I have been quite busy recently responding to fan mail (not!) following the article in the Evening Post where I suggested that we might be prepared to close the city centre to traffic. http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Let-s-make-Bristol-city-centre-bike/article-386400-detail/article.html . I have been called a number of interesting names of which muppet is one the polite ones.
So what does this muppet actually think about traffic, cycling and the city centre?
Firstly the context – at the meeting I was responding to concerns that we were not going to be radical enough in our efforts to increase cycling in the city. Within that context I said the words quoted in the article.
I stand by those words and I do believe we will see the day when the only traffic in the city centre will be public transport, those with disability badges, cyclists and pedestrians. With service vehicles during specified hours.
To achieve this we will have to win the debate with the motorist and improve public transport both of these I am convinced will happen.
Secondly the media. The Evening Post clearly loves motorists and hates cyclists and will currently run any copy that knocks cyclists. I am at a loss to understand why they see cyclist as such a threat. The BBC ran a polemic piece by George Ferguson on cycling on their Inside Out magazine. Again I was quoted on that with the rather fluffy piece about traffic wardens on bikes. What they didn’t run was the more interesting discussion George and I had about closing roads on a regular basis as they have done in South America and in Scandinavia. So one media outlet takes the sensational view the other the fluffy view. Thank goodness for blogs at least I reasonably sure that I write here is what I actually mean!
