“Cars vs bikes” – Panorama documentary highlights age-old problem

The subject of conflict between drivers and cyclists – and the dangers this causes – is one all road safety practitioners are well versed in.

After all, for years it has formed the basis of many campaigns, often centred around the idea of respect and sharing the road.

And there’s a good reason for this.

DfT stats show that between 2016 and 2021, 654 cyclists were killed on Great Britain’s roads.

Of these, 301 deaths involved a collision with a car, 89 a HGV, 51 a LGV and 14 a bus or coach.

In fact, just 15% of the 654 deaths (101) had no other vehicles involved.

Yet, despite best efforts, the strength of feeling many drivers have towards cyclists shows no sign of diminishing.

The issue has once again hit the headlines, following a BBC Panorama documentary, aired on 2 November.

According to research carried out for the programme – titled ‘Road rage: cars vs bikes’ – a third of drivers don’t think cyclists shouldn’t be on the road and should keep to cycle paths.

Meanwhile, one in four also admitted to driving too closely to cyclists.

Clearly there remains much to do to change attitudes and improve safety for cyclists – particularly important given the funding currently being pumped into active travel.

In July, the Government published the second cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS2), with the projection that nearly £4bn will be invested between 2021 and 2025.

The strategy aims to build on the active travel “renaissance” of the Covid pandemic, which “uncovered a pent-up demand for a different way of travelling, particularly for shorter journeys”.

The Government notes that quieter roads and less congestion “gave many of us the space, confidence and opportunity to get behind the handlebars or put on our walking shoes”.

But data shows that traffic levels are back to somewhat near normal levels, creating busier, more congested roads.

It’s not like the Government doesn’t recognise the issue.

At the start of the year, it introduced changes to the Highway Code, designed to enhance safety for all road-users – particularly those most at risk.

At the heart of this is a new hierarchy of road-users, which means quicker or heavier modes of travel now have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger or threat they may pose to others on the road.

Cyclists also received fresh guidance to ride in the centre of a lane on quieter roads, in slower-moving traffic and at the approach to junctions in order to make themselves as clearly visible as possible.

It would be wrong not to acknowledge there are many who remain unconvinced that these changes have had the desired effect in terms of safety.

In some ways, I guess the first answer to that will be the DfT casualty statistics for 2022, published some point next year.

But it is a clear move away from the notion that all road users must share responsibility, something which Cycling UK has described as “outdated”.

Responding to the Panorama documentary, Cycling UK says the Government must do more to show why the Highway Code changes were needed.

It says that many drivers have an ‘entrenched view’, based on decades of governmental policy, advertising and city and townscape design all about making it easier to travel by car at the expense of walking, cycling and public transport alternatives.

Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, said: “The Highway Code rules were changed earlier this year to make our roads safer for the people who use them, whether cycling, on foot, or by car.

“This survey shows just how much more the Government needs to do to explain why the changes were needed.

“If it doesn’t, there’s a risk that negative reporting of people who cycle, without any regard to road safety facts, will continue to foster the polarised attitudes toward cyclists we see from this survey, which breeds impatience, intolerance, is detrimental to road safety and costs lives.”

While much changes in road safety, there are some topics, it appears, that are here to stay.

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