The Biggest Problem with Bike Lanes in London
I think today is a good day to talk about bike lanes in London and why um there’s just this unsolvable problems about bike lanes in London. And you’re thinking, well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Yes. And uh it is probably a bit of an exaggeration because when you actually read some of the uh news articles talking about bikers in London and all the outrageous things they do, you’re thinking, well, they should just remove all the bike lanes. Yes, but there’s a bit of an um sort of misinformation being carried out at the moment about bike lanes. And part of it is that the more London introduces bike lane, you know, the good old uh London B uh Boris bikes and uh uh Le Livingston introducing that and just making it a bit more bike friendly and creating bike lanes and people are saying it’s creating more congestions, but apparently the research just begs to disagree. It doesn’t actually actually it’s improved uh and the congestion maybe the congestion charge also means less people um less likely to just to um drive into the center of London. So you get all those charges basically it’s just becoming more expensive to own a car so go for a bike and then create bike lanes. Now the problem is people have compared the issue about bike lanes in the UK uh especially in London to cities like Paris and Amsterdam and thinking look look at look at them you know you take your easy jet easy flight easy jet right you go to Paris or you go to Amsterdam and you you take a look around you’re a tourist and you look at that you’re thinking why couldn’t we have this and then they want to compare but the problem is you can’t really compare the two first of all the Netherlands lands is a smaller country and that’s just a fact. London could probably be compared uh to Paris, Greater Paris and Greater London and all that. So now the question is what is the unsolvable bike issue? And one of the complaints that a lot of people bikers have, if you’ve ever actually uh ridden your bike in London, I’m not talking about people, you know, tourist renting one of those city bikes and then riding around hide park or going to, you know, tourist areas and then you go maybe you pick up one from the castle, going to the center, ride around the tourist area and then dump it anywhere and then you just think, “Oh, but London is great.” I’m talking about people who commute on a daily basis on their bikes and this is where it gets really interesting that the more you commute on a daily basis. I remember the good old days where I I take my bike ride from uh the uh what the old Kent road and all the way down to Kensington uh and Chelsea Lok and you go up there and uh I could remember an incident in those good old days. Well, we didn’t have a lot of bike lanes, you know, it didn’t exist then. It’s a bit more fashionable now. And then anyway, what happened was that I was going around a hide park corner and uh this car just came and almost ran me over and uh I got scared and you know when the traffic slowed down, I caught up with him and banged on his window and he was like, “Oh, sorry. I’m from the north. I I was a bit surprised by the response because of thinking I would take it that in the UK the rules of the road and safety are all the same. Anyway, so it’s just one of those things that what people complain about in London and the bike lanes is that first of all it doesn’t seem that it was purposely built bike lanes. They just painted something on the ground and said okay bike lanes and then just bikers should ride on this. So, uh, it gives sometimes the the lanes actually give, uh, bikers a sense of, uh, a cyclist, put it that way, a sense of safety, a false sense of safety that because you’ve got the bike lane, you’re safe and you can do whatever you want. But, uh, most later find out it’s not the case. You still have to respect the uh, rules of the road. And most bikers for whatever reason, I don’t know, maybe because uh most most cyclists, if you have your bike and you go on the road, most cyclist just think, “Oh, zebra crossing. Oh, it doesn’t apply to me.” And then they just they just wiggle their way around uh the people walking on the zebra crossings. And then you have there was an incident that someone actually filmed. he was going across the zipper crossing and then this cyclist uh went just decide to go around him without stopping and basically he pushed him and there was an altercation and someone of course filmed it and then it went viral on YouTube. So the I think the first biggest problem in London is that when you paint the bike lane without any sort of protection on the side, what happens is that you’re squeezing the drivers from their side and then you get to a place where you’ve made the the cycling path uh the lanes a bit bigger and then if someone’s driving an SUV and obviously they can’t drive so they more money them brains or whatever then they often would come onto the bike lane and they squeeze you against whatever it is the wall or any other thing. So it can be rather dangerous. That is one problem that London needs to deal with. The fact that yes, you’re encouraging people to uh go get get on their bikes and you know exercise and uh reduce pollution. uh which is a very good thing by the way because a lot of people with uh you know uh breathing issues or um asthma or whatever tend to have more difficulties the more this uh the more fumes you get from traffic. So having uh cyclist people exercising