Not cycling to longevity (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Not cycling to longevity
3:20pm Thursday 26th April 2012 in Opinion
By Allan Tunningley
MEN’S increasing longevity compared to that of women has been the subject of an interesting news story this week.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the gap between male and female life expectancy is closing and, indeed, men could catch up by 2030.
The ONS’s Prof Les Mayhew said the difference between the sexes peaked at nearly six years at one stage in the 1970s.
Now, as life expectancy increases for all, we men are narrowing the gap.
But can you believe these sorts of report?
I remember once reading a study that suggested married men live longer than single men. I’d never heard such a load of nonsense - everyone knows it just seems longer!
Of course, one of the things men could do to extend their life expectancy is to take more exercise, like cycling.
But pedalling around on Britain’s roads could actually reduce your chances of reaching a grand old age.
On this I’m with London taxi boss John Griffin, who got into trouble a few days ago for blaming the rising popularity of cycling for the increase in accidents.
He also reckons cyclists should pay road tax, be insured and have more extensive training - and I’m with him on those points, too!
Mr Griffin is quite right when he says motorists travel in protected spaces while all cyclists have to protect them is a ‘padded plastic hat’.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m not convinced it’s a good idea for our national park authority to encourage more people to take up cycling while on holiday in the Lake District.
Proper mountain biking over the fells is a different matter, of course, and I reckon anyone who wants to take it up should be welcome to their mud-splattered existences.
But if you want to guarantee longevity for you and your family, I would steer your bikes well away from our death-trap country roads.
Comments(24)
A Former Vistor
says...
3:54pm Thu 26 Apr 12
ets.org/1185.html
bethandr
says...
3:56pm Thu 26 Apr 12
Road tax does not exist, roads are paid for out of general taxation and therefore by everybody. If you drive a car you pay vehicle excise duty which is based on the emissions your vehicle produces.
Suspect you might have been paid for doing this but if I was your boss I'd ask for my money back.
Very poor.
CyberslayerUK
says...
4:00pm Thu 26 Apr 12
This article is littered with mistakes and oversights. I strongly suspect that your throw away comments about Road Tax will come back to haunt you as an angry pack of road users (probably mostly cyclists) plague you with criticism.
Next time can you have a good hard think and try and formulate some opinions of your own instead of this re-hashed garbage.
Is it really too hard to check a few facts before you publish or are you trolling your readers?
keepontriking
says...
4:04pm Thu 26 Apr 12
Is this a local hack trying to jump on a perceived bandwagon to try and make a name for himself in Fleet Street?
So many factual errors its simply laughable. Instead the result is that the Westmorland gazette just joins the heap of papers with zero credibility.
Sorry, Allan - you have misjudged the readership.
thereandbackagain
says...
4:05pm Thu 26 Apr 12
1) No-one pays Road Tax. Cars pay VED, which are based on emissions. Bikes are my primary mode of transport, and I'm only a light car user. So I subsidise heavy car users through my overall tax contributions, which is where roads are paid from.
2) Like the majority of cyclists I have a driving license. How much more training do I need, exactly?
3) Most adult cyclists have some form of insurance. Anyone with a home is likely to have personal liability cover, for example. More to the point, the monetary damage caused by cyclists is so low there's no demonstrable need for insurance. What are you hoping to claim against?
Blaming the victim of someone else's lack of responsibility is pretty poor. Motorists need to look out for cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians. They're the ones in charge of machines that can easily kill at no risk to the occupant.
Other than that, it seems a pretty good article. Apart from your appeal to anecdote over a properly researched report created by the Office of National Statistics. That's not great either.
I once saw a mountain bike do a skid on a hillside. I'm pretty sure they're devastating our natural environment. The vandals.
justingrammer
says...
9:02pm Thu 26 Apr 12
Just to finish, here's a couple of links to stories from your own paper. http://www.thewestmo
rlandgazette.co.uk/n
ews/9529697.Kendal_B
ypass_crash_cyclist_
s_parents_pay_tribut
e_to__loving_son_/
and
http://www.thewestmo
rlandgazette.co.uk/n
ews/9397010.Tributes
_pour_in_for_Kendal_
cyclist_killed_in_A5
90_accident/
I'm sure your reporters still have contact details for the families. You may want to get in touch and let them know your thoughts on cyclists.
