AGAINST THE MOTION
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John Adams is Emeritus Professor of Geography at University College London.
He was a member of the original Board of Directors of Friends of the Earth in the early 1970s and have been involved in public debates about environmental issues ever since. He has presented evidence to numerous public inquiries and parliamentary committees on forecasting, cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment, and is a regular contributor to radio and television programmes and broadsheet newspapers on risk themes.
John contributed to a CABE commissioned report called “What are we scared of?” on the culture of risk aversion in design. His current work on both risk and transport issues seeks to understand these attitudes and the reasons for their persistence, in the hope of transforming shouting matches into more constructive dialogues.
DEBATE RESPONSE
John to Lorraine and Adam
READ LORRAINE & ADAM’S EVIDENCE
- There are three reports totaling 10 fatalities which refer to bombs IN bicycles or a bicycle packed with explosives. None in the UK.
- There are a further 8 reports totaling 41 causalities in which it is not clear whether the bomb was in the bicycle or on it. None in the UK.
- This report refers to a “bicycle packed with explosives”, suggesting that the explosives were contained within the frame or tires. But a BBC report states that the bomb was in the basket of the bicycle – www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/countdown
Given the difficulty of the task of filling the frame or tires with explosives, and the limit it places on the quantity of explosives that can be used, it appears possible that none of the fatal explosions reported above were caused by explosives contained within bicycles. Because of the high risk of theft, a bicycle parked with panniers attached would arouse suspicion and could be treated like any other suspicious package abandoned in a public place.
The numbers of fatalities caused by bicycle bombs in the list above, ranging from 0 to a possible maximum of 51 WORLDWIDE, reported since 1939, merit a context. Last year alone, worldwide, more than 50 million people died of all causes, and more than 550,000 in the UK. In compiling lists of things to worry about it is difficult to think of anything that might rank below bicycle bombs – perhaps playing conkers without goggles?
The actual risk of anyone, anywhere in the world being killed by a bomb packed within the frame or tires of a bicycle is vanishingly small. There are many other easier and more effective ways of causing mass mayhem. Yet this is the risk used to justify the edict forbidding the parking of bicycles in selected parts of Westminster.
The edict causes significant inconvenience to thousands of cyclists. The current Government claims to seek to encourage cycling, and the leader of the opposition, perhaps the next prime minister, on well-publicized occasions cycles to work, but enjoys privileged cycle parking. Anyone wishing to cycle to meet him in the House of Commons will have to park it a long way away.
Further Evidence
Seeking evidence beyond the above list assembled by Lorraine and Adam I found, with the help of Google, a report in The Telegraph of Calcutta about a bicycle in Assam that had been converted into a bomb. The paper reported it as a world first:
“Unlike the so-called “bicycle bombs” recently used in India and Afghanistan, Baishya’s two-wheeler hadn’t been fitted out with a bomb but converted into one, catapulting the Assam rebel group into the league of the Irish Republican Army and al Qaida as improvisers of the terrorist arsenal.”
Tracing the history of vehicles converted into bombs it says
“The idea developed into the car bomb, truck bomb and perhaps the “aircraft bombs” used by Osama bin Laden on September 11, 2001. But the true bike bomb stayed elusive, although the IRA launched the bike-strapped-with-bomb variety in Coventry in August 1939.”
The only report of bicycle-bomb related damage that I have been able to discover is a case of damage to a bicycle, not damage caused by a bicycle. There is apparently a Florida rock band called This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. According to a report in Washington Week a sticker advertising the band was affixed to a bicycle on the Ohio University campus. It was discovered by the Ohio U campus police and “disassembled” by the Columbus bomb squad. The Report stated that at the time of writing the University was discussing financial compensation with the owner of the disassembled bicycle. These two reports highlight two characteristics of the War against Terrorism, and the proposal that we should fortify our cities against it:
- It is based on worst-case scenarios. Yes, the Indian report illustrates the possibility of converting a bicycle into a pipe bomb. But the report notes that the bomb was not detonated. So far I cannot find a single unambiguous report of explosives packed into a bicycle killing anyone. There are many clever, imaginative, inventive and resentful people all around the world plotting ways of expressing their resentment. The rarity, or non-existence, of bicycle bombs as instruments of their resentment suggests that bicycle bombs ought to be dismissed as a concern justifying freedom-restricting measures.
- Paranoia. Both the Columbus bomb squad and whoever is responsible for banning cycle parking in Westminster manifest an irrational response to a negligible threat.
READ LORRAINE & ADAM’S EVIDENCE
If anyone knows who issued the edict banning bicycle parking in the environs of White Hall and Parliament Square, and what justification they offered for it, I would be grateful if they would get in touch.
