Cycling Is Getting Safer In London

I was walking on the pavement alongside an A road in London the other day when a cyclist zoomed past me. There's nothing particularly remarkable about that. Two minutes later, I had caught up with the cyclist who had stopped at the traffic light. Again, nothing remarkable about that. Well, except it is.

I remember the days when most cyclist didn't pay any respect to the traffic lights. They inhabited that grey area between pedestrian and vehicle. Sometimes they were one, and other times the other. It was commonplace to see a cyclist go from cycling in front of a car to suddenly mounting a pavement and zig-zag past pedestrians. It was mostly illegal but somehow the rules didn't seem very clear.

Nowadays, in London, I've noticed that cyclist are behaving better than those days. A lot of them wear the appropriate gear, helmets included, and stop at traffic lights. Some of them, shock horror, even stop at zebra crossings to let pedestrians go by. It made me wonder what brought on this change in attitude.

Could it be that the installation of more cycle lanes in London, pioneered by a couple of mayors ago, lead to better cyclist behaviour? In a lot of boroughs, they do have their own lanes and lights. There also seem to have been a decline in cyclist deaths on the roads, probably also a byproduct of the dedicated lanes, some of which include elevated barriers so that cars can't straddle cycle lanes. Mind you there are still many places without these demarcations and, annoyingly, cars can be found sometimes parked in cycle lanes.

We're still nothing compared to Amsterdam or even Cambridge, but I think things have improved drastically for both cyclist, and pedestrians that had to deal with cyclists using pavements and putting their lives in danger.

Peace & Love,

Adé