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James May (CC BY-SA 2.0 licence by Airwolfhound:Flickr)Top Gear's James May hits out at "complete bollocks" bike lanes and the myth of 'road tax'
In an interview giving his support for The Times Cities fit for cycling campaign, Top Gear presenter James May has slammed the poor quality of many bike lanes, demolished the idea that 'road tax' gives drivers more rights on the streets and called for an end to "road sectarianism".
“I’m all for bicycles in cities,” May told The Times' Kaya Burgess. “We use bicycles to go around locally and also for fun occasionally. Typically, our bike rides would be three or four miles. I go to the shops on it.”
May owns three bikes, and has been riding since the age of three. He said he supported the Commons transport committee recent call for the government to spend £600 million a year on cycling.
"I think that is fair enough,” he said
He added, however, that many cycle lanes found on roads were “complete bollocks” and created confusion rather than improved safety. Urban planners should spend more time riding bikes to understand what was needed, he said.
May also came out in support of segregated cycle lanes on roads.
He said: “That would take a lot of brains and thought, but it is an essentially good idea.
“Cycling is becoming more popular in London, there are a lot of bikes and people are starting to recognise that they need to be accommodated.
“There are so many more bicycles now than there were, say, a decade ago, that people notice them and subconsciously we are modifying the way we drive around town.
“There are people who talk about wanting to make safety clothing mandatory, road tax for bicycles, registering them and insuring them,” he added. “I think all that stuff is utter nonsense. The whole point of the bike is that you get on it and you ride it and you can ride it when you’re a kid or when you’re absolutely flat broke and it’s so agile.”
And speaking of road tax, May clearly understands that it doesn't afford drivers any extra rights, and, indeed, isn't a road tax at all.
"The roads belong to everybody,” he said. “That old argument that ‘I pay road tax and the bicycle doesn’t’ often isn’t true. In any case, roads are funded centrally so the tax [from Vehicle Excise Duty] doesn’t actually go on roads, so no one has a greater right to the road than anybody else, that’s nonsense.”
While he supports better cycling facilities, May thinks the curent situation could be helped if we all just got along better.
“We need to get rid of road sectarianism,” he said. “Car drivers supposedly hate cyclists, cyclists hate taxi drivers, taxi drivers hate motorcyclists, bus drivers hate lorries. I just think if everybody was a little bit more pragmatic, that would do more for safety.”
He added that cyclists should look for quiet backstreet routes to avoid dangerous roads and suggested that it was reasonable for cyclists to ride “slowly and carefully” on wide pavements.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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53 comments
Agree with the 'complete bollocks' cycling lane comment. If you're using some bit of cycling infrastucture for the first time you invariably end up stopped and wondering where to go next, often wishing you'd just stuck to the road. That said, it only takes a couple of journeys to get it 'sussed' out and then you can make a more accurate assessment as to whether it's 'complete bollocks' or not.
Good, and utterly unsurprising.
If it may be permitted to piss on the bonfire... far too often cycling advocacy comes with a "with us or against us" mentality.
Okay, there are some people who are just dicks and hate all cyclists. But there are plenty, like mr may, who might have little interest in promoting cycling - but are perfectly sensible people, who can recognise that - in this case - bike lanes are sometimes crap, that's not the fault of cyclists and it's in everyone's interest to fix that. They just need to be treated as such - give them the facts, let them make the decision, instead of the "don't agree with us? CYCLIST HATER!" approach I so often see.
At last sensible comments from Mr May.
It then begs the question WTF was that crass idiotic film shown about cycling on Top Gear about.
Heavily influenced by Clarkson methinks
Playing to their audience.
Exactly this. They are essentially caricatures of themselves when on the show, as that's what Joe Public wants.
They are professional idiots.
or the programme producers who are the content gatekeepers ...
or the programme producers who are the content gatekeepers ...
You do realise that its an entertainment magazine style programme not a documentary don't you.
BTW Hammond is also a cyclist in real life. see my comment above.
also read this:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3755751.ece
it's what Clarkson thinks when he is being a journo and not an entertainer.
Willing to believe all the presenters actually cycle, and have more nuanced views on the subject that one might think.
I don't think that excuses their behaviour on Top Gear, and the effect that has.
The sectarianism May complains about is writ large in Top Gear. He wants to make a difference to the driving culture in this country, he doesn't need to go very far to see one of the influences on it.
What they do on the telly is banter. These are comedic formulaic positions that make people smile even at their own ridiculousness. The argument as to whether a particular ferrari is better than a particular porsche is Pythonesque in being straight from a secondary school playground. Hardly anyone in the audience has either one let alone a chance to compare and they probably don't care either, it's the banter that they are amused by. This is motoring and a general interest in cars used as a backdrop to an entertainment programme that relies on humour via banter.
