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I\u2019ve spent many years cycling<\/a> to work, I get it. We\u2019re in a rush, we left it a little too late to get to work for the customary pat-dry-chemical-shower-get-dressed-get-breakfast etc. Maybe the kids were playing up, and no one wanted to put their shoes on. Maybe you wanted to beat that guy who\u2019s been tailing you for the last few kilometres. I never ran red lights; the jeers from other cyclists<\/a> scare me into submission. I also catastrophised more than a few times about being knocked over by a lorry and no one mourning me because it was all my fault.<\/p>\n Last week, during a bank holiday, at a well-marked crossing outside a school, at the entrance to a busy park, exactly that happened. Having been raised on \u201cgreen means go!\u201d, my two-year-old waited patiently for the green man, and then pushed off across the road on his scooter. A cyclist crashed into him. Cycling down a busy road, he did not stop for a red light \u2014 instead sailing straight through it and into my toddler, who was thankfully wearing a fluorescent yellow helmet. <\/p>\n He did not stop for a red light \u2014 instead sailing straight through it and into my toddler<\/p>\n My child hit his head and the cyclist came off his bike flexing his injured wrist. As I berated him, while holding my wailing child and gathering my eldest to cross the road safely, all he could say was, \u201cI apologised, OK! It was an accident!\u201d. It is not OK, nor is it an accident. He ran a red light, he caused an injury. An accident implies there was nothing he could have done to prevent it, but there was, and that\u2019s obeying the road laws. Nothing he could have said would have appeased me, but the defensiveness was even more of an affront.<\/p>\n As he got back on his bike and cycled off and my toddler eventually calmed, a lady gave us a bottle of water and an ice cream she had run to the shop to buy. Another lady, standing with her children, sighed heavily and said, \u201cThank god your child was wearing his helmet.\u201d For the cyclist\u2019s part, he\u2019s lucky I had children to look after.<\/p>\n Giving cyclists a bad name<\/p>\n Now, when I ruminate on the event \u2014 did I handle it correctly? What could I have done differently? Should I have called the police? Should I report it to the council? One lady took a picture of the offender; what could I have done with it? What condition would my child have been in if he hadn\u2019t been wearing his helmet? What if he\u2019d broken bones? I wonder if the cyclist has been reflecting on his actions.<\/p>\n Cycling is a lovely hobby, a great and eco way to get around the city, but many have long-lamented the various sub-groups of cyclists that give us all a bad name. The weekend half-cut Lime-bikers, the MAMILs riding four abreast on country lanes, the commuters running red lights, the delivery e-bikers riding pavements, and countless other stories from pedestrians about the 1.2\u2009million daily cycle journeys in our city.<\/p>\n Cyclist crosses red light in Piccadilly Circus <\/p>\n DENIS JONES<\/p>\n The reasons go deeper than mere impatience; delivery drivers are fighting algorithms that set tight deadlines and are distracted by phones that direct them to their next job. Payments per delivery make speed more important than safety. There is a human cost to our desire for food and groceries to be delivered into our waiting hands.<\/p>\n The two-wheeled conundrum<\/p>\n![\"Cyclist](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cyclist-running-red-light-in-Piccadilly-Circus.jpeg\")
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