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