Even through cyberspace, I can hear the intakes of breath, the clenching of fists, the snorts of rage. Before you organise a lynch mob of angry drivers and pedestrians to beat me to death with my own bike chain, allow me to explain myself. There's no justification for cyclists barrelling through a pedestrian crossing with people walking across - it's reckless and dangerous. One of my work colleagues mentioned two of his friends had their arms broken in accidents with cyclists, one going the wrong way up a one-way street, the other at a crossing, both did not stop. They were cycle couriers, who as we all know have a collective death wish and in some cases their wish is granted. Let's be clear, the kind of cycling just described is indefensible.
But, I do jump red lights under certain circumstances. For example at a left hand turn, where there are no pedestrians at the crossing, it's safe to do so. Likewise at a pedestrian crossing, when no one is crossing or about to cross - I think that's perfectly safe. When I've admitted this practise to social groups, the general reaction that I am an evil-lawbreaker, similar to a hit and run driver. What's odd is that cyclists flouting traffic laws seems to provoke fury out of all proportion to the danger it poses. Virtually every pedestrian in London fails to observe the law - they cross when the red man light is showing, if they use a pedestrian crossing at all. They often don't look either way and show a casual disregard for their own safety. You read articles about 'lycra louts' regularly in the right-wing press, not one about 'perilous pedestrians'.
Motorists and their favoured commentators, have a special dislike for cyclists, especially those like me who sometimes skip a red light. Their venom is largely directed a straw man rider - invented by the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Rod Liddle's of this world to serve their rhetorical purposes. Apparently cyclists are evangelical, eco-freaks, clogging up the roads, patronising car drivers, whilst breaking the law. It's a compelling image, if only it had any basis in truth. In my twenty-five years a London cyclist, I've hardly every encountered of these types. And yes, I have seen bad behaviour by cyclists, roughly out-numbered by a factor of 5 to 1 by road users. When Rod Liddle vents his fury at cyclists who deliberately ride two abreast on country roads, he sees this as a deliberate affront to his right to speed round blind corners and narrow lanes at up to seventy miles an hour. Whereas the other interpretation is that these cyclists do not want to be hit by a car at a speed that will certainly be fatal. Sorry, Rod you might have to wait a few minutes. Is your life so much important than everyone else's that a few seconds delay constitutes an assault on your fundamental liberties? And if so, roadworks are more deserving of your bile.
On the London roads, I've seen numerous accidents involving cyclists and vehicles, several of them serious - in every case it was the motorist's fault. On a weekly basis, when cycling I experience the following.
- car door opened as I ride past.
- driver turns left without indicating as I cycle on the inside.
- driver overtaking then cutting left across my path.
- car driving so close it almost touches my handlebars.
- vehicle veers to one side, nearly pushing me into the curb or against another vehicle.
Now I'm not the sort of rider who opts for the British reserve in these situations. I tend to make my feelings know very vocally to motorists when they turn left and nearly send me flying over the bonnet. To my knowledge, I have had two apologies in twenty years. In most other instances, even the motorists was clearly in the wrong, hadn't looked and was driving dangerously, you get either indifference or abuse. One guy memorably accused me a of being a narcissist when I challenged him about opening his door without looking. Apparently it was self-centred not to expect that a car door might open as I rode past, he bore no responsibility. (To give you more context, by the this stage, I had followed him into an estate agents and was haranguing him in front of ten people - so I suppose he didn't want to lose face).
Yet it's 'lycra-louts' to blame for their own deaths on the roads, according to Boris Johnson. He recently quoted a statistic that was out by a factor of between 10 to 30, after the fifth cyclist was killed in two weeks. The Met Police's own figures say that at most cyclist law-breaking might be a factor in 6% of fatalities. That leaves the other 94%. The Evening Standard will continue its long-running campaign of lies about cyclists, I suppose because on occasion some of their journalists have to step back as one went past. The cars and trucks that drive dangerously never seem to generate an article.
Bizarrely, Kat Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall, even goes so far as to propose that cyclists be registered. I have heard similar ideas from motorists included the suggestion of paying road tax, which makes little sense. The best rebuttal was in a recent Guardian article that pointed out basic physics. The kinetic energy of one person on a moped travelling at 15mph is roughly four times that of a cyclist, a car forty times, a lorry hundreds. Motor vehicles, especially heavy trucks, damage roads every metre they move; they generate pollution triggering respiratory illness and are by definition the cause of traffic. When motor vehicles collide with pedestrians they can cause serious injury or kill. This, in answer to the petrol heads is why motorists pay road tax and must have insurance - their impact is vastly greater than a bike.
Conversely, cycles make no impact on the road and very little on other road users - I should know, having smacked into the back of a van. My bike was trashed, the van untouched - that one was my doing entirely, new bike without extension levers for the brakes.
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| Taking a short cut |
I think what really aggravates the likes of Kate Hooey and Rod Liddle as they sit a in car, is seeing a cyclist skip a light, whereas they can't. Yet as I've hopefully established, pedal cycles should be compared with pedestrians, not powered vehicles. So they must have watched 10,000s of pedestrians skip lights, why no call for them to be registered? Why no cries that mothers with pushchairs pay road tax?
And there is another reason that I jump lights, it's physics again. Once you've got a little bit of momentum, braking to a halt and then starting up is hard work. So if there's a chance not to stop and I can do so safely, I take that opportunity. There, I'm a lazy cyclist as well. Dear Met Police, you know where I live.
The whole debate seems to be back to front, fuelled as these controversies often are by deliberate misinformation in the popular media. Cycling isn't a political statement, it's just a means of travelling from point A to point B. There are other benefits, such as raising your fitness levels, but it is a mode of transport not a manifesto. As such, cyclists deserve the same protection as other road users. Yet I can only recall police officers chastising cyclists for skipping lights, I've never seen them stop a motorist for cutting up a bike-rider. It is much easier for officers patrol junctions where riders are known to jump than to deal with bad driving by construction vehicles, for example. And before you ask, yes I have been given the lecture by the boys (and girls) in blue for jumping reds (three times if I recall), no I've never had to pay a fine.
It is a cheap trick to employ anecdotes in debate, well I'm cheap as well a law-breaker. A good friend of mine was knocked off his bike by a van driver two years ago. His head was centimetres from going under the back wheels. Following his accident, two of his spinal discs ruptured, leading to severe pain and partial paralysis of the arm. Thanks to surgery, he regained the use of his arm, the pain abated, once the discs were replaced with artificial ones. The motorist was prosecuted by the police for dangerous driving, as there were plenty of witnesses. Bear in mind that the driver very nearly killed my friend and caused him serious injury, guess what punishment this uninsured driver with a criminal record received? Six points and a fifty pound fine. That story is not an isolated episode, this happens all the time.
There is my confession: I jump red lights. And I will carry on doing so until cycle lanes have a physical barriers from traffic and the police treat cyclists the same as motorists and truck drivers.
