way to go!

Met Police chief says he would not choose to cycle in London but can understand why some, who are cash-strapped, do

via @pawoodman of the Press Association.

He has a point in a way, it is a very cost effective method of transport.

I presume he didn’t actually say the bit in the title that’s in Quotes ?

Public transport is for poor people. Cycling is for people who don’t like sitting in traffic and can’t afford helicopters.

This is an outrage!!

O’, wait

I presume he didn’t actually say the bit in the title that’s in Quotes ?

Cycling is for people who don’t like sitting in traffic and can’t afford helicopters.

So yes poor people

Sir Bernard said: “It seems to me that there’s a lot of traffic and personally I wouldn’t [cycle]. But of course some people don’t have the choice, economically it’s not easy you know.

“If you’ve got someone who can’t afford to take a car into the congestion zone – if they did, you can’t park it anyway. Some people they’ve got limited money and they can’t pay for public transport. I understand why they take the choice – it wouldn’t be mine.”

He was probably just wary of being spun into a “200K a year Sir Bernard “can’t understand why people don’t drive.” headline.

This is good though, means any response stories are going to be about health, journey time, convenience etc which is all stuff we want to see in the press.

But only morons drive into the Congestion Zone, or those to whom the cost is inconsequential (and morons).

Met Police chief says he would not choose to cycle in London but can understand why some, who are cash-strapped, do

Says Bernatrd Hogan Howe, a man in a very well paid job, with a full time police officer driver and expensive cars at his beck and call.

Has that man any idea of reality for a lot of us who choose to cycle, for fitness , the environment, and just to be in the fresh air.

wwaswas, are you having a quite/boring afternoon? The other thread makes sense, but as noted above the link between your title and what is being said here seems slightly tortuous!

So did he ACTUALLY say ” cycling in London is for poor people”?

No

He didn’t.

Yes it wasn’t a direct quote but the gist is that cycling is purely an economic decision made by the low paid/unwaged?

Seemed am odd thing to say and worth raising in a cycling forum, maybe not though.

the gist is that cycling is purely an economic decision made by the low paid/unwaged?

That’s not what he said though is it.

He said “some” people.

And that’s quite true. “Some” people do cycle because it’s the cheaper alternative.

If he had said “some” people in London cycle to keep fit, do you think all the people who don’t give a stuff about fitness would be complaining ?

“Some people they’ve got limited money and they can’t pay for public transport. I understand why they take the choice – it wouldn’t be mine.”

Wonder what his would be then? Rollerskates?

Did he mention earphones ?

😉

Ah, “the gist” ok fair enough.

I’m off to cook some fish fingers now..

I read it as ‘I can afford not to but some people (ie those without money) choose to’ I took the ‘some’ to be all those members of the population that cycle.

I think I don’t want to get into an stw nuance row though so I might stop now.

He also contradicted himself later, while calling it a “clarification”, so it’s OK now. 😀

Generally, when I look at folk in London I think ‘you poor, poor people’

It’s the poor suckers that go down to use the tubes that you feel sorry for…

Basically if you can park your bike securely then cycling is vastly more enjoyable and relieves the commuting ‘drudge’.

sorry to come back to this as I know my headline caused some concerns last time.

This interpretation of what he said is the same as the one I made originally but perhaps didn’t convey too well.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said last week that he would not cycle in London but understood why some people might if they could not afford to take public transport.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3933789.ece

(not paywalled)

It’s good to see a man who won’t cycle in London ‘cos it’s dangerous having people working for him who are choosing to target cyclists for a a quota of tickets issued rather than HGV’s so that their statistics look good;

I just can’t help but think, if he did his **** job properly, it would be safer.

What a dick – Do we know if ANY of the recently killed cyclists was committing a “ticketable offence” ?