! 
They shoot red lights!" Whereas if you were to take an equivalent 
motoring infraction - let's call it breaking the bloody speed limit, 
which poses a much greater danger to pedestrians, which is committed by 
a far greater proportion of motorists - where's the pivot of the 
argument? It's "are speed traps fair? Or are they just plain mean?" That 
is to say: "We all intend to break the law. We do wish people would stop 
trying to catch us."

I used to think, from a long-term point of view, that cyclists should be 
treated better than any other road-user. That just seems hopeless now, 
since the more sensible cycling becomes - from an energy conservation 
point of view, from a health perspective - the more bizarre hostility is 
flung at it. I now think you should just treat bikes as you'd treat a 
car. Acknowledge their right to exist on the road. It's a small enough 
request, but it would make a massive difference.