RE: End the free ride for cyclists (The Leader, July 24)

Yours is a common complaint amongst we motorists; those damn cyclists are getting a free ride.

Isn’t it bad enough that we sit fuming, literally, in our cars while they whiz by, like they don’t have a care in the world?

We are stuck in gridlock traffic jams, caged within our two tons of idling, carbon emitting automobile, while they are out in the fresh air getting their exercise. And then, on top of it all, they don’t have to pay some of the taxes we motorists pay, like that increased carbon tax on gasoline. Aren’t they “emitting” too? I mean, some of them are breathing pretty heavily?

After all, they get to use the roads too. My car may take up 120 square feet of road space but that cyclist must be taking up, well, uh, some space. And when I get my car to work and start looking for parking or have to pay for it, there those cyclists are... somewhere. Not actually taking up a parking space.

And taxes! Cyclists don’t have to pay gas taxes, driver or vehicle license fees or even buy insurance. Of course, those weak willed insurance actuaries will tell us that cyclists don’t cause the damage and injury claims that a motor vehicle, say, an SUV, minivan, or pickup truck causes.

Insurance statistics also tell us that you are twice as likely to die if you are in a regular car and are hit by one of these oversize vehicles.

Talk about a need for stronger licensing requirements. Commercial truck drivers have to earn tougher licenses, why not SUV drivers?

Licensing requirements are in some degree proportional to the public hazard of the vehicle. And cycles, well...

Of course, to be truthful, since most cyclists also own a car, they probably pay all the same insurance and licensing fees as any other road user. They just get their backsides out of the car from time to time, leave it at home – and benefit us all when they do. Thanks, cyclists!

Paul Glassen

Nanaimo