New Clause 3 - Cycle lights
Road Safety Bill
10:30 am
Mr Greg Knight (Shadow Minister, Environment and Transport; East Yorkshire, Conservative)
I welcome this debate, which is why I put my name to the new clause. I support most of what my two hon. Friends have said, although, on reflection, I think that the drafting of the new clause may be defective. It seems to me that, as it is drafted, it would probably be lawful to have a flashing orange or green beacon. That is not what we are trying to achieve. We are trying to have a debate and to get the Minister to focus on the issue.
On the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton (Mr. Flook) about the police, I really do think that there is a problem. The police seem to be totally unwilling to bring pedal cyclists to heel when they are clearly breaking the law. In all my years on the road as a keen motorist, I have never once seen a cyclist pulled over by the police for breaking the law. I encounter many cyclists, some of them dressed in dark clothing, late at night, with no lights at all on their bike. Others sail through traffic lights and others, as we heard earlier, are not properly in control of their cycle because they are using a mobile phone while riding. If the Minister does anything, it should be to tell his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary that we want more police action against cyclists who break the law and put their own lives at risk.