Now i think maybe you are a cyclist by the way you jumped Rob Kent. There are some cyclists that are causing all the trouble between motorist and cyclists. Get those idiots in order then we may all get on together.
I am sometimes a cyclist, sometimes a car driver, sometimes a pedestrian. Idiocy a is an attribute of people, unrelated to their mode of travel.
In town, I would choose a bike every time, because it is the most ecological, economic, socially-responsible, healthiest, and fastest mode of travel. But all the car-versus-bike arguments have been done to death on a thousand web sites. Even on here, I recall.
Just because there is a cycle track doesn't mean cyclists have to use it. On that principle, all drivers would have to use a motorway and not take the back roads, just because someone built it for them. It's a fallacious and redundant argument.
I see you do not mention insurance for bike rides. So tell me when someone is crippled through an accident cause by a cyclist who is going to pay for all the medical help they will need for the rest of their life?
There is a valid argument around public liability insurance but it doesn't just apply to bikes. What would you do if someone ran into you and knocked you over? What would you do if you tripped over someone's cat or dog (a dog ran under my bike wheels last week and I almost went over the handle bars)? What would you do if a man removing a spider's web from his balcony with a feather duster fell off and inserted the said duster into your shoulder blade causing it to exit below your fourth vertebra?
What would I do if you stepped off the pavement in front of my bike? People on mobile phones do it all the time.
That is why, in Holland, everyone has to have personal insurance so that they are covered in case they injure someone in such an eventuality.
