Like this guy you will no doubt have encountered more and more people on bicycles in our towns while driving around. All seem to behave in a different way. Some are meek, cycling near the kerb, allowing drivers free passage, while some seem defiant, riding in the middle of the lane, glancing back as if to challenge the driver behind them, some are law abiding and some break the law, jumping lights and riding on and off pavements. Clearly as a driver owning the roads he prefers the meek law abiding ones that stick to the gutter, stay in the cycle lanes, wear helmets in case he hits them and behave themselves. Like him you probably prefer cyclists to keep out of your way and treat you with the respect you deserve as a driver .

So why do they all ride so differently? And how can we all get cyclists to treat drivers with the respect we deserve? Or even give up cycling in favor of more civilised driving. Recently we’ve been studying the psychology of personal constructs (PCP) which may hold the answer. This theory suggests that the way we view (construe) the world will dictate our behaviour and changing how someone construes things can lead to change in behaviour. We continually test our theory of things and (may) modify behaviour as we experiment. Sometimes, when we transition from a construct to another we may kick back and be hostile to the new way of seeing things, we may shuttle back and forth between the new way of seeing things and the old, we may have a fragmented view and behave in a way that contradicts how we see things. Also some people are more able to change their construct than others whose view may be more rigid.

So how do different cyclists view drivers? If, for example, a cyclists also enjoys driving, then the chances are that they can empathise with drivers wishing to get past so keep out the way, tuck into the kerb and pull in when we wish to pass on narrow roads. Or if a cyclists thinks drivers and cars are bad, pollute, are noisy and drivers are dangerous, careless and sloppy, they think that people shouldn’t drive or use the roads when the driver could walk or cycle, they may ride defiantly, sticking to the middle of the lane, overtaking cars in queues (as if they are on a motorbike), not use the cycle lanes provided, refuse to wear helmets expecting the drivers to take care not to hit them, etc. It’s the behaviour of these latter menaces we need to change, and understanding their construing of drivers can help this change. (Though HGV some may kick back and be hostile and become more defiant initially).

How can we change how people ride bikes? Education: There are ways that each individual driver can change the a person cycles through educating them. If you encounter a rider in your way and you just wait patiently behind them until there is room to overtake chances are that you validate their belief that they have a right to ride that way, instead ride close them them revving your engine and hoot aggressively, try and squeeze past and swerve into them to teach them a lesson and roll down your window and tell them to “Put your fucking mouth shut”    some get hostile if you do this so try and get away before they smash your window with their lock, or just knock them down). The more drivers that do this the quicker they will learn who owns the road! We also think that there is a roll for compulsory cycling proficiency testing teaching them to stay as far left as possible, -see below for the FLAP law idea. Images of people on bicycles in the middle of the lane should be banned. There should be ‘Think car!’ campaigns reminding them of their duty to keep out of the way of drivers at all times.

Enforcement The Law is a handy tool to help people change how they view things and behave. If helmets were compulsory fewer people would cycle which would be good. Bikes should have license plates, pay road tax, get bike MOTs and be insured. The law should also make them stick to their cycle lanes and, like the FRAP (Far right As Possible) law in some US states, we should have a FLAP law in the UK. Any cyclists riding on pavements or jumping lights should be jailed. This will soon change their behaviour.

Engineering This one is a no brainer and many cyclists will agree with us that cyclists should only be allowed to ride on segregated bike lanes taking them off our roads completely. We don’t mind investing in this space for cycling so long as they are banned from using roads with cars. It’s for their own good as well as drivers. If we put into place these three Es then cyclists will change their arrogant ways, give up cycling or keep to the left and ride in their cycle lanes so drivers will not have to tolerate their defiant behaviour and traffic will move more smoothly as more people give up 2-wheels and take to 4-wheels.

A time to celebrate

Drive To Work Day started as a protest against the war on the motorists. We felt we were being persecuted, driving becoming harder, more expensive, parking impossible in many town centres and priority on the roads slowly changing in favour of those poor people who use buses, bicycles and get around on foot. We’d seen a decline in people driving (peak car), and roads and neighborhoods closed for through traffic. Even recently, in Scotland where they have reduced the amount of alcohol allowed in a driver’s blood stream got us down.

Recently things are looking much better. We are getting back on track to restoring the UK as a proud nation of car drivers. It all began when the Department for Transport released its transport modeling data: (This is from 2011 and updated in 2013)

So the government says that the number of trips on foot, by bicycle, by bus and rail will all fall between now and 2040, they also suggest that the number of trips as a car passenger will drop.  Only trips by single occupancy car drivers is set to increase, and to increase significantly.

