“Don’t give it air time. Don’t answer stupid questions”: Chris Boardman shuts down cycling registration ‘debate’ | road.cc
Chris Boardman has shut down any residual attention on the idea that cyclists should need registration numbers and licences to use the roads, and stressed “regardless of the headlines” people want to see more cycling and walking.
Speaking to BikeBiz magazine, the National Active Travel Commissioner said the best way to approach talk of licences, registration and number plates is simply to avoid giving the debate any air time — “You don’t answer stupid questions,” he concluded.
> Is there anywhere cyclists are required to be licensed, and how has it gone in the past?
Boardman’s comments come a couple of months withdrawn from the height of the summer heat, kicked up by then-Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ words in the Daily Mail (and subsequent backtracking) suggesting he would like to see stricter rules for cyclists.
Nonetheless, U-turn or not, Shapps’ damage was done and prompted a string of frontpage splashes, talk show specials and TV ‘debates’ digging up culture-warring divisions now centred on the UK’s roads and who should get to use them, and how.
