Tory bigwigs take aim at cyclists – both literally and figuratively

Two accidents involving cyclists and high-profile figures in the Conservative Party attracted media attention, before commentators waded in to dissect transport secretary Chris Grayling’s comments about cycling.

In the early days of 2017 it seemed, according to media reports at least, as if senior Conservative Party figures really had it in for Britain’s cyclists. On 6 January, for example, The BBC reported that Tory party grandee Lord Michael Heseltine had been fined £5,000 for knocking a cyclist off his bike whilst driving. “Heseltine pulled out of a lane and into the path of the cyclist,” The BBC reported. “The cyclist had multiple injuries, including a broken arm and shattered knees which required plates and pins.”

At least Heseltine pleaded guilty to the charge and paid the fine. Not so transport secretary Chris Grayling in the aftermath of him knocking a cyclist off his bike by opening his car door. Grayling first came in for criticism, not for the accident itself but for his reaction to it, in The Independent on 10 January. “Transport secretary Chris Grayling has been accused of failing to understand basic rules of the road after it emerged he failed to leave his details with a cyclist who he knocked over with a car door,” the paper said. “Cycling campaigners seized on the admission as evidence that the Tory minister failed to grasp the basic issue of exchanging details after a road accident.”

Grayling then found himself under attack in The Guardian for comments he had made about cycle lanes and road users. Under the headline ‘Cyclists don't count as road users, argues transport secretary’, readers were told: “The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has been accused of showing “an astonishing lack of knowledge” of his brief after arguing in the House of Commons that cyclists do not count as road users. Grayling was questioned by the Labour MP Daniel Zeichner about an interview he gave late last year warning that London’s new protected cycle lanes ‘perhaps cause too much of a problem for road users’. Were cyclists not also road users, Zeichner asked.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has been accused of showing an astonishing lack of knowledge

“‘What I would say to him, of course, is where you have cycle lanes, cyclists are the users of cycle lanes,’ Grayling responded. ‘And there’s a road alongside – motorists are the road users, the users of the roads. It’s fairly straightforward, to be honest.’”

“The explanation prompted concern and bafflement from cycling groups and others,” The Guardian observed.

Indeed, the day after Grayling’s comments were reported, Olympic gold medal winning cyclist Chris Boardman took angry aim at the transport secretary. “Yesterday, Chris Grayling MP, the person responsible for transport in this country, showed an astonishing lack of knowledge regarding cycling on the road,” Boardman began. “He implied in Parliament that cyclists don’t count as road users [which was] incredible to hear but far from surprising and is symptomatic of a lack of insight and understanding on this issue from our elected representatives.

“If Grayling had any understanding of the concerns of the seven million people who regularly cycle on Britain’s roads, then he would know that the vast majority of cycle lanes are inconvenient, poorly maintained and often dangerous,” Boardman added. “As Grayling must be aware, people are – and always have been – free to use the roads in many ways: driving, cycling, walking, horse riding, rollerblading – and we all have a duty to use our roads safely, no matter how we travel. This is enshrined in law and backed up by the highway code, which also tells cyclists that they don’t have to use cycle lanes.’’

“I – and I am sure the same goes for the seven million other people who get around by bike – would love there to be a convenient segregated cycle lane on every main roads so that my family and I didn’t have to share the road with motor traffic. However, without intelligent thinking and smart investment this won’t happen, and Grayling’s own government’s target to double the number of journeys being cycled will never materialise.”