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Call to toughen law as riders and drivers clash
David Williams, Motoring Editor14.10.08
TOUGHER policing and "advance" traffic lights for cyclists are needed to defuse tensions between riders and drivers in London, experts said today.
Motorists and cyclists should also be made to undergo additional training, said the Cyclists Touring Club.
Since the Nineties there has been a 91 per cent rise in cycling in London. Experts say this has seen increased problems between cyclists and drivers.
The CTC called for measures to encourage a "share the road" mentality including trials of "advance" traffic lights for cyclists. It said small, additional traffic lights could be placed a few feet ahead of standard lights to give cyclists a two to three-second head-start.
"Drivers are angered by cyclists going through red lights," said Roger Geffen, of the CTC.
"Cyclists do it because it feels safer than waiting for traffic to rush up from behind. If they could pull away sooner, legally, it would help."
The CTC called for cyclists caught riding on pavements or through red lights to be sent on re-training courses similar to schemes for motorists caught jumping red lights.
And it said the Driving Standards Agency should introduce cycle-awareness into the driver-training syllabus.
The AA, RAC Foundation, and Institute of Advanced Motorists backed the CTC's call for more policing. Paul Watters, the AA's head of road safety, said: "There is arrogance from both drivers and cyclists. Drivers notice it more because there are more cyclists.
"While most cyclists are law-abiding there is a minority who break the law, causing frustration for everyone.
"More policing would help if they concentrated on light-jumping but if everyone had a give and take attitude it would make the roads flow more smoothly." Sheila Rainger, head of campaigns at the RAC Foundation, said: "Cyclists are getting a lot more militant. When I ride a motorycle legally in bus lanes the more aggressive ones deliberately cut me up. They react strongly to what they perceive as others in 'their' road space.
"Some are very domineering they want everyone else to keep out of their way but they want to ignore rules they don't like by riding through pedestrian crossings and on pavements."
Ms Rainger added: "More policing of all road users would help, drivers are not angels either."
She said training that encouraged cyclists to ride in the middle of the road was "backfiring" as it was misinterpreted by those who needlessly hogged the centre of the road.
Vince Yearley, of the IAM, said: "Cyclists with a cavalier attitude to rules do cause heightened tensions. Cyclists should be more polite and drivers should give them more room."
David Love, of the London Freewheel event, said: "Drivers have become more used to bikes but some still like to bully cyclists. You get more respect from motorists if you behave like one that means ostentatious rear glances, hand signals, queuing at the lights and taking your full space on the road.
"Cyclists are their own worst enemies. I tell people that each time they ride through a red light, 20 more people hate all cyclists."
Mr Love said that cyclists who jump red lights should be fined.
Reader views (10)
Spending so many hours driving around London, I firstly would like to absolutely applaud cyclists for being 'green', and yes no doubt the world would be cleaner if we were all cycling - but we're not. In the mean time everytime a cyclist nearly causes an accident, breaks the laws of the road or holds traffic up-it is not doing their cause any favours.
We would see how many people take up cycling if they:
Legally had to hold a cycling licence
Had to have a yearly vehicle test for road worthiness
Pay yearly road tax
Have full comprehensive insurance
Legally be required to wear protective clothing that also makes them visible.
Be 17 years or over to cycle on a main road.
Be consistently fined for breaking any highway rules.
I would guess that there may be a sudden drop in the number of people cycling - but those that did would almost certainly not irritate car drivers - and we would be able to happily share the road
- Louise Ruskin, London
It would be nice to have more ASL boxes at major junctions, but it would be even nicer to have existing ASL boxes enforced. Currently the police appear to be busy trying to catch cyclists passing through red lights, often for their own safety than enforcing cyclists rights on the road. At the moment motorists routinely ignore ASL and cycle lanes completely.
Allowing cyclists to the head of a queue is far safer than letting them get mixed up in revving motor traffic which then accelerates hard away on green. If cyclists are sat at the front of a queue of traffic they should be obvious to all motorists and it makes it safer and easier for them to turn if they wish to. Yes this may slow motor traffic down, but who said that motorists have the right to dominate the road above all other users? They pay VED/road tax, but I'm afraid roads are actually paid for through general taxation of which I pay a large chunk.
- Mcw, London
80kg cyclist + 10kg bike at 30km/hr: damage to environment nil, damage to cars and pedestrians - minimal, benefit to taxpayers via reduced health system burden - huge.
90kg motorist + 1100kg car at 60km/hr - damage to environment huge, damage to cars, pedestrians, and cyclists - huge, damage to health system through road trauma, respiratory problems and lack of exercise - huge.
Motorists: from an ecological and social respect, your debt level goes up everytime you and your mobile lounge room go for a drive.
- Wes Gorman, Perth Australia
why should cyclists get a two to three second head start at traffic lights ? they will only have to endure the motorised traffic rushing past! why not make them wait two to three seconds when most of the traffic has pulled away ? none of them pull away in the right gear then they crawl up to speed weaving from side to side because the pedal effort is too great to begin with .They have got to learn that its not a competition to try and keep up with the motorised traffic but to try and 'blend in' safely.
- Peter Killick, Hartlepool United Kingdom
It is sad but predicatable that most of the comments from experts, even some from the cycling groups, focus on cycling behaviour. Car drivers are in charge of powerful and dangerous vehicles. Cyclists pose little danger to others. One of the main reasons more people don't cycle is the danger posed by motor vehicles.
Because of the climate crisis, because of the obesity crisis we need more cycling and fewer cars. The surest way to avoid conflict between cyclists and motorists is to get the motorists out of their cars and onto bikes. It would do us all a world of good.
- James Woodcock, London, UK
I see a great many motor vehicles going through red lights every day, yet the focus is on the cyclists! A car causes a lot more damage. And many many more pedestrians are killed or seriously injured on pavements by cars than bikes. Common sense would be welcome, and the CTC have some very sound suggestions.
- Pavel Navorak, London
I can't see what the problem is with cyclists nipping through on red if it's safe to do so. I would prefer, if I'm a motorist at the head of a line of traffic, for a cyclist not to be wobbling in the road in front of me waiting for the lights to change, but to have gone long before. It's better for me and it's better for him. The attitude where 'I have to stop at red lights so why don't they' smacks of the worst kind of jealousy- why can't people just be happy someone in life benefits even if they don't? I say good luck to cyclists, and I say this as an avid car driver.
- Richard, United Kingdom
It would be much simpler to require car drivers who hit cyclists to retake their driving test. You'll soon see an enormous drop in the accident rate. Worked everywhere else it has been implemented. Why is it so difficult for the UK to follow a plan that is very cheap, easy to administer and has a proven effect in reducing the accident rate? They put up speed cameras everywhere and their effect on accident rates are tenuous at best...
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
The reason motor vehicles cause more serious damage and injuries is because they don't bounce off cyclists when there's a coming together of the two. It has nothing to do with drivers being more (?less) responsible than cyclists.
Unless and until there is a reliable method for identifying cyclists in the same way that vehicles can be tied to an individual driver, then you're going to have those who can get away with flouting the rules of the road taking every advantage of the same.
....but then you'd get the civil liberties crew up in arms, talking about micro-chipping Joe Citizen and the like.
Interesting conundrum.
- Rogan, Irving
Some sense at last from a cycling lobby! Of course cyclists should have some training to use the roads. And a lot of traffic lights already have a green box for cyclists to get a head-start on motorists - shame that cyclists ignore it by jumping lights and drivers ignore it by stopping in them.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
