Mutual Respect on the Road

As children, many of us were taught to ride a bike, taking its learning as one of our first most outstanding feats. Over the years, this children’s entertainment has become more of a sustainable and practical alternative to go anywhere. In fact, the use of the bicycle is increasing as it is seen more and more as an efficient, economical, healthy and environmentally friendly form of travel.

Urban mobility is also evolving, with the onset of small electrically powered vehicles, such as e-scooters, becoming an increasingly common occurrence.

Cyclists were already amongst some of the most vulnerable road users, to which we must now also add e-scooters, in all of their forms, and whilst talking about vulnerable road users, we must not dismiss pedestrians.

The first thing we must all acknowledge is that the road is a shared space. Nobody has any more or any less rights to be there, with the expectation of emergency vehicles responding to a situation, so whatever so-called pecking order you might assume, it is wrong. A bicycle, an e-scooter, a car, a bus, a tank, whatever the vehicle might be, it has the same right to be in that space as you do. Of course, there are certain roads and lanes which are reserved, restricted, and obligatory for certain vehicles, but we are talking in general terms.

Now we have got that point clear, we will expand and explain that as a road user, on a shared space, with as much right to be there as everyone else, all vehicles and their drivers also share the same responsibilities.

When you are at a stop sign, stop line, or red light, for example, you must stop your vehicle. This applies to ALL vehicles. In the case of those in a vulnerable position not having the protection of a metal case around them, such as cyclists, e-scooter riders, etc, by passing these stop indicators without stopping puts you in an even more vulnerable position. A stop sign, in whatever form, is not there just to make you stop, it is to make you stop and ensure that the way is clear before proceeding. Stopping allows you extra time to do this, rather than just giving way. Stop signs, as an example, will protect the most precarious junctions, such as those where visibility is restricted.

All road signs serve one purpose, and that purpose it not to look pretty or give you something to look at, it is to warn of a risk or danger and the appropriate action you should or must carry out in order to reduce that risk.

There are specific requirements for different vehicles, but in this article, we wanted to share two very important messages, the first being that, as we said, roads are shared spaces, so we must all respect each other, and secondly, that traffic law, in whatever form, is designed to keep us safer, and so our compliance is not just a way of avoiding fines, it is a way of keeping everyone that little bit safer.