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Wednesday’s Mail: “Cyclists may need number plates” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/96H6b898I8 pic.twitter.com/kiBef3Mi7n
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 16, 2022
What’s that I hear, drifting out over Whitehall? Another anti-cycling dog whistle?
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ latest attempt to not do his job properly/appeal to the 4×4 driving, perpetually angry about all this ‘woke’ stuff, section of the Tory electorate/distract us all from actual serious issues [delete as appropriate] has – rather predictably – gone down like a lead balloon.
In case you missed it late last night, Shapps – just over a week after repeating his pledge to introduce a ‘causing death by dangerous cycling law’ – has once again decided to shift the focus on road safety and infrastructure towards some of the most vulnerable road users, by arguing that cyclists should be insured, carry licence plates on their bikes, and be subject to the same speed limits as motorists.
Oh, and by making sure that position was splashed all over this morning’s front page of the Daily Mail.
While Shapps’ latest cycling-related pledge may simply prove a rather desperate ploy to win the affections of the Mail’s readership, the fact that it’s made front page headlines – or even been mentioned at all – has been described as “hugely damaging” by those within the cycling community.
ITV’s cycling commentator Ned Boulting noted the sad irony of it all:
Motorised traffic pollutes the air, fills our streets with noise, contributes to the climate emergency and health crisis, kills and maims daily.
— Ned 🚲 Boulting (@nedboulting) August 17, 2022
Last word on this before I withdraw back into something more positive for the day. There is only really one country on earth currently to have mandatory number plates for bikes. That country is North Korea. 🇰🇵 🚲
— Ned 🚲 Boulting (@nedboulting) August 17, 2022
The Guardian’s Peter Walker, meanwhile, described Shapps’ pledge – and the potential real-life effects of it – as “incredibly alarming”:
This is incredibly alarming. It’s something almost no governments have tried, and shows what happens when ministers can freelance amid a zombie government. I’m confident it will never happen, but for Grant Shapps to even raise it is hugely damaging. https://t.co/tBAIaezvtb
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 16, 2022
As a political aside, if anyone ever doubted that Andrew Gilligan/Boris Johnson rather than Grant Shapps were the voice of sense on cycling in this soon-to-depart government, then this is the proof.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 16, 2022
Even more alarming this is the front page of a newspaper. It will, incrementally but almost certainly, increase the peril for me and various loved ones just trying to get about on two wheels. So thanks for nothing, Grant Shapps, DfT and the Mail. pic.twitter.com/jFmoLVF2Tm
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 16, 2022
Transport commentator Christian Wolmar argued that Shapps was “just playing to the base” and that the whole thing was “pathetic”:
This will never happen…it is just playing to the base. Pathetic https://t.co/QCsH1WQQbH
— Christian Wolmar (@christianwolmar) August 16, 2022
The idea that the police would want to have to enforce a bike registration scheme or that the DVLA would be up to registering some 50 million bikes is fantasy thinking and throwing meat at the ravenous Tory base. The idea has been rejected countless times.
— Christian Wolmar (@christianwolmar) August 17, 2022
Other cyclists were as equally unimpressed:
Happy eleventh birthday son 🚴, don’t forget your number plates and insurance
— _codes_ (@c_codes_) August 16, 2022
Speed limit cyclists? Well that’s defo gonna fail to get a vote. What with all the drivers that constantly complain and abuse cyclists for not going fast enough 😂😂😂 https://t.co/DBbjE9k4m3
— Righttobikeit❤️Ukraine (@righttobikeit) August 17, 2022
there is no war on cars. there is a war on bikes https://t.co/lK8q0DdxTc
— ben finch is in ecuador (@benfinch_) August 17, 2022
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