APPG 2030 Ban

Fair Fuel APPG for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers August 2021 Page | 54 There seems to be a deliberate policy to divide road users under the cover of a well- financed ill-informed green agenda. The Mayor of London in point, Sadiq Khan, remains hell-bent on driving a political and social wedge between cyclists and drivers. He’s plotting a dangerous strategy against drivers with his recent colossal and unnecessary Congestion Charge hikes, the further extension of his cash grabbing pay-to-pollute emission zone – and by fast-tracking the construction of free-to-use dedicated cycle lanes. All being implemented without consultation with businesses or that perennially main tax paying stakeholder, UK drivers ! The London Mayor knows there are votes in pushing cycling, fittingly borne out in a 2020 FairFuelUK survey of 25,000 road users, in which the contrast could not be starker. Some 87 per cent of dedicated London cyclists believe Mr Khan is doing a good job as mayor. To illustrate the growing divide though, just 3 per cent of drivers agree with them. Now this abyss between carbon-based fuel users and cyclists has been further widened by the Prime Minister’s recent gift of £2bn to cyclists – making this decision while knowing that £3bn has been lost in fuel duty during lockdown. The economic recovery will falter if car use is squeezed. Motorists did not vote for the Green Party in the General Election. But that is what we have got. Backbench Tories have told me they are uncomfortable with the government’s focus on the privileged cycling few. Its complete disdain for (and lack of consultation with) the highest-taxed drivers in the world in the form of Boris Johnson’s so-called “bold vision” for cyclists is a betrayal of huge proportions. Although only 3 per cent of journeys nationally are made by bicycle, their special treatment, using taxpayers and borrowed money, is set to decimate small businesses, the self-employed, low-income families and city economies. The Prime Minister and his cycling advisors are out of touch with economic reality and majority opinion. Forcing hard-pressed drivers out of their vehicles through such costly virtue signalling is as contemptible as it is regressive. The growing conflict in road policy is being fuelled by the delusional belief that cycling is the ultimate transport solution. Anyone who cycles to work in London lives close enough to make that journey – which means they are mostly well off and almost invariably white-collar. Few builders cycle to work on a building site for eight hours of manual labour and then cycle home again. The same analogy can be made for nurses! The PM’s policy is a subsidy for the already well-off middle class. Number 10’s special advisors (or SpAds) have got this one wrong too, with their promotion of combination cycling and train travel. Taking a cycle onto a commuter train steals passenger space for up to four people and so reduces their standing room on already overloaded trains by up to 75 per cent. Moreover, at the first sign of inclement weather, cycle lanes lie empty. Only a few ‘Tour de France’ fanatics take to pedal power when the only option is to get soaked, frozen or blown around on the way to work. Also, how many workplaces can tolerate dozens of staff queuing to the washroom to clean up before starting work? Already the world’s highest-taxed motorists, we make no apology repeating this fact. It rankles with British drivers, stuck in james, when the cycle lanes right next to them are empty and it is drivers and motorcyclists who pay for that road space. One might ask: where is the traditional Tory fiscal prudence now? For Boris’ sake, it’s good there is not an election tomorrow. His 80-seat majority would be crushed.