Two-wheeled fascism: the trouble with London's cyclists
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By Michael Hodges
Updated: Thu Jul 30 2009 -
Time Out columnist Michael Hodges goes on the offensive against dangerous London cyclists. Have your say on the issues and read other responses and comments
What you said | Have your say
A very aggrieved cyclist turned up on BBC Radio 4 last week. He was upset about London cyclist deaths, in particular the number of cyclists killed by lorries that turn left at junctions and fail to see riders who are often trapped between the vehicles and safety railings against which, with woeful irony, they are crushed.
This is an extremely dangerous situation that should be stopped but, as well as being outraged by it, the man was clearly dangerous himself. In a tremulous, public-school voice on the edge, it seemed, of tears, he openly admitted that he ignored traffic signals: ‘It doesn't matter if the light is red or not, I’m just bothered about seeing a space in the traffic ahead and slipping in to it.’ Feature continuesAdvertisementThis neatly turned what was his and other cyclists’ problem into our problem. And by ‘our’ I mean the great majority of us who attempt to walk around the city every day and don’t want to be hit by cyclists ignoring red lights. The man could make his outrageous admission so easily because, in his and other cyclists’ world view, plebs who walk don’t matter. We are mere obstacles in the way of the divine right of an athletic, clean-living few to cycle wherever they want.
In the past, cyclists would at least be shame-faced enough about their aggression to lie: ‘Bikes are allowed on the pavement’; ‘we’re being forced on the path by the roadworks.’ Or they would blame us for being on the pavement in the first place: ‘The pavement doesn’t belong to pedestrians, it’s ours as well’ (well, yes it does, actually, and no it isn’t).
But now the London cycling community – privileged, white, self-absorbed and arrogant – can’t be bothered to make stuff up any more and is taking to the airwaves to encourage its members to break the law (and just to be clear, it is against the law to deliberately ride through a red light).
The arrogance of London’s rogue cyclists is as extreme as their appearance. Go to the website of the London Cycling Campaign (www.lcc.org.uk) and on the homepage you’ll find a picture of a grown man in a yellow anorak and tights riding his cycle across the pavement.
He’s coming up behind a lumpy male pedestrian in a baseball cap who has no way of knowing the cyclist is behind him because cyclists – around the time they started to dress in leotards and Waffen SS helmets – abandoned the traditional, and useful if you’re going to drive through a group of people, bell.
Lumpy men in baseball caps are ridiculous, laughable even, but not having thunderous thighs and a cagoule doesn’t justify physical assault. Yet. The worship of the (white) male human body, the disdain for the lower orders, the generally humourless attitude (seen any laughing cyclists recently?), we’ve been here before haven’t we? In fact we fought a war to stop it. Did London survive the attentions of the Luftwaffe only to be overrun by a new pack of two-wheeled fascists?
The original London fascists, Mosley’s blackshirts, survived on handouts from the aristocracy but modern pedestrian-hating cycling groups are allowed to register as a charities (the LCC is Registered Charity number 1115789). Worse, the government actually gives our money to the new fascists; funding for cycling has doubled in the last two years and there is now a Cycle to Work scheme to provide VAT-free bicycles. Why should pedestrians’ taxes pay to put more cyclists on our paths and support organisations committed to making our lives harder?
LCC has direct links with Sustrans, a group that is dedicated to turning country lanes into cycleways, forcing the ordinary hikers that traditionally use them out of the way. If successful, Sustrans’ s campaign will undo the radical work of the last century when mass trespasses won ordinary people access to the countryside. Quiet lanes and tracks where women, children and pensioners can dawdle along enjoying the flora and fauna would become noisy cycleways plagued by mountain bikes and bellowing male riders in neon body stockings.
In town and country then, the pedestrian is under assault from cyclists. Given the ferocity of the assault, letting tyres down and bending mudguards whenever the opportunity arises doesn’t seem an adequate response any more. So what are we going to do about the new fascists?- Add your comment to this feature
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83 comments
I drive in london almost every day and constantly see cycle users who seem to think that a red traffic light does not apply to them, some will even go to middle of a junction and practice their balancing act and wait for a small opportunity to sneek across crossing traffic.
