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Moped rider attempts to kick Chi Yong LaUPDATE: Police looking into moped rider caught on cam trying to kick London cyclist
Police are looking into a moped rider who attacked a cyclist in London this week, attempting to kick him off his bike for taking the lane.
Chi Yong La was riding on New Kent Road between his job as a systems engineer for publisher Condé Nast and his home in Greenwich.
Conditions were very wet and slippery and the road is notoriously badly potholed so Chi was following Transport for London advice and taking the middle of the lane.
At about 6:45pm, a man on a moped rode up on Chi’s left “shouting something about ‘is the middle of the road yours...’” Chi said on the YouTube video of the incident. (The time stamp on his cam is an hour out, he says.)
When Chi pointed out the potholes and invited the motorcyclist to pass him properly, on the right, the man attempted to kick him as he pulled away.
Chi told the Metro website: “I was trying to cycle in the middle of my lane because that’s what I’ve been advised when it’s wet and there are potholes.
“The motorcyclist came up beside me and accused me of owning the middle of the lane. I said he could overtake on the right.
“But he suddenly whipped past and kicked out at me – he kicked my front wheel but luckily I managed to cling on.
“It was a close call but very worrying. I hope he can be traced.”
Chi contacted road.cc this weekend to telll us he'd filed a police report under the category of "Road Traffic Collision/Accident". He accompanied his report with the video below.
The police have forwarded the report to the transport department for further investigation.
"I hope they at least have a word with him," he said.
The incident left him unsurprisingly rattled. "I was really shaken up," he said. "I was really holding on for dear life, making sure I didn't topple over."
Shortly after the incident, another rider caught Chi. "The cyclist behind me pulled up [with me]," he said. "I think he was even more rattled than me."
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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63 comments
Personnally i would rather not have an accident than worry about suing after the event!
I had a few negative responses to my earlier post. I read it back and it is a lot grumpier than I meant it to, and I definitely apologise for that... And sorry to the original poster for any of the words that felt like a personal attack, my exasperation was for the community as a whole. I think we're all on the same side here, I ride in zones 1-2 every day and know what road users can be like to each other. As for the return replies calling me elitist and other names, well, I will try to be more constructive and re-phrase, because I think my points are still valid, but need phrased better:
- these videos only have negative outcomes when posted, as far as I can see. There are several offers of criminal retribution in this thread, not cool. Then there's the over reaction like calls for the charge of attempted murder and others declaring their strong belief that police won't do much, and calling any slight dissenters out as victim blamers. Really?
- couldn't people be potentially put off cycling by watching these vids? Surely that is something we should avoid.
- this and other slightly less aggressive driving (and cycling) happens all the time in Central London. The place is full of road rage, as well as careless, unqualified, and uninsured driving, lemming-like pedestrians and terrible cycling. The video is frightening and does show violent road rage but I'm almost numb to it because I see a lot that is, say, a quarter to half as bad as this. We need to somehow concentrate on a productive and constructive response that improves attitudes and relationships. I haven't got any great ideas myself apart from trying to be a considerate cyclist and not react angrily every time I nearly get knocked off, but inviting comments on these videos seem like endless negative reinforcement. My petty comment about core activation was an example - distasteful and I'm sorry again but it was meant to show a potentially constructive use of the video.
As someone who's just taken up cycle commuting 6 week ago, over 30 years since I last rode a bike, the attitude of car drivers to me has been quite a revelation. I've been driving a car for 35 years and frankly I have seen more malice and aggression shown to me while I'm cycling that when I'm driving in the last few weeks.
To most cyclists I'm sure this won't be a surprise, but I think a lot of car drivers would be surprised.
Only last Friday I had a car deliberately suddenly pull out across the one way road to block the whole road to me before reversing back to his position in the gates of the building he was parked at once I'd had to brake (there was no traffic, he wasn't going anywhere and I was well lit), followed a few hundred yards later by a van almost mowing me down on the wrong side of the road (cars parked all long his side of the road but he didn't need to come so far over) - seemingly to just to scare me for fun on both occasions.
I hadn't really appreciated the sheer stupidity and aggression of some drivers towards cyclists. Far above what I experience from drivers when I'm behind the wheel myself.
I'd echo the sentiments of many of the posters above, that there is far too much aggression on London's roads. The frustrating element of it is that there are people who are really not in control of their emotions on the road and they need to be removed until they can prove that they have the temperament to handle a vehicle in an urban environment. A driving licence needs to have controls closer to a firearms licence, ie if there are any doubts over anger issues it goes. This video should be prima facie evidence sufficient to remove the licence and vehicle. However I suspect the met will take a look and file it in the big round thing on the floor also known as the bin along with the rest.
