Soapbox: Why I skip red lights

As a proud cyclist in the city, Sophie Wilkinson has a revolutionary answer to cure cycle rage...
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Sophie Wilkinson16 August 2023

An election is on its way and, so far, the defining feature of the Conservatives’ strategy to win over the rugged heartlands has been Rishi Sunak darting off to Goodwood after the Ulez-damning by-elections and doing nothing short of glugging IPA diesel himself to indicate his adoration of cars. With his announcement of a review of ‘anti-car’ schemes across the country came yet another blow to many, many Londoners who suffer from the culture war against that so marginalised and worthily irritating of groups: cyclists.

If you’ve got functioning limbs, cycling is the best way to get around London. Especially compared to the alternatives. Cabs are just an expensive way of hanging out with a (usually) male stranger. Tubes are ever-sweltering and packed with passengers keen to forget basic mores such as ‘not touching strangers intimately’ or ‘washing at least weekly’. Instead, on my trusty plum bike (cost? £400, bought in 2011) I get to traverse a big, brash city off my own steam, conquering it with ease and remembering it’s not that intimidating after all.

That is until the pesky fact of other road-users’ existence comes into play. Because of this lot, every time I cycle in London I risk life and limb. ‘Cycle safe!’ my well-intentioned friends wail. Sadly, I’m afraid I’m at the mercy of drivers who pull to a halt in designated cycle boxes, black cab drivers texting away, boy racers vrooming their engines as they gobble up laughing gas balloons and hefty vans with no ability to see who they might smack into next. It’s not only other drivers, though. Pedestrians include idly ambling tourists who consider a bike lane just an emptier kind of pavement and Mizzy-style pranksters who deliberately block my path. And whenever a Deliveroo cyclist hogs a lane and dodges rules I swear to God I’d rather buy all the elusive ingredients for — and cook — an Ottolenghi dish from scratch than line that company’s pockets again.

My solution has previously been to rage at people, to think of a quick, silly put-down like ‘small car, small man’, ‘this is a dyke lane thank you!’ and ‘ding ding ding’ when my pathetic little tinkling bell can’t do justice to the terror I’ve just felt as an articulated lorry nearly topples my entire being into road-spread pâté.

But speaking for myself, I find it is far better is to jump lights — which is why I say make it legal for cyclists to jump red lights and so much more in order to maintain our safety. As I always give pedestrians right of way, the only life I risk by jumping a red is my own. Turning left at a junction? I believe it is far safer to do so before the vehicle behind gets the same idea and pulls me under its wheels. And why shouldn’t a bike go through a set of green pedestrian lights when there are simply no pedestrians in sight?

How else is this city meant to emulate the clean, green streets of Amsterdam or Copenhagen without allowing cyclists a bit of priority? Cycling people have far better health, with research published in The BMJ finding that cycling to work was linked to a 45 per cent lower risk of developing cancer and a 46 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease. And cycling cities have so many better outcomes. Although not everyone can cycle, everyone can benefit from able-bodied people cycling.

In truth, the safer this city is for cyclists, the safer it is for everyone. The next election may be fought on the A and B roads between suburbs and out-of-town offices, but for London, home to nearly one in seven people in the UK, it’s between your wheels and mine. Let cyclists jump red lights, encourage them to filter through on the left in a traffic jam, respect that we’re all just human beings and some of us have tonnes of horsepower under us and others really don’t. Then we’ll begin to arrive somewhere useful.

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