Vicky Carr is a journalist turned writer who grew up in Harrogate and returned in her late 20s to raise her family here. Find her on Instagram @vickycarrwrites.

I’ve had a brilliant idea.

Genuinely, I think this could be revolutionary. I’ve been mulling it over for a while, and I still can’t see a fault in the logic.

But it’s controversial, at first glance. In fact, most people would dismiss it after just a few words.

Will you hear me out? Let’s try:

I think we should put cyclists in charge of road improvements.

I know, I know – cyclists are the worst people on the planet, existing purely to annoy motorists and deliberately get in everyone’s way.

They’re forever demanding huge sums of money be spent on cycle paths, then they don’t even use them!

Just look at Otley Road: North Yorkshire County Council spent millions of pounds carving out a designated route for cyclists to use a few years back, but have you ever seen a single cyclist going down it? Exactly.

You may be familiar with the accepted wisdom about cyclists and their alarming influence over the council. Somehow, these devious individuals constantly manage to con gullible officers into spending astonishing sums of money on schemes that benefit only them, rather than the rest of the population.

Whenever news emerges about plans for a new cycle path, we get the usual comments about elderly and disabled people being forced onto limb-jeopardising bicycles, tradespeople lugging supplies around on two wheels, and taxi drivers investing in tandems.

It was one of the major objections to the original Harrogate Station Gateway plans, which included a cycle lane along Station Parade, reducing the amount of space for cars.

Naturally, if the Station Gateway went ahead, someone from the council was going to go round to everyone’s house, forcibly remove their car keys, and deliver a bike that the law dictated must be used for every trip from then on…

Hmm.

Getting people out of cars

It’s the perfect example of a straw man argument – an easy way to dismiss an idea without really engaging with it.

But what if we do think about it more deeply?

If more people who were able to use bikes actually did so, it would reduce the number of cars on the roads. That would free up space for people who really did need to use their cars, whether always (because they can’t cycle, for whatever reason) or on certain occasions (because they need to transport enough bricks to build a two-storey extension, for example).

Looked at from that perspective, it makes sense to get more people out of their cars and onto bikes. So why are we so hostile to the idea of spending money on cycling infrastructure – or the mere existence of cyclists?

Let’s remember that cyclists are not a separate category of person. Most are also drivers, walkers and users of public transport, just like the rest of us. They experience congestion and temporary traffic lights and all the other things that frustrate us – in fact, that’s probably one of the reasons many choose to cycle in the first place.

The only difference is that, when they set out on their bikes, they give a lot more thought to their route and its conditions than most of us. They’re aware of the areas that are most congested, where motorists take the greatest risks, or where visibility is poorest.

That, in my book, makes them the most qualified members of the community when it comes to making improvements to our transport network.

So why not put them in charge?

More than a white line

They could start out by advising on cycling infrastructure, to ensure money is spent more wisely than has been the case of late. At the moment, cycling infrastructure is often imposed on its potential users by people who simply don’t grasp their needs.

The Otley Road project cost huge sums of money, yet at every stage, cyclists were saying it was ill-conceived and simply wouldn’t work in practice.

Lo and behold, once it opened, they were right – and hardly anyone has used it.

The relatively short stretch from Cold Bath Road up Harlow Hill not only doesn’t work in itself, it also doesn’t connect to anything else. If anyone were inclined to use it, they’d either have to be making an extremely short trip, or they’d have to use other roads – many of them much busier and more hazardous – at either end of the journey just to get onto that cycle lane.

This kind of siloed thinking has been evident in other suggestions that have been made by NYCC and its successor, North Yorkshire Council, over the years. Shoving a cycle lane along Victoria Avenue or Station Parade is all well and good, but how do you get there without taking your life in your hands on other parts of the road network?

Cycle routes need to be more than a white line down a pavement or a bit of colourful paving on the road. It should be a route that people want and need to use, to get them from A to B safely, as frequently as possible.

And of course, once cyclists have made their mark and developed a network of routes that feel safe, people who are too nervous to pedal now may just have the confidence to give it a go.

The number of cars on the roads could reduce significantly – creating more space for those of us who really do need to drive.

Then we take it to the next level: asking cyclists to look at the whole road infrastructure of our town. I’d love to see a more radical approach than the usual “make more space for more cars”.

And before anyone puts up another straw man argument, a clarification: I’m not a cyclist. I haven’t owned a bike since the one I bought as a teenager was stolen from the garden shed 16 years ago.

But if there were safer ways to cycle around town, I’d love to get back on a bike. And I bet I’m not the only one.