I ride my bike to work, but I'm sick of reckless cyclists ruining everyone's lives

YoIt’s early Monday morning and you’re walking from the station to the office. Your eyes are glassy. Your hair smells a little wonky. You might have a latte in your hand. You come to a junction. Ah, lovely… little green man. You start walking. YES! A cyclist whizzes past you. You miss by a few inches. Boom! There goes the coffee. The liquid scolding your leg as it comes down. You’re now awake and really angry. It’s a scene that anyone who lives in a UK city will know all too well. Walk anywhere in central London these days and you’ll see swarms of cyclists whizzing past. Pedestrians are suffering. Things have to change.

First, a word of warning: I mostly cycle to work, and yes, sometimes I even wear Lycra shorts. But, being a fairly responsible and normal person, I cringe most mornings when I see cyclists nearly hitting pedestrians by speeding through red lights. In the Venn diagram of cyclist types, there is often a lot of overlap between those who nearly kill pedestrians walking to work and those who run red lights dressed head to toe in Lycra and go 40 mph in a 20 mph zone. These speed freaks make the rest of us good guys look bad: they tarnish the cyclist's brand and detract from all the great things about cycling.

The key issue, of course, is that it is dangerous. The number of pedestrians hit by cyclists has risen by a third since 2020, according to police data released in May. And red-light jumping is particularly bad in the exact area I ride through. Last year, during a five-day police crackdown on antisocial behaviour at Bank Junction in London’s Square Mile, 77 cyclists faced fines for jumping red lights and nearly colliding with pedestrians, cars and buses. That said, we are not as evil as cars: road accident statistics show that bicycles are involved in just two per cent of pedestrian casualties reported to and by the police. The rest – 98 per cent – ​​are hit by motor vehicles.

I’m no saint. I sometimes run red lights, at around 5mph, when there are no pedestrians trying to cross and no cars in sight. Sometimes it’s safer for a cyclist to go through a junction when the light is red, to avoid being caught between waiting cars and motorbikes. This won’t change until the UK has more “advantage” lights, which allow cyclists to go ahead of traffic and keep left-turning traffic on for longer. Of course, we’ve all broken the rules at some point, whether it’s driving a little over the speed limit or peeing wildly. But as one passionate Reddit forum user put it: “Cautionfully running a red light when there’s no one else around to give way to? I don’t care. Speeding through a red light and hoping other people will slow down, stop or swerve to avoid a collision? What crap!”

Yes, people who get sideswiped must be furious. I am when I'm on foot and it happens to me. It's the rudest wake-up call of the morning. And pedestrians are at the bottom of the commuter food chain – think of HGVs as terrifying predators, cyclists as agile foxes and foot commuters as fluffy rabbits – so they should have the right to feel safe and put their trust in the green man. If they can't, then all cyclists will end up being seen as the scourge of society and we can say goodbye to harmony on the roads.

There is already a culture war between cyclists and motorists. What if resentment against bikes snowballed into restrictions on cycling in urban areas? That would be very sad. I am that insufferable bike nerd in the office who goes on and on about how great it is to cycle. There are obvious advantages: it is good for the environment (and therefore good even for non-cyclists) and it is free. But it is more than that. I would have moved out of London already if it weren’t for my bike: it allows me to avoid dying of suffocation on the tube and getting sick on lurching buses. With the round trip, that is an hour of exercise built into my day. It is also the quickest way to get around the city, when you can weave through traffic and through parks. And it makes you aware of your surroundings: not only do I have a good sense of direction in London now, but I can see the morning sun bouncing off Tower Bridge in the distance and, perhaps more often than I'd like, hear the splash of raindrops on my helmet.

So please, for everyone's sake, next time you approach a red light at high speed, think about braking.