Six in ten people believe that cycling on Britain’s roads is too dangerous, according to a new government survey.
The question was put to respondents to the 2019 National Travel Attitudes Study, with 61 per cent expressing agreement, identical to the findings of a previous survey in 2011.
Eight years ago, 23 per cent of people participating in the survey disagreed with the view that cycling is not too dangerous, but that has now fallen to 19 per cent among the 1,384 people taking part in the latest poll.
Meanwhile, despite the government saying that it wants people to switch from cars to bikes for shorter journeys, the willingness to do that has declined – down from 44 per cent in 2006 to 36 per cent now.
And while our Near Miss of the Day feature shows plenty of examples of drivers overtaking cyclists too closely (we also receive many other submissions that don’t get published), 95 per of people quizzed said motorists “should leave enough space for cyclists on the roads.”
Two per cent of respondents – who might be well-advised to re-read the Highway Code – disagreed with that statement.
We suspect many road.cc readers would be surprised with that near-universal level of support for giving adequate room to bike riders, given the experience of riding on the roads here.
Likewise, the responses when it came to using mobile phones at the wheel don’t seem to reflect reality.
Four per cent of respondents believe it is safe to use an application on a mobile whilst driving, and 6 per cent that it is safe to talk on a hand-held mobile phone when behind the wheel. Less than 0.5 per cent believed it was safe to send a text message while driving.
You don’t have to spend too long at the roadside watching motorists in any British city to wonder about the truthfulness of those figures.
Indeed, an RAC survey in 2017 found that one in four drivers – equivalent to 9 million people – admitted using their phone while driving.
The National Travel Attitudes Study found that despite using a handheld mobile phone at any time when in a vehicle being illegal, one in four respondents said they believed it was safe to do so in stationery traffic.
And although harsher penalties were introduced in 2017 for using a mobile phone while driving – an offence now subject to a £200 fine and six penalty points – 75 per cent of people said the law is not being properly enforced, although that is down from 81 per cent in 2006.