Darlington councillors call for town centre bike ban after pensioner suffers brain injury in fall

Call me cynical but I wonder if councillors Coultas and Thistlewaite haven't been waiting for any excuse to ban cycling because they "know" it is dangerous despite any pesky evidence to the contrary. Unfortunately Darlington isn't alone in facing cycling bans "for the sake of the: choose one children/elderly/blind/terminally unobservant. Mr Coates' accident is a personal tragedy and the family has my sympathy but that is no excuse for councillors to exercise their personal bias. Decisions ought to be made based on evidence not knee jerk reactions.

So 2 outgroups named here, cyclists & youth's, just need to add Muslim's & they have a full house, no evidence needed just an unsubstantiated allegation. Sounds like the Councillor would attend the opening of an envelope if it got him press time.

This was a terrible accident but as far as I understand from the local press there is no evidence that bikes were involved and certainly none that there was a collision.

You are very unlikely to be run over by a bike in Darlington town centre and much more likely to end up under a bus or taxi or under a car entering or leaving the car park. Darlington is not a very pedestrian friendly pedestrian area.

As for people not visiting the town for mortal fear of bicycles, I think you might find the parking charges for what is a fairly limited range of shops and the terrible traffic due to the roadworks are more to blame, both deterrents to visitors which were implemented by the councillors complaining about bikes

Ah yes, don't cycle into Darlo town centre, you can't drive because it costs £5 a day to park and you wouldn't visit anyway because there's nothing there any more.

Also, given the guy was startled by some kids on BMX's how does he cope with the fantastically moronic bus station in the middle of a pedestrian zone?

I will add however, that the council organised rides from Dolphin Centre, are superb!

The issue in this debate, is Darlington Council who suffer so badly from jumping on every bandwagon that they'd probably join a petition for them all to be shot at dawn.

Also note that Darlington is/was a cycling town and I think (can't be bothered to google) that the road is a sustrans route.

lol Darlo is a joke, look at what happened with their buses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlington_Bus_War

As the default position in this country is to blame the victim regardless of circumstances - Lets ban all pedestrians from pedestrianized areas. After all "one accident is too many".

On a serious note I wish Mr Coates a full and speedy recovery.

The risk of cycling for the general population is 20 times the risk of not cycling (CTC claims).

Older people are going to have more risk from not cycling/exercising (from diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers) and hopefully less risk from cycling (cycling without lights while drunk).

Freudian? - "...it is preventing some people from shopping in the town centre..."

This article is factually incorrect for starters. Original story is http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/11466528.Search_for_boys_on_bikes_...

The gentleman was a pedestrian who fell and hit his head after either being startled by a few youths on bikes, or possibly one of them colliding with him, although I don't think that was ever proved.

This call is mad though.

Vehicles are allowed in D'ton centre, it is not fully pedestrianised. There is quite high traffic movement along part of Skinnergate as it is an exit from a car park.

Do those councillors call for bans of cars after every car crash? There was a well published hit & run in Darlington a year or two back where a child was killed. Where were the councillor's shrill cries then? that driver's never been traced btw.

Can we also make a call for pedestrian helmets, as they would have possibly helped this gentleman, also had he taken every precaution and worn hivis...

Dare I use the 'h' word..?

Man falls of bike, bikes outlawed.
'Nanny state' at its worst.

A man died in an accident involving a lorry and a car on the A19 in August. How about a ban on cars and lorries?