I was listening to a radio broadcast recently which did the now protective statement of"MOST CYCLISTS ARE GOOD AND OBSERVANT OF THE LAWS OF THE ROAD AND ITS ONLY A SMALL MINORITY WHO DISOBEY THEM".
I having observed the actions of cyclists in london and local areas KNOW that this is not true and would welcome any gov official or similar body to occompany me on a drive through the heart of london to witness this total stupidity of londons mass cyclist communitty.
Let me now say that cycling around london and other citys is a great way to get around but i cannot remember the the number of times that i have pulled at a junction "indicating left" and have gone to move off only to be startled by several cyclists on my nearside who seem oblivios to my indicator and seem to feel it is their god given right to kill them selves under my van.
Once again i am not anti cyclist but i am anti STUPID cyclist who seem to feel that because they are small they can avoid the big lorries and vans and ignore normal traffic road rules.
Many junctions are not perfect for cyclists in major citys but the actions of cyclists at these and 90% of what i see meens that these two wheeled road users more often than not will risk their own lives for the sake of a 15 min less journey.
I have no doubt that this will offend those cyclists of you who are responsable road users "BUT I AM SORRY " in my experience the majority in london have no idea of the laws of the road and have very little care for their own safety.
AND TO FINISH ARE VERY QUICK TO BLAME OTHER ROAD USERS FOR THEIR OWN COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY.
Terry Allen
Well, today I am home with two enormously swollen knees, unable to move and under a lot of pain killers, because yesterday, a cyclist in London incorporated to an avenue, at full speed, turning her head towards the opposite side (to make sure no vehicles were coming) and never stopped to check if there were people crossing the street ahead. It was fortunate that I did see her or I would probably wouldn´t be writing this today. She stopped, checked I was still conscious, mounted and pedalled off. Believe me, I´m NOT against cyclists. But the problem in London is that most of them just don´t get they have to follow the same road rules as everyone else! They are always hitting pedestrians, or getting killed themselves because they are often reckless and in such a hurry that they don´t stop at red lights, pedestrian crossings, etc. And of course, this makes many pedestrians and drivers truly hate them. They need to be regulated!
When the cyclist who drove without looking and at full speed around the corner of my south-west London street, without his light on, without the legally required reflective clothing on, first into my two-year-old son and then into me, he was not liable to prosecution as he would have been had he been driving a car. Had he been in a car he would have had a license plate to track him down. I am a life-long pedestrian, and increasingly for the last fifteen years, if not longer, I have had my pavements, my pedestrian crossings, even my passenger seat impinged upon by self-righteous and quite frankly offensive cyclists. I have no intrinsic love for motorists, but they are at least held accountable. Cyclists in our capital believe they are above the law: in fear of sounding bitter, I truly wish the law would prove them wrong.
It is a shame that the majority of cyclists have issues with other lifestyles around them. Befor they even get on their bikes they are ready for a fight and cyclists must realise they are hated for their behaviour. If a pedestrian walked down the pavement bumping into, hurling abuse and punching people, he/she would be thought of as mentally disturbed. Yet cyclists behave this way and feel this behaviour is justified. Mental.
This poor little mind Mr Hodges, is a shame to human kind and to TimeOut too who are in turn accomplices for allowing him to vent his stupidity.
Cycling on pavement is selfish and not right, Skipping lights is very selfish & not right but those offences are so minor & harmless compared to the danger and damage that the private use of cars & vans cause to the city life and population every second that make the exacerbated complaint against some rogue cyclists insignificant. I believe that for some reason some of the media ( for instance this incendiary disproportionate and senseless article) has an interest to reverse the only sensible increase of popularity of cycling in town. It is an undeniable truth that cycling in town AND ITS PROMOTION AND PROTECTION is only RIGHT. PRIVATE USE OF CARS IN TOWN DO NOT WORK AND WILL NEVER DO, ACCEPT IT.Complaints against to an obvious HUGE society benefit & the rest of attacks against the most sociable efficient and peaceful means of transport, are expressions of the childish desire of continuation of selfish and undeveloped behaviour. Join us start cycling today and experience it you'll understand if still in doubt. Louis
Afraid of aggressive, threatening cyclists?
Stop moaning - and carry a stick to fend them off!
