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news
Cyclists in London at night stopped at red light - copyright Simon MacMichael11 cyclists a day hit with £50 fines for riding through red lights in London, new Met Police data reveals
On average, 11 cyclists a day were stopped and fined for riding through red lights in London in 2023, new Metropolitan Police figures have revealed.
The Met’s official statistics on cycling red light infringements, obtained by a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Evening Standard, show that, throughout 2023, 4,067 cyclists were handed £50 fines by officers for failing to obey traffic light signals.
By comparison, Transport for London figures from 2015 showed that 57,692 motorists – or 158 a day – were issued with fines for jumping red lights, in the wake of increased enforcement activity in the capital. A survey conducted in the mid-2010s also suggested that one in four drivers admit to running a red light at least once a year.
The figures obtained by the Standard this week also found that 196 cyclists were given £30 fixed penalty notices for riding on pavements in the capital throughout 2023.
The new data has been published less than three months after the City of London Police revealed that it has handed out 944 fixed penalty notices to cyclists for riding through red lights since its Cycle Response Unit last summer.
The authority – which polices the Square Mile area of London that is home to the Stock Exchange, Bank of England, and St Paul’s Cathedral – said it would continue to fine cyclists who ride “through red lights, putting themselves and pedestrians at risk”.
Releasing the figures as part of a ‘cycle roadshow’ morning of action outside Mansion House, City of London Police said it would be “cracking down on anti-social behaviour and road offences” at Bank Junction, with “cyclists going through red lights and endangering pedestrians and other road users” to be “issued with an invitation to attend the free roadshow taking place between 8am and 10am”.
Refusal, they said, will result in a £50 fine, the operation somewhat mirroring the structure of other police force’s close pass operations, where some drivers are offered roadside education to avoid a fixed penalty notice.
The Commander of City of London Police, Umer Khan, said that while “the majority of cyclists are safe and obey the Highway Code”, it remains worth “educating, engaging, and where necessary enforcing those road users who go through red lights, putting themselves and pedestrians at risk”.
The Chair of the City of London Police Authority Board, James Thomson, added that on the Square Mile’s “small and dynamic” streets, “we need to encourage cyclists to use them safely and to respect pedestrians and other road users”.
Nevertheless, the police insisted that its enforcement of cycling offences “has not meant that the force has taken its focus from road traffic offences by drivers, which have a higher rate of causing death and serious injury on our roads”, highlighting that between July 2023 and April 2024 its Road Policing Unit has stopped and checked 3,852 vehicles, issued 1,678 traffic offences, made 92 arrests, and seized 203 vehicles for no insurance.
> Should cyclists be allowed to ride through red lights? Campaigners split on safety benefits
The issue of cyclists riding through red lights has proved a longstanding grievance for some motorists, who use instances of red light-jumping cyclists to highlight the apparent dangers posed by people riding bikes on the roads.
One such, rather peculiar, manifestation of this stance occurred in May, when actor Nigel Havers bizarrely (and falsely) claimed that “no cars go through a red light,” but that “every cyclist does,” during a discussion with cycling writer Laura Laker hosted by Jeremy Vine on his BBC Radio 2 TV show.
> “No cars go through a red light – every cyclist does,” claims Nigel Havers
During the segment, which was later shared by Vine on his social media accounts, road.cc contributor Laker said: “All road users break the law in equal amount. I’m not saying that that’s right.
“We know that roads policing got decimated a decade ago, we lost 20,000 police officers, and so all of road user behaviour has got worse, drivers have become more aggressive, perhaps cyclists have become more aggressive too.”
Interjecting, Havers – who was fined £500 and banned from driving for 12 months after being convicted of drink driving in 1991 – said, “I don’t break the law, I don’t break the rules” before claiming that “motor cars aren’t going through red lights.”
Havers then invited Laker to join him “at a crossroads where no cars go through a red light, every cyclist does.”
“That’s not true,” Laker countered. “Definitely people break the law in their cars, with mobile phone use, we know that’s illegal and it’s as bad as drink driving, even driving hands-free.”
“I don’t know what planet you’re on,” Havers responding, before repeating: “Come and stand on the crossroads with me and you’ll see every single cyclist go through the red light.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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35 comments
TBH my only real issue with this is the media focus on 'look at the scofflaw cyclists'.
