I thought that this article was nonsense - if anything having lots of novices blundering around should make things safer for all cyclists as drivers adapt.
I’m evangelical about cycling. There aren’t any of my friends who haven’t heard the good news that life will be better, thighs slimmer and journeys quicker if only they accept the bike in their life.
So why am I so against Boris Johnson’s scheme that has put thousands of blue bikes on the streets of London for anyone to pedal?
At first it seemed a great idea: make it easy to ride a bike by taking the hassle out of it. But after a week cycling behind, and trying to avoid colliding with, the new breed of precarious, slow, ill-attired riders, I’ve changed my mind.
They join cars, lorries and U-turning taxis as enemies of the commuter cyclist cult to which I belong. Shod in flipflops, with long hair obscuring their vision, they look as if they got lost on the way out of Center Parcs and found themselves going round Piccadilly Circus. For the good of us all they should be taken off the streets. You wouldn’t put thousands of cars on the road and allow unlicensed drivers to shoot off without wearing a seat belt.
Commuter cycling in London is dangerous, fast paced and fun. Riding around Parliament Square affords an inspiring view of Big Ben, but also requires negotiating five lanes of traffic at speed. It’s not the same as picking up a Barcelona “Bicing” and sweeping along the carefree corniche.
London isn’t designed for novice cyclists on heavy, clunky bikes that can’t zip out of trouble. It is a bendy- bus-bedevilled place with narrow streets and narrower margins for error. Just when you think you’re on a cycle track, it disappears. Then you’re at a junction and it sounds like the Hell’s Angels display team have made you their centrepiece. You have to ride fast, maintain your nerve and keep ahead of the traffic, otherwise you’ll be underneath it. Wobbling along with a bag precariously balanced on a sheet of metal on the handlebars as your maxi-dress introduces itself to the spokes on your wheels doesn’t cut it.
As an inveterate cyclist, Boris knows this. If he wanted to get people on their bikes safely he should have given them the right tools for the job. The London Assembly claims to have halved the number of deaths on London’s roads in the past decade. But now that trend is going to be reversed.
I don’t want to denounce the scheme altogether: one new convert whom I spoke to while waiting at a traffic light said that he had just signed up for an annual subscription and knocked 20 minutes off his commute. He couldn’t have looked happier at 8.30am on a Friday morning as he pushed off into the path of an incoming lorry.
But when the Mayor heralded the scheme as a “communist revolution”, he was right. In the cycle lane some are now more equal than others.
Joanna Sugden is a Times journalist
I’m evangelical about cycling. There aren’t any of my friends who haven’t heard the good news that life will be better, thighs slimmer and journeys quicker if only they accept the bike in their life.
So why am I so against Boris Johnson’s scheme that has put thousands of blue bikes on the streets of London for anyone to pedal?
At first it seemed a great idea: make it easy to ride a bike by taking the hassle out of it. But after a week cycling behind, and trying to avoid colliding with, the new breed of precarious, slow, ill-attired riders, I’ve changed my mind.
They join cars, lorries and U-turning taxis as enemies of the commuter cyclist cult to which I belong. Shod in flipflops, with long hair obscuring their vision, they look as if they got lost on the way out of Center Parcs and found themselves going round Piccadilly Circus. For the good of us all they should be taken off the streets. You wouldn’t put thousands of cars on the road and allow unlicensed drivers to shoot off without wearing a seat belt.
Commuter cycling in London is dangerous, fast paced and fun. Riding around Parliament Square affords an inspiring view of Big Ben, but also requires negotiating five lanes of traffic at speed. It’s not the same as picking up a Barcelona “Bicing” and sweeping along the carefree corniche.
London isn’t designed for novice cyclists on heavy, clunky bikes that can’t zip out of trouble. It is a bendy- bus-bedevilled place with narrow streets and narrower margins for error. Just when you think you’re on a cycle track, it disappears. Then you’re at a junction and it sounds like the Hell’s Angels display team have made you their centrepiece. You have to ride fast, maintain your nerve and keep ahead of the traffic, otherwise you’ll be underneath it. Wobbling along with a bag precariously balanced on a sheet of metal on the handlebars as your maxi-dress introduces itself to the spokes on your wheels doesn’t cut it.
As an inveterate cyclist, Boris knows this. If he wanted to get people on their bikes safely he should have given them the right tools for the job. The London Assembly claims to have halved the number of deaths on London’s roads in the past decade. But now that trend is going to be reversed.
I don’t want to denounce the scheme altogether: one new convert whom I spoke to while waiting at a traffic light said that he had just signed up for an annual subscription and knocked 20 minutes off his commute. He couldn’t have looked happier at 8.30am on a Friday morning as he pushed off into the path of an incoming lorry.
But when the Mayor heralded the scheme as a “communist revolution”, he was right. In the cycle lane some are now more equal than others.
Joanna Sugden is a Times journalist