and doing all those things can actually contribute to a better breathable air in the city. So with that said, um the infrastructure that’s actually needed in London would actually require probably to close permanently some roads and just make it only uh pedestrian roads and that of course is going to create other problems. But then the transportation in central London is very good. Uh um if you if you compare that even the one in Paris and Amsterdam, they’re pretty good. uh when you think about it, not the cheapest, but they’re pretty good. So, you have the underground, you have the bus, and uh you’ve got a trains if you coming from different parts of the country, you know, southeast and all that, north. But the the problem is this that most of the investment uh is concentrated in the uh center of London and uh they you you have the bike lanes that have been painted and there have been road works probably just to increase the the pavement so that uh you have more space for people uh walking because that’s also good. You walk brisk walk apparently is good for your health. Um so all that um becomes necessary but then when you compare that to Amsterdam first of all um I think it there’s a cultural thing a lot of people actually do ride their bikes and they uh uh I remember in the ‘ 90s a lot of people uh were doing this um they their couers where they uh you get on your bike and you deliver puzzles especially in in the city. So, and that was a popular job for a lot of people. So, you see bikers here and then they jump on the pavement, push their bikes, deliver this and then move to the we didn’t have the technology wasn’t advanced enough then. There were mobile phones or but the mobile phones were not smart. It was just you get a call, you go and pick up something, you deliver it and that was it. So you get a lot of these people and then you get other bikers uh coming into the city probably living in uh where in Greenwich. Uh uh so you come down new cross and go old old Kent road new Kent road all that to the city or anyway you go through Vauxhall all those location a lot of people in the morning you see a lot of cyclist going down every then you get to the um you get to work you you change and then on uh at night uh well end of the day you just do the reverse and it was just such such a common thing but now of course in the age of social media a lot more people are doing it because it’s a bit more trendy and uh now you can film it and you become uh Tik Tok famous. So all those things now uh means that uh a lot more people are getting on it and most of these bikers are not really experienced. They don’t really understand road security. Uh red traffic light doesn’t mean anything to them. So sometimes people get run over anything. I told you cycling in London is dangerous. Even with the bike lanes, it’s just something that uh uh they need to do. That’s why now I just take my car. Well, the problem isn’t that. It’s just that human nature is just a bit bizarre that you you the you’re on the road. You still need to respect the safety. And a lot of cyclists just tend to think the um what the laws the rules of the road doesn’t apply to them because you haven’t been to a cycling school to pass your uh cycling license. Maybe that should be introduced that if you um just a day not a day I don’t know an hour somewhere road safety for cyclists and make sure they respect it. But then how are you going to enforce that when you can’t even get the police to enforce the current uh rules on the road? Not unless you get flashed by one of those big cameras and then that’s a different story. Anyway, so when you compare the culture in London, compare that to say Amsterdam where they the culture is even stronger and they uh have different set of rules and values. And the thing about Amsterdam is that the the biking culture is so well developed that they’ve even they they have a something called the back fits which is like a um a trolley bike and it’s got this huge uh thing in front of it and then the when you parents you ride that to uh to take the children to school. So you just see like two, three kids and the mother or the father pedalling, cycling to get their children to school. So it’s part of everyday life. And why is it part of everyday life? Because they’ve got this amazing system uh that is welldeveloped that you could basically go from outside your house to almost any part of the city and it is on cycle lane. For example, when you compare uh for example, it says uh in um what’s it called? Amsterdam. Uh they have I don’t know how many kilometers of uh um road they have there. It’s just uh a lot. Anyway, I can’t remember the numbers, but then they they have just so many. And what they also did was that they’ve improved it that the you if you’re on a cycle path, it’s not just narrow thing. it it’s like really wide enough. And there was a video on YouTube once where um there was a POV point of view of the driver of um uh what’s it called the uh fire brigade and he was driving down the road and it was during rush hour. So the road was blocked and then he was able to just climb uh over the pavement, drive over the pavement and get onto the cycle path. And the cycle path was wide enough for a fire be great truck to just go down that road, come out on the other side and attend to an emergency. So that is baked into it’s almost like saying it’s baked into their DNA and that makes it very uh much easier for bikers just to use their bikes. And another thing