Could everyone ride to work?

I was thinking earlier today about the ideal situation to reduce congestion, whereby everyone commuted by bike unless they really needed a car that day (transporting more than one passenger/large objects). Whilst it'd be great and we'd all get to work sooner, would it actually be feasible? I recognise it's never going to happen, but if it did, would it actually work? Would tens of thousands of young men off themselves due to riding like loons? Would cagers be hitting people off their bikes constantly and perhaps most importantly, would the NHS be able to cope with the increased strain due to the large number of accidents? Perhaps you think the number of accidents would drop off/remain the same as there were fewer cars and better provision for motorbikes when designing roads? Would the fun of biking be reduced slightly if everyone did it?

44 Views and no replies? Surely it's not that bad a topic...

[Luckypants]

Have you seen the bike / scooter congestion in places like Bangkok?

[SoulKiss]

Too many questions in your post for brief answers.

A better question would be

"Do you think that we should only have one driving test that includes Bike Riding AND Car Driving"

This would entail spending time in/on both types of vehicle, to give an appreciation of the differences and help drivers/riders be able to make better judgment on the road.

Or does this count as a hi-jack

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Too many questions in your post for brief answers.

A better question would be

"Do you think that we should only have one driving test that includes Bike Riding AND Car Driving"

This would entail spending time in/on both types of vehicle, to give an appreciation of the differences and help drivers/riders be able to make better judgment on the road.

Or does this count as a hi-jack

I agree to that, but whilst we're at it, why not take a leaf from my mates dad's book. My mate (the lucky whatsit) was boughtt a Ducati 996 a few years back, and his dad agreed to pay for insurance, tax, servicing everything (including my mates DAS to get on the thing in the first place). However, there were conditions on this.

His dad duly bought the bike, parked it in the garage, then locked the key away in his safe, explaining to my mate, that he could have the key the day that he could show his dad ALL the bike in bits. Not one part must have any other part attached to it, nor a bolt. It took my mate 6 months to carefully strip it, but strip it he did.

His dad then gave him the key, saying "That's great, well done. You can ride it now, but first you've got to put it back together." That took him around another 18 months, but all this was done on the principal that if anything ever goes wrong with it, my mate would have an idea of what was going on & how to fix it.

Maybe not take it to such an extreme (unless it's an obvious chav wanting to buy a scooter) though.

Well to comment on Ceri's post.

I think it would not work very well simply because your average jo public in the UK has no ability or interest in bikes (motor or cycle) unlike other countries where most are bought up on them.

You would have to have pretty draconian and unenforcable laws to enforce it.

Accidents would be through the roof, simply because a lot of people struggle to drive a car safely, a bike is harder.

Crazy idea sadly, but if you add some illegal substances and a canal you could call it Amsterdam

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Have you seen the bike / scooter congestion in places like Bangkok?

Have you seen the bike / scooter congestion in places like London?


Bike are great for commuting on as you can nip round all the cars, but once the level of bikes begins to rise it becomes a lot more dodgy - my main worry when commuting in London is not avoiding the cages & buses, but meeting another bike head on when filtering, or keeping an eye on scooters trying to undertake, etc

If the ratio of bikes to cars was to be reversed, it would certainly make for a more interesting ride

Originally Posted by Mr Toad

my main worry when commuting in London is not avoiding the cages & buses, but meeting another bike head on when filtering, or keeping an eye on scooters trying to undertake, etc

A very valid point, more than once I've had to cancel overtakes (within my lane) because someone coming the other way on a bike has decided to move into my path to execute their own overtake. A bike isn't the most fun vehicle for playing chicken on.

As Andy says, I also think an awful lot of people just wouldn't have the skill to commute by bike (I mean, a lot of them can't control a car even).

If the population continues to increase without development of more efficient transportation there is no reason why there wont be an increase in motorcyclists in the city. The traffic will slow down and peeps will naturally opt for alternative transport - just like our east asian brothers. The question is over the next 100 years will there be another alternative means of transport that will be more efficient than motorcycles - i.e. flying cars, airbourne motorways, high speed tube systems, teleports ???

An increase in motorcyclists will likely see an increase in safety for riders - maybe dedicated lanes, speed limitations, technically improved bikes etc.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Have you seen the bike / scooter congestion in places like Bangkok?

found this... video clip of traffic jam in Vietnam

and I reckon if we ever had this many bikes, you'd have to be a brave soul to ride a bike at any sort of speed