Dear RCC members
I was reading an article recently which complained about the plague of Lime bikes in London, detailing many of the problems they cause to law-abiding car drivers and owner occupiers in the Capital.
There, of course, was the obligatory reference to “the way their riders often run red lights and cycle on pavements”. This got me thinking about the ethics of running red lights and cycling on pavements.
Rules 64 and 69 of the Highway Code are clear and say you MUST NOT cycle on pavements, and you MUST obey all traffic signs and traffic light signals (their emphasis).
But is life this simple and wouldn’t it be nice if obeying the Highway Code really made cycling safer and more popular? Real life is not quite like the perfectly ordered universe envisioned by the Code’s writers.
This week my youngest grandchild is doing a holiday course near the King’s Road and to get there from her home near Palmer Park, the only safe way for a reasonably competent seven-year-old cyclist is along pavements and very carefully across Cemetery Junction at the pedestrian crossing.
Her Mum shadows her along the way and presumably both of them are committing offences according to the Highway Code. But what else are they supposed to do? Walking is one option, or should they add to the already heavy road traffic in this area?
Thinking of some of the regular routes which I take around the town, there are several places where I will take to the pavement for short distances to keep myself out of the way of heavy or fast traffic – the Forbury is a road I avoid if I possibly can.
There are also a couple of places, mainly on the entry to bus routes, where it is in my view far safer for all concerned that I get out of the way of the rest of the traffic.
If I wait with them at the red light, I am at risk when it changes and I wobble a bit in getting going and the cars try to push past me. I have long thought that all traffic lights should have an extra phase – perhaps solid red and flashing amber which would allow cyclists and pedestrians to move with caution.
The article claims that 12% of cycling journeys in London are made on rental bikes, but they are responsible for a third of all collisions between cyclists and pedestrians.
What it does not explore is whether this is a big number and also how many other ways pedestrians can be killed and injured on London roads. Crucially the terrible statistics of cyclists killed and injured whether on Lime bikes or not don’t ever seem to figure.
Cars (and car drivers) killing people is just something we have to put up with, but a cyclist running into a pedestrian is a cause for instant outrage – “LOCK ’EM ALL UP” cry the popular press.
When I mentioned to my wife I was thinking of writing this piece, her immediate response was: “What about the car drivers who go through red lights?”. It seems to be totally accepted for one extra vehicle (or more) to push through as the lights turn to red.
I have seen Reading buses do it, taxis do it, and at the Three Tuns cross-roads it seems to be almost every time, which leads to some very near misses. However, even if we had a special advanced phase at the lights for cyclists, would motorists take any notice, and would it be enforced?
So just how do we cyclists make ourselves safe on the roads? Whilst the Campaign tries to move the dial on the bigger issues, such as dedicated cycle routes and driver education, we still must be responsible as individuals to cycle in a way that keeps ourselves safe and out of the way of others.
If this means sometimes cycling on pavements or getting out of the way of traffic at the lights where it is obviously safer to do so, I for one cannot object.
Joe Edwards
RCC Chairman
