Two million Londoners cycling to beat the Tube strike as red-light jumpers spark safety fears

Londoners have taken to two wheels in record numbers to beat the Tube strike – but a significant minority of cyclists have been blatantly riding through red lights 🚴

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Huge numbers of Londoners have taken to two wheels to get around during the tube strike, but not all of them have been obeying the rules of the road. The standard has spent wed morning, day four of the tube strike, at a number of key junctions in central London. I’m here just now at Hoburn, one of the most notorious areas for cyclists over the past decade. We’ve also looked at Oxford Circus, at Bloomsbury, at Black Friars’s Bridge, and at Liverpool Street Station. And what will we find? Well, the vast majority of cyclists, certainly commuter cyclists, do seem to be stopping, but there’s a significant minority who pay no heed to the red lights and are going straight through pedestrian crossings, putting themselves and in particular pedestrians at risk. Nobody should be riding through red lights. Nobody should rid riding on the pavements. Everybody who’s riding a bike should obey the highway code. We have the police out there enforcing against this. We want everybody to be safe as they get around London. Tube strikes are bad news for London. They’re bad news for businesses. They’re bad news for Londoners. I’m pleased that some people have the opportunity to get around nevertheless. But the what really needs to happen is the tube be back up and running so that everybody can get around in the way that they want to. Now, the number of people who have taken to bikes is probably one of the most notable things of this tube strike. Will Norman, the male cycling, estimates that on Monday and Tuesday, as many as 2 million journeys a day were made by bike, although the weather was particularly nice in those days. The questions now remain about how to keep pedestrians safe and whether some cyclists are simply becoming a menace to other Londoners.