Exploring the relationship between motorists and cyclists

Cyclists and car drivers; they spend all day together side by side on the roads but what kind of relationship do they have?

Thankfully, the people at Policy Expert have saved me making too much of an effort in finding out the answer. They recently carried out a survey called Motorists vs. Cyclists and the results in their infographic make for interesting reading.

We might as well start off with the positive stuff. 30% of car drivers consider cyclists to be “harmless”. 15% of motorists even wish that there were more cyclists on the roads, which gives me a little bit of hope for the future of mankind and the prospects of lasting world peace.

On the other hand, 21% of drivers think that cyclists are dangerous to themselves and to other traffic. In addition, 9% find them “very frustrating” to deal with on the roads. Interestingly, both cyclists and motorists agree that car drivers are the most frustrating things on the road, even more than traffic levels, cyclists and speed cameras.

Special paths for cyclists and city centres closed to cars?

In terms of safety and congestion, over half of the people surveyed think that city centres across the UK should only be open to bikes and public transport. Meanwhile, three quarters of the people who were surveyed think that cyclists should only be allowed to pedal away on special paths.

Another point covered in the survey was around the results of accidents involving bikes. A whopping 60% of car drivers think that cyclists should have an obligatory third party liability type of cover. Another point worth nothing is that there are more bikes stolen in the country each year than cars, yet almost half of all cyclists don’t insure their vehicles.

What do you think of the relationship between drivers and cyclists? What can be done to improve matters in the future?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.