The latest cyclophobic rant in a national newspaper

Look, it’s a lovely hot day in glorious Waltham Forest and I don’t have the inclination right now to deconstruct the latest ill-informed cyclophobic rant in a national newspaper.

I’m sure other bloggers can find aspects they might want to engage with.

To get you all started, here’s a zombie fact:

the police have established, in conjunction with the Transport Research Laboratory, that half of all collisions between bicycles and cars are the fault of the cyclist. 

I do wonder how much the persistent demonising of cyclists in the national media and the occasional jocular suggestion that cyclists deserve to be run off the roads contributes to incidents like this and this.

Footnote 

A zombie fact is a contention which “carries on regardless even when shot down”. The term was apparently first coined by David Allen Green. One very common zombie fact is that British roads are too narrow for the kind of segregated cycling infrastructure that can be seen on the continent and most notably in the Netherlands. It can even be found in this particular piece, though it is more commonly encountered on cycling discussion threads.