Boardman’s no-brainer. And mine

In this piece, Chris Boardman quotes the number of deaths from nitrous oxide fumes – 23,500 a year – and says investment in cycling infrastructure is a no-brainer. But in the UK you are never sure if it’s going to blow or rain, and in hot weather who wants to arrive in a sweat and a lather? Also you can’t carry much stuff on a bike – I travel a lot with my guitar and/or laptop. There are countless reasons why cycling is an appropriate option only some of the time. This call for a modal shift to cycling strikes me as too one-sided and holier-than-thou for its own good. Quicker gains, which would also cut the annual 23,500-odd casualty toll from “accidents”, would result from scrapping the priority rule and the counterproductive regulation that goes with it.