An active society reduces the burden on public health care, take a look at the obesity rates in Australia, especially childhood obesity, shouldn't we also regulate lifestyle choices that contribute to this? How about the explosion of massive 4WDs in Australia? Are you not also subsidising the health care burden those? If you want to keep cyclists safe then build more bike lanes.
It is an excellent defense, because similar logic is often resisted when it comes to regulating lifestyle and food consumption - even though complications from obesity impose a much greater, and growing, financial burden on public healthcare systems.
