In the light of the EU’s controversial Fifth Motoring Directive, and the belated call to arms from the car-friendly daily papers, on-line survey site, SySurvey, have conducted and published a survey indicating the nation’s opinion of cycling. Of the figures published the numbers that really jump out are that 14 million UK adults believe that cyclists should be taxed, and 40% of those questioned agreed with the statement “cycling should be banned where there are many pedestrians”. Another shock result is the fact that only 33.5 million adults think that cycling is an environmentally friendly alternative to motoring.

There were some, more cycle-friendly, figures to be found if you looked hard enough, though. 33% believed that more should be done to safeguard the rights of cyclists, and 21 million adults think that car drivers are a danger to cyclists.

For anyone who regularly rides on the road, the results won’t come as too much of a shock. They also show the yawning divide in attitudes toward cycling between Britain and our continental cousins.

The survey was conducted following the fall-out from the EU’s plans to make drivers liable for accidents involving unprotected road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, whether the driver is at fault or not. The plan, which we reported here back in June, has been front page news this week. Unsurprisingly, the car-mad public, and headline-hungry media jumped on the bandwagon, publishing some incredible attacks on cycling and cyclists, fearing that insurance premiums would rise and hordes of two wheel lemmings would take to the roads. Many columnists, such as Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, wrote irresponsible commentaries inflaming the already strained relationship between two wheels and four.

We have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ll hear about this issue.

Source: BikeBiz.co.uk and SySurvey.com