Letter: No One Voted for This Nonsense Scheme

Published on: 2 Nov, 2024
Updated on: 2 Nov, 2024

From Ben Paton

In response to: Only One in Ten of Us Are Potential Cyclists

As the saying goes: “seeing is believing”. Those who, like me, often drive to and from the A3 through Burpham to reach central Guildford, often during the rush hour, will know from their own eyes that London Road is not crowded with cyclists.

In fact, cyclists are a rarity. The startling reality is not how many there are and how dangerous it is for them. It is the opposite: just how very few there are and how the traffic invariably gives them a very wide birth often slowing to the speed of the cyclist. Will Surrey County Council disclose its estimates of the volumes of different types of traffic on London Road?

None of this is to say that cycling is bad or that it should not be encouraged. Of course it is a good thing.

The thing is this: no one voted for this nonsense policy of taking an A road, also known as a “main” road, that has existed for how many decades or hundreds of years, and turning it into a local recreation facility.

People who use roads use them as a tool of their trade or a necessary public service. Turning an A road into a local recreational facility would, all else being equal, be a commendable idea. Trouble is the A road already has a purpose.

The people who use it for four or more wheeled traffic vastly outnumber those on foot or on two wheels. They will be as delighted as a carpenter when a holier-than-thou politician takes away his electric plane or drill and who tells him everyone will be better off he switches to the hand-powered tools his great-grandfather used.