While ignoring the automated penalties to drivers that are running at a significantly higher rate and lack of any enforcement against drivers that isn't by automatic camera...
Basically the numbers from 2015 dataset would suggest rates of prosecution of cyclists are similar/slightly lower than drivers. Which matches raw total accident rates (i.e. number of crashes, ignoring that accidents involving cars RLJ usually have higher severity than ones involving bicycles RLJ...)
So if people want more prosecutions for RLJ (we should...) then what should happen is a proportional increase in enforcement against everyone.
The law is the same for us as it is for drivers. Going through red lights isn't just illegal it's dangerous as well. We can't expect to be exempt from traffic laws.
Ummm - that's not entirely true. There's many laws that apply to drivers and not cyclists such as motorised speed limits, eyesight requirements, health requirements (e.g. epilepsy), age limits etc. It's also not legal for drivers to use mandatory bike lanes and obviously it is legal for cyclists.
Going through red lights on a bike is sometimes safer than waiting with the drivers (who may be staring at their phones rather than paying attention to the road) as you can get across the junction safely rather than having drivers left-hook you etc. Obviously, some care has to be taken and it's generally dangerous to just blast across a junction without looking properly.
In many places, it's not illegal for cyclists to go through red lights as enlightened traffic planners recognise the vast difference between cyclists and drivers. See the "Idaho Stop" laws for more details - they often allow cyclists to treat red traffic lights as STOP signs which means they can go through when it's safe to do so.
Idaho stop would be a very good introduction here. For those who don't know, it says that two-wheeled road users – it applies to motorcyclists too – can treat Stop signs as Give Way, and red lights as Stop signs. So it's not a licence to blast through red lights but it does mean you don't have to wait for a signal that might or might not have detected your presence, with drivers who might or might not try to left-hook you as soon as the light changes. And obviously, the stop part includes giving way to pedestrians crossing. Those who believe this can't be safe might like to look up how right-turns at red lights are done in various European countries, legally, by car drivers too.
A cheap hack for places with 3rd rate or less cycle infra, and even then... I suspect (don't know) this would not be acceptable to various disabled lobbies *. I really think we can (and should) avoid this one on the way to better solutions.
As for mentioning right on red for motorists - I'd suggest that's not a good argument at all! See eg. changing US opinion on these. I haven't looked at European examples though - any examples / how is this safe there? (The US is often just not a place to compare with when talking traffic safety - roundabouts are apparently still being looked at with surprise in many places there...).
* Although at least one of those seems allergic to cyclists in general and some of those also won't even abide eg. bus stop bypasses - which I think have a good safety record which you can even interrogate eg. for NL. Too much change plus experience of really rubbish ones in UK?
The law is the same for us as it is for drivers. Going through red lights isn't just illegal it's dangerous as well. We can't expect to be exempt from traffic laws
Good- I'll take this comment seriously when, in Lancashire where I am, the police start prosecuting drivers who charge through red lights, instead of ignoring them because 'everybody does it'. There are loads of these at the same lights on the A6- the police have done nothing about any of them
https://upride.cc/incident/pj23vmc_honda125_redlightcross/
https://upride.cc/incident/g16dht_hgvtrainer_redlightcross/
https://upride.cc/incident/k7ddy_audia4_redlightpass/
etc. etc. etc.
Quite rightly so. Fellow cyclists , just stop it , and stop whining about other road users This is entirely on us cyclists . Stop it .
...and also can fellow cyclists just stop getting hit by drivers please?
How dare you refer to me as a fellow cyclist - grouping us together like that!
Or are you taking responsibility for all the idiots and antisocial people out there? Perhaps you drive - and have already posted similar exhortation for fellow drivers not to speed, or not to drive off after hitting someone while driving drunk / high?
More interestingly - there may be something of a sliding scale for "casualness of mode" vs. some rule breaking. Pedestrians (but most rules tend not to be law just guidance) > cyclists > drivers, perhaps? But in fact that's not even a gross simplification. Different types of road users break different rules in different ways for different reasons and with different potential safety consequences. I think understanding the "why" is a good starting point for trying to change things.