that the Dutch did very well, I can remember once we went there in Amsterdam, we’re cycling around and at night you one of the riders forgot to to have his light on and he was stopped by the police at night. So they stopped him and finded him. I don’t know. I don’t know. It was uh €10 or something like that. you get fined and during the fine the the the the police gave him lights so lights for his bike. So you get a fine and within that price you pay I don’t know £10 or something €10. You put that then they give you the lights. So you then put the lights on the bike and then you can get on your way. And I thought that was an ingenious because after you’ve you’ve started you get so many fines and you started collecting um so many uh lights you just remember. So that is another initiative that the uh uh government has where the police can stop you for not having lights on the road even on cycle lanes but then they they they give you the lights and you basically selling you the light so that you know you’ll be safe. Um and it was a good thing. So I think when we we’re talking about things that uh the government can uh can do and is able to do to improve cycling in London, it’s not just about um just putting more uh cycle lanes. I think first of all they need to you need to educate cyclists so that they’ll be safer. There’s no point in having uh cycle lanes that are um well built when people still don’t respect pedestrian uh crossing or I mean zebra crossing or they don’t respect uh traffic lights. So that’s another thing. And something else that um a lot of people complain about in London is that you have a cycle lane and it just suddenly ends. You’re thinking, “Now, what do I do?” Well, you just join the rest and then try to squeeze yourself in between two cars and a bus and it’s just really dangerous. Some uh cyclists are really entitled. I’ve seen something. It just it just seems that no common sense. And what the cyclist saw the bus coming into the cycle lane. Of course, the bus shouldn’t be there or the driver of the bus shouldn’t be there. But then he was like, “Okay, I’m just going to continue and then push my way through.” And I’m like, “Are you out of your mind? You can’t put you the the the best thing that would happen is you fall over and the baptis would just run you over.” So, it’s just really stupid that someone would want to do that. But then the that sense of entitlement trying to prove a point. So, common sense should always prevail. Even if you are on a back uh bike lane, you should still think maybe the next driver or the next person in front of him might be an idiot. So I need to be careful. Sometimes you just let him go because well it’s better to leave to fight another day than to die trying to prove a point. So that is one of those things that the government, the culture needs to change in London to uh integrate the best of all these other major European cities into what we uh London Londoners should have. So another one says um Copenhagen for example in Denmark uh has uh the gold standard for cycling infrastructure. Copenhagen has over 350 kilometers of dedicated bike lanes and I thought 300 kilometers around the city. That’s good. Amsterdam. Yeah, now the numbers are here. Am Amsterdam the city boasts 767 km of bike lanes including scenic routes along canals and parks. That is absolutely amazing. And another thing the Dutch actually did which I think they they tried to do something similar in the elephants and castle uh roundabout which uh is interesting but it’s like if you have um a roundabout they actually integrate. So you you’re coming from a bike lane, you don’t actually enter the roundabout where the cars basically you continue your own the bike lane actually continues and gives you priority and so you can go around about a massive uh roundabout without actually entering the path of cars which is a good thing. And something else the Dutch did was if there is a road like a big junction uh they you don’t you go on the bike lane you don’t actually cross the junction. So they just put a tunnel bit underneath it. So you have uh you basically just go underneath the tunnel and come out on the other side and just pass the junction which is something that the Dutch are pretty good uh at doing building tunnels and uh doing all that for the bike lanes. So when they say they have over 700 kilometers of bike lanes, believe it. It’s just that big. And even on on some roads. So instead of if you’re going on a motorway on some motorways uh in Holland and there’s a parallel road on the side for bike lanes and then you just go uh over there. So it is well developed and uh that is why you see a lot of bikes. Now one of the biggest problems with biking in anywhere in any country especially in London is the risk of theft. It is just a problem. You buy a 500 to a,000 uh pounds bike and then you park it because you’re trying to exercise. You park it and then you go to work. You come back. Oh, where’s my bike? I could remember when I when my bike was stolen. Um the the they they cut it. The bike was gone. The only reason but I I I almost start to doubt if I actually came to work that day on on bike but then the chain was just lying in this in the place where I would normally chain it up and that’s when I thought okay yeah that’s why it’s yeah it’s gone and there isn’t much you could do about it. So that’s another thing someone actually said online I used to uh cycle a lot but I constantly worry that someone’s going to just steal