Are the police serious about stopping red light jumping cyclists?

And why not? This particular force is on a roll, having just helped jail the so-called Cinderella phone snatcher. You may have seen footage of members of the public jumping in to tackle Spencer Duarte and take the shoe that led to his conviction, but the noble police have congratulated themselves on the role they played.

“Do not come to the City and think you can steal,” a police constable is quoted as saying. It sounds to me like he stopped just short of adding that the force will be more than happy to do the necessary paperwork once members of the public have merely tackled thieves and handed in the incriminating evidence.

So what next? The City of London Police has now set themselves the challenge of policing the cyclists who do not grab mobiles and speed off on illegally modified bikes.

This week the force called for “increased concerns about dangerous, antisocial, and nuisance cycling behaviours”. And they have a point. It is illegal by rule 71 of the Highway Code for a cyclist (or anyone) to run a red light, yet thousands are doing it every day, according to a Standard investigation.

The police’s stance this week follows on from a spike in cycling in the capital weeks ago when the Tube strike led to thousands of Londoners to try out other means of getting around - and with it a rising rage against what LBC’s Johnny Jenkins called “fools riding through red lights”.

But while the force has requested the government up the maximum penalty from the current £50 fine, it has not quite pinpointed how it intends to stop riders from doing it or catch offenders.

I wonder if this will see undercover officers lurk on camouflaged motorbikes, ready to pounce? Or is it again a case that the public will be required to push offenders off their bicycles with the police writing a press release titled, ‘Do not come to the City and think you can run a red light’?

There’s also the one-punishment-fits-all tone of police's request. It’s never acceptable to run a red light. Yet, there is a difference between ploughing through a crowd of shoppers on Oxford Street and nipping ahead of traffic at a four-way box junction to avoid being hung out to dry between cars.

The number of cyclists per day has increased in the City from 8,000 to 52,000 in the past 25 years, yet the number of 'casualties per cyclist' has dropped by nearly half since 2016/17, according to the Standard.

Does the City of London Police really think this is a priority, or is this call to action merely to placate anti-cyclist rage on the back of an unusual spike in bike riders? We'll find out the answer if a resulting press release ever reaches inboxes.

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William Mata is a writer and SEO editor for LBC.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

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