Scary to think wht could have happened if th cyclist hadn't clung on after th kick. Cars and busses can easily do 30mph in the stretch of road there. I cycle old and new Kent road twice a day so i hope i never meet this moped idiot. I hope he's dragged to court!
Post it on youtube with the number plate in the title.
Someone will recognise it and slash the tyres or put a brick through [his house] window. I would if I knew who he was!
Some of the responses to your post were a bit over the top, better to vent on a forum than to commit some kind of road rage though.
Sadly, it seems the general equation goes, human beings + power-over-others = viciousness. (Though maybe there's a +X on the LHS of that equation, where X is some mysterious cultural factor.)
Cycling on the road sometimes feels like participating in that infamous Stanford prison experiment as an inmate.
I agree with you completely on this. I cycle every day in Central London and have lived and cycled all round the city and experienced all levels of craziness/aggression/competency from cars, vans, taxi's, buses, scooters, pedestrians and cyclists, I’ll even admit that I've done the occasional stupid thing myself (sacrilege I know).
On the morning of this post an M&S van driver actually lent out of his window and tried to push me into another lane because I was in the right-hand lane to go right (where I was going) instead of the left-hand lane to go left (where I wasn’t going) and only going about 25mph. He couldn’t get to the red light 50 yards up the road quickly enough apparently.
That's one of the more extreme examples, as is this article, but it did make me break out in a wry smile seeing the angry comments later that day as the (thankfully very) occasional violent attack as in this case, or, more much frequent lack of road manners or becoming enraged at someone else wasting 3 seconds of your oh so valuable time is very common amongst all road users in London it seems to me. When I first started cycling in the capital I used to get very angry myself all the time at the near misses, abuse and occasional use of vehicles as weapons. I now just give them a smile
and try to engage them in a friendly discussion (most of the time). This doesn't always work but makes me a much happier cyclist. I stopped in front of the van on this occasion and another cyclist who saw the incident from behind got very angry and urged me to take his license number, which I should have done, but, because I was late for work I just cycled on after umm’ing and arr’ing for a minute only for the full realisation of what had happened to hit me once I’d stopped for a minute later on. I don’t have a camera myself, but it’s incidents like this that remind me it’s sadly almost a must in Central London if you cycle every day, I can’t speak for other cities.
I’d also like to say that despite all the above it’s still by miles and miles the best way to get around and I arrive at work in a much better mood (most mornings) than I ever did using public transport or driving.
From this section, it sounds like you've gotten used to the abuse and see it as a 'normal' by now. I can understand that, doing Zone 1 & 2 myself most days of the week, including weekends.
However, the type of behaviour we deal with every day isn't at all OK, and that's why your statement is getting such a vitriolic response.
I actually do feel that the behaviour in the video is intentional, criminal, and should be pursued not as a 'road traffic issue' but as attempted GBH at least.
Yes, lots of "us cyclists" are knobs... and very high on our metal or carbon horses. Plenty of us drive, and hopefully well, but a section don't and won't ever get it.
But the problem is the careless, and at times straight out homicidal, drivers of armoured metal boxes.
First thing to do is report the potholes to the local authority then when they haven't repaired them in the alloted time have an accident the sue the council. They would get mended pretty quickly then.
I've experienced twatty moped riders myself, they seem to think its funny to whizz by flat out as close as possible. My tactic is to give a little "innocent" wobble as they approach, you can pretty much always hear them coming as most have removed the baffle silencers from the exhausts.
Having ridden New Kent Road in these conditions on many occasions, all I can say is that Chi's taking of the primary position is quite understandable, both from a visibility as well as a road conditon point of view. There are some horrible potholes and covers nearer the pavement.
Fine, take the primary position when you spot a pothole, then pull back in once you've past it. Simples!
On another note, I've been waiting for an update for the moped rider to be caught, but nothing so far. Hopefully the poo-lice will actually do something with the number plate in full view. That road is a part of my commute everyday.
The po-lice DGAF. I guarantee they will do absolutely NOTHING.
From now on whenever I get out the saddle I will shout 'CORE ACTIVATED!'.
shortly after that will you deploy the flux capacitor..and attempt 88mph...
+1
What some people don't seem to realise I that no matter whether the cyclist is right or wrong to be in that position on the road, attempting to knock them off is NEVER right. I'm not going to state my opinion based on 30 seconds of video - maybe he's looking to move into the right lane after the lorry has passed, maybe there was a whole row of potholes a few seconds earlier. Who knows or cares?!
If someone was ambling right down the middle of the supermarket aisle, would you kick them into the tinned beans just to get past? Why is it any different on the road? There shouldn't be any debate about whether the cyclist was in the right or not. Or indeed whether he's "activated his core"...
