I spent an hour yesterday explaining to the City of London the circumstances that nearly led to my death when I crashed off a cycle lane and onto my head. For several days my life was in doubt. The kind of larking pictured above is an everyday feature of London cycling and much much worse is avoiding speeding electric bikers trying to maximise personal income by meeting timetables set them.
It was an unproductive hour. I was the only person who appeared at the consultation and I was berated by the senior person for daring to bring up safety issues. Clearly he wanted me to agree that Cycle Tracks are good news. But I question whether they are. Apparently it took 20 years to get change for the Bank, I was told that we needed to protect cyclists from heavy traffic on Victoria Street because Victoria Street will always be a throughfare for commercial traffic.
The City of London offer us visions of new Cyclewayss on Victoria Street which are sales jobs. It advertises my local commercial route without lorries and taxis and shows cyclists as quite different from the reality
Let’s be clear, this is not really about Cycleways. They are being used to make us think of cycling as safe but they are simply creating a new danger in a confined space. I nearly got killed because I was driven into the gutter and there was not space.
This is not about cyclist safety, it is about being seen to be safe. The real issue is that you can buy an electric bike or scooter with a maximum speed of 15 and convert it to a silent and violent moped which makes no noise and is allowed to use Cycleways. In practice, many e-bikes are stopped by the police for dangerous practice but I was told yesterday that there are no laws to stop e-cycles going at 30 mph + and they need no registration like mopeds and they are the great success story of London transport.
Guy Thomas Opperman is a British former politician who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport from November 2023 to July 2024. Wikipedia. He is a friend of mine for being a good pension minister and I ask him now to explain why there appears to be no legal action to protect non-electric cycles and pedestrians.
The Guardian publish today
‘Please don’t hit me!’ The battle between ebikers and other cyclists
This excellent article by Zoe Williams focusses on Lime bikes (pictured at the top of the blog).
Zoe’s view is about gentleness
What people hate about Limes and other rental ebikes is best summarised by Patricia, 44, who lives in Limehouse and has been cycling in London for 20 years. “Sometimes they’re quite aggressive. They’re very speedy, they cut you up. I’ve been overtaken on the left. I see people on their phones – they’re not paying attention. Sometimes it’s a group of tourists, and they’re just in your way. Sometimes it’s teenagers being wild. Sometimes they’re on the pavement. I feel as if I should have a sign on my back, like a bumper sticker, saying ‘disabled cyclist’ [Patricia has multiple sclerosis]. Just be a bit more gentle. Please don’t hit me.”
This is how e-bikes are perceived outside the commercial centres – the City and West End.
There is a much darker picture. This was where I was hit and you can see the size of the gutters. The City of London cannot portray the threat of cyclists doing 30 mph, wearing a balaclava and often reading their e-map while steering their e-bike with no peddling.
This scooter must have been doing 25 mph on the pavement. Mote the width of the cycleway and how it is narrowed to protect us from terrorist usage of the cycleway
I am not saying that Cycle Tracks and those who design them haven’t got good intention. The work in publicising them is meticulous (even if no one but me turned up). Make of the maps of the outside my building plans ( well I’m behind Bank of New York which is on Victoria Road)
This is how town planners draw things up, but they cannot cater for traffic, how it changes and the risks it brings. They should not be complaining that I’m the only person complaining (as they did yesterday). They should instead be petitioning the new Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport or whoever has taken this stuff
Henry, it’s great to have you back on top form again, and campaigning to improve the lot of the downtrodden again. Adrian
“Consultations” generally seem to happen after a body has decided what they are going to do and want to tick some boxes.
I’m in Hertfordshire rather than London however I do cycle and on one occasion cycled from my home in to Hyde Park (25 miles each way) without too much difficulty.
I prefer to cycle on roads rather than cycle paths. There are so many reasons for this and some of them may not apply to better designed cycle paths, although I suspect they do.
For a start, the roads are full of drivers that for the most part understand the rules of the road, and mostly apply them and have passed a test. Yes there are a few idiots but not that many. More often than not there are lapses in concentration or distractions from the complexity of driving in an urban environment – which is made worse when you add in cycle lanes which merge in and out of traffic lanes. One more thing to look at, one more distraction.
“I was told yesterday that there are no laws to stop e-cycles going at 30 mph +”. I’m not sure what you mean here? Any non-E-bike can travel above 15 MPH. My bike is a 40 year old Raleigh Clubman and I can quite happily cruise at 15-20 MPH and can get above that if I push it. I can manage 30 of a good downhill stretch. A couple of years ago I added a Swytch conversion which makes hills a lot easier. I can still go over 15MPH through pedal power even though the motor cuts out below that. There are definitely laws preventing bikes that are powered above the 15MPH limit – they are mopeds and insurance and registration are legally required. Without those you are both driving an unregistered vehicle and without insurance. Both of which can result in big fines and points on a license, if held.
I could go on about why I absolutely hate the cycle lanes around here and won’t use them. Around here they seem to be designed to slow down cyclists and mostly go where the non-cyclists that designed them, want you to go.
My other bugbear of course are middle aged men in lycra and a crash helmet that cycle at speed along pavements intended for pedestrians. When I was young it was a sign of growing up and pride to ride on the road.
I’m glad you’re on the mend and hope you make a full recovery, I missed your posts when you weren’t around.
Hello Henry
Cycling in the City
Re yours: ‘I was the only person who appeared at the consultation and I was berated by the senior person for daring to bring up safety issues’.
My response there would be: does he either cycle in the City himself or use any electric mono vehicle?
Re yours: …can buy an electric bike or scooter with a maximum speed of 15 and convert it…’ In my non-fashionable part of SE London there are now 20mph speed regulations in force in the busy parts. Colliding with pedestrians etc with a bike and/or similar at that speed can be fatal for the pedestrain. Similarly on the pavements here are the large, disabled ‘carriages’ that frequently go along at seemingly the 15mph. Is that safe? I thought that maximum pavement speeds were around walking speed i.e. 4mph*. I mention this because of those who are deaf, disabled, short-sighted etc. (not important perhaps). *Nowadays the requirement that cyclists using public accesses should always use a bell, seems to have faded with the previous century. Time was when pedestrian Bobbies patrolled for such purposes. Now replaced by vehicles with blue lights flashing, driven at a speed way above 30mph (let alone 20mph). If they hit you…compensation…doubtful.
As you say, and the correspondent above implies, the Councils are using such programmes as a ‘one size fits all’ (in their drive to achieve the net-zero carbon target date).
Do keep on at them with every opportunity. Otherwise they will assume they are on to a winner…!
Kind regards.
Tim Simpson
Disabled carriages aka mobility scooters come in two speeds – up to 4mph (pavements only) and up to 8mph (pavements and roads, and should be registered with DVLA in Swansea).
15mph? These are either “souped up” or not mobility scooters.