'Top Gear' Host Argues To Swap 'Pointless' Driving For Cycling In The City

Across his career in TV, "Top Gear" and "Grand Tour" host James May convinced us all that he's a die-hard Car Guy. He drove to the North Pole, crossed Africa in several beat up classics and raced against public transport in a classic Jag. After more than 20 years of this schtick, May is changing his tune and is joining the war on cars.

The TV host ripped cars a new one in an interview with London's Cycling Campaign, where he called driving in cities a "pointless" activity. May, who admitted to owning around 25 bicycles, explained that driving in city centers "spoils cars for me" and added that it makes them "boring and annoying."

Instead of driving around down, May argues that cars should be reserved for longer trips and the kind of journeys that you couldn't make via public transport or bicycle. Trips like journeys "from London to my pub in Wiltshire," he told the LCC.

Cars are seen as a commodity by many, with personal transport a necessity to get to and from work, to important appointments or just to pick up groceries. May doesn't believe this should be the case, however, and instead argues that there should be options to get around by other means:

Bicycles are a genuine door-to-door transport solution. Cycling is fantastic in cities. Even Google Maps will acknowledge that a bicycle is quicker for some journeys than a car. It amazes me that people go to the shops a mile away in the car. The world has proved that bicycles make immense sense in densely populated areas.

It's for this reason that May called on cities to up their investment in cycling infrastructure, and even suggested that dedicated government ministers focused on cycling could secure the safe future of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

May isn't the first person to call for a change in the way we get around town, and he certainly won't be the last. It's a movement that's gaining increased traction around the world, even here in America where advocates are campaigning for walkable cities, greater investment in public transport and cycling infrastructure that people actually want to use. 

In the U.S., the Ban Cars movement doesn't, as the name might suggest, call for a complete end to all car sales. Rather, it's about reducing our dependency on the automobile and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of cars against one another.

As such campaigns spread in popularity away from the weird bike-focused corners of the internet into the public consciousness, May warns that public opinion could lead to cars being "taken away from us" if we aren't careful. Increasing tensions between drivers and pedestrians and the rising number of incidents on our roads could all increase the risks of this happening. 

Because of this, May told LCC that he hopes people will become more aware of the enormous "privilege" that owning a car is. Once people do that, then the relationships between drivers and other road users could start to improve, as he explained:

I saw a bloke the other day driving a Ferrari around town very aggressively, and I wanted to say, 'You're going to ruin cars (and especially Ferraris) for the rest of us'.

But don't worry, the love of cycling that May exudes through this entire interview doesn't mean he's turned his back on the internal combustion engine for good. In fact, while he might now have a collection of around 25 bicycles, he's also still the proud owner of "about seven motorcycles, maybe nine cars, a boat" and even an airplane. If you'd like to check out the whole interview with James May in LCC, head here.