Enforce ‘no bicycles’ on all the highways

THE EDITOR: The first local dual carriageway on which I travelled was the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway sometime in the 1970s. There are prominent signs at all entrances to the highway stating that no bicycles, pedestrians, mopeds and animals are allowed.

Despite this, the law continues to be flouted with impunity, sometimes aided and abetted by the police. Many times I’ve seen a bunch of cyclists using the highway illegally for training, being escorted by police on motorbikes.

The Hochoy Highway has four lanes, two in each direction. The Uriah Butler and Beetham Highways have six lanes, three in each direction. There are signs on the Butler prohibiting bicycles. I’m not sure about the Beetham.

Even if there are no such signs, I cannot imagine that the intention is to prohibit cyclists from the Hochoy and Butler but to allow them on the Beetham. The Butler merges seamlessly into the Beetham – it’s merely a change of name.

More than likely, any lack of signage is an oversight, or the authorities did not envisage that a cyclist would even contemplate riding on a six-lane highway.

The recent tragic deaths of two cyclists on the Beetham have brought the issue into focus. It has caused a knee-jerk reaction in some quarters, with some people calling for measures to enable cyclists to more “safely” use our highways. That is not the answer.

We do not have a culture of cycling on our highways as a means of transportation (as in Holland, for instance). Here, you can drive for months on the highway and not see a single cyclist. (I drive south-north almost every day and cannot remember the last time I encountered one.) It is a bit much to ask motorists to be constantly on the lookout for cyclists who appear so infrequently. In any case, vigilance will wane after a while.

No, the answer is simpler – enforce the law. It seems that cyclists have become so used to breaking the law with impunity that they now view it as their right to ride on the highway.

The reality is that the disparity in speed and size between a car and a bicycle is too risky to allow both on the highway. If anything positive could come out of this tragedy, it must be a strict prohibition of cycling on all our major highways. It would save many families future heartbreak.

NOEL KALICHARAN via e-mail