Use your civil right to self-protection!!
"Change the law so that cyclists only have to give way at lights, just like pedestrians, rather than stop like motor vehicles.
As long as they do give way, is there any harm done to anyone?"
Quite.
What the motorist mentality will never understand is that cyclists are pedestrians in everything but speed.
They are just as vulnerable, and just as non-polluting.
And as there is no 'jaywalking' offence in Britain, meaniing that the pedestrian ALWAYS has right of way, it would be in the spirit of that law to allow cyclists the same rights on the road.
People on bikes are not vehicles, they are people.
The reality of the situation is that cycling on pavements mainly represents a glorious piece of co-operation between people, not the nightmare of paranoiacs like the writer of this piece of trash.
It is the very fact that this behaviour reveals just how peacably people can co-exist which infuriated the reactionay neurotics.
The only thing missing is a sufficient level of expertise by cyclists. This is actively discouraged by the insistence on helmets and the armchair riding style encouraged by the pernicious bloated 4x4 of bicycles, the misnamed, overspecified, overpriced mountain bike.
It's wrong to lump all cyclists in with those who ride on the pavement and skip lights - quite simply because most don't. I cycle regularly in London but just because some pedestrians walk out into the road in front of me without looking I don't tar them all with the same brush.
Just as pedestrians can feel threatened by careless cyclists, cyclists in turn can feel threatened by those motorists who have scant regard for their safety. I was assaulted in central London this month because I tapped on the window of a car that was being driven very aggressively. It's not the first time I have witnessed aggressive behaviour from motorists. However, despite requiring stitches on my face, I wouldn't ever suggest that motorists are highly-strung maniacs. The bad ones, like bad cyclists, are a minority, albeit a very dangerous one.
There's something rather sad about this article, and Michael Hodges for writing it. The comparison with fascism exposes it for the nonsense that it is. If you want a lesson from history is is that we're not going to learn to live together if we demonise people.
The increase in cycling in London seems to me to almost totally made up of pavement cyclists. Yesterday I walked home from the town centre (Barking) with a friend, a distance of 1mile.
In that mile we were passed by 12 pavement cyclists; only one went by slowly and considerately although as this was not a shared path even he had no right to be there. The others went by at speed and within inches of us. If one of has had moved out of a straight line we would have been injured.
By the time we arrived home we were exhausted, angry, upset and stressed. This is the reality of increased cyclng in London for many people. Pavement cyclists are bullies; they are brave men (11 of the 12 were men) who enjoy dominating people who are older, slower or weaker than they are and get a kick of swearing at, threatening and abusing women.
We have always walked for exercise and because we (used to) enjoy walking under the trees in the pretty street that we live in. Now we are going to have to take the bus because this problem is getting worse week on week. Who is looking after the rights of people like us?
Is this piece of garbage still milking it?
Any serious publication would have drawn a line under this thread years ago. Does Time Out still need the traffic this scrap of sneering scribble generates?
Pathetic.
"Two wheeled Facism"?!? These articles are getting ridiculous. I wish you would look at real problems and dangers on the road such as the endless number of motorists still using mobile phones while driving; speeding cars in residential areas; blaring horns left right and centre; taking red lights in cars (yes I see it every day!); agressive drivers; impatient drivers etc etc etc.
Let's compare the problems caused by motorists compared to cyclists shall we?!? Deaths? Injuries? Pollution? Noise?
Is there really a 'trouble with London's cyclists' in comparison?
How about just writing an article called 'trouble with Time Out's low quality journalism?'
Motorcyclists - take a leaf out of the cyclists' book, and use those nice cycle paths!
Why not?!
It really is a shame that ego man Hodges has to use his undeserved pedestal to exacerbate this already ugly argument and promote further intolerance on all sides. It is a great shame that there seems to be so much hatred towards cyclists in London. It is a great way to get about and I believe you can experience a true sense of freedom when cycling.
While there are probably many people who use bikes who are inconsiderate, isn't this the same with drivers, pedestrians, tube and bus users?
It would be nice to see more focus on the positive aspects of cycling, together with more education about its benefits and greater investment in proper infrastructure that would move London closer towards other cities where the urban planning has been designed to consider all road users.