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.
An extraordinary two million trips are thought to have been made by bike on Monday, the first full day of an expected five-day Tube shutdown, according to London cycling commissioner Will Norman. Normally about 1.4m journeys are made by bike on weekdays.
But the number of cyclists ignoring the rules of the road has also increased – a fact confirmed by video evidence gathered by The Standard on Wednesday morning – raising concerns within City Hall about the risk this poses to safety.
We witnessed numerous occasions when cyclists paid little heed to red lights – or to pedestrians who were walking across their path with the “green man” illuminated.
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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. Can this almost be turned into a good thing? you know, bad about the tube strikes, but if people get to try cycling in London for the first time or cycling to work, it might sort of change their lives. Look, 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 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 are 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. us.
5 Comments
Enough is enough! Bring them to justice! Putting their own and other people at risk
The police do nothing.
I was hit by a cyclist on The Strand, going through a red light, I was lucky… If they want to use the roads, they must have plates and licences. Therefore, any offences can be traceable. I am sure that the offences would then reduce as there would be accountability OR! less bikes.
On the one hand, motorists often do not respect cyclists. On the other hand, cyclists often fail to respect the rules of the road. Neither of them respect pedestrians.
On top of that you have e-scooters, who do not belong on road or pavement. And illegal e-bikes that are basically mopeds. Both of those routinely on the pavement, expecting pedestrians to get out of the way. Enforcement? None.
Nearly as bad as black cabs