#ShareTheRoadUK campaign under fire for call to make cyclists undertake compulsory training and testing

“ingenie® provides car insurance for 17-25 year olds, many of whom are priced out of the market."

Insurance is very expensive for those young drivers as they are a very high risk.
I remember how my friends drove at ages 17-21 (I didn't have a car) and am amazed we all survived.

The first two are such good proposals, why they had to spoil it with the third one.

Poor driving is the main danger on the roads either through lack of awareness or just impatience.

This is obviously quite a clever PR trick to raise awareness of the insurance company. Rattling the cages of cyclists makes the story go viral. Best to ignore.

Either road.cc has the link wrong ... or Ingenie have pulled the campaign altogether. Seems to have mysteriously disappeared from their site

Compulsory test = bicycle license and therefore a database of bicycle users, how do you fund the testing and establishing maintaining the necessary database? bicycle excise duty no doubt. Once this is achieved it is a simple step to argue that all road users should be insured.

As other suggests the inclusion of 1 & 3 as part of the school curriculum is not a bad idea but how do you include it in the curriculum especially the necessary practical elements. I would perhaps be more in favor of 3 if it was also made compulsory to to have passed the bicycle test and demonstrated safe cycling for 18 month prior to being allowed to apply for a provisional driving license. Although this would hard to achieve so perhaps being required to pass a practical retest after 18 month would be a better approach.

One last thing anyone have any data on insurance claims against motorist by cyclists?

are they going to test those who are already riding on the roads? what happens if they dont 'pass'? will there be a licence? think this is a bit of a stupid idea tbh i think it should be mandatory for younger kids in school to be shown good cycle safety, however a test. are they stupid it's like changing the drinking age limit to 21 what about those who are 18 and are already drinking? you cant all of a sudden stop them. thought we wanted more people to start cycling this is something that will put them off! i think the biggest thing is common sense and a bit more patience and etiquette from some motorists!

The one single thing that would make the biggest change to road safety (for all road users) would be mandatory GPS/video recording on all vehicles. The police should have powers to access the data/recording in the event of an accident or suspected offence (speeding, red light jumping, dangerous driving etc). Failure to produce data should be a serious offence under the RTA. The courts should allow prosecutions based solely on the evidence of the data.

The technology for this already exists today and is available for around £200. With mass market take up (ie fitted on every vehicle at time of manufacture) this would reduce dramatically.

Also I have just looked again at the poster, I wonder where they got the statistics/percentages from and are they right?

I allways baulk when it comes to the contentious issue of wearing headphones on a bike if you claim it is dangerous then you would have to ban all deaf people from being anywhere near a road let alone having a licence (as they are entitled to) all in car entertainment systems, all car phones (even the FEW that are hands free)

If you have the misfortune of being hit by another road user it makes no difference wether you've got headphones or not it is their driving standards that are at fault. rant over (for now)

Reading the comments above I find myself in agreement with most of the sentiments expressed.

I also see no one has picked up on the fact that the little black box (of F1 technology)that these people are on about DOES NOT improve young peoples driving, it is a gps recorder which logs trips and the posted limits on each road used along with the vehicles speed, this data is then used to increase the premiums of the SPEEDERS it CANNOT differentiate between good and bad drivers only a trained police traffic officer on the spot can.

Um, if young people can't get car insurance, perhaps they should try riding a bike? Or is that too obvious?

Most kids in junior school already take part in the cycling proficiency test, but, tbh, if it helps improve safety, Im all for it.

Looking at the standard of some of the driving I see in town, perhaps they should make drivers sit some sort of test. Oh wait, they do, and look how well that works...

I agree with all comments - especially LondonPlayer's about the dreadful impatience of motorists. It sounds fogeyish but I think public information films on this issue could make a difference. The government has shut that Dept now and it's policy of not advising on common sense issues over the past 20 years has just given the green light to expand the sense of self entitlement to the point where a cyclist can be killed by a car and the driver feel that it was the cyclists fault for trying the use the road whilst they were in a hurry. Madness.

At least they didn't mention road tax.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem if their three suggestions were implemented in the way GKam suggests - 1 and 3 as part of the school curriculum and 2 as part of the driving test.

The idea of testing cyclists now before they are allowed on the road is a nonsense though, drivers have to pass a test to prove they aren't a danger to others. Some other road users may find cyclists a nuisance and an irritatant, but the facts suggest bad cyclists are very rarely a danger to anyone other than themselves.

From a quick web search "ingenie, the car insurance brand for drivers aged 17 to 25" ie the above is a dirty tricks marketing campaign the last thing ingenie want is young people riding bikes. Why is the UK the only European country that treats cyclists as second class citizens? I'm 60 and in the past I never felt as if I had to defend myself for being a cyclist.

I like suggestion 1 and 2

I also like 3, as long as it was implemented as part of the school safety system. To feck with testing EVERYONE now.

Start as you mean to go on and implement 1 and 3 in school's and then 2 into the driving test.

Also check out their cycling tips

http://www.ingenie.com/blog/2012/08/sharetheroaduk-tips-for-cyclists

I've been cycling for nearly 40 years. So far, touch wood, I've never had a collision with another vehicle and I count myself extremely lucky. I hold a full clean driving licence and I also did my Cycling Proficiency Badge at the age of 7. I no longer have the badge. Absolutely gutted about that.

I have to say that I find holding a driving licence extremely useful because it helps you to understand how motorists drive. They are absolutely desperate to save just 2 seconds and to get home 2 seconds earlier so that they can get home and plonk themselves down on the sofa in front of Eastenders. They drive as if it is the end of the world if they get home 2 minutes late. I, however, have realised that whether I cycle like a madman or cycle gently in my neighbourhood (central London), the time difference is negligible.

When are motorists going to realise that the price of a life (or serious injury) could be just 2 minutes? It really isn't worth it. The TV programme can wait.

BTW, would I be required to undergo extra training? It is the motorists who require the training, not us. They are the one's driving 2 tons lumps of metal. If I cycle badly, 99% of the time it is me that will get injured, not another road user.

I think the first two ideas sound reasonable to me

Following the Olympics there is much talk on sporting activities. Cycling is the only sport that can be easily incorporated into a regular life. Encouraging more children to cycle to school would be an excellent idea, and some form of cycle training may be useful in that context

Likewise I am all for compulsory cycle training for would-be motorists. In fact could not Ingenie start the ball rolling by offering cycle training to all its clients? It might be a cheaper option than offering them F1 technology

The latter idea is just way to complicated to be feasible and is a non starter.

It seems an awful lot of companies want to jump on the cycling safety bandwagon.

My children had cycle training in Year 6 and the second proposal is fine. The third, well, you might as well have compulsory training for everyone to learn how to be a pedestrian, (actually - that wouldn't be a bad idea - maybe I should write that every pedestrain should have a helmet, training and maybe a registration number on the back of their coat).

Quote:

* Mandatory cycle safety should be included in the national curriculum for both primary and secondary schools to help promote co-operation and tolerance between the motorists and cyclists of the future.
* Mandatory cycle safety elements should be included in the driving theory and practical test.
* Compulsory training and testing for cyclists before they take to the road.

The first two proposals aren't actually bad ones. The third, OTOH...

Andy