Boris's bike escape shows what cyclists put up with
Boris Johnson’s brush with a near-death accident on his bike in London’s Limehouse district (see video below) throws into sharp relief the experience we cyclists endure every working day.
I am, like Boris, a jobbing cyclist. I use the machine every working day of my life – to, from, and at work. Several times a week something happens that perhaps a second or two later, or a metre or so closer, might have killed me.
Mayor Johnson was with a team on bikes looking for suitable roads to carry new separated cycle lanes. A scrap lorry passed the group and, as it mounted a hump (sleeping policemen, designed to slow traffic), the back doors flew open, smashed into a parked car and dragged it along the street. The mayor and his team escaped unscathed.
What interests me is the reality that these near-death experiences for cyclists have actually reduced down the years. I used to have them every day – now, as I say, it is several times a week.
I was at a launch for MPs of CTC’s Safety in Numbers campaign in the House of Commons the other day. They produced statistics which show that cycling in London since 2000 has increased by 91 per cent and that fatalities have fallen by 33 per cent.
But facilities are still awful. Separated cycle lanes are rare and parking hoops, whilst more prevalent, are completely absent from Whitehall. I retain my Commons pass more for parking my bike than for attending any debate.
If you want to visit any ministry in Whitehall, there is nowhere to park a bike, and if you try, Cannon Row police either blow it up or smash the lock and cart it off to the cells (it has happened to me more than once).
The very fact that the seat of government remains so actively hostile to bikes (“We’re concerned about bicycle bombs, old chap”) speaks volumes about our real attitudes to green technology. What chance reversing climate change if you can’t park your bloody bike anywhere near the seat of the government charged with trying to fix it?
How about banning all private cars from the centres of all our major cities? There are absolutely no votes to be lost by doing so. It was Ken Livingstone, in introducing the congestion charge, who discovered that fewer than 15 per cent of people living in inner London ever bring their cars into central London.
In 10 years’ time we shall look back and wonder how we ever let them in in the first place as we breeze along our car-less boulevards on electric public transport, on streets configured to give bus, bike and walking human all the space they presently dream of.
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There are 33 comments on this post
Scary! I totally agree with Jon’s remark about banning all private cars from town centres. Why not? It IS the future.
10 years? I wish you luck with your optimism.
I too cycle to work – a longish route that takes me through from Streatham to Paddington.
I completely agree re: far less near-death experiences. I used to cycle the route I do now back in 1996, then had a hiatus and returned to it about 3 years ago. What I noticed first was how boring it now is. I get very annoyed with people who deride Ken Livingstone’s mayoralty in terms of “He never did anything for us Londoners” (etc). I do feel that people who say that have remarkably short memories. Quite apart from the massive changes in terms of the London economy, on a micro scale, for me personally, my daily death-trap ride had become cycle-laned to the hilt. There are even extra route-arounds for the extra dodgy bits. Boring! Where has the constant feeling of “Christ, what’s that coming up behind me” gone!
So I do also get annoyed that the current Mayor has in fact *reduced* funding for cycle lanes, despite all his headline grabbing hoohah about biking, which so far hasn’t born any fruit.
Meanwhile, however, accidents do happen, and the new zeitgeisty memorial of “ghost biking” can be seen all over town. I’m extremely glad no one was hurt in the incident, and wish you, Jon, and all the rest of us cyclers a safe and enjoyable summer season, getting to work (and a not too miserable winter for the full timers
.
Slightly OT (but has the spirit of the thread.) I once suggested to the DOT that everytime they repaired a motorway,large road etc, with the surplus or below spec materials they could add a cycle lane to run parallel to the repaired road, thus adding more to the national cycle network at low cost. The result was my Email box totally spammed for months from various gov departments with all the guff they exchange between themselves.
God knows how they get through a day writing all this stuff and then somebody trying to decipher it.
What you said sums it up rather nicely: “What chance reversing climate change if you can’t park your bloody bike anywhere near the seat of the government charged with trying to fix it?”
I am writing this from a railway station in Gothenburg, Sweden. I don´t really want to blow my own trumpet (had I had any), but I must admit cyclists have a lot more space here, both metaphorically and physically. I only have to look outside to notice the many bikes and the cyclepaths, parking arrangements and the rest of it.
Personally, I admire anyone brave enough to take his or her bike through London. Even more so someone who has been at it for as long as you have,as it were. I guess us viewers should really be amazed to see you alive and kicking in the studio every night – without bandages and plasters!
