Phantom fear

[Martin Cassini]

Guided group cycling commutes - "pelotons"- are being organised in London. Fearful cyclists learn to negotiate the dangerous roads and are guided down quiet side streets. Often the group gets separated by traffic lights that don't give them enough green. Note the unquestioning acceptance of a system which makes roads dangerous in the first place. Under the system of priority, the hierarchical pyramid is inverted. Vehicles are allowed to own the carriageway to the detriment of vulnerable road-users. Scandalously, the onus is on children to beware motorists, when in any civilised society it would be the other way round. That’s why blind people are worried about shared surfaces (not to be confused with shared space). They have grown up with a road culture where might is right. But might is wrong, and the culture change which I advocate - from priority to equality - will put the pyramid back on its feet. Then cyclists, children and blind people won't have anything to fear.