I don't have a particular issue with police fining cyclists - there may even be some spots in London where this behaviour causes serious concerns. I suggest there are conversations we're just not having about ways of addressing the underlying issues rather than symptoms [1] [2] . (Yes - the Dutch also have police and do fine people cycling without due care).
* e.g. Speeding? By definition a motoring offense only - and a majority of vehicles in places break limits. The consequences are potentially very serious also etc.
Who the #@*£ is 'us' ?
Am I responsible for every single driver who commits a road traffic offence because I drive a car ?
Whining about other road users? What the ones that kill cyclists due to dangerous driving? The ones that say sorry I didn't see you or I had a momentary lapse of concentration?
Have you ever ridden a bike ?
Out for a ride today, four times I was in the centre of the lane, arm outstretched, indicating to turn right yards from a junction. Four times I was overtaken by impatient drivers who put my life at risk. Four times. So I'll keep whining about other road users thank you very much.
Bloody Labour government! We were warned...
Yep. I for one welcome our new left wing (ahem) overlords. As a token of solidarity I will now only execute left turns while out riding. I just might not get very far.
UPS plan routes to only use right turns (they drive on the wrong side of the road over there) for safety and cost reasons.
https://blog.route4me.com/ups-left-turns/
*Ahem* - I think you'll find that's
Bloody Changed Labour government...
Meanwhile many hundreds of thousands of drivers in London significantly exceed the speed limit and / or use their phones whilst driving.
There's crims everywhere, so don't deal with any of them, eh.
Only 11!
You can get more than that on one light sequence outside Bank.
Too bad for London police officers, in other regions like in Netherlands, Belgium, France, USA, etc where some red lights are allowed to be jumped by cyclists, they would have a much lazier day.
They'd have a very lazy day in much of the US where there are approx zero cyclists. Not so different from much of the UK - outside London and a few other urban centres.
In NL I'm not sure you're allowed to jump any red lights; it's just that different rules (and usually lights) apply to cyclists and motor vehicles [junctions] ["rechtsaf voor feitsers vrij"]. Sensible given they often operate in different (clearly defined) spaces. (Not always, for those "but you'll never get 100% separation!" absolutists).
...but NL police would nevertheless be busy (if applying the same level of attention)! Because a proportion of humans en-mass - on foot, by bike, even "trained, tested, licenced and insured" drivers - tend to bend the rules, take shortcuts or just make errors. In NL a significant proportion of people travel by bike. A small fraction of a large number is likely still large.
Nigel Havers?
He certainly does!
(In Scottish English, haver (from the Scots havers (oats)) means "to maunder; to talk foolishly; to chatter," as heard in the song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers)
The police should prosecute everyone—including cyclists—who drives or cycles through red lights.
Red light jumping fuels the anger towards us, and it's for good reason. Cyclists who ran red lights have put me in danger when I've been a pedestrian; it's a significant issue in London.
While dangerous drivers should be prosecuted, it doesn't mean cyclists should fly through red lights.
A problem here is when junctions do not work (eg two ot three minute delays at cycle-lights) or are dangerous if the red is not ignored.
I love cyclists flying through red lights - Bikes Give You Wings.
Since the stat came about via an FOI request.
It seems obvious what the next FOI should be, doesn't it ?
Can't be true as we all know it's impossible to identify a cyclist.
These ones clearly had high vis, insurance and number plates on their bikes. The more shocking statistic is that they managed to catch any drivers going through red lights. I'm astonished because due to the afforementioned number plates, insurance etc drivers never break the rules. Its always those bloody cyclists who are above the law.
Not stopping at red lights is wrong irrespective of vehicle.
But when the Police constantly tell us they don't have the resources to do basic policing work, fining RLJ cyclists must rank up there alongside the most monumentally poor uses of Police time.
Not so sure - it might just shut up the cyclists-can't-be-identified-so-must-be-registered crowd.
It is possible that the real danger to RLJ cyclists is to themselves. How many peds and others have been KSIed by them?
I've started rolling through the odd red light when it makes my journey safer without putting anyone else at risk.
I consider it necessary given how poorly the police deal with dangerous driving. If I get fined £50 once in a while, it'll still be well worth it for the increase in my safety and that of others (yes, it can be safer for others, as it means a reduction in drivers making dodgy overtakes into oncoming traffic).
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