Sorry, I've gone a bit off track there, but to get back to the health benefits of cycling, here's a couple of really useful links.
http://www.ctc.org.u
k/resources/Campaign
s/CTC_Safety_in_Numb
ers.pdf
and
http://www.mayerhill
man.com/Home/Mayers-
Musings/EntryId/21/2
-Cycling-more-life-y
ears-gained-from-fit
ness-than-lost-from-
injury.aspx
It took me a few minutes to find them via Google. I wouldn't even call it research, but still, Alan, I'm guessing more time than you spent researching your article.
Soren
says...
8:21am Fri 27 Apr 12
That doesn't mean we should give up cycling in the lakes, but we should be looking at positive solutions that embrace the commercial, social and health benefits of cycling, and look at opening up leisure cycling opportunities in the way that has been done on the continent, in places like Bodensee, where cycling is an accepted tolerated, pleasant form of travel for all ages and abilities, which also brings millions into the local economy through tourism.
hexhome
says...
9:59am Fri 27 Apr 12
Maybe Mr Tunningley would assist me in persuading the Government to rectify this anomaly where many road users fail to pay for their use of the roads. Why only this morning on the one and a half mile drive to Greggs, I was held up by a 'Lollipop' person whilst several untaxed children crossed the road! I had only just restarted when my local farmer had the temerity to slowly walk his cows along the road. Do you know, not one of them was displaying a tax disc! How dare they hold me up, I pay 'Road Tax'. It's an absolute disgrace. I am a British tax payer (I even paid tax for my pasty this morning) and don't deserve to be held up by these 'freeloaders' who as has rightly been pointed out, risk their lives by trying to share the roads with me.
I suffer from a dicky ticker, and it's difficult for me to get about without my car. I've tried public transport, but the seats just aren't wide enough. And I've now just been informed that my pension isn't going to be very much because these **** cyclists and other of their ilk are living too long! Well not if I've anything to do with it they won't.
Walney
says...
10:50am Fri 27 Apr 12
WilliamT
says...
6:30pm Fri 27 Apr 12
life cycle too
says...
7:22pm Fri 27 Apr 12
In fact they no doubt thought they were driving safely, and would be unlikely to modify the standard of driving.
What is needed is better training. Driving schools, that took their pupils out on bikes first might be one way!
Better training would be more expensive - but it is a price worth paying - better training would benefit EVERYBODY, not just the cyclists who have to share the roads with vehicles of all types and sizes.
Allan Tunningley has said what he has with the best of motives.
I have contacted the people behind the Green Transport initiative and urged them to think more before simply bringing cyclists to the county and making them share our narrow roads.
I called for more paths that are completely divorced from the roads - but that WILL be expensive - and I am sure this is why Tunners thinks that cyclists should contribute in some way. There is also nothing wrong with considering getting insured if you ride a bike - I have looked into it myself, and for £75 a year, you get million pound cover against being sued for something you cause, as well as recompense in the case of theft and recovery if you break down!
I think Allan's bosses will view his opinion favourably, as it does seem to have been the cause of many of you not just reading his words, but "putting pen to paper" yourselves - always a help when selling the advertising slots!
Soren
says...
10:08pm Fri 27 Apr 12
William T, I don’t know where you gained your condescension skills, certainly not through superior knowledge.
Your rant as usual is dramatically one dimensional and ill-informed.
As Lifecycle has stated, the motorist who kills a cyclist is usually you or I, the average motorist who unfortunately and unintentionally makes a catastrophic observational error. He will be punished accordingly. The promise of life imprisonment or similar for killers of cyclists will make not a jot of difference to the number of cyclists killed. It may make you feel a little better, unless you were the offender.
There are many different types of cyclists who cycle for leisure or sport. William T is in one camp, and he clearly thinks it’s the only right one. Others may prefer their cycling to be less challenging and more leisurely, and it’s for those that segregated cycle routes would provide a solution.
