Full/partial banning cyclists: talking points

For anyone advocating a ban on cycling, here are the questions you have to answer (based on ban type) before your proposal can be taken as anything other than a piece of ill informed bollocks from a fuckwit who doesn't know what they are talking about but merely has a set of irrational prejudices and projected resentment on an outgroup from spending too much time in a traffic jam in their car

Assumptions

1. Peak hour cycling traffic is primarily utilitarian: school runs, commuting
2. out of hour traffic can include utility activities such as shopping, trips to doctors, social calls.
3. Cyclists on utility journeys will not "vanish" just because of the ban -they will merely switch transport options.

Full cyclist ban

1. Will this be on road, or include shared use, dedicated cycle lanes and off-road paths?
2. Will it include private roads and private spaces?
   Yes: you can't cycle in your own garden
   No: what about: universities, hospitals, MoD land, public parks, royal parks, 
3. How are the cyclists expected to do school runs, get to work?
   Public transport: how do you address the issue London Underground is already at peak capacity,  while other cities lack functional public transport systems?
   car: won't this make congestion and parking worse?. 
4. How will this be enforced? Mass confiscation of all the unregistered bicycles in the country? Or simply fining/arrest of anyone cycling on a public road? And potentially anyone cycling on a shared pavement, dedicated cycle path, or private property? 
5. Will cycling be a fixed penalty offence, or a crime? What should the penalty be? 
6. How will mass protest be addressed?
7. If someone who cycles does not own a car, or live in an area with public transport, how will they get around?
8. Given that there are tangible health benefits from cycling, how will you address the issue that the health of the UK population will actually get worse?

Cyclist ban at "peak hours"

1. How will peak hours be defined? 
2. will this include bus lanes during their hours of operation?
3. will it include off-road paths, private roads, public parks, etc?
4. In London there's no rush hour per se, just continually busy? Will there be a 100% ban in London? If so where does the border begin? North Circular? Inside M25?
5. In other cities the peak hours vary by region -will we have regional peak hours, or a blanket 08:00 to 09:00 and 16:30-18:00 ban?
6. What about areas that don't have peak hours -like country roads? What about country roads near cities?
7. What if someone is still not yet at their destination when peak hours begin?
8. If cyclists are unregistered,  how can you enforce it if the cyclist doesn't stop?
9. How are the cyclists expected to do school runs, get to work? Drive?
10. If someone who cycles does not own a car, or live in an area with public transport, how will they get around?
11. Given that there are tangible health benefits from cycling, how will you address the issue that the health of the UK population will actually get worse?

Ban "leisure cycling"
The challenge here is distinguishing "leisure cycling" from "utility cycling?"

1. Will saying "I'm on my way to the shops" suffice?
2. Will it be based on clothing?
3. Will it be based on type of bicycle?
4. Will it based on attributes of the bicycle, such as a basket or a rack?

Make "holding up cars" illegal

1. How do you define "holding up a car" if there is congestion further up ahead?
2. Is there likely to be a time threshold above which a bicycle is deemed to be holding up traffic? If so: who measures and enforces it? How can it be shown that the car was "held up" by the bicycle merely because they failed to overtake
3. Would the ban be on the number of motor vehicles being held up by the bicycle? 
4. Would it be legal if someone on a bicycle was cycling at the speed limit.
5. Would it be legal if someone on a bicycle is cycling at the speed of a vehicle in front.
6. Will it be an offence irrespective of the goal of the vehicle driving behind? Example: cyclist is going to work, driver is simply driving "for the fun of it"?

The trouble with this approach is that in a congested city it becomes impossible to point to any bicycle and say "they held me up", even if they are the vehicle directly in front of you -especially if they have a camera and can point to congestion ahead of them. Enforcement would be very hard. In particular, in a 20 mph zone, it is likely that a fit cyclist will be cycling at the speed limit -even if there is no congestion ahead of them.

Make cycling two abreast illegal.

1. How will one cyclist pass another? (The HGV passing problem)
2. What if it is a parent and child and the parent is positioned on the outside to make cycling to school safer?
3. As it is already illegal to pass someone on a bicycle too close, on a road that is too narrow to pass one cyclist , what difference will it make?