Psychopath? This person would try and punch you at a buffet if you got between him and his food. Unfortunately the world is full of them. As I discussed recently on my blog (plug ahoy!): More cycle paths or fewer psychopaths?
Kelcha was too polite to say it, but I'm not: In the context of the rest of your comment, have you any idea how much of an ar5ehole that statement makes you look?
I'm guessing you're not aware of how much a camera (as opposed to your own eyes and brain, which are pretty good at tuning it out) can exaggerate upper body movement. Having seen a few other videos where it's next to impossible to figure out what's going on from the rocking and wobbling, I'd say this guy's actually pretty solid*. And anyway, why even bring it up as a point in your argument here except to show the world what an elitist ar5e you can be?
* Not as good as me of course, cos like you I'm perfect and speed purposefully through the air with nary a fraction of a wobble, even when I'm hungry and knackered after a day's work and it's pissing with rain and the traffic noise is making my head burst and I'm dodging potholes and cursing the council and I just want to get home and eat my dinner and see my missus and some fanny on a moped has pulled up, had a go and tried to kick me off my bike. Solid as a rock me.
You're saying what many of us are thinking.
There's a distinct whiff of victim blaming in most of these sorts of comments. If I'm feeling charitable then I assume that the poster is trying to reassure themself that "it couldn't happen to me because I $insert-magic-here". If I'm feeling grumpy then I suspect that the poster is lacking in intelligence or morals.
I've got to say that "activating your core" is a good one, must be something that people do after aligning their chakras.
It the moped rider carries on like that he will end up dead of disabled. Fool.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here... firstly I'm glad nobody got hurt and I understand this guy probably didn't start this altercation (although we don't know), but riders with GoPros who act all haughty when observing substandard driving and shout out car / moped registration numbers for their youtube followers.... well I find them pretty annoying and embarrassing too, even as a fellow cyclist. To then post your video on youtube to whip up the baying mob and potentially not show the police, well it just doesn't sound very constructive to me.
Better would be to concentrate on activating your core so your upper body doesn't waggle around so much, rather than posting this to enthusiast websites, which just invites comments like one of the above, offering to slash the tyres of the moped if it can be found; it all just escalates the us vs them mentality which is really unhelpful.
I guess you missed the bit where the moped rider tried to kick the lad off his moving bike, then?
I agree with your sentiment in general. It just doesn't fairly apply here.
Hi Whirlio
I just wanted to clarify a few things as I know your comment is based on some assumptions.
Chi is actually a good friend of mine and it was actually me who asked road.cc to publish the story to spread the word, obviously with Chi's consent.
Firstly Chi uploaded the video to youtube not because he has a big following of fans but because he uses a android and wanted to share this awful commute home with his friends and fellow cyclist such as myself. Google + uses youtube as a way to share video.
Chi chooses to cycle with a camera as he has had many incidents of people running across his path whilst on the way to work (his commute includes navigating down whitehall Regent street and Soho. He wanted to make sure if anything serious happened to him or a pedestrian he would have proof of the incident instead of being blamed point blank.
n such weather conditions he did not known if he would be able to capture the plate on video so he actually calls out the number plate as he knows he wont be able to remember it during the shock of almost being kicked of his bike, its actually called fast thinking. Sure he could have edited or bleeped it out, but again it was suppose to be for his friends to view.
And lastly, yes the video was actually sent to the police, it went to Metro after submitting as evidence to the police.
I hope this paints a better picture of what actually happened and that he is not doing this for thumbs up on his youtube video.
The Police simply don't care about this sort of thing unless there are targets. Police = civil servants + warrant cards
probably find out it is a wannabe cabbie!
You have a decent offence of Causing Danger to Road Users there, which is punishable by a term of imprisonment (yes it covers cycles). I'd like to see the Police follow this up. Despite what you think about the cyclists position in the road this could have ended horribly and tragically and the Old Bill need to get this guy and prosecute.
I do personally feel he was a bit wide in my humble opinion, even with the wet surface and the potholes, regardless of the advice of "taking the road" - some guys take it to extremes. What weakens his reasoning for taking the road is the cyclist victim passsing of another (albeit slower) cyclist who is next to the kerb without apparent issue or problem.
Anyway, thats not to detract from the point in question; clear case of causing danger with good evidence. No reason for the Police NOT to follow it up and get that knob into a court room.
Lifetime ban from driving would be a more suitable punishment. The points/suspensions consequences involved in dangerous driving cases (not just ones involving cyclists but also where victims are other motorists or pedestrians) can be bizarrely lenient, even where death is caused.
You can argue the toss about the use of prison in these cases as a deterrent, a punitive measure etc. but the is no question that this sort of criminal should, if convicted, never be allowed on the road again as an issue of public safety.
You are correct; Causing Danger and Dangerous Riding. That takes care of the ban
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