Birmingham MP needs Birmingham drivers to vote him out.

Drivers see Richard Burden's nonsense here.

The old stunt. Use walkers to justify expense on road cycling. 

I have written to him thus: 

Dear Mr Burden,

In your call for more walking and cycling I am not clear of the connection between the two.

Without walkers we would all die and without cyclists no-one would notice very much. To deny that would be unrealistic.

Walkers have more in common with drivers since both depend on each other but not cycling.

Since mankind took to the horse, camel, and bullock, society grew and expanded. We moved on via chariots, wagons, coaches, traps, carts, and carriages to the present day successors the motor vehicle in all its forms. Society wasn't  built on man powered transport at all. Now for all purposes and certainly since the fifties, horses and bicycles on roads are obsolete.

Roads, like railways and runways are essential infrastructure yet we don't allow the unnecessary mingling and mixing of humans and animals on railways and runways do we?

The definition of road cycling is, for a human on two skinny wheels and a slender frame, to mix, mingle, obstruct and compete with large essential fast moving machines, operated by complete strangers of varying ability and mental capacity. Do you accept that is an accurate definition? If so then you will realise that, if it were not cycling, such risk wouldn't be tolerated. Just take UK's 2015's fatal figures - already 13 at 24th January- then countless injuries too.

And the fact is that, unlike drivers and walkers, society doesn't need cycling at all; it's merely the choice of a minority who all depend on motor transport 

 One could argue that because of driven transport, life expectancy has gone up and not down, it's hardly evidence of it being 'unhealthy'. Whereas these cycling deaths and injuries tend to show that cycling is very unhealthy indeed.

Are you an MP who thinks that we must force our population to walk and cycle more if they don't want to or simply don't have the time to? If cycling was fit for purpose and a viable transport mode perhaps more of the 99% of sixty million who don't do it would have been doing it already. The fact is that it is uncomfortable, hard work made worse by cold, wind and rain so there are far better safer ways to get exercise than from road cycling. Can you really explain why all these people must support and pay for an activity they do not do or do not need?

I am pretty certain that those who want to walk, more than they already do, can do so without any extra dedicated paths so this really isn't about walking at all but cycling isn't it?

I note that you are a member of the All Party Justice on Our Roads Group. In that case, perhaps you may demand a much fairer burden of evidence to jail drivers for long periods at least to the same standards of evidence required against criminals like robbers, assailants and murderers. 

In the meantime, I will keep drivers informed of your priorities for their work in keeping the UK in business.

Wishes

See anti driver politicians: Here