Cycling accidents in London nearing record high - with e-bike crashes making up a fifth of serious injuries
The number of cyclists seriously injured in London is on track to reach a record 1,200 per year – with hired e-bikes accounting for a fifth of all accidents.
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The proportion of bike riders killed or seriously injured on hired e-bikes such as Lime surged from one per cent of all cyclist injuries in 2017, to 17 per cent by last May.
The new figures were revealed as part of a private presentation by London’s walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman to Transport for London (TfL)’s safety panel.
It comes as Transport for London reported a 14 per cent year-on-year increase in serious injuries to all cyclists, up from 773 in the first nine months to 2024 to 878 in the same period last year.
If the injuries carry on at the same rate from October and December, the total for 2025 could surpass 1,200 - the worst year on record to crashes, the Standard reports.
Read more: 'Cyclists shouldn’t be left on red,' says Lime boss as he backs giving cyclists priority at lights
In September, a study also found a fifth of e-bike riders, e-scooter riders and cyclists routinely disregard red lights.
Researchers looked into more than 7,500 cyclists, 11,000 pedestrians and 26,000 cars along busy streets in London, Manchester and Glasgow.
Rental e-bikes were the worst for breaking traffic laws, with 25 per cent observed ignoring traffic lights.A staggering 50 per cent of bike and scooter riders did not stop at Oxford Circus, London.
TfL is now on “red alert” after the number of serious injuries suffered by all road users – including car drivers and passengers – surged by eight per cent year-on-year, to 2,829 for the first three-quarters of 2025/26.
E-bikes have also been involved in multiple fatal collisions.
In May last year, a pedestrian died following a horror crash involving an e-biker rider on a busy west London high street.
The victim, a man in his 60s, is thought to have walked into the path of a cyclist after stepping out in front of a bus from the pavement in an apparent attempt to cross the road.
It occurred on February 28 on Uxbridge Road, close to the junction with Loftus Road, near Shepherd's Bush Market.
Elsewhere in the UK, a 13-year-old boy was arrested last week in Dorset in connection with a fail-to-stop e-bike crash with a pregnant woman whose baby was born in hospital afterwards and remains in a serious condition.
A TfL spokesperson said: “Lack of action means more people killed cycling, three so far already this year, and fewer people who otherwise would take up cycling doing so."
"There has been a significant increase in the number of cycle journeys in recent years.
“Analysis of our last full year of verified data in 2024 shows that the risk of being killed or seriously injured while cycling in London decreased by 23 per cent from our 2010-14 baseline, while the risk of being killed while cycling has more than halved.
“While provisional casualty data for the January-August 2025 period sadly indicates a rise in the number of people seriously injured while cycling in London, it is still too early to make any firm conclusions based on this provisional data.
“We're determined to ensure that everyone can cycle safely which is why we're investing more than £150m this year to improve London’s roads, over half of which is invested through London’s boroughs.
“We have so far completed work at 46 Safer Junctions across London, including work that is due to complete in the spring at Lambeth Bridge.
“We also continue to work closely with the boroughs to expand London’s high-quality Cycleways network, which now stands at 435km, up from 90km in 2016 and will be setting out plans for further investment with the boroughs in the coming weeks."