FAQ

These are answers to questions that I sometimes get asked through my YouTube channel.

Why don’t you get a job?
Well, I’m retired now, but before that I had a very good job, in a senior position, that took me all over the World and paid reasonably well. In fact, most of my cycling then – about 100 miles per week – consisted of going to work and back. Nowadays it’s going to meetings, shops, and various other activities in my still busy life helping to develop cycle infrastructure plans in Bolton under the Bee Network initiative.
Why don’t you get a car?
I have a very nice car thank you. We bought our current one brand new in November 2019. It is quite spacious, can almost drive itself, and the best thing is that the 140bhp electric motor produces no direct emissions at all and runs on electricity we get from a sustainable energy supply company. Despite having about 400,000 miles of driving experience, I cycle to places because I choose to.
Why don’t you pay road tax?
If you mean the tax that pays for maintenance of the roads, that is called Council Tax. I actually pay rather a lot of it; unfortunately you have to on a 6 bedroomed house. Of course, you may be mistakenly referring to Vehicle Excise Duty, which is for cars, not roads; I don’t pay any of that for my car either.
Why don’t you have insurance?
I currently have rather a lot of third party insurance for cycling. Apart from the £2,000,000 pounds of public liability insurance that comes with my house insurance and covers me and my family for all manner of things, including cycling, I also have £10,000,000 of third party cycling insurance that comes free with my Cycling UK membership. I suspect 12 million pounds should cover most eventualities. This insurance is so cheap because, when I am riding a bicycle I present virtually zero risk to anyone, unlike the massive risk associated with driving motor vehicles.
Aren’t you a sad f*****g moron?
I presume by moron, you mean someone of low intelligence. Well, I have a PhD in theoretical and computational physics among my achievements and I am certainly not sad about that. What is your highest academic achievement?
Why do you spend your time cycling around looking for trouble?
I don’t. I see more than enough idiotic drivers just by cycling to places and back.
Why do you think you’re the police?
Of course I don’t think I’m the police; what a stupid question; do you ask the same thing about neighbourhood watch schemes?. I am just a vulnerable road user who is annoyed and concerned about dangerous drivers who put us at risk. You don’t have to be a police officer to be concerned about stuff, nor even (within the law) to want do something about it. Mostly nowadays I just report the dangerous drivers to the police; they started taking notice thanks to the campaigning work of myself and others, and regularly prosecute drivers who put us in danger.

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