Paul Burke

Of course cycling is right-wing

(Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

Three cheers for Jeremy Vine. At last someone has pointed out that cycling in cities is inherently right-wing.

Full disclosure: I’m a cyclist. I may not own a square inch of fluorescent or Lycra apparel; I may not terrorise motorists with violently bright and flashing lights but I’ve been riding a bike around London since I was a child.

However, whereas Jeremy celebrates the right-wing triumphalism of cycling — asserting that he and other cyclists ‘are acting out of primal selfishness’ — I’m mortally embarrassed by it. Cycling is the exclusive preserve of the very few and the very able. As for cycle lanes, which pander to a tiny and privileged elite at the expense of the vast majority, they’re undemocratic and wrong.

I’d like a fairer and more socialist use of road space, which is why I’d remove all cycle lanes

This morning, as I sailed down a wide and empty cycle line, I again felt my rucksack weighing me down with guilt and shame at the sight of those poor people alongside me; squashed against their will into 50 per cent of the roads they paid for. Helpless, gridlocked and trapped by authoritarian policies which suggest that their time — their lives — aren’t as important as mine.

I’ve often wondered who they are. Some might be teachers late for school or NHS workers trying to get home to sleep after an exhausting night shift. Sometimes I can see exactly who they are; firefighters, paramedics and delivery drivers prevented from carrying out vital, possibly life-saving work.

But if you’re one of those right-wing cyclists, how much do you care? Isn’t shaving ten minutes off your journey time far more important?

Right-wing people are also stereotypically unconcerned with the environment. This may be why a coterie of cyclists were advocating a scheme to destroy 23 of the large and beautiful trees along Notting Hill Gate to create a five mile cycle lane exclusively for them.

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