Lots of bicycle events coming up in London soon…and the Critical Mass London Cycle Ride on the last Friday of every month. Let us hope the Government will feel the high pressure from all the bike wheels on the streets. After all, they want to be seen to do something positive at the moment! Now is the time to strike…
This footage is clearly edited. One sec he isnt there and then after the dramatic event suddenly the footage changes and there are several people appear as if by magic. Hardly a close shave. What about pedestrians who have to endure the fatal strike caused by cyclists who *illegally* ride on the pavements. My daughter was knocked down and dragged by a man on his cycle and was badly injured… cyclists are also a cause of danger. And Cycle paths may stop illegal riding of bikes on pavements for others safety as well as their own ..this clip very hyped and clearly edited unless you believe in people materialising out of thin air!
Yes, the footage is edited. And badly. The fill version clearly shows the lorry, at some speed, bounce over the speed hump and, barely under control, nearly run down the group of cyclists. It then hits three cars and, with one car stuck on the rear doors (that were open) this car was then smashed inot the other car, having just missed the cyclists.
A few seconds later, Boris Johnson is seen, cycle helmet in hand, surveying the damage to the cars.
How many people do cyclists kill a year? One on average.
How many are killed and seriously injured by motor vehicles? Thousands upon thousands, not to mention the health and environmental destruction for all of us.
Our road infrastructure doesn’t cater for cyclists, when it does, your gripe against cyclists on pavements might have some validity.
Bring on the electric wizzy-machine. I hate being in traffic.
This is an accident caused by a speed bump. How many more does there need to be for them to be removed? They’re clearly extremely dangerous. This clearly would not have happened had it not been for the bad road design. Local councils should be held to account for causing accidents such as this.
As for Boris Johnson’s ‘brush with near death’, he wasn’t even there when the incident occurred. John your reporting is normally excellent but in this case I think your personal feelings about your experience of cycling in London has clouded your normally objective reporting.
Sorry to go off topic, but why oh why Channel 4 news at 7 O Clock not live.
BBC and ITV both have theirs online.
Man Miss it.
We could well have jobs for our redundant M.P.s.,
Line them all up on their hands and their knees,
Pull down their pants with bums to the fore,
Bike parking for all upto parliaments door.
worried about bicycle bombs? What about car bombs? And pedestrian bombs (so to speak)?
And what about scrap lorries with open doors, driving over speed humps with cars parked at the side of the road? This says a lot about scrap lorries with unsecured doors (could this constitute dangerous driving?), about speed humps (as Ashley Stevens commented on), and about safety of cyclists AND pedestrians. I would be in favour of more pedestrianised/cyclistised areas.
Oh and I can see a bunch of cyclists cycling along with the lorry as it catches the car and swings it round. It is a miracle that no-one was hurt. Does it matter whether or not it was Mayor Johnson? Apart from, hopefully he might consider improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists and actually do something about it…
Also off message but wanted to share this:
Violinist in the Metro
A man sat at a Metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced their kids to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most renowned musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston where the seats average $100.. This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.
The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One of the possible conclusions from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
Perhaps Boris should invest in an Oyster card instead of an Oyster helmet.
Seriously. Any form of transport, even walking, is all about judging movement through time and space. You could say things like “a second or two later or a metre or so closer” about situations that arise whatever form of transport you are using. Even walking home is dangerous, as we saw the other week…
Yes you are more vulnerable if you are cyclist amid other traffic, but if you put yourself in that environment it is a risk you have deliberately exposed yourself to and accepted. It is therefore wrong to say that cars, buses and lorries should be banned just to keep the cyclist safe. Nobody is forcing cyclists to be cyclists on congested roads in London.They choose to do so in the intersts of getting around more efficiently and have traded that off against increased risk.
Moving around safely is a skill, but we have rules and regulations to try and make it safer – such as red-lights, which I think there is evidence of certain well-known cyclists ignoring ?!!
And the Mayour of London is well placed to introduce more cycle lanes if he wants to. The trouble with cycle lanes, is that they tend to be white lines painted on the edge of roads and pavements, rather than specially constructed separate routes, which leaves cyclists exposed to other traffic – and vice-versa.
Better Town planning is required, to cater for all modes of transport….
While banning all private cars from city centres is a bit extreme (for some older people it is the only way to get around), banning them from certain roads is a good idea. I live in central London (in fact I saw Jon Snow go very slowly through a red light on Grays Inn Road this morning) and I cannot see why a network of cycle-only roads could not be established. Just one or two main routes going north/south and east/west across the city where cyclists could do the majority of their journey in relative safety. I used to cycle everywhere when I was young but I am too scared to now.