It's a game that blokey blokes play elsewhere such as which premiership right back is the best. There is no answer, It can go on forever. It saves you having to talk about serious stuff and ruining the atmosphere. Banter is an essential part.
http://road.cc/content/news/112411-top-cycling-well-what-did-you-expect
“Work Harder. Get a car.”
Yeah, great work crossing the Sectarian divide there. When people actually have 'get a car' shouted at them on the street, for no other reason than that they are cycling, it's disingenuous to claim 'It's just a bit of a laugh' and that Top Gear has no part of creating, and reinforcing, a culture that doesn't take cycling, and the lives of cyclists, seriously.
“Cyclists: red and green – learn the bloody difference.”
Thus suggesting that cyclists are a victim of their own lawlessness, when STATS19 shows us that the biggest danger to people on bikes is drivers not looking, or not seeing.
Clarkson, May and Hammond may be cyclists. How many of their viewers are?
It's only banter when all parties understand and appreciate the joke.
http://road.cc/content/news/112411-top-cycling-well-what-did-you-expect
“Work Harder. Get a car.”
Yeah, great work crossing the Sectarian divide there. When people actually have 'get a car' shouted at them on the street, for no other reason than that they are cycling, it's disingenuous to claim 'It's just a bit of a laugh' and that Top Gear has no part of creating, and reinforcing, a culture that doesn't take cycling, and the lives of cyclists, seriously.
“Cyclists: red and green – learn the bloody difference.”
Thus suggesting that cyclists are a victim of their own lawlessness, when STATS19 shows us that the biggest danger to people on bikes is drivers not looking, or not seeing.
Clarkson, May and Hammond may be cyclists. How many of their viewers are?
It's only banter when all parties understand and appreciate the joke.[/quote]
EXACTLY
Why should we be supposed to be thankful when one of these characters doesn't come out with wilful anti-cycling prejudice? We need a hell of a lot more than someone who goes along with car sue and attitudes which are anti-cycling coming along with a "I'm a nice guy really" image.
He needs to repudiate those attitudes thoroughly (which would mean him probably losing his job). A lot more is required than "why don't we all get along" banality. And if lots of money is spent on cycling, when it involves space being taken away from motor traffic and car parking, is he going to be onside then?
Does he really support real measures to deli with rule and law breaking driving through enforcement and sentencing, as well genuinely pro-cycling highway 9and car) engineering? I doubt it.
I think you'll find that some people on here have their prejudices stuck so far up their .... that this is simply being ignored
The article linked was written by Kaya Burgess, and not Jemery Clarkson although he is at one point quoted.
I have held a fondness for Top Gear over the years, and I welcome May's comments. I am aware that Hammond rides (and has even made a documentary about bike couriers), and I am aware that even Clarkson can see sense in Copenhagen's transport network. However, regardless of what they truly think, Top Gear DOES all too often cross promote the kind of road sectarianism that May would reportedly like to see the end of. It's hard to hear a quote on the subject without thinking this relevant. To quote... umm, Batman, "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me". Thanks, Batman!
Of course, I am at least glad to see May talking sense through some outlet (there's pretty much nothing I don't strongly agree with), but I would prefer if it the voice for which he is most known wasn't in such direct opposition to these goals.
You appear to have swapped the above text from an interview with Saint Boardman.
File this alongside Clarkson's likewise excellent pro-cycling 'I'd live [in Copenhagen] in a heartbeat' article: http://road.cc/content/news/56433-jeremy-clarkson-turns-cycling-advocate...
That James May, always liked him. Top bloke. He should just get rid of those other two tossers*, bring back Quentin Wilson, and Top gear could be watchable again.
* To be fair, Richard 'Hamster' Hammond's views on caravans are wreathed in righteousness.
But Richard Hammond is also an avid cyclist.
"The truth is I've always loved cycling, ever since I was a kid. I do think that if you have a meeting in London and it's 45 minutes away, you can get in an hour-and-a-half's decent aerobic exercise."
"I've lost count of the times I've pulled up to the lights on my shiny Specialized bicycle and heard someone yell, 'Hey, mate, where's your Ferrari?'"
Indeed, it was Hammond that took a bike a few years ago when they raced across London, against a car, public transport and a boat.
And he won!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOzNK4l8KY
That in itself doesn't stop him from being a tosser on the telly.
Nice article by Clarkson. But in itself doesn't stop him from being a tosser on the telly either.
Top Gear used to be watchable, not lads' testosterone fodder
I think you mean Quentin "Two L's" Willson. That Tiffany Dell was the real talent anyway.
It was only later, when I was thinking of Top Gear before it was crap, that I thought I should have included Tiff Needel (sp?) and, at a push, Vicki Doublebarelled-surname. They were fun.
You mean the entire presenter team from fifth gear (before the beardy and the skinny guy took over).
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