Motoring website founder backs Boardman videos on overtaking cyclists

The co-founder of popular motoring website, www.motoring.co.uk, has hinted that clips starring Chris Boardman about overtaking cyclists should become public safety information videos.

On today's BBC Five Live Daily show, with Clare McDonnell, the motoring website's Chris Green said motorists "definitely" need to give cyclists more room on the roads, and the UK government needs to do more to educate drivers, while praising videos Space and Side by Side, released this week on that topic.

Chris Boardman also appeared on the show, in which both men were in agreement that more needs to be done to keep cyclists safe. Speaking in light of the viral video, Clown takes a Pratfall, Green said aggression on the roads is too common.

Green, whose website claims 850,000 user visits per month, said: "It's a problem, and I think the government need to do something about it as well. There was a time where we had a lot of public information films, back in the '70s and '80s, around road users and I think it's something that should be brought back, and certainly the video that Chris [Boardman] and Carlton Reid have done is something that should be shared and used."

SPACE from carltonreid on Vimeo.

Green, who cycles and drives, and recently cycled from London to Paris for charity, says motorists and cyclists provoking one another is a global problem, and that his website has tried to take an informative and educative role about driving safely around the growing numbers of cyclists on the roads.

"The thing we've identified over the last 12 months is the growth in cyclists - which is huge - the infrastructure is poor on the roads, and I think there's definitely an education exercise that we need to do to motorists to make them understand that," he said.

"As Chris [Boardman] says, and as the video says, these people are flesh and blood, they have families and have children. Motorists own bikes, cyclists own cars, it's about time we all had a bit more patience and showed a bit more respect to each other."

Side by Side from carltonreid on Vimeo.

Chris Boardman said, in response to the argument in the road rage video: "I think first and foremost people on the road, however they are getting about, have the capacity to be rude, to be aggressive, to be polite, and it's not connected to what vehicle they happen to use. It just so happens that in one of those vehicles you can kill people, and the other, worst case, you can kill yourself."

Carlton Reid, who has written for motoring.co.uk, said he is "almost certain" the video will be distributed by the Department for Transport.

Reid said: "The first video in the series "why do cyclists ride in the middle of the lane" was sent to driving instructor organisations by the DfT's Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. It's almost certain that the current two videos will get similar distribution. It would also be good for endorsement of the videos from the DfT, enabling them to become official public information films (PIFs)."

"The Cabinet Office has a number of PIFs which it stores for use as fillers by broadcasters – we want to get on that list."

Reid wants to see widespread distribution of the videos by professional and social networks of cyclists and motorists.

"Clearly, we also want to get the message heard and seen by motorists. A start was made this morning with the great interview on Radio 5 Live with Chris Boardman and Chris Green of motoring.co.uk," he said.

The radio show carried out a vox-pops piece on the street. When asked how much space you should give when overtaking a cyclist, three of four people quoted said about six feet, one said two meters.

When asked "Is it legal for cycles to go two abreast?", one person said no, two said yes but they found it annoying, and one said yes without qualification.

AA president, Edmund King, has in the past called for an end to what he describes as a "two tribes" mentality, pointing out that he will choose to use a car, bike or train - and sometimes a combination of two or three of those - depending what best suits the journey he is undertaking.