Er.. “What about all the pedestrian fatalities?” I suggest you check your statistics AND the actualities of the most well known pedestrian-cyclist fatality. While the cyclist did cycle criminally badly and cause an avoidable death, the victim was actually standing in the road at the time. (I AM not excusing him of his bad behaviour but I am tired of hearing the pedestrian fatality rant there are very, very few incidents). I agree that cyclists shouldn’t be on the pavements unless there is a designated lane. As a cyclist for 36 years, both for sport and commuting, I have observed a deteriation in all aspects of the behaviour of car and cycling commuters; be it red light jumping, cycling on pavements or just downright aggresive driving. I’ve been shunted twice at a junction and a zebra crossing becuase the car driver didn’t think I would stop “Sorry, I didn’t think cyclists stopped at junctions”
Seperately, I’ve had my bike crushed by another driver in an incident where they effectively tried to drive *through* me while I waited on a red light(It’s the one called “Not a good commute today” on http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchmilfan)
BUT generally most drivers are absolutely fine – try signalling what you’re going to do, make sure they can see you in their mirrors and (most importantly) don’t ride like a twat!
Er.. “What about all the pedestrian fatalities?” I suggest you check your statistics AND the actualities of the most well known pedestrian-cyclist fatality. While the cyclist did cycle criminally badly and cause an avoidable death, the victim was actually standing in the road at the time. (I AM not excusing him of his bad behaviour but I am tired of hearing the pedestrian fatality rant there are very, very few incidents). I agree that cyclists shouldn’t be on the pavements unless there is a designated lane. As a cyclist for 36 years, both for sport and commuting, I have observed a deteriation in all aspects of the behaviour of car and cycling commuters; be it red light jumping, cycling on pavements or just downright aggresive driving. I’ve been shunted twice at a junction and a zebra crossing becuase the car driver didn’t think I would stop “Sorry, I didn’t think cyclists stopped at junctions”
Seperately, I’ve had my bike crushed by another driver in an incident where they effectively tried to drive *through* me while I waited on a red light(It’s the one called “Not a good commute today” on http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchmilfan)
BUT generally most drivers are absolutely fine – try signalling what you’re going to do, make sure they can see you in their mirrors and (most importantly) don’t ride like a twat!
(Sorry if it’s all a bit disjointed – passenger on M5, writing in tiny box on Blackberry!)
no, there are not very very few incidents, there are just very very few reported! Why would anyone bother to report being hit by a cyclist? There are no licence plates and nothing to identify them.A selfish idiot on a bike is not much of a description.
I have a friend who is blind and has a guide dog who has been hit 3 times by pavement cyclists. Did you read about that in the paper or see it on the news?
The lives of many disabled, elderly and visually impaired people are being made a nightmare by the culture of tolerance of law breaking by cyclists.
In London cycling is a choice not a necessity- I walk or travel by public transport.The road being dangerous do not make it right for cyclists to pass that danger on to vulnerable pedestrians. This is something that Jon Snow should look at on the news.
Why does every blog or comments section about motorised vehicles killing or almost killing cyclists end up with lots of posts by people claiming cyclists are a serious threat to pedestrians?
The latest figures show that in 2007 collisions involving cyclists killed 4 pedestrians and seriously injured a further 48. Far too many we can all agree but tiny compared to the figures for collisions involving motor vehicles, whjich resulted in 642 dead pedestrians and a further 6224 seriously injured. Read those figures again slowly and ask yourself just who is the biggest risk to pedestrians? Source Hansard HoC written answers 26 January 2009 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090126/text/90126w0003.htm#column_14W
Shamus you are missing the point. Yes, roads can be dangerous places for pedestrians, but pavements are meant to be safe! You don’t expect a cyclist to come storming up behind you or round a blind corner at 15 mph.
No one has to cycle, its a choice you make for convenience, health or economy. So take responsibility for that choice and cycle in the road where you should be. You don’t have the right to make pavements dangerous and stressful for people far more vulnerable than you are.
I know someone blind who has been hit 3 times by pavement cyclists ( and I dont mean “shared” paths.) If she isn’t safe on the pavement what do you think that does for her confidence and ability to function independently?
I’m very sympathetic to the cyclists involved, but also very glad nobody was in the car that got wrenched around!
