James May believes much of the anti-cycling opposition out there “smacks of sheer bloody-mindedness” and has been left wondering why councils “are being t***s” when it comes to providing cycle lanes and other cycling infrastructure.
The presenter is most famous for his role on the BBC motoring show Top Gear and The Grand Tour alongside Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson, the latter having made regular headlines throughout his career with comments about cycling; however, thankfully, May has never listened to his loud-mouthed colleague and recently told the London Cycling Campaign all about his love for life on two wheels, his views on cycling issues, and about the “over 25 bicycles” he now owns, including three Bromptons, a 1980s Moser and an Orbea Orca.
Commenting on councils who refuse to accommodate cyclists with safe and accessible infrastructure, May suggested “some of it smacks of sheer bloody-mindedness”.
“Kensington & Chelsea Council says it’s not going to have any cycling infrastructure — well why not? There’s plenty of space. Big wide roads. Why are they being t***s about it?
“Most of the anti-cycling rage that I read, like that nonsense in the Daily Telegraph about bicycles doing 50mph, is clearly just rubbish. The most I’ve ever managed according to my Garmin is 31mph and that was downhill in Richmond Park, and the world record is something like 40mph. I don’t understand how the editors and subeditors could have looked at that front page and not thought, hang on a minute.”
May lives in London but says he “hates” driving in the city and “avoids” it as “it feels like a totally pointless activity”.
“Obviously I’ve spent a lot of time over the years writing about cars and making TV about them, and I love cars, but I do think in my bones they don’t really belong in towns,” he continued. “Cars are great for going between places, like from London to my pub in Wiltshire. But within London I don’t want to drive the car, and when I’m down in the village in Wiltshire I don’t want to drive around either.
“Bicycles are a genuine door-to-door transport solution. Cycling is fantastic in cities. Even Google Maps will acknowledge that a bicycle is quicker for some journeys than a car. It amazes me that people go to the shops a mile away in the car. The world has proved that bicycles make immense sense in densely populated areas.
“The bicycle is the only thing in physics that seems to give you something for nothing. I’m still amazed by it now. A bicycle massively improves the efficiency of the walking human being, and on the whole they are much easier to maintain and buy than horses. It is no coincidence that lots of the world’s great car manufacturers — Peugeot, Škoda, BMW, Rover — started off by making bicycles.”
While the former Top Gear host says he doesn’t feel responsible for promoting car use, adding that “people were mad about cars long before we started talking rubbish about them on the telly”, he quickly pointed out that “people get very complacent driving” and that should be a “massive privilege” and come with responsibility to protect other people’s safety.
“Cars are marvellous things, but we have to use them with a great deal of care and discretion, otherwise they’ll be taken away from us. And it’s not, the government, it’s not ‘The Man’ — it will end up being legal tenability and the weight of public opinion. People get very complacent driving cars, because it’s easy, and you are very protected and you’re very isolated inside your car. It’s easy to forget that there’s a huge amount of energy inside a car, even when it’s only going 20 or 30mph.
“It’s a massive privilege having a car and you have to take it seriously. That’s why my only remaining ambition, apart from not falling off my bike again, is to get to the end of my life without running anybody over.”
“I think the best thing you could do with the driving test is make a part of it on a bicycle”
Calling the cycling lobby at times “a bit po-faced”, May urged cycling campaigners to be “more humorous” and “emphasise the fun” of riding a bike. Ultimately, however, he too wants cycling represented in public policy and discussion, “maybe [with] a central government Minister of Cycling” and has ideas for how to improve the driving test too.
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“I was involved in the development of an app for the UK driving theory test,” he continued. “People go on about all sorts of ways to improve driving training: why don’t we test young people on the motorway, why don’t we retest people over 60? But I think the best thing you could do with the driving test is make a part of it on a bicycle.
“The thing that really bothers me is road sectarianism. Quite a few people in cars seem to be somehow offended by people riding bicycles because they’ve paid all this money for a car and think therefore they should be rewarded for it, but often they’re just not using the car very intelligently. And some people don’t use their bicycles very intelligently either! I find it baffling that people can’t get on a bit better and have a more of a give-and-take attitude.”
The quotes come from the same London Cycling Campaign interview which last week we shared briefly on the live blog, May having called people on bikes “really just pedestrians”. He has long-since stood up for cycling, last year rubbishing “nonsense” ideas to regulate cyclists more strictly in response to a fatal collision in London.
May said regulation was “completely against the spirit” of riding a bike and “trying to cure the world’s problems by adding more admin is pointless and expensive and makes life miserable”, the comments coming as the previous Conservative government’s final Transport Secretary weighed up tougher laws for cyclists and media debates centred around calls for number plates, registration and mandatory insurance.
