Suggestions that bicycle cover might one day be a required policy are being welcomed by certain camps, with an insurance executive saying making take-up mandatory is a step in the right direction.
“The call by Grant Shapps for bicycle insurance to be a legal requirement, similar to car insurance, is a welcome step in the right direction for both pedestrians and cyclists on our roads,” said Quotezone.co.uk bicycle insurance comparison expert Lee Evans, “and it’s encouraging to see 70% of motorists support the call for insurance in the FairFuel UK survey.
“Cyclist and bicycle insurance can help protect the bike riders and other road users by safeguarding their finances from claims; the best policies cover medical expenses and personal liability. This review reflects the updates made to the highway code earlier this year and aims to protect the more vulnerable road users.”
The comment comes following an interview with the Mail+ in which the Secretary of State for Transport said he would like a review looking into how to “track” bicycle riders.
Shapps was quoted by the publication as stating: “Particularly where you’ve got 20mph limits on increasing numbers of roads, cyclists can easily exceed those, so I want to make speed limits apply to cyclists. That obviously does then lead you into the question of ‘Well, how are you going to recognise the cyclist – do you need registration plates and insurance and that sort of thing?’
“So, I’m proposing there should be a review of insurance and how you actually track cyclists who do break the laws… I see no reason why cyclists should break the road laws, why they should speed, why they should bust red lights and be able to get away with it, and I think we do have to not turn a blind eye to that and I’m proposing setting up a review to do exactly that.”
Insurance Business understands there is no formal proposal yet on the table outlining any such review.
Meanwhile Evans added: “Although bicycle crime and theft is still low after the pandemic, we’d recommend every cyclist has insurance – which doesn’t have to be expensive – it can even be added to a home insurance policy as a specified item if the bicycle is under £1,000.”
Also keen to see insurance become a requirement for bicycle users is solicitor Nick Freeman.
“Insurance should be a mandatory requirement,” Freeman was quoted by the Mail+ as asserting. “Cyclists unfortunately are involved in many collisions, particularly with pedestrians, and pedestrians come off worse and they should always have someone to claim for damages against because they’re the victim.”
Not everyone shares the same sentiment, however. Bikmo chief executive David George, in a piece published by Cyclist last year, strongly opposed the “incredibly bad idea”.
“As somebody whose job is assessing cycling and risk profiles – day in, day out – I thought I’d shine a light on why mandatory registration and insurance for cyclists is an incredibly bad idea,” wrote George at the time.
“As an insurance company, you might expect Bikmo would favour mandatory insurance for cyclists, but that couldn’t be further from the position anyone who is looking at the bigger picture will take. For one, we need mass cycling and other transport options like e-scooters to stand a chance of tackling the climate emergency.”
In the CEO’s view, mandatory insurance is a “disingenuous solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” highlighting that more people are killed by cows than by cyclists.
“We need to be doing everything we can to make cycling easier, not burden it with unnecessary red tape through registration – which will decrease levels of cycling participation,” he said.