Some people think this already illegal. It isn't. 

Make cycling in large groups illegal.

1. How do you distinguish a number of individuals cycling on a route from an organised group of people cycling? (The Surrey Sportive problem)
2. What would be threshold?
3. Would it be legal for in individual on a bicycle to cycle past a group of cyclists one bicycle below the threshold?

Make cycling in cycle lanes by the side of the road compulsory.

1. What do they do when the lane is blocked by roadworks?
2. What do they do when the lane is blocked by an illegally parked vehicle?
3. What do they do when the lane is blocked by a legally parked vehicle?
4. What do they do when the lane is unsafe due to the quality of the road surface, state (water, snow), closeness to parked cars?

The problem here is that as well as being regularly blocked, it is near impossible to define when a cycle lane is safe. When Oregon introduced a mandatory cycle lane law, they required the lanes to be assessed as "safe", which is near-impossible to do.

make cycling on shared pavements alongside roads compulsory

1. what do they do when the shared use path is full of random street furniture, 
2. what if it is blocked by road works.
3. what if there is a vehicle illegally blocking the path?
4. what if there is a vehicle legally blocking the path?
5. what if it is in a condition that it is -in the belief of the cyclist- unsafe?

The problem here is a large proportion of shared use paths are shit.

Ban bicycles from certain roads.

1. which roads would bicycles be banned from?
2. if country roads: why? 
3. If urban roads: why?
4. If roads with a speed limit above 20 mph, will 20 mph zones be exempt:
5. if dual carriageways, will functional (safe, direct) alternatives be provided?

There is a legal ban on motorways, and roads such as the A1(M). There is a near de-facto ban on dual carriageways, though a recurrent problem is the lack of a safe alternative. Oftentimes it is safer to get onto the road of a dual carriageway to negotiate a roundabout than a multi-traffic island crossing where the cyclist has no right of way.

Make Cyclists Dismount signs mandatory
(UKIP transport policy, 2010 election)

1. Why? Is there a rational reason for this? 
2. Can a cyclist, when dismounting, stop in the road and hold up traffic? If so, is there a time limit?
3. Once dismounted, what is someone on a bicycle expected to do?
4. Will it be legal to walk across the road outside of a pedestrian crossing? 
5. If not -will pedestrian crossings be provided at every cyclists-dismount sign?
6. Can a cyclist, when remounting, stop in the road and hold up traffic? If so, is there a time limit?

This may seem a simple idea, but it assumes the cyclists will be docile and somehow jump onto the pavement and walk across. It does not address the situation where someone on a bicycle stops their bicycle in the middle of the lane, slowly dismounts, walks their bicycle over and then slowly remounts. This would actually impose more delays on the vehicles behind -unless you place restrictions on the dismount/remount process and require the dismounted cyclist to use a pedestrian crossing (which must therefore be provided).

Economic cost? 

1. Before this bill became law, cities would experience the most dramatic peak hour protests ever seen. What would the economic costs of mass cycling protests at rush hours be?
2. If the number of people driving increases, so will congestion and pollution. How will the economic cost of this be measured?
3. Given the health of the nation decreases from a reduction/elimination of cycling, what will be the impact both on productivity and NHS costs
4. If no economic benefit can be shown, and the pre and post legislation cost models show that were will be economic cost -is the cost threshold at which point the legislation will be cancelled?

Political cost

1. Even a partial ban during peak hours would directly impact everyone who cycles to work. There's a lot of professionals in that category, who can be very effective when it comes to political campaigns. Is it politically wise to take them on?
2. A full ban would impact everyone who cycles for leisure. As cycling is one of the main forms of activity in the country, is it politically wise to take them on?
3. Will MPs who vote for a full or partial ban likely to see more or less votes in the next election?
4. Will a party that pushes through legislation on a full or partial ban likely to see more or less votes in the next election?
5. Given there will be widespread opposition, the opposition parties will immediately seize on repealing the law as a manifesto item. How long is a full or partial ban on cycling likely to last?