Motorbikes are friends, not foes

I read today's Guardian blog about a renewed trial scheme allowing motorcyclists into bus lanes in London with interest.

I use bus lanes as a vital part of many bike journeys. Their placement before junctions makes it easier and safer to move past queued traffic and in many cases goes some way to making up for the woeful lack of dedicated bike lanes.

Generally they are pretty empty as well, and I usually wind up overtaking many of the frequently stopping buses I encounter in them.

And actually I don't have much issue with motorbikes being allowed into them, or, for that matter, sharing ASL 'bike boxes' with them.

The pro-cycling lobby suggests it makes things more dangerous for us to have motorcylists swishing past at speed, and it's true that they have a point; for new cyclists in particular it must be very disconcerting to have motorbikes swishing by at speed, and the Cyclists' Touring Club makes the serious point that motorcycle journey times dropped dramatically during bus lane trials, suggesting a lot of them were speeding.

However, I think sometimes we have to suck it up and deal with other road users on sensible terms.

Too many cyclists seem to think that their opinion and ease of movement is all that matters, and this short-sighted attitude does not endear us to the people whose respect we need to win as fellow road users.

Yes, it's true that we are vulnerable on the roads and raising awareness of this is of the utmost importance.

But there needs to be some give and take. If we're to complain at drivers for edging into the ASL or passing too close or the myriad of other sins they commit we also need to show at least some willingness to get our house in order, no?

To me, this means stopping on red, signalling lane changes clearly and safely, waiting in traffic if it is unsafe to move and absolutely not hopping on and off the pavement.

As two-wheeled road users, it seems to me that motorcyclists suffer from a lot of the same problems as we do; the two lobbies are natural allies and it seems silly, not to mention rather pointless, to be scrapping with them.

The real enemy is two tonnes of speeding metal with an Audi badge on the front. There's no reason why leather and lycra can't get along.