I believe the opportunity to segregate cyclists and motorists would have a dramatic effect on cycle fatalities, and could introduce a significant new group of holidaymakers to our area.
hexhome
says...
9:12am Sat 28 Apr 12
More proof that they are just not paying enough! I believe that many of them cycle to work as well. This must save them thousands, so they must be able to pay more tax.
WilliamT
says...
11:36am Sat 28 Apr 12
life cycle too
says...
11:16am Mon 30 Apr 12
It is usual for the actions of a few to affect the perception of the many!
Spotty Fish
says...
1:20pm Tue 1 May 12
Surely it would be safer for everyone?
life cycle too
says...
9:59am Wed 2 May 12
There are numerous reasons - for one, dog owners scoop up the poop from their animals, but horse riders don't - despite the horse leaving a far bigger deposit!
Another is the debris thrown onto them from the road - stones and broken windscreen glass, and they are not maintained - in several places the tarmac is being lifted by tree roots and weeds - and in summer, you risk overhanging brambles at head height!
I carry secateurs, but there is only so much time I can spend cutting back vegetation.
In Autumn, the leaves are not swept up and between Brockhole and Langdale Chase last year you could not see where the path was for dead leaves - and during the winter, they turned to a slippery mess!
The one time last year when I carried a broom and swept the worst parts of the path between Staveley and Windermere, it took me an over an hour and a half to get home, and I had to leave parts because it went dark!
I still prefer the path, but use the road in some places when I feel it is safer to do so.
CyberslayerUK
says...
10:37am Wed 2 May 12
Spotty Fish wrote:Spotty Fish wrote:
Surely a motorists training is much more extensive than a cyclists. After all, as a driver being held up on the road from Ambleside to The Low Wood Hotel, at least I know I passed a legally required driving examination, unlike the cyclist in front of me weaving in and out of pot holes with no proper lights on. Instead of ranting at Tunners why don't the cyclists lobby the council to mend the roads and build a proper cycle way along side the lake. And on the subject of cycle paths, why do so many cyclists not use the available paths on the A591 between Kendal and Ambleside?
Surely it would be safer for everyone?
...why do so many cyclists not use the available paths ...
We have zero maintenance and upkeep of cycle paths. They are often "built" (a white cycle painted onto an existing path) and left to rot.
During the winter the roads get gritted and the pavements get gritted but never the cycle paths. Often there is a white strip of snow between footpath and road as a nomination for the “Not My Job” award to the local council.
For the cost of a single mile of new motorway we could resurface every cycle path in England.
WilliamT
says...
10:58am Wed 2 May 12
Spotty Fish
says...
11:31am Wed 2 May 12
life cycle too
says...
12:33pm Wed 2 May 12
I went to Ambleside this morning - by car, and the (woman) driver in front of me was paying little attention to the road - several times she was looking sideways at her passenger, not at the road ahead - and as we passed the Low Wood she was gesticulating with an outstretched hand while looking at the view over the lake on her left!
William T would like to see severe punishments for drivers who kill or maim. I would rather it never got to that point, and would like better provision for cycles, AND better training for drivers for the times when there IS NO provision.
There ARE severe punishments for available at court already for causing deaths etc. but this has not discouraged drivers who fail to appreciate the danger of their inattention.
Put them on bikes as part of their training, and they will become better safer drivers to the benefit of EVERY road user.
WilliamT
says...
1:32pm Wed 2 May 12
I agree with LC about female drivers who turn to look at passengers, as opposed to the mainly male trait of aggressive driving with delusions of race track driving capabilities on public roads.
There is no use harping on about things which are not going to happen- cycling will not form part of any driving tests as many of them wouldn't even manage 100 yards. Neither will there be any significant useful off-road cycle tracks- this is a small peripheral country in severe financial difficulties. They're even shutting most of the public toilets to save money!
Spotty Fish
says...
3:40pm Wed 2 May 12
Jasonbmiles says...
3:49pm Thu 26 Apr 12
Vehicle Excise Duty is based on emissions.
You should check this before you publish your opinion.
Another solution would be for more regular and extensive training for motorists, yes?