Back in 2022, May spoke to us for a lengthy interview on the road.cc YouTube channel, again expressing his belief that “road sectarianism” is “all b******s”.
A year later he made headlines by arguing 20mph is “plenty fast enough”, supporting 20mph speed limits in urban and residential areas. In October he was forced to complete a charity cycle in a car after “busting wrist” in bike crash on a three-day cycle organised by classical music company Armonico Consort to raise funds for dementia charities.
8 thoughts on “James May tells councils to stop being “t***s” and build more cycle lanes”
There’s plenty to dislike
There’s plenty to dislike about what Top Gear did to discourse around motoring and cycling, but I’m really grateful it gave Mr May the platform to do things like this.
I think the big problem with
I think the big problem with Top Gear is that so many people watch it forgetting that it’s an entertainment show, rather than something factual. There were already lots of people who were car obsessed and narrow minded in their views about road use etc, and unfortunately it seemed to give them the impression that that’s what the majority of people believe.
If only there was a way to get May’s “lets all be a little bit more reasonable and sensible” message across in the same way that the ranty shouty car first messaging seems to manage to.
RobD wrote:
If the BBC (or someone else) managed that, maybe we could finally have our own Stop De Kindermoord and a mainstream popular grass roots movement to get cycling infrastructure.
I know, I’m dreaming. I can live in hope!
It should just count as
It should just count as “fantasy” or “niche sporting interest (motor racing / rallying)” …
… except that is in fact part of how the motor industry sells cars.
So while motoring is a ubiquitous activity now, the objection is this kind of show is basically government-backed * propaganda reinforcing ** many of the troubling ideas and behaviours around motoring. Which are in fact ones in the fantasy the industry’s marketing folks are selling.
(You can be a little boy again *** – let’s ignore consequences! Who has the biggest or fanciest or fastest go-kart wins! Here’s to tearing it up and breaking the boring rules!)
Pretty sure this wouldn’t fly in the same way for e.g. a food programme which continually bigged up **** the fast food / high sugar and caffeine / boozing sides of the business, via glorifying eating contests and adults “going wild” during benders on energy drinks and/or spirits.
Of course … troublesome food consumption has stigma attached. But motoring …?
* Via special deal with licence fee, and yes the BBC isn’t quite as heavily state-controlled as e.g. most media in more autocratic countries, but there is a strong relationship.
** I’m sure they’d say “sending up some of the ridiculous opinions and behaviours around motoring” – a fine line perhaps?
*** As with many things it does appear to be mainly men targetted.
**** Aa-ha!
Many people have previously
Many people have previously suggested requiring learner drivers take up cycling as part of their training.
This would have several benefits including hopefully highlighting how cheap it is, how easy it should be to get around on a bike whilst being convenient for shorter single user journeys, help people get healthier as well as the obvious safety aspect of making people understand the dangers posed by drivers to vulnerable road users.
I appreciate not everyone can cycle, but that should be an extremely small minority in terms of overall population.
Fingers crossed that having someone of his status highlight this will make it happen.
I am not as confident as you
I am not as confident as you on this one. At best … I hope it would not be counter-productive.
Witness all the “I’m a cyclist myself, and I’d have no problem cycling there / with that close pass / would never have cycled into that situation / would have been happy dismounting at every driveway…”
Without measures in place to keep people cycling ** I think this idea is just another hurdle to clear which people will forget as soon as they’ve passed. Like always keeping to the speed limit and not driving on footways and cycle paths.
Many younger children have the experience of cycling, and some even get lessons. Yet very few of them are cycling by the time they’re in their teens and once settled into working life, even fewer. Lots of people go to college / university in the UK – and with cycling being cheap and cycles pretty easy to store you’d think that group would already be strongly incentivised to cycle.
Statistically, it’s very safe to cycle on the roads. (I’ve mentioned cheap / storeable). Cycling is less effort than walking. The weather in the UK is temperate, very few people live up mountainsides, many trips people make are within cycleable distances *.
People could cycle – but in the UK they don’t.
* It would take lots of measures! Some appear to be *necessary* for mass cycling, including high-quality separate infra where motor vehicle speeds or volumes are high. And cycling a trip being attractive *relativel* to driving it, which currently may require driving that trip be made *less* attractive as well as the cycling experience being improved.
** Cycleable for “average people” – doesn’t just mean “physically possible” but “people would do it without much thought” – so that’s probably below 3 miles and likely closer to 1.
Unfortunately politics is the
Unfortunately politics is the problem. Our councillors pander to the anti-cyclist NIMBYs, especially when local elections are due. The government need to step in and make them provide adequate cycling infrastructure. If Starmer wants to stop NIMBYism this would be a good place to start.
Could not agree more with
Could not agree more with James. I live in an area with lots of off road cycle paths but theres a lack road cycle lanes for sure and with more and more cars on the road its something that needs to change.