Lancaster group slams transport minister Grant Shapps over cycling plans

Grant Shapps this week said he wants to close an ‘archaic’ legal hole which means riders who kill pedestrians can be jailed for a maximum of only two years.

Mr Shapps said he wants reckless cyclists to be treated the same as reckless motorists, and hit out at ‘a selfish minority’ of aggressive riders.

Under his proposal, a new law of causing death by dangerous cycling would be included in the forthcoming Transport Bill, due before Parliament in the autumn.

He said: "We need the cycling equivalent of death by dangerous driving to close a gap in the law and impress on cyclists the real harm they can cause when speed is combined with lack of care.

"As we move into an era of sustained mass cycling, a thoroughly good thing, we must bring home to cyclists – too often themselves the victims of careless or reckless motoring – that the obligation to put safety first applies equally to every road user. There can be no exceptions."

Dick Follows, representative for Lancaster & District cycle campaign Dynamo, said: "It looks like Mr Shapps is avoiding the real issues around sustainable transport and active travel.

"He wishes to punish cyclists who exceed the 20mph speed limit. A good idea - but when is he going to begin enforcing the law against drivers who break the 20mph limit?

"20mph districts were introduced in Lancaster over 10 years ago because the county had the highest number of children killed and seriously injured by cars.

"There has been almost no attempt by the police or county council to enforce them other than brief spells with ineffective electronic smiley face signs.”

Mr Follows also criticised the minister's announcement that he wants harsher sentences for reckless cyclists who kill or seriously injure pedestrians.

"Again a good idea but when are judges going to punish more seriously dangerous and reckless drivers who regularly kill pedestrians?" he said.

Mr Follows said a further plan to introduce compulsory insurance and number plates for all cyclists would discourage people from taking up cycling.

"Does Mr Shapps want compulsory insurance and plates for toddlers and young people who are just starting to cycle?" he said.

"Can you think of a better way to discourage them from taking up cycling? Proposals against his own government’s Active Travel policy. Has he really thought this through?

"This January the Highway Code was changed, following years of research and debate by Parliament, to give cyclists and pedestrians more protection.

"The new code introduced a road-user-hierarchy whereby those who drove the biggest vehicles had the greatest responsibility for the safety of those below them, and who are more vulnerable such as cyclists and pedestrians.

"These are changes that need a nationwide publicity campaign if they are to be effective - something that Mr Shapps has not bothered to initiate. He seems to be desperately working against the spirit of these sensible changes.

"So it seems Mr Shapps’ real motive for this intervention is to distract us from his failure to make the roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians, and the mess he is making of our transport system."

Mr Shapps may no longer be transport secretary when the new prime minister, announced on September 5, reshuffles the Cabinet, but it is understood he will urge any successor to press ahead with the proposal. The change would also be dependent on the new PM backing it.

In 2019, 470 pedestrians were killed on the country’s roads. This dropped to 346 in 2020 during the pandemic. Only a handful of cases in recent years have involved bicycles, but Mr Shapps said even ‘one life [lost] is too many’.