I don’t see this clip as too much evidence of life being dangerous for cyclists (although it is), but rather of a cowboy lorry driver on a badly designed road.
With a door flapping open the lorry was a menace to anyone in the vicinity.
I totally agree with Shamus. Only this morning I got shouted at for cycling slowly along a wide pavement, the only way to avoid the dreadful one-way system leading to the port of Dover, where only a few weeks ago a cyclist I know was killed by a lorry. The man shouting at me obviously had a very short memory. Long live the cycling policy in Japan and many European countries, where pedestrians and cyclists share the path without any undue hassle. The danger to pedestrians in these cases is a fraction of the danger posed to cyclists by heavy traffic.
As a cyclist who parks outside the ITN building on Grays Inn Road (I work just over the road), I can say I’m thankful I haven’t had a bad accident. Those few I have have been from pedestrians stepping out in front of me (like on Duke Street Hill, at London Bridge station). I’ve now become experienced enough to anticipate their inteded movements.
I seriously recommend reading good driving and cycling manuals. This has saved me from what could have been at least two bad accidents: vehicles turning left because they don’t notice you’re on their left. The rule: ALWAYS watch (be aware of, not stare at) their front wheels. Yes, it IS a fact that they CANNOT begin to turn left BEFORE their front wheels start to turn. On two occasions, I kind-of had to “turn left with them”, and in each case, the driver became aware of the situation before it was too late.
Anothe key fact: NEVER pass or go on the left of a large vehicle near the kerb if the space is likely to reduce.
Do government buildings allow Bromptons indoors?
I’m amazed Boris or Call Me Dave don’t use one, they are made in London. People do sometimes describe mine as being like a clown bike (they are much less common in Glasgow than they are in London) but any politician riding a bike has already crossed a rubicon on their public image. Indeed as a secondary school teacher I have to explain why I use a bike. My reasons follow a pattern of good for me, good for the environment, cheaper than a car… but mostly because I like riding a bike.
I love your prediction for the city of 10 years’ time, though I’ve been vainly forecasting something similar ever since I scrapped the car and bought a bike in 1971. Instead, things have simply got cumulatively worse, to the point that riding on city streets now amounts to irrational enthusiasm.
In Exeter, our council implicitly agrees with this assessment, judging by its determined programme of re-allocating what used to be pavements to so-called shared use – to the detriment of cyclists and pedestrians alike. Misperception of the nature of the underlying problem has led to this non-solution.
Bikes belong on the road. If any government is serious about wanting to see more people cycling, it will have to figure a way to make roads more amenable to cyclists.
Yes, the government’s attitude towards green technology is totally bogus. I commute by train and cycle into a heavily congested Canterbury from Broadstairs, but South Eastern Railways with the blessing of the government, are cutting the train service by 50% from December ’09 to make room for ‘high Speed trains’. I am now contemplating using the car again when the new timetable comes into effect.
How many cyclist’s are injured by people walking in cycle ways. In Grenwish park I was baddly injured by 2 large men walking in the cycle lane who despite me ringing my bell did not move. I rode into the cobbled gutter to avoid them and went over the handle bars knocking myself out. The men did not stop and I ended up in Lewshim hospital.
Some pathetic stuff on here.
Jane wrote: “Only this morning I got shouted at for cycling slowly along a wide pavement”
It’s a pavement. Get off and walk.
anne gasnola wrote: “In Grenwish park I was baddly injured by 2 large men walking in the cycle lane who despite me ringing my bell did not move.”
As above. You failed to control your vehicle. The men may have been in the way but they did nothing to you. Victim mentality. Get some cycle training and a better attitude.
On the subject of cyclist-ped fatalities, between 2001 and 2005 534 pedestrians were killed in collisions with motor vehicles, compared with just one killed in collision with a cycle (still one too many). That single fataliy was neither on a pavement nor a pedestrian crossing point.
Yes i completely agree with Jon were he says banning cars from the center of cities would be a good idea.
I myself am a cyclist and have a number of times had a near death experience on a road. Now i have to stick to trails of the road.
Now is this right?
Duckboy – you have
A) never been seen on a bike in french
B) only ever had a near death experience when wills is part of it
and C) are only 12
This guy is brilliant!
Are the near misses becoming less regular because the roads are getting safer, or because you are becoming more and more experienced, aware of the dangers, and therefore able to avoid them? For novice cyclists without such experience, cycling is still fraught with (as yet) unforeseeable dangers. Dangers that are only ever discovered the hard way.