This is great news! And to accommodate more of us driving, the even better news is that the Government has announced that is is spending £15 billion on more roads. Which will, of course, help the government predictions to come true. (A little like unbuckling our trouser belt to tackle obesity)

We can all do our bit to help ensure that this prophesy comes true.

• Refuse to carry passengers in your car. As soon as your children are old enough get them a car instead of ferrying them around
• Never encourage anyone to cycle. Tell them how dangerous cycling is.
• Campaign for increased rail and bus fares (to help fund the road building). Remember 80 individuals sitting on a bus could each be sitting in a car.
• Scrap bus lanes so trips by bus are less attractive, longer so encourage people to get a car
• Call for reduced bus and train services
• Walking is for losers. Perhaps people who choose to walk should have to go on underground pavements. So there is more room for more drivers above ground

And as usual, on 11th December 2014, join us on Drive To Work Day, this year to celebrate the fact that we are winning the war against the motorist. 5 Days to go!

Edit Post

 Where have all the railings gone?

At Drive to Work Day, we don’t normally worry about people who choose to get around outside of cars. Recently, while driving around town we have noticed more people jaywalking, crossing the road randomly in places where they shouldn’t.

Jaywalker

Since the likelihood of people crossing the road whenever they want has increased many drivers we have spoken to feel that they need to drive more slowly, be more careful, look out for these idiots. Because if we knocked one down, it’s the driver that would get fined and get points on their license, not the pedestrian ( who won’t even be insured).

Why is this happening?

It seems that all over London pedestrian guard railings have been stealthily removed.

Holloway Road then…

 Holloway Road today…

Surely proper segregation between pedestrians and drivers is crucial not just so we can drive around town faster and without having to pay so much attention, also for walkers own safety.

More railings on all A-roads would also prevent drivers mounting pavements and killing people. It seems from the information in the table below, (obtained from this FOI request), 100s of drivers mount the pavement and kill walkers each year.

 Number of deaths where a pedestrian was injured in collision with  a car mounting a pavement in England and Wales, 2006-2010

+————————————————————————+
| Deaths (persons) |
|————————————————————————|
| Year | (a) Pedestrian hit by | (b) Pedestrian hit by |
| | pedal cycle | car,
|——+——————————+———————————-|
| 2006 | 3 | 233 |
|——+——————————+———————————-|
| 2007 | 6 | 267 |
|——+——————————+———————————-|
| 2008 | 3 | 247 |
|——+——————————+———————————-|
| 2009 | 0 | 141 |
|——+——————————+———————————-|
| 2010 | 2 | 123 |
+————————————————————————+

(Also seems that as drivers we kill many more people on pavements than pavement riding cyclists, the bane of us all)

It’s not just guard railings we want put back along all major A roads. we also want the madness that is Shared Space to end.

Leonard Street in Shoreditch London

A place where walkers mix it with cement mixers. Where people queue on the road to buy Falafel, where we have to drive so slowly and so carefully we may as well walk ourselves.

Would you want your 8 year old or 80 year old granny to walk here!?

In addition to our usual reasons for driving to work on December 11th 2014 we would like much better segregation between walkers and drivers on all major A-roads and an end to this Shared Space madness.

Join our campaign use the hashtags: #drive2workday #space4walking

We at Drive to Work Day have been astonished by the number of people colliding with our cars. From a recent search we have found that the things that have crashed into our cars include:

Trains

Feral Deer

Cyclists crashing into our doors

A miniature train

Professional cycle racers

A 3-wheeled bike

Pedestrians (many of these)

Motorbike riders and passengers

Snakes

…and many more things

In fact we were on a train yesterday which was delayed outside Manningtree because a railway bridge had collided with a car!

What’s a driver to do with all these reckless animals, people and inanimate objects colliding with us? The least you can all do is wear a helmet when you hit us like Charlie here when he collided with one driver who sped round the corner while he was crossing the road:

It’s been a while since the last ‘pea-souper’ in London.

Today, because millions of drivers took to their cars for Drive to Work Day, the streets were filled with a thick dense smog.

Good to see that the Met was taking our protest seriously and had sent traffic police and PCSOs to keep an eye on things at many junctions in the across the city:

One again we’d like to thanks everyone who drove to work today creating such a lovely atmosphere across London and other parts of the country.

Tweet your pictures and stories using #dtwd @drivetoworkday

(Where were the bicyclers? We found only one on our drive, can you spot him?)