my bike. So after a while I just got fed up and I just uh well sold the bike and used my car. So I think that is a big thing that needs to be solved. Theft. Um what Amsterdam if you go to Amsterdam uh central station um they have this massive uh it was nearly built uh they had this massive underground um so you go through the tunnel and then you have this underground parking that so if you’re going to work so you leave somewhere near Amsterdam you take maybe uh North Amsterdam you take the uh the boat you get to the central station you you’re still on your bike and then you go to the trans station, you go into the massive parking, you leave your bike there, chain it up, and then you get on the train, go to work, come back and do the same uh reverse. So, that is something that needs to be improved where you should be able to have secure uh back uh uh cycles. Oh, no. You know, you you should be able to have uh secure parking for your bike when you’re riding uh to work. So, if that’s not done, I think if you were to lose your bike once or twice, especially if it’s an expensive bike, it is really annoying. I know people say, well, you have the uh uh Boris bike and London uh public bikes, but those are not always available in where people actually live, especially if you’re not live not everyone lives in the center of London. So, if you if you’re living far away, most of these are not available. And another thing is that most those bikes are not really comfortable. Well, the they if you’re a tourist and just, you know, doing short distance is good. But if you need to go if you live far away and you need to do a few kilometers to get to work, you need something that’s probably a bit more comfortable built for speed and it’s lightweight. So with that uh theft I think is a big thing and I I don’t see how they’re going to solve that because um there have been a lot of videos of people parking their motorbikes on the pavement attached to a railing or post like post and the thieves would come in there on another bike. you know, a pillion passenger comes out or jumps off, get on the uh get on the he’s got a a grinder and in less than two minutes the the bike is gone. So that is something that needs to be resolved, solved somehow. It’s almost an unsolvable thing because you need to build a parking for bikes. Make it safer so that uh almost like a parking you know one of these uh multi-story parking for cars or multi-story parking where you have uh section for bikes. I don’t know how they can pull that off, but you need something like that. So that the infrastructure you’re putting in place is not always only about putting some markings on the ground and say, “Hey, we have bike lanes. You need to build the infrastructure surrounding it to make it safer, encourage more people to get into cycling, to work to the city, cycling around, and just leading a healthier lifestyle. Until you’re able to do that, it’s going to be very difficult to convince more people to engage in this. And uh because we know that at the end of the day it’s actually um better for everyone or better for the city as well. And another thing that I find surprising is that someone said in uh well it’s written that in Bogota in Colombia that uh every Sunday there’s something called the Clobia which is the cycle path or bike lane and in the city it’s been going on for I don’t know so many years now. I think once a week I don’t know if it’s on a Sunday. Some of the part of the city is basically closed off to cars and then you have a cyclist go onto the road and then cycle around the city. So it becomes a family affair and then you’ve got roller skaters joining in and everyone having a good time. And not to be uh left out of the cities doing a lot for cycling, you have Glasgow as well and Scotland where you have over 400 kilometers uh of uh roads. But the other thing when you compare Amsterdam to the UK, London is that Amsterdam’s so flat. So um yeah, it can be windy. So that’s a negative side. It gets windy, but it’s so flat that you don’t basically die before you get to your destination. But sometimes in London, some of the the locations, the hills are just really uh you know, you need to basically be be in good shape. You can’t be just a cyclist, a random cyclist cycling whenever you want to to get to up those heels. So, that’s another thing. But anyway, uh Paris has been doing a bit more than London where in recent years they spent over 200 million uh euros or pounds in uh developing the the city’s infrastructure and basically being a bit more aggressive about it and closing off some roads completely, putting bike lanes and just making it a bit more bike friendly. So there is a lot of uh things going on. London has uh made a lot of progress in recent years. Uh they’ve, you know, you’ve got the new Jubilee line and all that Elizabeth and all that stuff. Um not jubiley line. Did I just say that? Elizabeth line. Anyway, so you’ve got all those things that are being put in place which are really good. I think it’s actually helping the city and uh in the in the near future you look at it now and say maybe in 2020 or 2030 things are going to be a bit better but uh in the meantime uh the infrastructure is lacking but it’s improving but what needs to improve more is that the infrastructure is not just about putting uh uh markings on the ground and calling it a bike lane is about all the other safety features uh that needs to be put in place to make it even a better experience for everyone.