The Transport Secretary has angered cyclists after comments he made in the House of Commons suggesting they do not count as road users.
Chris Grayling was quizzed by the Labour MP for Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, following comments made in an Evening Standard interview about cycle lanes.
In the interview in December last year, Mr Grayling told the Standard there are places where London’s cycle lanes “perhaps cause too much of a problem for road users and could have been designed in a smarter way”.
MP Mr Zeichner questioned the Transport Secretary whether cyclists were not also users of the road.
Mr Grayling replied: “What I would say to him, of course, is where you have cycle lanes, cyclists are the users of cycle lanes, and there’s a road alongside – motorists are the road users, the users of the roads.
"It’s fairly straightforward, to be honest, Mr Speaker”
It came after a video last month appeared to show Mr Grayling knocking a cyclist over as he opened a car door in Westminster.
Cyclists expressed anger after his comments in Parliament. National charity Cycling UK saying: “Cyclists not road users? Cycles are legal carriages on our roads.” Others said he had made a "clanger".
Former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman said Mr Grayling’s comments show an “astonishing lack of knowledge about how seven million people regularly use the roads in this country”, the Guardian reported.
“I feel embarrassed for him. If he truly thinks the roads are not for cyclists then what am I paying my taxes for?
“If there was ever anyone who needed to actually get on a bike and hear about the true state of cycling infrastructure, it is Chris Grayling and I’d be delighted to go on a ride with him.”
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said Mr Grayling, also the Conservative MP for Epsom and Ewell, had explained himself in parliament.
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