Cycling stagnates; Is it any wonder?

A new government report this week revealed cycling levels in England have stagnated, but with paltry investment in infrastructure, flimsy protection in law for vulnerable road users and a media hell-bent on demonizing anyone who turns a pedal, is anyone really surprised? Against this backdrop came the news that the mother of Olympian and cycling advocate Chris Boardman was killed on her bicycle – a tragedy that once again brought the issue of road danger sharply into focus. The precise circumstances of the collision have yet to be ascertained by the police, but what is beyond doubt is that in decades to come, people will view the roads of today as a frontier time for travel. Our future selves will wince at the thought that walking and cycling in towns and cities across the land played second fiddle to speeding traffic.

When 44-year-old Bridget Driscoll from Croydon was struck down and killed by a car on August 17th 1896, her death prompted the coroner William Percy Morrison to express a hope that ‘such a thing would never happen again’. Mrs Driscoll was the world’s first pedestrian victim of a car crash in Britain, but she was not to be the last. An estimated one million people around the world are killed every year in road traffic collisions.

| ‘where transport planning, the legal system and our collective sense of responsibility have failed the vulnerable road user, technology may finally step in to help’

While regulations have been forced upon car makers to make their designs less dangerous to pedestrians – bull bars are an obvious example – the lion’s share of technological advancements have been in favour of those inside the vehicle. However, where transport planning, the legal system and our collective sense of responsibility have failed the vulnerable road user, technology may finally step in to help.

Autonomous cars co-existing with bicycles

Google is confident its driverless technology will quickly evolve to a point at which it does a better job driving than a human. Computers are not distracted by mobile phones, they don’t get angry with another computer because it didn’t give way at the last junction, they don’t get drunk or tired. In a future painted by Google, every single motorised car on a public road will be automated to such a degree that it will be impossible to crash.

In its current phase of development, the Google car is learning to recognise cyclists as unique users of the road, and being taught to drive conservatively around them. Google’s engineering team, many of whom are cyclists, aim to address the fact that 720 cyclists were killed on American roads in 2014. Examples of the cycling-friendly machine learning include allowing more space when overtaking a bike, recognising hand signals given well ahead of a turn, and reading the road ahead so more room is allowed when a cyclist is approaching a parked car with an open door. The Google cars recognise, anticipate and slow down, stop, or move out of the way when they encounter a cyclist – if only every human driver behaved the same. And that’s the point. We like to think of driving as an art at which we all excel, but machines will outperform us in this task in every respect. They will be especially good at not killing people.

The tragedy is that the wait will be a long one; millions more people around the world will have been killed before any of these benefits comes to pass.

The ethical choice

The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Over 30 years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance , breakdown cover and mobility scooter insurance while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.

The Good Shopping Guide judges us to be the UK’s most ethical provider.