See you all on Thursday 11th December 2014

Here’s a quick reminder why we are driving to work today;

Worried by the war on the motorist?

Pissed off by the price of petrol?

Annoyed by the arrogance of cyclists and bus users?

Then leave your bike at home, your bus pass in the drawer, your walking shoes in the cupboard and join thousands of others on Wednesday 11th December for London’s second Drive to Work Day.

Experience the rush, the freedom of London streets empty of pesky cyclers and walkers. Laugh as you whizz by the empty buses and tubes.

We are also driving to work to:

• celebrate the government’s road building plan
• improve safety for drivers
• support the privatisation of Britain’s roads
• get rid of daft traffic calming measures
  
• prevent the decline of the motor car
• get walkers and bicyclists out of your way
• stop driver bashing
• use our horn whenever we wish
• improve driver’s health
• maintain the current hierarchy on the road

We also welcome fellow supporters who, like us, are mad. Mad about driving and mad about the treatment of drivers.

The Driver’s Union    (@DriverUnion) and Drive East Midlands  (@EastMidsDrivers) will be joining us (as will Kieth Peat if his dog  @KeithPeatsDog lets him)

Download the flyer!

Drivers kill other drivers (though we don’t kill as many fellow drivers as we do walkers and bikers)

While driving around London we notice the many roadside memorials marking places where people on bikes (Ghost bikes) and pedestrians (Remember Me memorials) have died. While this may help the family to mark and  to remember their loss, these roadside memorials also serve campaigners for cycling and walking since they point out the consequence of our behavior as drivers. While it is true that motorists are responsible for the majority of the killing and injuring (seems that despite the menace pavement cyclists pose they don’t kill many people), we are underrepresented when it comes to marking the road death of a brother or sister driver.

While I’m sure Roadpeace would be happy for us to mark places where drivers have died with Remember Me plaques, we ought to show the same respect and solidarity as the cycling community and mark the locations where fellow drivers died with Ghost Cars just to remind people that we drivers can also be victims and die in ‘accidents’

We are shocked that drivers in London have killed 5 people on bicycles in in the past 9 days. We wish to remind people that we drivers not only kill cyclists we also kill many more pedestrians, we kill fellow drivers and passengers. The media do not always report this

Meet Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool and a motorists’ hero:

Joe Our hero

Joe has scrapped all bus lanes in Liverpool  He said “Keeping the city moving for our motorists… is absolutely vital, … it’s important …”. He has rightly ignored objections from the cabbies, bus companies and cyclists. Those self interested groups would object. Where it is made harder to drive, people are more likely to get on buses or on bikes: (like the madness in London where in some places more people get to work out of their cars than in their cars as we reported in our last post). Whilst the Liverpool bus lane removal is a trial, we are sure that it will encourage people to get off the buses, off their bikes and back into their cars. If this gets more people driving we’ll judge this as a great success. (It’s a shame about Sheffield Council backing down from such a positive move that would help make driving easier.)

Fellow drivers, we need to lobby our town councils to do the same and scrap all bus lanes in the UK. Another reason to join in and drive to work on 11 December.

What’s wrong with bus lanes?

Why should bus passengers, cyclists, taxi passengers be given space and priority over drivers who pay tax and good money to run and maintain a car? Drivers in London who use a bus lane get fined £80. This is strictly enforced by cameras (unlike the good old days when we could drive in the bus lane and get away with it.) How often do drivers sit in a jam delayed while the bus lane is empty? Bus passengers get to use bus lanes, paying only a couple of quid for their bus trip and cyclists use it for free! Some taxis can use them and some can’t. (Famously Addison Lee boss attempted unsuccessfully, to invade bus lanes.)

Why should cyclists be allowed in bus lane?

You’d think bicycle riders should steer clear of bus lanes. You’d think bikes and buses shouldn’t mix as do we. (We’ve already written about where cyclists belong: off the roads and in bike lanes out of driver’s way).

We were shocked to learn that London bus drivers have training on bicycles, where they learn how to share a bus lane with a person on a bike, they learn to hang back, pass cyclists wide and slowly and learn to be patient. What an outrageous waste of taxpayers money which encourages cycling on our roads. We have also learnt that some bus drivers take up cycling after this training.

We really don’t need more people on bikes!

Maybe we should campaign to scrap all buses, not just the bus lanes. There would be so much more space for motoring on our roads if we got rid of them; many more people would take up driving.

Now wouldn’t that be wonderful?