Surrey County Council to debate banning cycling on A24 because there's an adjacent cycle path
A driving instructor will be given three minutes to explain to the council why he thinks cyclists should be banned from a stretch of the A24
Surrey County Council will discuss next week if cyclists should be banned from riding on the A24 between Leatherhead and Dorking.
A petition by driving instructor Martin Davies to prohibit cyclists from riding on the road has collected more than 300 signatures and so will be debated by the elected council on November 9, when Davies will have three minutes to explain his reasoning.
He says that because of the adjacent cycle path, there is no reason why cyclists ought to be on the road, and that they should instead be restricted to only riding on the dedicated path. He has called on the council to install no cycling signs on approach to the road.
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The petition, set up in August that provoked an angry backlash from local cyclists, pleads with the council to "make it illegal for cyclists to use the A24 dual carriageway between Givons Grove roundabout, Leatherhead and Ashcombe Road, Dorking".
The reasons he cites is because the road "is very dangerous for all road users, especially the cyclists" and that "there is a very good cycle lane off to both sides of this road that many cyclists already use therefore it is clearly fit for purpose."
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He also claims that it's "quite dangerous for anyone to cycle on a dual carriageway without any hard shoulder. The whole issue for me is that cyclists don't use the cycle paths that are set back from the road that are much safer for people to cycle on.
"I know I got a lot of abusive responses so it backfired a bit on me but it's all about their safety. If there are better cycle lanes this would make it safer for both cyclists and drivers."
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A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and long reads across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013. In 2024 he released a seven-part podcast documentary, Ghost in the Machine, about motor doping in cycling.
Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains. He lives in Valencia, Spain.
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